Hellooo!
So I have yet another lovely embarrassing story for y'all. Actually, two.
Sister Coombs (my comp) and I taught Anya again (as a last minute thing--literally had twenty minutes to prepare) after I sent you last week's letter. Our objective was to clarify her concerns for baptism--and apologize for not even attempting to understand her. When we asked that, she said that she had agreed last time and she didn't have any concerns. So that awkward last encounter was actually a positive one, we just didn't know it. So, so funny. I didn't know how to set a date for baptism so I just said, "Kakga?" (when?) and when she said, "Я не знаю." (I don't know). I had to sign to her that we wanted her to be baptized in two weeks. Anyways, that was a great experience. Haha and now she's our second full-time teacher, Sister Wrigley. I thought she was a native Russian but she's from Illinois! She's awesome though. Love how funny she is, and she also served in the Baltics. Both of my teachers did. So here's who my teachers are: Full-time are S. Wrigley and B. Williams, with B. Noren subbing occasionally and S. Kuznetsova helping us with the language because she's a native. And she's hilarious. Pretty sure she's the typical Russian: really dry humor and intimidating at first but the BEST.
Also! I'm getting transferred to the West Campus, to Raintree sometime in the next week or two. How do I feel about that? Uhh I think it'll be fine. An adventure.
And Mom, don't worry about my leg. It's coming along and it'll be healed by the time that I bust outta this joint. If anything, mourn over the fact that I no longer think twice when I put on my ugly shoes. Yesterday E. Graf was wearing some reeeeal winners as well and they were ECKO or something. Since E. Harrison always says he grew up in the hood, we came up with the gang phrase ECKO OR DIE. Love the MTC.
So on Monday, I think it was, I was super sick. And I've always heard how annoying sister missionaries are when they ask for blessings like once a week, so I was embarrassed to ask the elders. But it was such an awesome experience. I'm really starting to appreciate the priesthood like I never have before. It was E. Graf's first time giving a blessing and it was everything that I needed to hear. And I wasn't sick afterwards, sooo. Boom.
Speaking of boom, E. Harrison is a robot to me. Haha he is so unreal. I told him two days ago that I'm 99% sure we'll never have a real conversation because all he ever says is something idiotic and unrelated to me followed by "SISTA GOOOOOOCH!" He's the worst in the best way.
Really though, E. Graf is theee funniest person with E. Harrison. During class when E. Harrison is being himself, E. Graf holds E. Harrison's hand up and says, "WHO WANTS TO DIE RIGHT NOW?" I know that's probably not that funny to you but rest assured that I can't even handle it. Also, E. Graf throwing gang signs up with E. Harrison is killer.
And I honestly don't know why, but I am prime joke material. They all really get a kick out of the fact that I'm an English major, and pair that with my last name and you get laughs galore. It really is fun stuff.
As for gym time, it's great. I still can't do much due to the bruised bone and all that, so I generally hang out on the side of the volleyball court and laugh my guts out. The thing with volleyball/sports in general at the MTC is that you can't be competitive, so you can't keep score. It makes volleyball so funny to watch because no matter what, they play the ball. E. Wixom is just insane and dives to get it for the other team and E. Graf is always screaming "I GOT IT" even though he, quite honestly, sucks.
Oh, and Ash, E. Graf's banana eating techniques inspire more hatred than my cereal eating. Get this: he rips the banana in half and then squeezes the ends out like it's a go-gurt. I'm getting angry just typing that.
Companionship inventory (where you sit down and evaluate each other as individual and your companionship as a whole) is the bomb. I absolutely love having someone to tell me what I'm doing wrong and woah that sounds sarcastic but I'm being 100% realzies right now. S. Coombs gets really frustrated with me for the fact that I'm stubborn (when I was sick and before I had a blessing, we went home and I threw up and then made us go back to class because I felt better) and for the fact that I am the wooooorst at getting to know people in Russian. I just get so focused on remembering the Russian doctrine and then I don't remember to evaluate their needs and teach according to them. It's like memorization is first and conveying actual emotion is secondary. So that's frustrating. But that's what is so great about the MTC--they constantly pound into our heads that we aren't here to learn Russian--we're here to learn the gospel of Jesus Christ and to learn how to love like Him. Didn't realize how much faith it requires to not use every second of personal study for learning the language. Balancing time is something that I struggle with but that's where I figure exact obedience is gonna help me out.
It's crazy that we'll be the oldest Russian speakers on Monday. And speaking of the older district: E. Cluff is this hilarious red-head that just kills me. He came into our classroom the other day and said, "We're taking a survey. Which type of cereal would you like to eat 10+ bowls of?" Haha apparently there's this thing where zones try to knock out an entire cereal dispenser (they're huge) before they leave. So that's going to be gross but I'm also pretty excited.
As for sad news that I'm still not entirely over: my Proof glasses are broken. And yes Dad, I'm probably more infuriated than you. Haha do I have a warranty on those suckers? Let's hope so. It's the wood on the ear thingy that broke because a sister in my district accidentally dropped them on the ground. Sorry sorry sorry. Any way you can send me some contacts? I realized that I hate wearing glasses...thanks!
And for the second embarrassing story: we taught our second investigator two days ago. It's just B. Williams pretending to be someone that he taught on his mission, but we treat it as if it's the real thing. So he's telling us how he's unemployed and his whole family is deceased and I'm really feelin' for him and then I go to say the closing prayer. And that's when I realize I never asked for his name.
I'm coming home.
Hahaha just kidding. But really, I don't know what my problem is. My goal this week is to learn conversation techniques. But it's cool, our district motto is "Потом, Потом." (Later, later)
There's this sister, S. Porter who comes into our room every night and she shares a spiritual thought. I liked the one she shared last night because it's such a common thing in our mission to hear that smiling at people is considered super strange in the Baltics. But she said that smiling is not an American or Canadian or whatever culture thing. It's a gospel culture thing and we shouldn't try to blend in because that's not what we were sent there for. We were sent to be different and good, so I thought that was cool.
And OH my gosh, Sheri Dew spoke to us last Sunday. Mike, try not to get too excited. But what she had to say was seriously awesome. She was talking about the fact that so many members get confused by scholars and studies and with arguments against the gospel that sound really smart. But that's because they don't truly have a deep knowledge of the doctrine. The more you know the doctrine of Christ, the harder it is to be confused by the adversary. The only way to learn all that we can is to immerse ourselves in the gospel. There's no way that we can honestly be converted unless we live obediently and receive the blessings that come with that. She said, "There's a reason that we don't sprinkle people at baptism." Don't just sprinkle yourself with a little bit of knowledge about the gospel. Dive in!
And that's my sermon for this week :)
Anyways, it's awesome to be here. Let's be real though, it's hard. I've never changed this much in such a short amount of time but one thing that has been the most incredible help is my patriarchal blessing. Definitely don't know what I'd do without it. And the cool thing about having a companion and even being so close with my district is that we all point out each other's positive attributes and they almost always are something that's already in our patriarchal blessings. So that's fun.
Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone who has sent me letters/packages. Sheryl Alderman, you are a superstar and will be receiving a letter from me soon. I love you all and am so sad that I won't be able to be there for the Fourth but I hope you have fun! Even though it's, like, butt hott everywhere. Seriously, I wanna die every day.
Anywho, LOVE YOU!
Love,
Sister Gooch
No comments:
Post a Comment