SO MUCH TO SAY SO LITTLE TIME!!!! :)
Ok the MTC is great. I really like it here! My companion's name is cectpa (sestra) (sister) Jameson. She is from Taylorsville Utah and is have samoan. Her first name is Moevanu (moi-van-oo) and she is so awesome! She reminds me a lot of Marina and Kailia:) So she's like a mix of my two best friends! We share a room with Sister Slight and cecpta Campbell. Jared worked with sister slight and she is so cool. She is going to kazakstan (her mission is called the eura asia mission or something... it is stationed in Turkey but then she is going to serve in Kasakstan). Her companion is sister Campbell and she is also going to Rostov. She is from Las Vegas!
There are 12 of us in our district, which is actually a pretty large district. Not everyone is going to Rostov... I think there are 6 of us going to Rostov? I'm not sure... but we are all learning russian together! The boys are very little and quite immature hahaha just putting that out there. I feel super old when I am with them because they are like babies! And then also a couple of the boys have like taken the Lord's name in vain a couple of times? everytime me and sister Jameson just get wide eyed at each other like, "what is going on" hahahahahaha. crazy baby boys.
There are other districts too with other people going all over in Russia.... it is crazy how much the work is progressing. I remember Uncle Mark telling me how every tribe of Israel is found in Russia... and guess what we talked about at our first branch (maybe zone? haha idk how it works) meeting? How the 12 tribes can be found in Israel:) so that is pretty cool! thanks Mark!
We have been learning Russian since day one. And I honestly do feel like I have already been blessed with the gift of tongues. I have seen that with other people too. We sat next to this companionship pair at lunch who were going somewhere Mandarin Chinese speaking so we were talking about if they knew any chinese before... and they both had taken like 4-6 years of the language in school and such and then the one sister said, "but yeah we hate to talk about it because we feel like we've learned more in these 4 weeks than we did in 5 years." Well... I guess that's what happens when you are in a classroom for 9 hours a day:) hahaha jk but really miracles are happening here. I can pray and bare my testimony in Russian! So cool! the first couple of days were really stressful. I didn't realize how stressed I was until I wasn't stressed but yeah I didn't sleep for the first couple of nights.
Another cool thing that has helped me is this quote that someone said sometime during this past week... (haha all a blur...), "You don't need the MTC. You have already been set apart as a missionary so you could have just gone straight to the mission." I thought that was really cool, and it also helped me to appreciate the MTC a little bit better! This time is precious and I have had many MTC teachers and workers tell me that the MTC just isn't the same when you aren't a missionary and how this time is sacred, even though it may seem a bit monotonuous.
So we have our first fake investigator and WE TAUGHT HIM A LESSON IN RUSSIAN ON FRIDAY. yeah. that happened. I actually think that I went to HS with my fake investigator but i don't remember his name... so yeah. But yeah the lesson went well! we have actually had 4 lessons with him now and on the 3rd lesson we committed him to baptism and now we are like, "ok now what" hahahahahhaha. But he is so sweet and me and sister jameson are both working hard to try and figure out this missionary stuff! I really feel so blessed to have her as my companion. We both joke that we feel seperated when we aren't together.
The first word I really learned in Russian was "good" and you say it "ha-ra-show" with a soft "d" in front of the R. So me and cectpa jameson literally probably say that about 500 times a day hahahhahaaha.Russian seems a lot more french and japanese-y than I thought it would be. Not that I speak either one of those languages, but Russian sounds like how I thought they would sound. After the first couple of days my mouth was sore from trying to say Russian words. It made me think of that one email where Curt said that he thought his mouth wasn't made to speak Tagolog. I totes mah gotes feel like that.
so teaching lessons is always fun because we are supposed to rely on the spirit but we only know how to bare our testiomonies and kinda pray... so hahah we have to try and prepare some stuff! For our first few lessons we just kinda recited sayings from this little blue book that we have that has phrases from PMG. We decided to get a little bit more familiar with our investigator so we asked him what his hobbies were. So we think that he said soccer and hockey. He asked us what we liked to do and we were prepared for that question! So I said I like to cook(hey, it was the easiest one to say hahhaa) and then sister Jameson tried to tell him that she liked to garden. After she said that, he totally cracked up and then did this hand motion that we both thought was him pulling weeds so we agreed and said "yeah yeah" so he keeps laughing and is trying to speak russian to us but heck we don't understand so we just kinda laugh with him haha. then he walks over to the black board and draws a cow... so he thought that sister Jameson liked milking cows! I told him that yes she does indeed love milking cows hahahaha. man yeah that was funny.
Here is another funny story haha. there is an elder here in our district that is from France! He is so sweet and just one of the nicest elders and he always asks me and sister Jameson questions. So after we taught one of our lessons we came out and he said, "so what did you teach Kapum?" (pronounced Ka-reem) and so we told him we had this whole thing prepared but then changed the lesson while we were in there to try and follow the spirit. His jaw just dropped and in a very very very thick french accent said, "I can not change!!" hahahah man it was so funny.
The MTC is very much a free roam campus! Like we have so much "freedom" it is kinda annoying. I guess freedom isn't the right word. but like we have a schedule of where we need to be but they don't tell us critical information like what building it is in haha. So with the new sisters (and probably new elders too) it is just a figure it out yourself invironment which thinking back really makes me laugh just because of how dumb we look BUT NO ONE TELLS US WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO DO. Then they really stress 100% obedience... so it has kinda become a challenge. you need to be 100% obedient and be to this district meeting at 5:00.. BUT we aren't going to tell you what building 
hahah no I'm just teasing and we are still just trying to figure everything out! I really liked a quote that said something to the effect of, "obedience wouldn't be obedience if it wasn't voluntary" and that is so true. It kinda helps me understand why the MTC is the way it is. Just like a free roam place! But mom, these missionaries' mamas would be so so so proud of them if they could see all that they are doing:)
When we first got to the dorms, we didn't have any sheets or blankets or anything on our beds hahhahahahaha. No one really knew what to tell us and there isn't any kind of front desk or help in our building at all... we ventured to the basement and found a whole cupboard of sheets locked up. Luckily enough, sister slight has very thin and very long arms so she was able to get us sheets! We still haven't been able to find blankets though.... and they keep the dorms at a very warm 36 degree F. I sleep in my sweats and wool socks and a sweatshirt every night with two sets of sheets on top! If you could send me my grey blanket that I had on my bed back at home, that would just be absolutely lovely. I also forgot my new thing of face wash that I think is underneath the sink.
I LOVE GETTING YOUR DEAR ELDER LETTERS. SO MUCH. that was such a blessing and such a tender mercy:) I feel so bad that I can't write back as soon as I would like! It is weird because I don't feel super stressed when it comes to like how busy I am, but the time just passes super quick when you want to do the things you need to do:) But I am working hard and will hopefully be able to send more letters!
The holy ghost that is felt here has been amazing and honestly life changing. I feel as if every time I feel the holy ghost it reminds me of my purpose and the truthfulness of this gospel. I also feel like it has been the reward after the trial of my faith. This summer was hard for me testimony wise and I just felt so abandoned by the Lord. I had fundamental questions about the gospel that just didn't add up and I just felt so much doubt! I didn't know if I should go and serve because of those feelings. I feel as if that was my test. My test to see if I really believed. And I feel now my time in the MTC is the time that the Lord is telling me that it is true and it was a trial of my faith. But really, the spirit felt here is amazing. I think it is the only thing keeping the missionaries here! who wants to spend 9 hours a day in a classroom? Not me! But when I can feel and invite the spirit and receive inspiration and light, I want to stay at the MTC forever. (sorry my english is so bad... I'm thinking like 1 million things right now hahahahaha)
Oh your letter about Joan just made me cry! Tell her hello and that I have thought about her many times this week! I hope all goes well with her blessing!
i totally smashed at speed during gym time the other day #basketballpro
I've seen lots of friends here and it has been wonderful! sister Kho, german, haningan, clark, Elder Bush, Hall, Frei, some people from BYU RHA and an elder from the Pool! so neat. and people always tease me that my whole town came on a mission with me hahaha.
there is an older sister here (like has been in the MTC a couple of weeks longer than us hahah) and her name is sister Hollingshaus and she is hilarious. She and her companion were leaving the classroom and her comp. had all of her books and sister Hollingshaus says, "sister, I love you, but why are you taking all of your books?" and I just thought that was the funniest thing ever! She says "sister I love you but.." in front of anything where she questions her comp. "sister I love you but, why didn't you save me a seat next to you?" hahah "sister I love you but, that serve was terrible" hahha man idk i just think she is hilarious.
Me and sister jameson sang in the choir this week! the choir director is awesome and going to practrice was almost better than the devotional:)
We sang Lead Kindly light (and I want everyone to go listen to that song and think of me.. and go listen to a song by david archuleta too please ok thank you) and it was so wonderful. AND ELDER DALLIN H OAKS CAME TO OUR DEVOTIONAL LAST NIGHT! it was broadcast to all the other mtc's around the world:) and I was in the choir!
I really liked what sister Oaks had to say. I'll just share a couple of things. she said,"This mission can be the best thing that you could ever do for yourself. it could be a life changing event. a mission can change you. IF YOU ALLOW IT TO." and i just thought that was so amazing. are we going through something in our lives that can change us for the better, IF WE ALLOW IT TO? anyway that was super cool.
Ok I love you all. So much. I miss you all! but I am also really happy here at the mtc and you don't need to worry about me:) I am happy and healthy and I really like my district so that makes every day fun!
I love you all!
love,
Cectpa Hambag
