Missionaries are Safe in Russia

Dear Parents, 

We are so thrilled to let you know that your missionaries have arrived!!! They are tired from the long trip but are happy. We brought them all to the mission home for the night. They had some homemade chicken noodle soup and are preparing for some much needed sleep. Their trainers will come to the mission home in the morning and have breakfast with them and then we will have an orientation and lunch together.

We will take better pictures tomorrow but I wanted you to see them here as soon as possible. They have wonderful trainers who will help them so much. Thank you for raising such wonderful young missionaries! We feel blessed to serve with them. We love missionaries!! Our youngest daughter is in her last weeks of her mission. We will watch over and care for them as if they were our own. 

With love, 

Sister Miner  

Phone Call

HELLO FAMILY!!!! 

I WILL BE ABLE TO CALL YOU TONIGHT FROM A PAYPHONE FROM THE AIRPORT METHINKS. 

I think I already told you this information but then I couldn't remember so I decided to double check. I will be leaving the MTC at 6:30 tonight. My flight leaves at11:50. I honestly have no idea how it is going to work but I do believe I will have some time to call in that time. I will be calling mom's phone. Please try to pick up the first call (which I know you will:)) but I lose a lot of minutes every time I make a call and no one picks up. 

I believe I will also have the opportunity to call while I am in the JFK airport. Ok I feel so dumb though because I left my flight plans at home... but I believe that I will be at that airport from like 7am to 3pm? I am not sure but when I call tonight I will let you know for sure:)

I am praying my heart out that the call works tonight. I can't wait to talk to you all:) 

please let gma and gpa know they are more than welcome to come (which I think you probably already have...) and lainey and alyssa of course. 

I love you all and I will talk to you soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IM GOING TO RUSSIA. 

--

С большой любовью,сестра Price

AAHH

HELLO FRIENDS AND FAMILY

ok I am going to apologize even before I start writing this email because I feel like it is going to be a bit crazy hahah.

This week has been a good week! we got our Russia flight plans last friday...  and a couple of elders were so excited that they did the football run and jump and like bump each other thing and the other elder ran into a door frame and cut his head open and had to get stitches haha. so to say we were excited is an understatement!! 

I am flying to NY then moscow and then Rostov! 

we skype TRCed with a lady that is living in Ukraine and it was really neat! we got to meet her little brother and he was the cutest! and guess what?!!? he spoke russian!!! hahaha idk why it shocked me that he knew russian .. but it was weird!! haha he was a cutie. 

Today we found out we had been temp. reassigned to Colorado. we spent like the whole day thinking and talking about it and figuring it out. I had been reassigned to the colorado fort collins mission along with sister jameson and the other missionaries who were going to rostov were going all around state side. The Ukrainians got a little nervous and didn't know if they were going to be reassigned so they went and asked later in the day if they had been reassigned and the office said, "all the russian missionaries we just told were reassigned are going to their originals missions" so yeah we just ran there and checked and (as of right now...) we are still going to Rostov. needless to say it has been a rollercoaster of emotions today:) 

the best thing that happened this week was when a couple of elders were getting ready for skype trc and one of them stood up and like fixed his suit and you could tell he was trying to look good haha and his companion says to him, " I couldn't have asked for a more handsome companion" hahaha man it was hilarious. 

another funny thing: 

one of the sisters was talking to our teacher and said, "I just wasnt to know Russian really well... but I just don't see it happening right now.." and our teacher said, " yeah... that's pretty sad!" hahahahahahahahaha after we all had a giggle he was very very helpful and wonderful but yeah that was hilarious. 

I saw BJ Powell at the temple today! 

I love the gospel! 

I love my mom! 

go read about the 2000 stripling warriors. It applies a lot to missionary work in a verse where is says that they were strictly obedient ( or something to that effect... I think it is in alma 57?) and I thought it was cool because being obedient is really stressed in missionary life and a lot of the times I can only see the rules and not the blessings. But we can see that the stripling warriors were blessed and we will be too as we follow the commandments. 

I love you all! 

I heard you had a happy halloween party! I was thinking about it this week! :) 

love you! 

С большой любовью,сестра Price

WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE

Heeelllo heeeello my family!!!

How is everyone?! :)

Man it has been a good week!!

We got new russian sisters! I swear the MTC is going to blow up with all of the new Russian people here haha. I think we have 12 new sisters... and 4 are going to ROSTOV!!! so yeah that is really exciting! one of the new sisters going to Rostov looks just like Danielle Ivins. Crazy! (I kept misspelling Ivins into things like icing and ibings... those are pretty cool last names if I do say so myself.) ( I think I know a Norma Ibins? Man that sounds so familiar....... ;))

But yes! new Russians and Ukrainians!! Crazy. We all feel so incredibly old with all of the new russians haha.

We have had a couple of Russian elders return home this week. None from our district so I don't know them that well... but yes that was kind of a hard thing for one of the new districts. Keep them in your prayers:)

We had an influx of new russians but also lost 3 districts of russians! It is so weird having them gone because they were like our older brothers and sisters and we would always sit with them at lunch. We have the new districts come and sit with us now, but it just isn't the same:)

On Sunday Richard Heaton (who I think like supervises this MTC or something like that... I'm not sure. He isn't the president here but he is pretty high up MTC wise.... speaking of presidents 8 of us from our district got to sit with pres and sis Burgess at lunch last Thursday!)

But anyway, yes he came to talk and he brought his son that has Downs. Man I bawled like a baby before he started speaking. definitely made me kiley-sick (like home sick but for people haha) so hello Kiley! I miss you like crazy!

On Monday we had skype TRC where we get to skype with real russians! The guy that we taught was definitely very russian because I didn't understand anything he said!! hahah. This man that we taught has a very prominent background and history of being very grumpy with the missionaries who skype TRC him. (let's be honest- mostly because of the missionaries haha:) so we were a little bit nervous to teach him! His camera doesn't work so you can't see him but he can see you the whole time which is also a bit weird... but I just thought "hannah, just smile during the lesson and everything will be alright:)" so we taught the lesson and I felt like a goon but I just smiled during the whole thing and it went very well! He even said after, "keep smiling!" hahaha oh man. it was great. 

The two other sisters in our district found a couple of real life investigators who were lost looking for the Spanish speaking missionaries. The have had the opportunity to teach them for a few times now and on Monday the actually committed them both to baptism! It really has been such a miracle and fun to see them teach and really get the full mission experience:) they are amazing though and they have shared some of their experiences and it just sounds amazing. Plus they get to teach in english so yeah that is pretty cool!

I have felt so incredibly blessed this week to be at the MTC. It is finally becoming real that I won't be at the MTC forever and it is a bit scary! This is such a safe place and I feel so blessed to be here. I have been very happy this week which is such a blessing:) thank you for your thoughts and prayers- I have felt them:)

WE GET OUR FLIGHT PLANS THIS FRIDAY. CRAZY. WE ARE LEAVING SO SOON.

OK FUNNY STORIES!!! this week has been a good one hahaha

We taught our fake investigator outside and we were having a pretty meaningful lesson on the atonement and we were trying to be really serious ya know and invite the spirit and we were talking and a worker walked over with a leaf blower and so you know that was pretty funny so we just stopped talking and waited for it to pass. He finally passes and it fades out and then later like out of nowhere it starts up again and I kept thinking, "are we in a movie?" haha man it was so funny.

there is a letter in russian that looks like "bl" and I still don't really know like 100% how to say it hahaha but we were asking an elder in our district how to say it and it sounds like a "wee" kind of... idk how to explain and but it was so funny because when he said it his leg kind of like moved when he said it and idk why it was so funny but it was hilarious ahah.

My teacher is so funny. We were in class and we were going to work on how to tell time so he puts on the big TV screen the board-display page (which is pretty much just a page that shows how it works and examples) and some of the examples start with peoples names. So he puts it up there and accidentally zooms into the names so the whole screen is like two names and he says, "alright class, today we are studying big names" and man I thought it was sooooo funny hahahahahaha

We were singing Joseph Smith's first prayer in Choir (which was beautiful) and we were practicing ending the song. side note: There are always a whole bunch of workers that are walking around and getting ready while we are singing. so we were practicing the end and it was this huge loud ending. We were singing our hearts out and then the choir director ended the note and just at the perfect and precise moments one of the workers had answered his phone and said "hello?" just as we ended hahahaha it made it even better that it was joseph smith's firts prayer hahahahahaha. man anyway I thought that was funny.

Well I Love you all and I can't think of anything else to say! thanks for your love and support! hope all is well!

Go and read 2 Nephi 9:50-51 the speakers yesterday talked about how we need to give of the fruit of the gospel and I had read these same scriptures just before the meeting. I love them. I also probably love them because I have gained a little intsy teensy bitty bit of weight here at the MTC hahah but really, My soul is delighting in the fatness of the gospel and I have a testimony of feasting upon that which perisheth not:) also that is really cool when you think about the Fall of Adam and Eve and such. And how the atonement is so central to everything. I have a lot of feelings about this scripture but as you can see it is hard for me to put my feelings into words at the moment hahah.

I love you all!

--

С большой любовью,сестра Price

WEEK SICK (SIX)

No I am not sick haha but I thought it was a good title... I'll keep thinking for next week's title! hahaha (reminds me of grandpa... it's 10:06, time to pick up sticks)

HELLO HELLO FAMILY!!! KAK OO VAS DELA?!?!? HARDASHO?!?! HARDASHO!!!

Man. Week six:) we are getting closer everyone! haha

How did everyone like general conference?! it was pretty amazing wasn't it?!! I loved it:) I really liked the talk by Neill Marriott. One thing she said has stuck with me and it is, "can we love Christ more than we love our own desires and wants?" oochen Hardasho vapros. (very good question).

I also loved Elder Hollands talk:) There was your shout out mom!! They didn't forget! :) Sister Campbell knows the elder who Elder Holland talked about in conference. Amazing really. And sister Campbell and sister slight were able to see him at the MTC not too long ago. So yeah that was a really cool story!

This week has been good! On Monday we taught FOUR LESSONS. yeah I know. It was crazy. Now you may be thinking, "well.. she's a missionary and probably always teaches that many lessons in a day." no my friend. We have been teaching a 15-20 minute lesson everyday (or I guess nearly every day..) but on monday we had Skype TRC (which was so fun and I will tell you more about that in a bit!) and then we taught our fake investigator teacher brother Graf, then we did a new thing where we teach other companionships as real investigators which was fun! and THEN we had another impromptu lesson later that night. So yeah it was a crazy day! but all of our lessons went pretty well I think!

SKYPE TRC. Ok so every Wednesday night we get to teach members/ RM's that know Russian just a lesson in Russian. We call that TRC. So on Monday we had Skype TRC where we had the opportunity to skype with someone (possibly) in Russia. We skyped a lady named Julia (but sounds like yoo-lee) and it was really awesome! she is from Ukraine and knows ukranian and russian and english and is now going to school in Germany to get her masters! Yeah she is amazing! I was really nervous about our lesson but it actually went really well! we kept asking poor questions I think because she would be super confused and then one time she just got to laughing so hard haha. After we were able to talk to her in english and she said, "I didn't really understand your questions but it was easier to just say yes instead of trying to explain to you what was wrong with it" and she was just giggling hahaha man I thought it was so funny! It went a lot better than I thought it would!

Vocal point came and sang to us on Sunday Night! such a treat. I think they brought in the singers because all the missionaries would have gone crazy listening to another speaker haha. but really it was amazing and such a treat! go and look up Nearer my God to thee by them. Amazing!

Last night Linda K. Burton came and spoke to us! It was really awesome! She talked about prophets and apostles andit was really greaT! Her parents were mission presidents in New Zealand when she was a teenager and she told the story about how Thomas S. Monson came to meet with her parents during their service. She and her sisters lived about 3 hours away from her parents to go to the high school there and she remembers Pres monson ( though not the prophet then) coming to visit her and her sisters at School. he came and visited her while she was watching a basketball game and so he just sat and watched with her:) How cute?!?1 she then relayed how when she was called to be the general relief society president she told him how she still remembers that basketball and he said, "well did we win?" such a cutie:)

Holy cow President monson? I was really worried. Can you even imagine how many prayers were said during his talk though? After we were talking as a district and we kind of brought up the point that maybe we take prophets for granted sometimes. Let us all pray we may more fully appreciate the Prophet and the apostles of the Lord. Also the new apostles?!?! so cool! Oh my goodness can you even imagine. Lets all keep them in our prayers.

Ok funny stories:

TRC (regular one) last wednesday night:

we were trying to ask how they came to know Russian, like if they served a mission or if they studied it or what so sister jameson asks them "how do you know Russian?" Just like that so it makes perfect sense in Russian and the first answers "I know it very well!" and the other was joking and said, "oh I don't know russian." hahaha man it was so funny. That lesson just kind of went downhill in a lot of ways after that haha. We asked them to bless the scriptures instead of read them and then also accidentally told them that Sister Jameson had cancer.. haha yeah but it was funny!!! hahaha

We have to learn russian and russian cursive which for the most part is fine but it is also confusing in a lot of ways haha. So the word "what" in russian is Shto (but with russian letters- you know haha) but just the SH looks different so it is like a weird letter and then a TO. Well in cursive some letters completely change and so the T then turns into what looks like an M. sometimes it is hard to tell if they are writing in regular russian or cursive russian. An elder was teaching a lesson and he wanted the investigator to read something so he pointed to the cursive word shto and said, " will you read this?" and then pointed and said, "yes. starting at Shmo" He told us that story and we think it is the funniest thing ever so instead of saying shto now we say shmo whenever we want to act super confused hahahaha man it is so funny. I just know I am going to actually say it though when I'm in russia... hahahah oh well.

Ok here is a kind of gross story hahaha.

So sister Jameson and I sit on the front row in our class (of two rows) haha and smack in the middle so we each have a companionship of elders on either side of us. Does that make sense? haha anyway. Well the elder that sits next to me had the biggest sneeze ever and I didn't really think anything of it and then after he sneezed he like didn't really move and looked like he was looking around for... something.... hahah so I just glanced over at him and he is just kinda trying to play it cool but I can also tell he is probably looking for some.. well you know hahah. He has a book on his lap and I look over on the book and there IS THE BIGGEST SNOT ROCKET I HAVE EVER SEEN. so he is trying to play it cool but I can tell he is still looking for it... he looks over at me and I say, " I think I found it." and then he finally found his snot rocket but it was so gross hahaha. Everytime he sneezes I think about it hahahahahahahaha Im scarred for life! hahaha that is super gross but it was super funny because every time he sneezes everyone gets a little worried. hahaha It's funny in real life I swear hahahaha.

It sounds like everyone is doing very well! I can't believe ki danced at half time?!?! that is crazy! how fun!

I got cookies from the Giles!! !thank you thank you!

We get new missionaries this week and this week is the week we are supposed to get new Rostov missionaries!!! woo hoo!!!

We are getting closer to leaving, but people. It seems so far away. please pray we won't go insane:) I really do love it here! I have just been here a long time!! hahaha.

Well I love you all!

I love the gospel! I love my savior Jesus Christ.