Mariah, Week 6, Provo MTC

Howdy everyone!

Week six is finally coming to a close. Which means that we'll get our travel plans in less than two weeks!!! And I'll get to leave to Ukraine in three!!! dfhaerhjkefearhioewrhjwe I can't really contain my excitement! I've gotten so tired of the MTC and it's refreshing to know that I won't be here for forever and there's a light at the end of the tunnel.

This last week has been really hard. Russian has really been kicking my butt and I feel like I've hit a plateau as far as my learning goes. I'm just not progressing as fast as I feel like I can. But my teachers and companions have been nothing but encouraging. Sister Jackson has been talking a lot this week about the Lord's tender mercies. (Not to mention the fact that earlier this week, Dad sent me a General Conference talk from Elder Bednar that talked about the Lord's tender mercies. So, it's safe to say that my week has been bombarded with the Lord's tender mercies... I just need to learn to look out for them.

But there have been a few that I've noticed. One of them being that I was able to find my brother in the MTC. I think that it's a bit of a miracle to be able to find a elder out of the 46541321212 missionaries in the MTC (there aren't really that many missionaries, but it feels like that sometimes). In fact, I've been able to see Elder McCrea a couple times. And I think that it's a tender mercy that our classrooms are in the same building!

Another tender mercy that I noticed -- or rather, was pointed out to me by Sister Jackson -- was the fact that I'm now somewhat able to go through lessons with our progressing investigators without notes. Sure, it takes me a while to think and pick out all that I want to say... but I honestly didn't even dream of doing that when I first stepped into the MTC six weeks ago. So... about my statement earlier on how Russian is kicking my butt and I'm not progressing as fast as I like... I'm progressing. I know I am. I guess you can just say that I'm really impatient right now. Guess that just means that I need to learn patience.

This last week, my district celebrated Christmas in July on the 25th. It was really fun. Elder Dillard, Myers and Harmmer even got to the classroom early (something that has pretty much NEVER happened) to set up a little Christmas tree (that they found in the drop ceiling tiles in their dorm room) in our classroom. And the holiday celebration -- or as much as a celebration you can have with 10 missionaries in the MTC -- wasn't complete with a Secret Santa gift exchange. I drew Elder McBride's name and raided the free box for a present. I came out with a bottle of shampoo and a Chinese-English dictionary, wrapped it in "wrapping paper" (a.k.a. lined writing paper) and taped it up.

Well, I'm out of time. Whoever decided to only give MTC missionaries an hour of e-mail time was insane... because I cannot get a quality blog entry done in just an hour.

Cheers!