Sister Mariah McCrea's Contact Information:

Email - mariah.mccrea@myldsmail.com

Ukraine Physical Address (For Postal Mail and Packages):

Sister Mariah Sargent McCrea
Ukraine Dnepropetrovsk Mission
Karla Marksa 27A 5th Floor
Dnepropetrosk
49044
Ukraine

Note: If you are planning on sending a package to Sis. McCrea, please contact her mom and dad for suggestions on which carrier to use and what to do to avoid package tampering.
________________________________________

Elder Mitchell McCrea's Contact Information:

Email: mitchell.mccrea@myldsmail.net

Brazil Physical Address (For Postal Mail and Packages):

Elder Mitchell McCrea
Brazil Belem Mission
Av. Navare, 532 Sala 412 4 Andar
Navare Royal Trade Center
66040-143 Belem-PA
Brazil

Note: If you are planning on sending a package to Elder McCrea, please contact his mom and dad for suggestions on which carrier to use and what to do to avoid package tampering.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Mariah, Week 10, Provo MTC, Visa Has Arrived!

MY VISA HAS ARRIVED!!

whoops i don't know what happened but i clicked send by accident?

blame my excitement~

anyWAYSSs

soo we leave on Tuesday, Sept. 3rd... the date that the MTC theorized that we would be leaving anyway... so MIRACLE!

and we'll fly from SLC to Washington DC at 8:40 AM, get there at 2:47 PM (local time, I'm assuming...)

then we have a four hour or so layover in DC until 5:35 pm when our plane leaves to Vienna, Austria and we'll arrive there at 8:35 AM. Then from Vienna, we'll fly straight to Dnepropetrovsk UKRAINE (yup, no state-side reassignments!!!!!!!!) at 10:25 AM and arrive at 1:40 PM on Sept. 4th. 
Again... I'm assuming that the times are all local times.

ANYWAY the reason i'm telling ya'll is because I can call home from one of the American airports... and I want to talk to both of you... so what time would be best? I was thinking to call when I'm in DC, so it'd be sometime between 1:45 PM CST (2:45 PM EST for me) and 4 PM CST (5:00 PM EST).

I'll probably be allowed to get on the computer again sometime I leave, so let me know when i can call... and if you don't hear back from me by Tuesday, I'll be calling ya'lls cell phones sometime between 1:45 CST, 2:45 EST and 4 CST, 5 EST.

aaand okay, i dunno if ya'll were planning on sending another box to me or anything... i would think that ya'll should try and get it to me ASAP if you are, so i can get it before i leave and everything.

i think that's it...

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Mitchell, Week 5, Provo MTC, Visa Has Arrived!

BAD NEWS....

Just Kidding..... I GOT MY VISA!!!!!!!! :D

I can't believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this Monday (Sep 02) I have to be at the MTC travel office at 9:30. I fly out of Salt Lake at 1:55pm and land in Atlanta Ga at 7:37pm. Then fly to Sao Paulo at 9:50pm and land at 8:25am. Then I fly to BELEM at 6:55pm and land at 10:25pm. THEN I AM IN BELEM!!!!!!

I AM SO EXCITED!!! I can't believe I got it!! I started crying when I told the class. But I hope some of them get there visas soon. I sure do love them all so much!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH DAD AND MOM!! For all your work towards my visa! I sure do love you and I am so grateful for this and I know Heavenly Father needs me to be in Belem! 

I have my P-day on Saturday. So I think I could email yall that day. But I know when I get to Salt Lake I can call yall there. So you'll will hear from me soon. :D I love you and can you tell everyone (family, facebook, friends, blog. ) 

I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!! 

PROUD TO SERVE,
Elder McCrea

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Mitchell, Week 4, Provo MTC, 1 MONTH GONE ALREADY!

My MTC District doing the MTC Plank together - Picture #1

My MTC District doing the MTC Plank together - Picture #2
I can't believe it's been a month since I've been here at the MTC! 100 more weeks of my mission! CRAZY!! But I am just gonna bullet all the crazy and fun things thats been happening lately! I sure do love you Mom and Dad and am SOO grateful that I am serving a Mission. But here it goes.... (:

- This past Sunday I was released as District Leader for 7-E and Elder Blackner from Washington is the New District Leader! Such a Solid Elder! Definitely knows how to make everyone smile,
- Still no word on VISAS. No one hasn't gotten theirs yet.... But next Friday we will get reassignments and I am so animado(excited)!! :D
- Tomorrow we are hosting as a district. Which means we will be guiding the new missionaries that show up tomorrow around the MTC! :D So that will be fun
- I was invited to say the opening prayer for the Sunday Devotional this Sunday. I am pretty nervous because of all the Sister and Elders that will be listening. But I know it will be great!
- As a district we are singing in the MTC choir every week! I am loving it!! 
- Elder Gale auditioned to play a duel violin duet with a sister going to Japan. Hopefully that get the chance to perform in a devotional or departure or some type of big meeting.
- The language is going! We had a sub teacher yesterday and he was AMAZING! Definitely help me out and the district to not be discouraged about the language. But I am grateful we don't have to roll the R's like in portuguese. But the discussions are going good! WE have 2 investigators that are the teachers and are acting like one of their converts they taught when they were in their missions. This week we started teaching each other. So we are our own investigators and we have to act like someone we know that isn't a member or convert. So Elder Gale is acting like his non mormon neighbor and I am acting like a good friend that was at school and played Football with me.  
- We went to the temple today! FLIIPPP. The new endowment video is amazing!! But I love going as a district! Hopefully you two can go soon! I pray yall can! But you will definitely love it!! 
- We are starting to play a district volleyball game during our gym time on Segunda-feira (Monday) morning and Cincuenta-feira (Friday) evening. It is sooo fun!!
- I have a mormon.org page. Not sure if you wanna do anything with that for the blog,
- A saying I always think of is... "Um Dia Por Vez" - "One day at a Time" I know the language will come. I try to get to stressed out and just learn the discussions, speak portuguese as much as I can, and have fun! 
- Favorite 3 scriptures this week.... 1.)Matthew 17:20 2.) Romans 1:16 3.) Numbers 24:8

I sure do love you 2 so much and can't say it enough how grateful I am for how you raised me and for all you do!! 

I hope this expresses this past week for me and all that i've done and experiences. :D I am loving it and just can't wait to get to the mission field where ever it may be! :D

Love,

Elder McCrea

Mariah, Week 9, Provo MTC

The "Leftovers" - These are the remaining members of my MTC District - Several Elders heading for Russia left yesterday, Aug. 19, 2013.  All the rest of us are heading to Ukraine and we are still here at the MTC as we wait for our visas. 

I ran into a fellow sister heading to Korea who has the same pj setup...so I thought a pose was appropriate.

Me, Sister Meyers, and Sister Garff.
My district!! (Bro. Rutter and Sister Jackson, our teachers, are the two in the middle) - Before some departed for their mission in Russia.

(From top left, to right) Elder Harmer, Elder Dillard, Bro. Rutter, Sister Jackson, Elder Hepworth, Elder McBride (bottom left to right) me, Sister Garff, Sister Patterson, Elder Myers, Elder Stewart and Elder Bell.
___________________________________________

I'm going to break a record.

I'm a nine week missionary... but I'm going to be staying in the MTC until... further notice.

Yup, that's right folks. I'm still at the MTC. 

I was supposed to leave this morning actually... But I don't have my visa yet. I'm not completely sure of the details... but sometime, somewhere -- something happened with my visa, along with the other thirteen or so missionaries going to my mission, and so we're stuck here in the MTC until further notice. Which could be next week, or the week after... we have no idea. (But we heard a rumor that we'll only stay in the MTC for two more weeks; if we don't get our visas by then, we'll be reassigned to a state-side mission until we get them.)

Anyway, to more positive news! 

Tuesday was great. Besides it being my P-day, for Tuesday's devotional, we had the opportunity to listen to... wait for it... an apostle! Elder Richard G. Scott! It was so cool to be able to listen to a inspirational message from one of the Lord's servants.

This previous Wednesday, we got to be hosts for the new missionaries coming in! It was really fun, being a friend and helping the new sister missionaries with their luggage, showing them to their dorm, accompanying them to get their books before dropping them off into the hands of their teachers. It was good experience to be able to help and serve people in that way, and it was an eye-opener to remember that I was in their shoes nine weeks ago. Whoa! How time flies! And what's even better is that we get to host again tomorrow! (I guess that's just one of the perks of being a 10+ week missionary, haha.)

In other news, I would just like to say that my teacher, Brother Rutter, is one of the most coolest teachers out there. You might think that your MTC was the bomb-diggity or whatever. But no. I'm sorry. You haven't met Брат Rutter. He's almost like the mortal big brother that I never had. This past week especially -- he's just been full of spiritual thoughts and messages and moments. This last Saturday, before "the Trio" (Elder Dillard, Elder Harmer and Elder Myers) left Monday morning, he spent practically the whole afternoon and evening with us. He finished telling all of his stories -- especially the story about how he met his wife. (He was telling us it in installments. He's a real tease sometimes.) Anyway, so he pulled us all out into 11M -- one of the buildings that has some medium-sized auditorium-like rooms, and just left us to think and have some "alone time" (we were still in the same room as our companions, the room was big enough that we could spread out and not be right next to each other) while he brought the Trio out, one by one to talk to them and say goodbye. It was a bittersweet moment, but I really enjoyed it. Before he left though, he asked us all to write our "Rainy Day Testimonies" in our journals... to read when we're out on our mission, and the going has really gotten tough... I really think that that was a really inspired thing to do. Bro. Rutter is the coolest.

And well... that's all that I really have time to write with right now. I still haven't learned how to write all that I want to say in just an hour. 

Toodles!

-- Sister McCrea

Oh, and P.S. if anyone hasn't caught on... I'm not completely sure if my MTC address will change... but I'm still at the MTC, so don't send anything to my Ukraine address just yet. If anything does change, I'm sure my parents will let everyone know.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Mitchell, Week 3, Provo MTC

Elder McCrea is still at the Provo MTC waiting for his Brazilian visa to be approved. He gets to see his sister, Sister Mariah McCrea, daily because of being in the same building for their language classes and then also having the same P {preparation} day, Tuesday. He also got to go to the Provo temple as did his sister this morning. He sent pictures showing his Portuguese name tag and the flowers at the temple.

Mariah, Week 8, Provo MTC

 Sister McCrea has written and said that her visa to D'nepropetrovsk has been delayed. She and others going to Ukraine didn't get their expected travel plans on this past Friday. There were others, of the same 'MTC age',  going to Russia, that got theirs. So she won't be leaving on Aug 20, as expected. She did get to go to the Provo temple, which has been closed for the past couple weeks secondary to annual cleaning. She sent pictures of her district in front of the temple.





Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Mitchell, Week 2, Provo MTC


We were told a letter is in the mail to us for Week 2.  But here is a picture of Elder McCrea's male MTC Brazilian District members.  Elder McCrea is in the upper left.


Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Mariah, Week 7, Provo MTC



My missionary name tag in Russian/Cyrillic. That would be 'Sister McCrea' on first line. 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th lines say: 'The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints'.
_________________________________________________________

An email from Sis. McCrea, verbatim...

To wit:

Well ladies and germs...
I'm nearing the end of my stay here in the MTC. Tomorrow is the start of week 8, which means that I've only got a week and a half left here on American soil. Two weeks from today, I'll be on a plane heading towards D'nepropetrovsk Ukraine. So, I'm trying to do all the American-like things I can think of -- like play softball and frisbee during gym time -- and eat all the American food, candy, and peanut butter while I still can. This Friday also means that I'll be getting my travel plans! Whoo-ho! I just know that this week is going to fly by...
Anyway. So. This week has gone by fast, like most of the past 6 weeks have gone by... It was full seeing friends come to the MTC (Elder Gariety), meeting with relatives (Elder McCrea) and watching friends leaving to their missions (Elder Weinmuller, Sister Hill and all the rest of the "older" Russki's that were in the Russian hall). I've come to realize that it's sort of going to be hard to leave the MTC. The MTC has become my home over the past 8 weeks... and it's going to be weird to go. It really does feel like after my stay here in the MTC, I'll be able to go home, having already "completed" my service.
But my adventure hasn't even begun yet. My mission story hasn't even been gotten started. I'm just coming to a close of 'Chapter One: The MTC -- Narnia Holes and Russian 101'. And the rest is still unwritten.

PS - from the blog maintainer (who wants to remain anonymous for now)...Sis. McCrea finally sent home some pictures. Yeah!  So more pictures will be posted as processed...


Can you make out Ukraine?



  • Here are 3 out of 4 of my roommates, hard at work coloring: Sister Gray (smiling at the camera), Sister Meyers, and Sister Garff.  

  • Our Russian (I can't think of the word) Dolls! That hang on our door!


  • Elder Bell's mom is so nice!  A fellow MTC Ukraine District Elder's mom sent name tag cookies to everyone in the MTC Ukraine District.

  • I'm going to miss you Sister Hill!

Mariah and Mitchell, Week 6 Sister McCrea; Week 1 Elder McCrea; Provo MTC


Sister McCrea and Elder McCrea finally meet up at the big map at the Provo MTC.  Their companions are beside them.