July 9, 2013
Привет! It's almost the start of Week 4! And I still don't know Russian!
Well, okay. I know a little bit... I can bear my testimony, say a prayer, and hold a very basic conversation with someone. But when I say basic, I mean to the extent of "Hi, how are you?" "What is your name?" ... And that's about it. My district has decided to impliment a rule of S.Y.L. -- Speaking (Y)our Language -- at lunch and break time during class. So far, the jist of our lunchtime conversations sound a little like this: "I know that this hot dog is true." "I am thankful for this BYU Creamery milk."
A lot feels like it has happened this week. The Fourth of July was probably the biggest thing. They didn't have any Fourth of July-colored pancakes or anything like that (unfortunately). But after dinner, we attended a devotional, watched 17 Miracles (which is probably the saddest movie I have ever seen in mY ENTIRE LIFE OH MY GOSH!!!). But the icing on the cake was probably when we got to stay up late (YUP WE GOT TO STAY UP PAST 10:30) and watch the fireworks! We weren't able to leave the MTC campus or anything, but my companions and I managed to find an okay-spot to watch the fireworks from. It really felt like a music festival -- all these bodies swarming around in what felt like such an small enclosed space -- but it was fun. And I got to see a number of different fireworks that I had never really seen before. Watching the fireworks was a nice change of tempo from the normal schedule I seemed to have fallen into. I can only wonder what Pioneer Day will be like... I heard that Pioneer Day is a huge holiday up here in Utah.
Anyway. So, I know that I haven't really ever mentioned this, but we got finished teaching our first "investigator", Katiya (Катя), a little over a week ago. After teaching her for a week and a half, we had her commited to baptism, but we didn't have an exact date set... and then -- SURPRISE! It turns out that Katiya was one of our teachers. Well, okay... technically, my district/class already knew that Katiya was going to be one of our teachers... but it was still pretty shocking to hear Sister Jackson speaking perfect English. And well, to be honest, it is STILL pretty shocking to hear her speaking English. And I have to try really hard to call her Sister Jackson, and not "Katiya".
So, like I said, the Russian is coming along... I'm struggling. But my dad taught me how to work hard, so I'm sticking in there. I'm not at the head of the class, but I'm not at the end either. I'm really starting to get close to my district. In fact, we all had a chips and salsa party at lunch today. A chips and salsa party may sound like something really random to do -- but there is a reason for it, I promise. Sister Garff (one of my companions) made up this nice little rhyme that goes like this (and please forgive me but it's said in Russian, but I don't exactly know how to spell the words, so I'm trying to spell them out phonetically)
Spaseba, polzhalsta. We need some more salsa~ (Which basically means "Thank you, you're welcome..." etc.)
Anyway, so one of the elders in our district was nice enough to buy us a bottle of salsa and so we decided to buy some chips (some of the lime ones, yuummm!) and make a party of it. It was fun.
And welp. I've only got a little bit of time left. I need to actually write a roughdraft of what I want to say next time, rather than trying to write something off the top of my head.
Until next week!
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