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.

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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.