Happy December everyone!
Winter is in full swing here in Provo and we had our first big snow on Sunday and it was magical. My companion from Germany has only seen snow a few times in her life and she was so happy when we stepped outside Sunday morning to a winter wonderland.
This week seemed to go by so quickly--I can't believe it's Wednesday again. On Thursday we had our first member TRC where we teach two 20-minute lessons to Russian-speaking return missionaries and we were all a little nervous but it went pretty well. Our second lesson was much better than our first, and even though I couldn't understand much of what they said, I could understand a lot more than I could last week(!).
We also taught a few lessons to Igor and Olga (our teachers Brother Griffiths and Sister Williams/fake investigators) this week. Igor is obsessed with hockey so in our lesson about prophets we compared a prophet to the team captain and all of us to the rest of the team and Jesus Christ as the coach. We asked him what would happen if there was no team captain on the team and he was very concerned and told us that that could never happen because the team would never win. No one would know what to do! We told him that that is why prophets are so important to us and he totally got it! Haha afterwards when Brother Griffiths was talking to us he told us that the analogy was way better for Igor than reading any scriptures or saying anything else so we were relieved! We also have memorized Joseph Smith's first vision and we recited it together in our lesson and it was so amazing to see how quickly it brought the spirit into the room.
On Sunday we went to choir practice and started to learn the most beautiful arrangement of The First Noel by Mack Wilberg. My only regret was not being able to listen to it since I'll be singing it, BUT tender mercy because that night when we watched the Christmas Devotional, the choir sang the exact arrangement and it was so beautiful. We joked that Mack Wilberg stole our thunder because we were singing the song on Tuesday for our Tuesday devotional, but I will forgive him because theirs was angelic.
During our choir practice Brother Egget talked about the story behind The First Noel and compared it to the message of the gospel. The angels were the missionaries to the shepherds, and the shepherds then took it to the world (and that is our job as missionaries--to take this message of hope and love to everyone!) and when they said "fear not" to them, they probably meant that the shepherds don't have to fear anymore because the Savior is born and with Him we never need to fear.
If you haven't watched the Christmas Devotional please watch it! It was so good. I'll just share one thing I really liked from it. In Elder Stevenson's talk he talked about how years from now, we won't really remember what we got for Christmas, but what we gave. Christmas is such a wonderful time to spread the love of Christ to everyone around us. Service is the way to become like our Savior and I urge all of you to find ways to show your love for Him and those around you this Christmas season. Learning Russian, it's easy for me to focus on only myself and my own problems, but I've really been trying to use this experience to focus outward as much as I can. It hasn't been easy and I'm still working on it, but I know that I find true happiness and fulfillment when I do.
Something I am grateful for this week:
Most everyone in my zone has watched the Office so there is a good deal of references and quotes made throughout the day, and when we are all so exhausted and our brains can't hold any more Russian, The Office always lightens the mood. Also, Elder Wickham thinks I look like Pam?? So there's that.
Also, Brother Griffiths rewards us for working hard with awesome stories from his mission (he served in Yekaterinburg, Russia and has some great stories) and he told us about when he was a year into his mission all the missionaries' visas got renewed wrong one time and he was in charge of picking them up in Finland every 3 months and every time he came back into Russia he was flagged because of his bad visa and was interrogated for like 2 hours by Russian officers. The first time it happened he told the officer he didn't speak Russian (ha) but then the next time he told them he did (because it was super painful to try to explain in English why his visas was bad to a Russian who didn't speak English) but then the SAME officer that interrogated him the first time walked in the room, now knowing that brother Griffiths had lied to him the last time haha. So every 3 months for a year, when Brother Griffiths was flagged, the same officer would talk to him and he actually become friends with him and learned about his family and that he had been in charge of interviewing apostles and members of the 70 that came to Russia! It was a good story, but Brother Griffiths tells it way better.
That is all for this week (well--all that I have time to write. I apologize again for the length)! Russian is getting better every day but is a long long ways from being easy. I am grateful for my Savior who I know is taking more than His fair share of my struggles here and I know I could not do it without Him. I love you all and am grateful for your prayers and all the amazing talks you have sent me!! Keep em' coming, they have helped me so much this week.
Have a wonderful week!!
Cectpa Kropelnicki
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