Hello everyone! I hope this email finds you well and happy!!
This week has been great, but also really weird because everything is kind of wrapping up as we prepare to leave for Ukraine next Tuesday (!!). I can't believe the end is actually in sight--sometimes it felt like we would be here forever.
On Thursday we got our flight plans! It was like Christmas morning when the email came haha. Elder Cottam, McWhorter, Holt and I will leave on Tuesday morning at 3:45 (woot) and we fly to Chicago, then to Austria and then to Dnipro (it'll be a long day, almost 23 hours of travel). I'm trying not to be too sad about the fact that Sister Thompson and Sister Richter are leaving Monday morning so I'll have to spend a whole day at the MTC without them :( But they will do wonderful things in Rostov!
This Sunday we got to hear the new presidency speak and it was really great. Something I loved that they talked about was that "faithfulness is the mother of faith" and if we just get to work and serve, our faith will be increased and our questions will be answered. We don't need to wait for some big event to happen or for all of our doubts or questions to be answered before we really get to work. We have to simply start and be faithful to what we do know, and the rest will follow.
This week Brother Griffiths talked to us about his mission and about Russian culture and it was super fun. He told us that something he really wished he could change between Russians and Americans is that both sides think that the other doesn't like them, and so that is how they rationalize not liking the other side. But in reality your average Russian likes Americans and wants to talk to them and get to know them, but they have just grown up thinking that they aren't friends and so that's the general feeling. It's sad but also gives me hope because in the end, we're all just people wanting to find happiness, and the gospel is that happiness that people need. We think that the world is going to a bad place in a hand basket, but really it's still full of good people who want to meet and understand people that are different from them. Don't let stereotypes or what you "think" someone thinks about you deter you from sharing the gospel, or just talking to someone. We have to love people despite what we have grown up being taught, because in the end we are children of God and really want the same things (not sure if that tangent made sense but yeah).
Yesterday we had a devotional by Elder and Sister Gay and it was SO GOOD. The time flew by and they talked about so many good things. One of my favorite things they mentioned was the importance of personal revelation. This topic has been brought up a lot while I've been here and it's been so awesome to learn more about it. They talked about how missionary work is revelatory work, and we will always be guided to where we need to be if we are in tune with the spirit. He shared a story about when he needed a haircut when he was visiting a stake for stake conference and felt like he needed to go to Walmart to get his haircut, even though he would never go there by choice for a haircut because it's Walmart, but he really felt like he should. The lady cutting his hair ended up being a less active convert to the church, who was trying to decide whether or not she should stay in the church and be sealed to her husband. Elder Gay challenged her to stay with the Lord and become worthy to be sealed to her husband, and told her that when they were ready, to call him and he would seal them. A year later he gets a call from her and he seals them in the Salt Lake temple! After they were sealed the lady showed him her journal entry from the day before she gave him a haircut and in it she had pleaded with Heavenly Father to send someone to help her know if the church was true. It is so amazing how involved Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives. We must be close to the Lord and to the Spirit if we want to receive promptings and be a tool in His hands. I feel like after this life we will look back and see that He was way more involved in our lives than we ever even thought. My time here at the MTC has taught me time and time again how much our Heavenly Father loves each of us, and how much he wants us to return to Him. I am so grateful for this love! And the more I learn about it, the more I want to share with the people of Ukraine.
Well, that's the highlights! Russian is still hard but it gets better with every week and with every lesson we teach. I am so scared but also so excited to be able to get to Ukraine and share my simple Russian testimony with the Ukrainian people. I know I'll never really feel ready to leave the MTC, but I will never be alone and even with my MTC Russian, I will be able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. I love you all so much, and thank you for your prayers and emails! I am so grateful for them. I know this is the Lord's true restored church and that this is His work. I am so grateful for this time I have had here at the MTC. I'm grateful for the ups and the downs, because I have come to know my Savior better because of them. I will miss the people I've met here and grown to love, but this is just the start and I can't wait to serve and love the people of Ukraine for the next 16 months.
Until next week (on the other side of the world)!
Love,
Cectpa Kropelnicki
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