I have made it through my first week at the MTC! Looking back I feel like it flew by but individually the days seemed so long! Tons happened this past week but I will just talk about the highlights so you can get back to enjoying the Thanksgiving season!
On my first day all the new missionaries got together for a devotional and there were more than 620 new missionaries! It was so cool!! We sang "Army of Helaman" and they changed the words to "And we are now the Lords missionaries we'll bring the world His truth" and it gave me all the chills and made me so happy!
I am in a trio companionship and I already love my companions so much! Sister Thompson is from Tennessee and Sister Richter is from Germany, near Frankfurt. Sister Thompson studied Russian in High School and college and she is really good at it so she is basically our Russian teacher outside of class. She is so nice and is always willing to help Sister Richter and I and I don't know what I would do without her! Sister Richter is one of the sweetest people I've ever met. She inspires me every day because she is learning Russian through her second language (English) so it's extra difficult for her, but she is doing so good! They are both going to Russia, Rostov-Na-Donu and I'm the only sister going to Dnepro Ukraine in my zone (the other district in our zone is all elders so we three are the only sisters).
My teachers are sister Williams and brother Griffiths and they are SO GOOD. They're like the best EFY counselors that also teach you Russian. They have taught me so much, Russian-wise and spiritually. They are amazing and I am so grateful to have them as teachers.
So, Russian. It is kicking my butt and it is SO hard for me but we've already taught 2 lessons, learned how to pray, testify and get to know people all in Russian so I just need to keep reminding myself how far I've come in less than a week!
This week at the MTC I have already learned so much, but I'll just mention some highlights.
Every new missionary mentions the Character of Christ devotional by Elder Bednar, and I will join them in saying that it is one of the best devotional/talks I've ever heard. IT WAS SO GOOD. In it he talks about how one of the characters of Christ is the fact that he is always looking outward, even when he was going through his hardest trials. When we go through something hard in our lives, the natural man in us will always turn inward and focus on ourselves and our own troubles, but we need to make a conscious effort to look around ourselves at others and help them instead. I've been trying to do that this week, and even though it's really hard to do when you are constantly worrying about learning a language, I've already seen the blessings of it. I challenge you all to look outward and do as Christ did. He also mentioned how important it is to not just have a testimony of the church, but to be converted (aka turning away from the natural man) to Christ, because then we will never fall away (whereas people with testimonies still and do fall away from the church).
Also on Sunday the devotional was by Brother Crittenden, who is in charge of the church's Light the World program. He showed us the videos and it looks so awesome! I'm kind of sad that I won't be able to share it with the people of Ukraine, but next Christmas I can. You should all check it out, it is such a good way to do good during this holiday season!
On Tuesday I sang in the MTC choir (which had like 900 singers) and we sang "More Holiness Give Me" for the devotionals musical number. It was beautiful! The speaker was Elder Ringwood of the seventy and he talked about seeing the hand of Heavenly Father in our lives, because He is always there. I can't even keep track of all the tender mercies I have seen this week where things happened exactly as I needed them to, and they bore testimony to me of how well my Heavenly Father knows me. Look for Him in your life and you will be amazed!
For Thanksgiving we are going to have a devotional by a member of the 12 and I CAN"T wait. People are placing bets on who it's going to be, I don't really care who it is because either way its gonna rock. Also, the rumor is going around that for Thanksgiving dinner we are each getting our own little turkey. Not sure how that's going to work but I will let you know.
Funny stuff, on Saturday the eastern Europe missions and the Scandinavian missions all get together and play a soccer game that is taken SO seriously it's hilarious. Sisters can't play with the Elders but it was almost more entertaining to watch. There were like 15 languages being spoken and both sides have there own chants and they do these weird "There may come a day when the hearts of men fail them..." Aragorn-type speech to pump up their team and they get so into it haha (our team won btw woot). Saturday was also the first exercise time we had since we got there and it felt amazing to get outside and run!
I'm sorry this got so long! I feel like one of the prophets in the Book of Mormon when they say they couldn't write one hundredth of what happened to their people haha. I feel like that is how it's going to be for the next 18 months!
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and family! Eat so much good food for me and don't forget to stop and think about all you have to be grateful for!! Look for Heavenly Fathers hand in your life!
Love,
cectpa Kropelnicki
First day! Sister Richter is in the middle, Sister Thompson is on the right.
First snow in the mountains!
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