A (MTC) Christmas Story

Merry (late) Christmas/ Happy Holidays everyone!

I’m just going to get into it this week because so much has happened!

THURSDAY: Cectpa Maccabee and I taught Маги (Maggie) on Thursday. Маги is really one of our teachers playing a person she taught on her mission. All we really did was get to know her and talk about prayer a little, but it was all in RUSSIAN. I honestly did not understand all that much, but I understood enough. We also got to go off campus today to pick up pills from the pharmacy across the street (for those of you that don’t know, we NEVER get to leave campus, so this was kinda a big deal).

FRIDAY: We had a workshop about finding people in the mission field. Like, talking to them about their lives, who we are, and how the gospel can help them. In Russia, it is actually illegal for us to wear name tags as missionaries, it is illegal to talk about who we are and what church we are representing while on the street (unless specifically asked), and LDS.org, Mormon.org, and all affiliated websites are blocked. Because of that, this workshop was a bit pointless because if we did what they said, we would get arrested. On a lighter note, we had a snowball fight today (thanks mom)! Also funny story, Сестра Eckery and I decided to leave a few minutes early from exercise time to take a shower, but apparently the other two girls didn’t have their keys. So while I was The shower, I heard some muffled screaming from outside the bathroom. I asked Сестра Eckery what was going on, but I could not understand 

SATURDAY: I found people who want to run with me! We got two new sisters in our zone on Wednesday who are going to Georgia (the country) and they both ran on the track with me because the other sisters wanted to play volleyball. One of them has my exact same birthday which was kinda crazy too. I finished all of my phrases in what we call our basic core book, so we started learning Joseph Smith’s first vision in Russian.

SUNDAY: Sunday, fun day always. Сестра Maccabee and I taught a lesson about the importance of being unified. We cannot work as well together if we don’t have the same purpose in mind. Also, I don’t know how many of you have heard, but sister missionaries can now wear dress slacks in the field! Just not when going to church or the temple. Elder McSweeney, one of the British elders in my district, kept saying how bad American muffins are because they are plain sugar - while eating a blueberry muffin and an ice cream sandwich :|

MONDAY: aka Christmas Eve! We still had class in the morning, and Сестра Maccabee and I taught our other teacher being a man named Виктор (Victor). Our lesson with Виктор went a lot better than our lesson with Маги. We talked to him about the importance of faith and how even wanting to have faith is a good start. We talked about how having faith in the Book of Mormon leads to faith in Jesus Christ because the Book testifies of him. We also went to a little nativity showing by some cute little kids in the area:) We also got to watch a Christmas Carol!

TUESDAY: CHRISTMAS! Lots of things happened on Christmas, but probably the most important was the Christmas devotional by Elder Bednar! It was so amazing. He talked about how you never know when you are going to be an instrument in the Lords hands, and you never know when the spirit is going to prompt you. So, just be good and go. The Lord will take care of the rest. We got to watch It’s a Wonderful Life, and we had a musical devotional also by David Archuletta! We got to hear about some of his experiences on his mission in Chile, and it was amazing. The absolute best part of Christmas was definitely Skyping my family though. We only get to Skype twice a year, on Christmas and on Easter, so it was so much fun being able to actually talk to them.

Thank you so much for all of the emails, mail, and treats! I love you all so much!

Сестра Jones

(For those of you that were asking, Сестра is pronounces Sestra)

Pictures!!

1. The most awkward mirror selfie ever taken, but it’s ok, we’re still cute. 

2. Elder McSweeney in his favorite study spot-the corner

3. Me and my sisters being cute in front of a missionary scripture

4. Cute Christmas Eve pj pic!

I sent a video of my testimony in Russian. I know that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I know that we can return to God but keeping ourselves clean, and that through Christ, we can overcome sin. I know that God is our Heavenly Father, and as we come to know the Book of Mormon, we can come to know God and Jesus. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

The Key To Learning Russian Is PIZZA

Hello,

Week 1 at the MTC is now complete and wow this week was so busy. There are 9 people in my district, 4 sisters (сестры) and 5 elders. My district is basically a group of us all going to a Russian speaking mission who got here at the same time, so we all have Russian class together and things like that. They’re my MTC family:) Here are some of the highlights of this week:

WEDNESDAY- This was the day I first left for the MTC. Nothing super interesting happened, it was just a lot thrown at me. We went straight off to Russian class and had a few introductory devotionals. During Russian class, we found out everything rhymes with pizza. So the way I remember how to say “please help us to learn” for our prayers is to say cheese pizza at the end because that’s what it sounds like. Unfortunately, my companion was going very fast during this particular sentence and ended up saying “papa johns cheese pizza” which sounds almost like the actual phrase. Soooo yeah that’s what Russian sounds like.

THURSDAY- Here’s a video that my companion (Sister Maccabee) and I took on Thursday that pretty much describes the day. We were so excited about Russian and being missionaries and everything! Also don’t judge this video too harshly, we know a lot more Russian now. We also took some pictures in front of a big map and I also found out that I’m the shortest person in our district:( BUT IM NOT SHORT IM AVERAGE HEIGHT.

FRIDAY- This was the day that found out Russian is really hard. And not just really hard, but really REALLY hard. I say that because Friday was when we started learning cursive in Russian. I don’t know what the Russian people were thinking when they invented cursive, but it makes little to no sense. For example, т is a block letter in Russian but in cursive it looks like a lowercase m. Who does that?

SATURDAY-  Saturday was the day we broke our teacher. We have two Russian teachers, Sister(сестра) Slight and Brother(брат) Hayden. Брат Hayden was teaching our second three hour class block from 6-9 pm, and we were trying to memorize a new phrase. It must have been a long week or something because we were all DEAD. We were taking turns saying each word but someone messed up every time. We ended up spending a whole 30 minutes trying to say this Russian thing before we finally got it right. Once. But we all know it now so it’s ok.

SUNDAY- Sunday was a nice break. Also we didn’t have Russian class! My favorite part of Sunday was either the choir practice or the devotional. The MTC choir director actually spoke during the devotional. I had been having a hard time with feeling like I actually should be here and if I’m cut out to do this work. Brother Eggat (the choir director) just talked a lot about how God saved us specifically for this period of time and how we are sent to the place we are serving for a purpose. God knows all of us individually, and He knows that Russia is where I’m supposed to be. Even though Russia is terrifying and Russian is hard, He will help me through it.

MONDAY- I got to talk on the phone on Monday. I had an issue with my passport and had to call the department of state to get it all worked out which was kinda a pain. On the plus side, I get to leave campus (which we normally never do) soon to go to the post office and apply for a new passport.

TUESDAY- The best part of Tuesday was definitely the devotional. We as a choir got to sing in it which was so amazing. Stephen Owens, the Young Men’s general president came and talked to us. The biggest thing that stood out to me about what he said was that we need to keep going out of our comfort zones. Being comfortable is dangerous, as it’s easy to get caught up in routine and then not only would our lives be more boring, but we would never get to experience anything new or be able to reap benefits. As he put, “the hungry dog is the best hunter.”

WEDNESDAY(today)- Today is my Preparation day (or P Day)! This is the day of the week that I get to run errands like doing laundry and also reply to emails. Thank you so much to those of you who have written me throughout the week. I have an iPad with me while I’m in the MTC and I’m able to read the emails during the week, I just can’t respond until Wednesday. So please, I would love to hear from you!! 

Also one last story before I close: these Tongan missionaries were outside in the cold this week and one of them shouted, “WHY DOES AMERICA HAVE A SUN? IT DOESN’T DO ANYTHING” so yeah. It’s cold.

I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. I know that He gives us trials and asks us to do things not to punish us, but to help us grow and become better than we ever thought we could be. I know that He will never ask us to do anything without giving us the means by which to accomplish it.

Pictures:
1. Me and сестра Maccabee (my companion)
2. My district in front of the big map... I know I look short but I’m not
3. Сестра Eckery, Сестра Murton, me, and Сестра Maccabee with the pretty mountains:)
4. MTC Lights ahhhh
5. Me not being short anymore!! Also we are pointing at Novosibirsk
6. Called to Serve

I Made It!

Hi mom!

I made it! I am ok! I haven't forgotten about you all yet. Everything is great:)

I can't really talk right now, but I love you! Have a safe flight home! Tell Logan and Grandma I said hi!!

-Sister Jones

Detained Volunteers In Russia

Dear Parents of Volunteers,

We are sure that each of you have seen the news releases about two volunteers that have been detained in Russia.  The two young men were serving in the Rostov mission. They have been detained and charged with visa violations. The charge is that these volunteers were teaching English.  May I assure each of you that we do not have volunteers teaching English. They will sometimes hold conversation groups in English, but they do not teach English. The Church is working to get these young men released, and we hope and pray that it will be soon.

Please be assured that we are monitoring the current situation closely. As far as we know, there have been no other similar events in the country and we believe your sons and daughters are safe. Geographically, we are far-removed from the location where the volunteers were detained.

Your sons and daughters are dedicated to serving the people of this nation. We have seen the hand of the Lord moving among the people and are gratified by the success we have witnessed in teaching repentance, baptizing converts, and strengthening Zion. The volunteers of the Russia Novosibirsk Mission are, individually and as a whole, incredible emissaries of the Lord. Sister Lamb and I are grateful for the opportunity to serve among them. They understand the laws that regulate our activities here and abide by them.

If the situation in our mission changes, we will apprise you of this. Until then, we pray the Lord’s blessings upon our efforts to fulfill the injunction to “take the gospel into all the world.”  We also pray for the release of the two volunteers in the Rostov mission. We hope you will join us in that.

Sincerely,

Stephen E. Lamb

Russia Novosibirsk Mission