Week 9

Two more weeks!!!!! I'm soooo excited!!!! We attended a 'speak your language' meeting yesterday since the next two weeks are supposed to be 100% all the time speaking Russian. It was pretty interesting, not necessarily over the top motivating, but inspiring. Apparently at one time all the languages stayed the same amount of time at the MTC, but once an apostle came and said missionaries learning Russian, Japanese, Chinese, etc...need two weeks of 'extended training' where we perform all of our tasks in the language we are learning to help us be more prepared for the field. so at this point, we have learned basically all the grammar we are supposed to learn and the next two weeks are for us to speak Russian 100 % of the time to get used to it. and if we don't try to speak it 100%, we are really just wasting our time. So everything is in Russian the next two weeks...all our lessons, progress interviews, conversations, in the laundry room, everywhere! I had to get special permission to email in English, so feel privileged :)

This week was awesome! Sister Frolova and I are quite the duo. If you remember and if I explained correctly in past emails...Wednesday nights are our "trc" lesson where we teach a lesson in Russian to someone, a native or rm who speaks Russian or whatever. well the natives who are only here three weeks have this teaching opportunity/evaluation twice a week, so I taught twice with Sister Frolova this week...wed night and sat night... so I just want to tell you about those interesting events...

Wed night. so I'm super nervous. Its one thing to teach with someone who knows about the same amount of Russian as you and you know the same gospel related words and your investigator knows you're not fluent. and then its a completely different experience when your investigator realizes your companion speaks amazing Russian and just starts spewing off Russian like no ones business.....I have never been so deep in the pits of humility as during the thirty minutes of this lesson. I wasn't on the verge of tears or anything...I just wanted to know what the heck they were saying so I could jump in to the conversation too! My only cue was when both Sister Frolova and the investigator turned and looked at me and we sat in silence until I took my best guess at what they were talking about and began to testify. I probably carried 15% of that lesson. fun stuff. ugh.

Then Saturday night came. I was humble, I was scared to death. but the work must carry on! so Sister Frolova and I began our lesson with this investigator and this was honestly the first time I have said a silent prayer in my heart as my companion talked (this is something missionaries should do for each other, but im not perfect). I prayed that I might understand what they were saying and be able to contribute my testimony, at least, to the lesson. well the lesson went on and kid you not, I understood 95% of what was said! and I said a lot. I don't remember what I said but I did some of the teaching and a lot of the testifying. The scenario was to teach the spouse of a member who was not a member. so we talked about prayer. the power of prayer. how I know through prayer that I can ask heavenly father to bless me here and my family all the way back in Las Vegas (we were pretending we were in Moscow), and that through prayer my family has grown closer, we have grown spiritually together and strengthened our love for each other as we pray together. We shared alma 5:47ish where Alma says he gained his testimony through prayer and fasting. We even got this investigator to pray in the lesson! which is like the biggest hurdle ever that should try to be met within the first lesson (it just sets up a comfortable atmosphere for the rest of the lessons and their own personal attitude towards prayer)...anyway it felt awesome. all in Russian. all with fluent Russian speakers. fun. after the lesson we were waiting out in the hallway and a teacher of another Russian class came up to us and said she was watching and listening to our lesson on the TV and said we did an amazing job together! yay! then she turned to me and asked me in Russian "where did you learn your Russian before the mtc?" Uuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh. I gave the most taken back look of my life. She thought I didn't understand her so she repeated the question again in Russian but slower....I stopped her mid sentence and in Russian "no, I understood, only at the MTC..." She was surprised and said I did a great job. I share this with you with all the humility of my heart. Like really. I am learning early that when you pray to the lord for help when you really know you cannot do it on your own He will bless you :)

Well, anyway. something exciting happened yesterday. a big milestone to me with the Russian language. I made a joke all in Russian and the Russian natives understood it and laughed. yay. big deal to me :)

I love you all and thank you for all your love and support for getting me here!! this is truly amazing!!

Sister Kylie Little