Week 7

Hello all my dear friends and family!!

Another week has passed and with it came some very exciting things. We did get our new missionaries last Wednesday-I can't believe they have been here a week already...I think they are handling things way better than I did. Our zone received 18 elders, no sisters, which makes things feel really different because before we were used to our zone being half boys and half girls (for those of you who haven't caught on our zone is comprised of four "districts," 2 new, 2 old) the other Russian zone received 15 elders and 3 sisters. and 1 elder who is the other zone is going to Kiev- Russian speaking (there are 4 going there in the other zone, Ukrainian speaking) and I have yet to find him...goes to show how much we interact with the other zone. And the next cycle of natives arrived last night-just one elder and one sister.

So Monday ended my two week sugar high with Sister West, who finally got to leave after 14 weeks at the MTC recovering from knee surgery. I mean sugar high in the most literal and figurative ways possible :) we got along so great, and I learned so much from her....it was just like having the ideal senior companion who knows the ropes, knows how to teach, and wants to help you. And we actually communicated really well together in Russian even though she's six weeks "older" than me in Russian. We taught a lesson in Russian together last Wednesday that went sooo smoothly...it felt so great. I think it is so much easier teaching in Russian than in English because in English the discussion can become so deep and there are just so many directions you can go, but in Russian, due to our limited vocabulary, we have to ask extremely direct questions and testify of only relative things. It’s so much fun. Yae! Russian.

Anyway, so Monday morning I had to see her off at 5 am as she began her journey to Novosibirsk all by herself, but she was ready...but as she boarded the bus I couldn't help but be hit with feelings of what it must have felt like in the pre-mortal existence as we sent our friends down to earth before us..."Don't forget about me!" "Good luck out there" "I'll be out there soon enough doing the Lords work with you! We'll just be in different parts of the world!" "Until we meet again! Whenever that is...But we know we WILL see each other again" armed with the same armor of testimony... we each have our own battles to fight out there. It was a very tender moment. But it kinda woke me up and made me realize that I am going to be boarding that bus in four weeks....oh my. So I received a second wind of motivation to learn as much Russian as I can in the next month. For the past few weeks I have been standing at a brick wall with the language because I have learned like the ten most important gospel related phrases and the ten most important greetings/salutations and I really wasn't feeling a need to push myself to learn more. But being with Sister West and seeing her off has changed that.

As I knew sister west would be leaving on Monday, I was kinda preparing myself to go back to life in the threesome and was so grateful for the things I learned from Sister West. On Sunday, however, something happened that still blows my mind and am so excited for...my Branch Presidency asked me if I would be willing to be the companion of the solo native sister that would be arriving on Monday? Wait. What? Really?!!! And everyone thought I would react negatively and not want to be thrown in with another different companion. UuUMMM, SERIOUSLY?!! Can I like do a victory dance right now?? OF COURSE!!!! Do you know what an amazing opportunity this is?! I asked my Branch President, "President Harrison, are you trying to make mine the coolest MTC experience ever? because that is pretty much what is happening..." he replied with a smile on his face, "Well, Sister Little, we were a little worried about you so we've been trying" :) so the past two weeks I've been companions with someone who knows 6 weeks more Russian than me (that’s a lot in the MTC) which has already helped me so much and motivated me, and now for the next three to four weeks I will have a native speaker as a companion!!! Amazing opportunities.

May I remind you that pretty much 99% of missionaries here will have the same companion their whole time at the MTC and I just received my 4th. So cool. So I met Sister Folova last night... She is from Latvia actually (Sister Kehler, be proud!) and will be serving in Moscow. She speaks Latvian, English, and Russian, and some Hebrew, and she already corrects me on my Russian. which is awesome that she is comfortable enough to do that...I've already learned like 5 things from her about the language that I am doing wrong in the 20 minutes I have spent with her (I know that is not saying a lot about my Russian, but I’m working on it). So she's doing international orientation the next two days, so I won't see her much, but starting Wed/Thurs we'll be legit companions. She will not be in my district, but anytime we are not in class we are to be together and do companionship study together and plan, etc

Out of time!

I love you all and check back next week for the update.