Finally, Pictures from the MTC

Whitney finally sent home some pictures from her MTC adventure!
Top picture: Twin Day!
Bottom pic: Whitney with her companion "I was sick so my nose was red and chapped"
Bottom pic: Fighting over our boyfriend - it got intense "I run with Sister Larsen and do exercises. She was a dancer for the Utah Flash so she is a good trainer - Not as intense as Patricia though :)"

Twin Day!

Top picture:

Whitney and Sis. Larsen with "our boyfriend!" Sara sent this awesome growing pirate so we put him a bottle and he's our boyfriend.

Bottom: Russian sisters in front of the temple

Top:Breaking their sugar fast!
Bottom: Russian sisters in front of the MTC

Top picture: Whitney and Sister Clark breaking our sugar fast. "She is a little older like me and I really like talking to her. Sunday afternoon we had a really great discussion and I just really like her! We're playing a duet in church next Sunday :)"
Bottom: "The face I'm known for here at the MTC"

The District!

L-R

Ct. Whitechurch - District Leader
Ct. Allsop - (Brett Hurst clone)
Ct. Taylor - WILD!!!
Ct. Crookston - Joe Naylor on a mission
Ct. Hollingshead - who I taught with - solid missionary
Ct. Beck - Best sense of humor EVER
Ct. Mosrill - SMART
Ct. Birtcher - Most patient person in the world

Bottom pic:
The roommates: L-R
Sis. Walker - Logan
Sis. Clark - Sweetest person ever!

Sis. Burke - Funny

Sis. Larsen - mix between Wendy Hathaway and Ashley Erekson
Sis. Tedrow - my companion

Halfway Through!

Wow! Can you believe i'm halfway done with my time at the MTC. It really seems crazy. we will be getting new missionaries tomorrow going to the Russia/Ukraine/Baltics area and we will officially be titled the "older" missionaries. That freaks me out. I think about the missionaries when we got here and how I thought they knew so much Russian... I feel like I don't know any Russian!!! Oh well, I guess as long as I can figure out how to buy food and find the bus I should be okay right? Thanks DAD for your letter. I absolutely loved it! It was my favorite one all week! I also enjoyed the movie "UP" and found myself crying...the whole time... if you don't believe me, check with Kubo who will verify that for you.This week has been pretty good. Last Tuesday night we had a devotional which was really nice. My companion and I sung in the choir which is always a lot of of fun. Wednesday was TRC day as usual and our first day 100% in Russian. Can you believe that? Needless to say it was a pretty quiet day for our district but I did manage to participate in a few conversations. We then taught the 1st lesson completely in Russian at the TRC. we got a really great investigator who was from Moscow and had just arrived in America about a week ago. He said our russian was pretty good and that everything we said made sense which is a blessing. After we taught him he talked to us for a minute (thankfully in English!) It was so intersting to talk to him and hear about Russia. He said that the hardest thing is really making the message personal to those you will teach. He said in Russia it's really hard and it's not like here where we always have HOPE. He said that here we always think "the economy will get better" "there are better days coming" etc. but in Russian they simply don't think that way. He said not to worry about Russian but worry about making the message fit their lives. Making them see that they need this message, that this message can bring them joy, and can literally change their lives for the better. He emphasized that it needs to be applicable to them and make them see that there is HOPE! His sharing that really touched me and made me start to think about what hope is and how i can convey that message with more power and conviction. I have been studying hope for my personal study this week and have enjoyed looking into its many attributes and the ways we can strengthen it and increase it.Thursday was good old service day and again I felt privileged and got to wear the vacumn pack. I also cleaned a lot of drinking fountains and needless to say when I'm done, there are some bright and shinging water fountains:) Friday was good. We had a lesson to teach at the TEC- which is where you sign up and teach teachers, who then evaluate you and critique you. My friend Dave Kjar is a teacher there (he's the clarinetist in the Dixieland Band) so we taught him the first lesson, 100% in russian. It went pretty well considering we were speaking a different language. I think the thing that surprises me the most is that the Spirit is the same regardless of what language you are speaking in. it's really cool to realize that you can communicate to those you are teaching strictly through the spirit. I KNOW my grammar throughout that lesson was terrible but I felt the Spirit was there. Saturday we learned a lot of Russian!!! We then had the RC which was a little disappointing because not one person picked up the phone-- lucikly I hear some Kanye West, on a ringback tone on a couple of calls so felt special.sunday was fantastic as usual. Because of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open house we didn't have sacrament meeting but we were able to attend the dedication. It was really great and the spirit was so strong. I love the thought that we have temples being built everywhere and the blessings they bring to those in the area. It is exciting to think that Ukraine will have a temple soon and hopefully many of the members in Russia will be able to visit it! the prophet spoke and it was amazing. It is such a privilege and a blessing to have a prophet in our day who is able to give us direction and guidance in our lives! it is a good reminder that the church is true and we are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives. That night we also had a great fireside by one of the MTC employees. He talked about how important it is to Count your many blessings. My companion and I then watched the Joseph smith movie which has such a strong spirit and like mom said in her email always makes you realize how much he sacrificed so we could have this amazing blessing,monday was good. We found out that becasue school starts next week at BYU Sister Salash will not be able to teach us anymore! It was definitely sad but we met our new teacher and he seems pretty cool. he actually just got back from Novosibirsk and knew had Uncle Hal as his mission president. His name is Bro. Andersen? Our TRC "task" this week is going to a "market" and so Monday afternoon the teachers had a practice market. It was really fun and I bought a "skirt". we had to negotiate a price, buy an item and then talk about our message. It was definitely a challenge because the amount of people and the teachers were speaking in very fast russian trying to "sell" their items. My favorite approach from one of the elders was to simply say "Ah, I like you cap, I also like the Gospel". Although i didn't use that one it was funny to see if it ever worked:) it was really fun but i'm still nervous for the Wednesday night. Everyweek we have a different task we do at the beginning of our TRC time, last week was sharing a meal etc. that is totally in russian. Then we set up an appointment and return in a few minutes and teach the lesson. Again tomorrow is 100% Russian with NO NOTES so we'll see how it goes. I just need to remember that the best teacher is the Spirit.Last night we had FHE as a district and it was a LOT of fun. Our substitute Brother Olsen had a spiritual thought and then we played some games and had treats. it was great and I really loved it!This week is going to be good as we get the new missionaries (althought I'm not looking forward to the lines being long again--there are so many RUSSIANS)! We have a softball game scheduled tomorrow with another district. Our Elders our very excited and everynight during planning talk about our strategy. I think i ended up on 3rd base-- we'll see how that goes. I also got the nickname sister zach morris? I've been playing a lot of volleyball at gym for dad (after I run of course for Patricia) and am still doing my pushups nightly. we had the temple this morning which was great and then ate breakfast there which was delicious. Overall its been a great week.The church is true! We are so blessed and lucky to have it. Thanks to everyone who has been emailing and mailing me! i absolutely love it! Thanks Grandma for the sweet letter, it definitely made my day. you are all great and I love you all!Whitney

Another Week!

Hello! Thanks so much for the emails and the mail. I did the get the skirt and love it. Yesterday was the best day ever because I got mail from all three of my siblings! That is the coolest feeling ever! It is so nice to know that I am supported and that they are all thinking about me. Good job mom for raising such awesome kids (and dad, you did your part I know :) Well this week has been fun. Yesterday and today all of the older districts of missionaries took off and so our halls seem a little less crowded and we are officially "the older group". That title really scares me because I don't feel older at all and I definitely don't feel ready to be leaving next and I definitely don't feel like my Russian adds up to being the "older group". I guess we get new missionaries in a couple of weeks so that will be fun to be large in number again.Wednesday as usual was the TRC and it went pretty well. Like I said last week I taught with an elder and it was an interesting experience. IT was so funny because during the Russian part he didn't know what he was saying and he just started laughing so I started laughing. The :investigator" was trying to give us words that maybe we were thinking of. It was really funny! After we left our teacher, Sister Salash, who is from Ukraine, came up laughing saying she had no idea what had just happened, I claimed my companion tried to break out into another language and he just continued to laugh. We quickly "pulled it together" and went in and taught the second lesson in English. The second lesson is very intersting because it is really long and very indepth. It's hard to know what to cut it down to, what your investigator needs to hear, and how you can best present the information to them so that it makes sense. The second lesson is the Plan of Salvation and includes the atonement so you can imagine how much information there is to include! I think it went pretty well. We started our lesson by addressing his concerns about Joseph Smith and the need for a prophet and then were able to talk about the Word of Wisdom. It was a good experience to teach with an elder and funny.Thursday was service day as usual and I again got to wear the GhostBuster vacuum pack (Sorry Sarah if that makes you jealous). it was a good day and I really like Thursday's because they seem to go the fastest. The weekend was good, not too much exciting stuff happened. We did teach the Russian district the First lesson 100% in Russian, which is HARD! They said we did pretty good and that everything we said was right. The only problem is we don't know how to ask very many questions and we don't how to involve our investigators. It's hard because you focus so much on saying the right things that you don't think as much about the investigator. I'm sure with time all of this will come though. Sunday as usual was great. For Relief Society we had a great talk from Sis. Susan Tanner. It was neat to have her there at the MTC and afterwards I got to shake her hand and say hi. She talked all about the Relief Society and the blessings we can draw from it. She talked about how it is our duty to serve each other etc. It was a fantastic takl and I really enjoyed it. (I'll have to tell you more but I forgot my notebook in my room). Then church and... ice cream sundaes because our two-week sugar fast is over! YEA! My companion and I went to choir and then the devotional which was also very good. It was from a guy who works for the MTC (I can't remember his name) and he spoke all about bringing our investigator's to Christ, the essential power of the Spirit, and the best way to teach. It was a very inspiring message and I really enjoyed it.Yesterday we had class, as usual. We have had a substitute the last couple of days because Sis. Salash is in Disneyland (jealous). Her name is Sis. O'Hara and she is also from Russia. She speaks so fast and in Russian the whole class time. I actually have really loved it because I tihnk it really improves our Russian. I understand almost all of what she says! It's frusterating though because I understand most of what people say (in a class setting) but I can't speak it! The stupid cases just make everything a lot harder! I know it will come though:) My companion and I then went to the RC again to take calls. I just took incoming calls and got to talk to a lot of really great people. Most of them were just calling for a free BIble and I was able to testify of the power the Jesus Christ has in our lives and the happiness that can come from accepting his teachings. Almost everyone I talked to agreed to have the missionaries come by and give them a message. It is so neat to talk to REAL people and see that they have real problems and concerns. They are not just BYU students pretending to be an investigator but they really need this gospel. I talked to one lady who's husband passed away in January and she said she was just going through a really hard time. I was able to testify that the message the missionaries had would bring her closer to Christ and would help her feel peace and joy, even amidst the sorrow. It is always a neat experience to share your testimony and one you get to do often on a mission.This morning we went to the temple which was great and then ate breakfast there with our roommates. I can't even tell you how blessed I have been with my roommates! They are some of my favorite people and I absolutely love them (I am just sad because they are going to different missions:( We all have very different personalities and things we've done but I love them all! We took a bunch of pictures this weekend so I will send those soon.Overall this has been a good week and I have really enjoyed it. The power and spirit of missionary work is real and I love it! People need to hear the Gospel, they need to be brough out of the darkness and realize how much joy and love they can experience in this life.Thankyou everyone for your love and support and keep the mail coming! it really is your bestfriend, especially here in the MTC. I got to see Emily Lloyd again this week as I was walking up to the temple on Sunday. It was pretty funny to talk to her from a "safe" distance (so I didn't jump in her car). Thanks and love you all!Love,Sister Morris

It's been a month!!!

mom and dad,the shift key on this computer doesn't work so nothing will be capitalized. oh well!i loved your emails!!! they were so awesome. thank you so much. thanks dad for the travelogue i just loved it. i'm so glad you were able to save the world from imminent destruction from the wildfire. it's a good thing you were there. i was also very impressed with your anniversary surprise. you alway come up with the best things! thanks mom for all of the news and keeping me updated on missy. i haven't heard from them so tell them they're all bums. i'm sooooooo jealous you get to go camping with aunt cindy! that will be so awesome, have fun! think of me and party it up. i'm super excited to get a package, they are always nice no matter what is in them. i love them!!! i wait anxiously everyday for the mail;)Anyways things here are good. i'm just waiting for my laundry to be done as i type this. my companion has been sick for about a week with a really bad stomach virus so i've been doing A LOT of personal study this week. right now i'm on splits with a sister in my room so that i can get my laundry done. Last wednesday we had the TRC as usual and it went well. we had to do the first part in russian which is always a little intimidating but luckily our "investigator" was really nice and had actually just returned from his mission in samara. luckily through a lot of hand signals and acting he was able to convey what he was trying to tell us. we had to ask him about the "commitments" we had left him with, how his prayer was going, what he thought about the book of mormon etc. all in russian. then we taught the 2nd lesson in english which went well. it is all about the plan of salvation which is such a cool lesson. it truly is a plan of happiness and that is what i tried to stress while teaching it. it was a good experience. tomorrow we have the trc again and have to do even more teaching in russian. we will start by teaching our investigator to pray in russian which seems a little intimidating. we also found out last night that this week we will be going on splits, meaning i will be teaching with one of the elder's from our distrcit. i think it will be a crazy experience to a. teach with an elder and b. not be with my companion but im excited to see how it goes. we had about 20 minutes last night to plan for our lesson. we are again teaching lesson 2. Next week we teach the whole lesson in russian and i am freaking out. it is going to be so crazy but luckily its not the missionary that teaches its the spirit. we also will start speaking only russian on wednesdays for the next couple weeks and then eventually all russian all the time. pray for me. ive had a lot of time to study this week so i am starting to understand russian grammar more and more and so that is good.thursday is our service day and we cleaned a building which was good, then class and all of that. friday and saturday were also pretty uneventful. i did have a neat experience saturday night at the rc- the call center. each district is assigned a few hours they work in the call center and ours is saturday night, meaning we hardly talk to anyone because they're all gone! we were about to leave because it was almost 9 and i hadn't talked to anyone all night. all the sudden my phone rang as i was standing up and i answered it. it was a guy from indiana calling to get a free bible because he just saw the commercial on tv. after i got his contact information i asked him why he decided to call. he started to cry and said that he just felt like there were some mistakes in his life that he needed to change and thought that the bible might help him come closer to christ. i was able to bear my testimony that it would and that we could come closer to christ. i was able to invite him to have the missionaries over and he said yes. when i hung up the phone i worried i had said the wrong things, hadn't said enough etc. but had to realize that the spirit was there and know that the missionaries would bless him and his life. it was a neat experience overall and it made me realize that we are teaching real people who need to hear this gospel! they need this message and they need to know that someone does love them, that they can repent, and like he said, come closer to christ. Although i wasn't as bold as i wished i would have been im glad that i stayed to the end and got that call. it made me excited to go back and talk to more people.sunday was pretty normal. church was good and we were able to watch the joseph smith movie agian. we also were able to have a great devotional on charity and how having charity for the people is going to be the most important thing we do. it was really good and again got me ready to go out and serve.this week has been pretty uneventful like i said. just trying to learn russian and learn to teach in russian. everytime i teach in the trc i just have to laugh when i dont know a word and mess up. last week i couldn't remember the word to niece and nephew. we were showing pictures of our family and talking about them and i just started to laugh. like i said luckily the guy was really nice and just laughed and said it for me.there are 6 people in our room total, me and my companion, Sis. larsen, sis. walker, sis. burke, and sis. clark. They are all really nice and i have really enjoyed getting to know them better. WE have had a lot of fun. I am still doing my pushups every night so tell patricia im up to 38. awesome. she would be so proud of me. Also my room has been doing two weeks with no sweets and so that has been killer. woorst idea ever! they have ice cream sundaes every sunday and i couldn't have one the last two weeks. luckily it ends on sunday! woohoo! everything here is good, the church is true, missionary work is hard but definitely worth it. i love hearing from you and heairng about what you're doing. mom if you could send me ashely erickson's address from her blog that would be great cause i have a letter i need to send her. i got some great letters this week from katie, sara, and andrew so that was happy. I hope all is well and if i think of anythingi forgot ill let you know in a letter. i love you guys a ton a ton! Whitney

Three Weeks!!!!!!

It's definitely crazy to think that I have been here for three weeks! It seems like the days drag by so slowly but the weeks fly by. Thankyou SO SO SO SO much for the packages and I have LOVED getting everything (the Elders have also loved getting some of the candy contained within:) This week has been good. I got a pretty sweet surprise this morning. On the way to the temple there was a sidewalk message to a "Sister Weiner Morris" (who could that have been) right next to the sign that said "Please do not write on sidewalks". The elders in my district were ahead of me and looked back and just said, "is that for you?" I said absolutely! Thanks to Kubo, Brooke, Keira, Cami, Christain and Anday. I'm not sure all of those people were there but I will give them credit:) The temple this morning was really nice and always very crowded with all of the missionaries.Last week at the TRC we taught the first lesson again. Our "investigator" was very nice and we had to talk with him in Russian for 8 minutes before starting. Luckily he spoke slowly and motioned a lot of the words so we could understand:) Russian is coming very slowly but getting faster as I understand more of the grammar, the alphabet, and learn more words everyday. It is amazing to think that just 3 weeks ago I had never even looked at the Russian alphabet! I still love both of my teachers and think they are great. We have a lot of fun and I have enjoyed getting to know them and learn from them.On Thursday's we do a service project in the morning. This week my companion and I were assigned to vauumn and mop a certain building. I got to carry around a vacuumn pack and do all of the edges. It's funny the things that make you happy while you're in the MTC. I got a lot of great mail this week from everyone! Thanks so much to everyone who writes and know I am trying to answer all of you. It's a little harder because we are only allowed to write on PDAY. I got a great recap of the Bachelorette from Kubo and Brooke, thanks Sarah for the letter, Ami, Katie, Andrew, Sara, Jill and everyone else who has been writing me! It is so fun! Also on Thursday I had another sweet surprise. I just happened to run into Emily Lloyd! It was fantastic. I was dropping off my skirt at the seamstress because the zipper was coming undone and there she was. It was fantastic and I loved it.Friday and Saturday were just normal days filled with long hours of class and studying. On Saturday my companion and I taught at the TEC- which is where you sign up to teach teachers and they evaluate your lesson and give you suggestions on what you could do better. It went pretty well but I was NOT feeling very well. I have actually been sick for about 2 1/2 weeks and finally feel like I am getting better. I have just had a cold that will not go away and just got more annoying each day. Oh well! You just have to keep going. I'm just glad that I didn't break out into a huge coughing attack right during the lesson. That night we also went to the RC for the first time where you make outgoing calls to people have requested a Book of Mormon of movie or something. I only got a hold of one person the whole 1 1/2 we were there and they said it was the wrong number and that I'd have to call back. Too bad. One Elder in our group had an awesome experience though. He was able to talk to a lady that was ready to hear the Gospel and wanted the missinoaries to come over as soon as possible. She said she had attempted to commit suicide twice in the last year and just needed the Gospel. The Elder was able to bear his testimony many times to her and it was awesome to feel of the spirit as he talked with her for almost 25 minutes. Those are the experiences that make you remember why you're on a mission.Sunday was amazing at usual here at the MTC. It was Fast Sunday and so I felt like there was a special spirit all day. We had a Mission Conference in the morning which was really good and the speakers talked about different things to help be a better missionary. Then we had a lot of study time which was really nice. My companion and I walked up to the temple and took a couple pictures so I'll have to print those off and send them to you! Then we had Testimony meeting as a branch. I always thought that BYU wards were bad with the number of people who wanted to bear their testimony but the MTC is much much worse. It is good to see the change in people as they become "missionaries" and feel the reality and truth of the Gospel. I had a realization in the temple this morning that I'm not "playing missionary" I actually am one. This IS my mission. I need to step up and start studying more, learning more, and working as hard as I can. There isn't going to be another chance, this is it!Tomorrow we go into the TRC for the third time and teach the 2nd lesson. I'm a little more nervous for that because we haven't had as much time to prepare it and it is a little more confusing and (I think) more difficult to teach. Hopefully the Spirit will be with us and we can do a good job. We also have to talk to the person we're teaching in Russian and "take them to church". We have to ask about the commitments we left with them, reissue them and ask how they felt when they prayed and read etc. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be able to think and say all of the phrases! It's a little scary to think about.Overall the MTC is good and I have enjoyed it here. The spirit is strong and I know this Gospel is true. The Book of Mormon does have the power to change lives and is the keystone of our religion. I have enjoyed the time I have had to study it and am looking forward to even more in the next year and a half. Thanks everyone for your support and love! You're great! Be Happy and know the Gospel is true!Love,Whitney