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