END OF WEEK 8 AT THE "EMPTY SEA"

Alright, end of week 8. This is so crazy how fast it's going here. Here's how it goes: Your first week you show up and you look around with wide eyes and say "this is never going to end." And after a week or two you settle in and get used to missionary life and you sit back and say "this is never really going to end," and you're okay with that and really happy to be here. And then (as Bro. Wood says) it's over and you already miss life on the mission! I feel like there's a little mini-version of that process here in the MTC, sort of. The weeks fly but I'm never really going to be in the Motherland (even though I've got three weeks left and I get travel plans NEXT WEEK. boom.) I'm extremely excited, though. And I've got my work cut out for me for the next few weeks. We just learned our official last new Russian grammar principle, so for the next few weeks it's just practice practice practice and reviewing what we've learned so we can actually apply it. So that will be fun.

How was All Hallow's Eve?! It was a regular day here. Nothing different happened, but it was an awesome day. I lurve sundays in the MTC. This week they resumed Temple walks on Sundays so me and my companion were able to walk around for a bit and have some meaningful scripture study. Sam will know what I'm talking about when I say this, but you family back home have NO IDEA the kind of things you learn when you're studying the scriptures literally all day. It's pretty awesome because there's nothing at all to distract from that (for the most part). I mean, there aren't any other aspects of your life that you have to really tend to, so you can just think about it all the time. It's taking over my liiiiffeeee but that's probably a good thing and I like it so there.

Anyways, I'm so sorry to hear about cute li'l Hopey being sick over Halloween! That's so sad for her. Little Nadyezhda. Li'l Nadya. (znachit Hope po-rooski). I'm really going to call hope that from now on because Russian names are the coolest thing ever. I wrote in my letter home about it a little bit, but this is for Sam: So apparently they name their kids things like Hope and Charity and Faith, but also they name some of their daughters Love (Lyubohv), and there's even a male name which translates literally to "Eternal Glory" (Vyechaslav). Is that not the most passionate culture you've ever heard of??! I'm gonna love it there, I can't wait. Three weeks!

The MTC is great though. Life goes by fast. I swear the weeks only last two days each. Do you remember the Devotionals?? That was one thing dad said I would really like and I LOVE them. My district got to do the ushering last week for when Elder Scott came (which means we got to sit on the second row), and some missionaries from a district in our zone got to give the opening and closing prayers (which means they sat on the stand). YEAH. It was great. He talked all about how to gain the spirit, and gave all the districts these handouts with interesting points about spiritual guidance and promptings. I couldn't write fast enough to keep up! I love the devotionals.