Hello family!! How is everyone?
It's been a pretty boring week I'd say haha. Not really much of anything happened so this may be a shorter email... hope that's ok. So we are supposed to be doing "speak your language" everyday, but my district is not really motivated to do that and when we do say something in English, no one really cares that much so needless to say, its not very effective. Since we are down to the last 2 weeks, we decided that we really needed to start being more serious about speaking Russian, so we all decided that 8M (the building where my classroom is) is an all Russian all the time zone. In order to encourage us all to speak Russian though, we have implemented a new form of punishment to keep ourselves accountable. Whenever someone says something in English while we are in 8M, they have to eat a Hershey's kiss with a peach ring on top. Not only that, but we cover it with spray cheese and top it off with pop rocks. It is literally the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten in my life. I accidentally said something in English the first day and was thus the first to eat it. So gross! It has prooved very effective though. No one ever speaks English anymore while we're in class. Yesterday Elder Fernandez forgot so he had to eat it... and he threw up afterwards hahaha.
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| District's Self-imposed "Punishment" for NOT speaking Russia! |
Last night, the devotional was super good! It was all about faith and miracles. Of course they also talked a lot about obedience since that is so important, but the faith part was excellent. It was exactly what I needed to hear then. I really liked it. He also told some stories and it just made me so excited to be leaving for Russia soon! We get our travel plans this week as well as our Russian nametags! I am super excited because that means that the time is almost here!! A week and a half left. It feels like the MTC has gone by fast, but so slow at the same time. I am starting to pack today since when the olders were leaving and the night before they were to leave, I went into one of their rooms and it looked like they hadn't even started packing. This was at 10 pm and they were leaving at 5 in the morning. I did not want that to happen to me. I've accumulated a lot of things since being here so I need to go through and decide what I want to send home so I have more room in my suitcases for things. Our branch president told us that Russian airlines terrible when it comes to weight limits and luggage. You are only allowed to have 44 lbs of stuff. Total. You can have as many bags as you want as long as it isn't over 44 lbs combined. Of course you can still bring all that stuff, you just have to pay extra for it all. That'll be fun to see what I have to deal with. I think we get our plans tomorrow, so next week I will be able to tell you all when I'll be where and what not. Also, then you'll know approximately when I'll be calling.
This week in class, Sister Kusnetsova told us tons of stories and we saw pictures from her mission and stuff. I especially loved it because guess what, she served in St Petersburg! So I got to see some of the people that I will be meeting in about 2 weeks! Scary, but so exciting at the same time! I can't wait to get there.. I feel like I don't really know enough Russian yet, but no matter how much I know, I'd probably still be like "ahhh what are you saying??" when I got there, so there's really no need to worry about it haha. It'll come, so I've been told.
I really don't have much else to say honestly. I'm sorry this has probably been a super boring email, but nothing too exciting happened this week. Next wednesday we get new russians again! Thats very exciting, but we will only be with them for like 5 days so it doesn't matter too much. I'm excited for them though! Actually, I do remember one thing now.. shout out to Rachel and her family this week!! They sent me a huge package and I loved it! That was so thoughtful so thank you so much! It was fantastic!:)
I guess since I don't really have anything else, I'll just tell you about a little analogy that Elder Fernandez told me a few weeks ago and I have been thinking about it ever since. It kinda goes along with the scripture in Matthew about when you lose your life in the service of the Lord, you'll find it. Imagine, if you will, that the life of each person is a garden. Each garden has different flowers and plants and things because no person is the same. God is obviously the gardener. When we choose to serve missions, we are volunteering to go and work in some of God's other gardens. I for example am going to work in His Russian gardens and help weed and prune and take care of them. He expects that I will dedicate my whole time to working in those gardens and not be distracted by my own. When I spend time in my own garden, trying to help myself and worrying about my own problems, then God has to take time to work in the gardens that I was assigned to and can't spend as much time in mine. But when I will truly give 100% of my time to helping and serving those in my mission and losing myself in the service of God, then God can spend all of his time working in my garden and I won't have to worry about it because He is the perfect gardner. My companion said it way better, but that is just something he told me that I absolutely loved and have been thinking about a lot recently. I know it's true. I know that this church is true and I'm so glad that I have that knowledge. I look at all the things in my life that make me happy and they all stem from this Gospel and my knowledge of it. It has been something that I have been so grateful for as we've been teaching and I've played investigators - its actually harder for me to play investigators because I just want to accept right away everything they say because I know its all true! I can't really even express it. Just true joy in knowing that my father in Heaven knows me and knows exactly what I need and when I need it and how to give it to me. I find joy in having and increasing faith because as I've been doing that, I worry less. Faith in Jesus Christ and in His Atonement are the most important thing to me, because I know that when I have that faith miracles can happen and they do happen. I don't know how to describe it but as I've come to understand it more here as I've been learning, I have learned to just not worry anymore. The lord knows what he's doing. For me I guess the only way that I can describe it is falling, but enjoying the feeling of falling because I know without any doubt that the landing will be soft. I just love it so much. Thats all.
Well, I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!!
С любовью
Старейшина Робисон
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