Letter #2 *~*MTC*~* January 25, 2011

Hello Family!!

This week has been another fantastic and CRAZY week! Wow!! Thank you SO much mom, dad, Britt, and Joseph for the package! It was heaven sent! For the first full week in the MTC I didn't receive ANY mail and I was SOOOO bummed, so when I got the package it was like Christmas!! I realized that you hadn't forgotten me afterall!! :) Thank you SO much for the wheat thins and cream cheese, muffins, and the super cute sweater! Good eye Mom... and Britt I'm guessing!! It fits perfect and it AWESOME! I got the pics of Sophie, and I think we should name her sofia... lol! jk!! if you really want a Russian name I like the name Bepa. It means faith in Russian and is pronounced (Vaera) I can send it on the tape. you roll your r a bit! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! Don't worry, I didn't forget and i will be mailing you a letter today!!!!

Classes are great. By the end of the day we have done so much that I can hardly remmember what we have been doing all day. Our class time is spent learning how to be better teachers of the gospel. We study out of Preach My Gospel and focus on inviting others to come unto Christ. The rest of the time is spent working on Russian! We learn how to say new things and then practice talking to people and learning the cases. We also have several hours of MDT. We use that time to have personal study for an hour, companionship study for an hour, and then one or more hours to study the language.

My companion Cectpa LeBaron is SO fantastic!! We have really grown this week in our relationship and our teaching. We're finally being able to teach more fluidly! It's AWESOME! She says that I remind her of her best friend, which is a good thing because that means that she likes me!!! We taught our first lesson at the TRC this Wednesday. It went pretty well and wehn I committed him to read the Book of Mormon he said that if it will really do for him what I promised it would, that of course he would read it!! :) Ya!! As with King Lamoni's father in Alma 22, I want to be like Aaron and teach them so that they will want to know how to come unto Christ themselves. As we are taught in 1 John 3:1-3 if we can get them to understand who they are, that they really are children of God, then they will want to purify themselves!! That's our goal as missionaries!! :)

One of my teachers this week did a Russian dance for us! It was WAY awesome! When he did it in Russia they said that he looked like a monkey! lol He also tells the best stories!

This week Cectpa LeBaron and I have been learning how much power comes when we use the scriptures to teach. At first, i know this will sound kind of dumb, I think that we were scared to use the scriptures, but this week as we have taught from the scriptures and then borne testimony of what we read, and of course share our personal witnesses, it has brought a lot of power to what we teach!! AWESOME!!

There are some new Russian missionaries that have just come into the MTC. THey will be here for about 4 weeks. One of the sisters will be serving in Rostov. I thought about how hard it must be for them to not only be away from home at the MTC, but also be thrown into a totally different culture!! I ding dong ditched one of the boxes of Wheat Thins with a note just telling them how great it was that they were here and if they needed anything to come to our room. They came by and talked to us and thanked us! It was SO cute! I have realized how much I want to be able to communicate and talk with these people! I passed Cectpa Ivanova on the track the other day and said hello, but then realized that that was pretty much all that i could say to her. I got this really strong desire to be able to speak to them! It has been great as I have tried to better use my MDT time so that I can study more affectively. I know that the Lord will bless me as I do this!

At lunch one day we were talking to some of the Russian Elders. Elder Jacobson asked about Borsch (sp?). The Elder responded in his Russian accent, "Without jokes, borsch is the best ever!" haha. He said, "ooooo, you will have it!!" haha. I've been practicing my Russian accent and am getting pretty decent! I'll have to send you a tape sometime!! but... Mom, you accidently got me a big tape player and sent me little tapes.... let me know what you want me to do!!

Every Sunday we get to walk up to the temple! This week I got to have a good talk with Siostra Mann! I gave her a hug for you adn she is doing great! I sure love her! Sundays are definitely the best day of the week. We are SO blessed to get to have a fireside each sunday!! This week the speaker talked about missionary work... well, obviously. But he had those who had had the thought of going home stand up, he had us stand up if we'd felt the Lord's help, and some other things. He then related the experience of Alma nad the other missionaries from Alma 26:27-28; 29-31; and I like to add verse 37. It is SO great to see that they also had a really rough time, but they kept moving forward and were able to bring SO many souls unto Christ!! THey realized that God loved all of His children and desired to be an instrument in His hands to help bring that about!! Wow! I want to do that!! I had a pretty rough day Sunday, but when I remember that, the real reason I'm out hear, it helps a lot. I am a representative of Jesus Christ and I want to help all of His children learn of Him and know how to come unto Him!!!

Blessings definitely come from being a missionary! The other day I was in the cafateria, and I was getting some things to put onto my hot cereal. The thought crossed my mind that I wished that they had honey that I could put on it, instead of just sugar, and right then a worker walked by adn set a honey bear on the counter right next to me!! awesome huh!!!

Keep using Dear Elder! It works FANTASTIC and I love and need those little boosts throughtout the week! Thank you all for your love and support!! Stay in touch!! The Church is true and missionary work rocks!!!

Love
Cectpa (sae-e-stra) cunningham!