Week#4

Hello Family and Friends! Very exciting news!!! The sister missionaries here at the MTC are singing at the General Relief Society Meeting on Sept. 28th!! This General Conference marks 1 year since the new age change announcement for missionaries, so it is very fitting :) Also, the 28th marks the 1/2 way point of my MTC experience haha. I am so excited for General Conference! Please watch it! Its always interesting and exciting to hear what the Lord needs to tell us through His prophet and apostles.(And mom I should have listened to you when you said to buy a solid colored button up shirt...cuz I had to buy one at the book store for the choir and it is u.g.l.y.) Look for me in the relief society broadcast! I'll be in a red cardboard box! ;) We had our 1st SYL experience this week! Speak Your Language. Our district made it a goal to speak only Russian for Lunchtime and soon we will have whole days for SYL. I loved it so much and cant wait for those. I learned so much more just by using words in context on the spot. Our 1st day in the MTC the district just older than us was on an SYL day and we thought they were so cool and we would never be that advanced during our time at the MTC. Tada! The gift of tongues is real. I know I've said it a hundred times but I seriously can't say it enough:) So maybe there is a little bit of confusion: Our investigators are not real. They are our teachers, who play the part of an investigator that they taught on their missions. And they play the part so well that it seems so very real. Anton is getting "baptized" in about 2 weeks and Lola "decided to talk to her boyfriend about marriage again...and she is getting married! So that she can be baptized on "Oct 19"" I'm sorry if this is all super confusing. haha Even though it seems super real I still cant wait to contact and teach actual investigators. We started Russian contacting this week too! Just with each other but it was so fun! I think I will have a lot of fun with that in Moscow in parks and on buses and trains and such. Sunday Night's devotional was given by Merrill J Bateman on the power and authority of missionary work. One thing that really stood out to me was this: "I believe that angels are given assignments to encircle and watch over us. In many instances, those angels are probably your relatives." I loved that. I have never seen an angel, but I know that they are here on Earth supporting each and every one of us, you and me, and are rooting for us on the other side. I got a picture with the famous MTC map at Main campus! Its a classic! had to have one :) I could hardly reach Moscow! also there is a picnic table at w. campus that elders and sister have signed. SO...I had to leave my mark! :) I hope you are all doing well. I am praying for you always and love you so much. God bless! Cectpa Downing

Week #3

This is Elder Ellis Valdez. We grew up together in California

Family and Friends! Its already pday!? It seriously feels like yesterday. This week has flown by so fast. We got new Russian Speakers this past Wednesday! We aren't the new ones anymore:) Its been fun speaking Russian around them and giving them advice and showing them around and such. It makes me feel so old! One of the new companionship moved into an empty room in our apartment and we just love them! Cectpa Bussmann is from Sweden and has a way cool accent! and Cectpa Scott is from Houston, TX. They are both so happy and wonderful:) We had our first TRC (Teaching Resource Center) which was pretty cool. Every Wednesday from now on we will go to TRC and teach 2 lessons of our choice to volunteers who speak Russian. I like it because it gives us some variety and helps us practice the lessons we will be teaching soon. And they totally understand that we are just barely learning so that's nice ;) Earlier this week I got to witness a little miracle. Unfortunately cectpa Loveless got really sick so we got the Zone leaders and they gave her a blessing. (Background story...Cectpa Loveless has sacrificed a lot to be here and her family is really struggling with some scary life changing events). So the elders gave her a blessing with the elders in our district. No doubt there were angels present. One of the elders gave the blessing and surprisingly, most of it had to do with her family. The elders didn't know what was going on with her family, but Heavenly Father does. It was such a powerful blessing and there wasn't a dry eye in room. I know that the Lord was speaking through Elder Greenburg. Immediately, cectpa Loveless was feeling much better. The Priesthood is a wonderful blessing and we are so blessed to be here surrounded by so many elders who are worthy to hold it and willing to use it immediately when asked. Yesterday we were teaching Lola about the Law of chastity because we know that her and her children are living with her boyfriend. yeah....so teaching that in English is hard! But it was a really powerful lesson and I could see that she felt the spirit and knew that what we were saying was true. She said she wanted to live it. She wants to marry him but i guess she brought it up about a year ago and he said that he doesn't want to get married. As she sat across from us she looked heartbroken and said she didn't know what to do. So we told her to pray about it and we would talk more about it next time and she asked us to pray for her. I cannot imagine being in her difficult situation, but I pray she will make the right choice. Also, I had a wonderful experience Sunday! So I know that if you want to know answers to doctrine questions you can ask the Lord, in fact, that is what we teach right? Ask and ye shall receive. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened. yeah. However, I have never taken a question about doctrine to the Lord before so I decided that I needed to try it. Before I even finished praying, I was prompted on where to find my answer and I turned there and POW! There was my answer. It all made sense. I know that Heavenly Father listens to our prayers and cares about what is going on in our lives. I know that if you faithfully take your struggles, worries, and questions to Him, He will help you. I know that to be true. Thank you all for your letters and prayers! I appreciate them so much! I love you all and i hope all is well with you. Have a wonderful week! :)

Week 2

Hi friends and family! I hope everything is going wonderful for all of you! This week has been really difficult as we finished teaching Lena but got 2 new investigators, Anton and Lola, and as we have been plunging into grammar! Joy... I take back every frustration or irritation that I have ever had about people who come to America and can't speak English. I get it! It's hard! I'm so blessed that I am not learning English as a second language because I've heard thats the worst! Last week (my 1st week) seemed to focus so much on learning Russian but this past week, we focused a ton on the doctrines and lessons in addition to the language. A reoccurring theme was definitely obedience. Mostly obedience in the mission. At devotional Tuesday night David Evans of the Seventy spoke to us and something he said really stood out to me so I thought I'd share it with you. "If you keep the commandments, the Lord will bless you--maybe not with what you want-- but you will learn to trust Him and there will come a time when you will do ANYTHING He wants not because you want or need blessings, but because you love Him." I loved that:) Also! I read a wonderful talk by Tad R Callister called, "A Consecrated Missionary" or something. It is soooooo good! Please look it up and read it. It is so honestly blunt about what it takes to to really devote yourself to the Lord. From returned missionaries and missionaries in the field I have heard the the mission makes them weepy. hahaha if you know me you probably know that I am already weepy without the mission. So I thought--OH NO!!! I used to cry when I feel the spirit so I thought that I'd be an extra weepy missionary. However, I haven't cried. Like...at all. Automatically I thought...what is wrong with me? Am I really not feeling the spirit? So I tried to make an extra effort to recognize the spirit throughout my days and I do recognize it. It's just different than before and I'm adjusting to it, and I'm okay with it :) I've come to the realization that we can feel the spirit in our lives in many different ways. OH! So Friday we taught Anton the restoration. Then Saturday we talked about the Atonement and Repentance and gave him HW to read the story of Alma the Younger. SO monday before we start our lesson(which was supposed to be about Prayer and Obedience) he asks us a question. Joseph Smith prayed and saw God. Alma the younger prayed and saw God. You guys pray a lot. Do you see God? I prayed last night, but I didn't see God. 1st of all, it was hard to understand what he was asking because it was off topic, and 2nd of all, once we understood him it was hard to explain that we have to have faith that God is listening to our prayers and that no we haven't seen Him, but we can feel Him through the Holy Ghost--without the vocabulary for it. Then! He asks us why we don't drink tea and coffee. Okay now, explaining that in English is hard! But we did our best answering all of his questions and the Lord made up the rest. I love teaching lessons because even though it is stressful, I feel the spirit the strongest while we are teaching and I love it! I love my district! I might have mentioned that before but I just can't say it enough! My district and zone are really amazing missionaries and I love them so much! We all get along so wonderfully and we know how to ease the stress--laughter, yoga, and singing. We sang a medley of Be still my soul and Nearer my god to thee on Sunday during Sacrament meeting and it was so powerful! Speaking of sundays! Fun fact. well...not so fun of a fact haha Every sunday 2 missionaries are called out of the congregation during the meeting to give a 3-5 minute talk. That means...that every week we each need to prepare a talk for the next week according to that weeks topic. I loved hearing the elders and sisters speak at the pulpit and I even understood almost all of it! Im getting over a cold but other than I am doing well. Nothing really eventful happened this week so I feel like I am kind of rambling haha Oh! there was a huge storm the other night and there were literally tree branches flying in the air! (detached from the trees!) walking around in the rain might explain the cold.... :) This morning we went to the temple and I just love the Temple so much! I ran into Jamie Barrus there!!! It was so good to see her! Today I also saw Mark Hudak right before getting on the bus so I wasn't able to talk to him really, but It was great to see him too. Brother Ellett!: I met Elder... Schmidt? I dont actually remember his name but he was like "Kent Ellett told me to look for you and say hi!" haha so hi!! I love it here and I know this what I am supposed to be doing! love you all and miss you :) Cectpa Downing
Here are some questions mom had and she answered The branch president just told us a new rule: no letter writing unless on pday. So I havent been able to respond to any of your dear elders. We meet in class at about 730 and we have study time. 845 is breakfast. class starts at 915 and goes til 1:50 then lunch and then personal and companion study from 230 to 350. class starts at 350 and goes til 650. dinners right after that and then we have study time/meetings/devos/gym time. depending on the day. sorry, thats just a really quick over view. My companion is good! She is from Baltimore Maryland. She is going to Moscow and we leave the same time. We got our "missionary certificates" and my exit date as of right now is later than i thought!! March 17. But that can change depending on transfer dates probably. I love sundays soooo much!!!!! we have study time and relief society as a west campus and sacrament mtg allll in russian as a branch(our zone--like 5 districts. 1 district is like 6-12 missionaries) we have choir practices and then devotionals. and we get to watch movies! kind of haha there are conference talks we can watch. We just watched the Character of Christ by David A bednar! look it up. its AMAZING!!!!

First Letter Home

Family and Friends!!! 

Im on a mission! WHAT!  The MTC is a wonderful place. Well...Im actually at the West MTC except to email because our internet is down.  But I love the west mtc so much!! It is so roomy and a lot less people.  At one of our first meetings they told us that the West MTC gets about 200 new missionaries a week and the main mtc gets about 700 a week. SO we are a lot smaller.  But we have all of the Russians, Ukrainians, a few English and some Spanish and a few more languages but I  cant remember at the moment.  

My companions name is Cectpa Jackson (Syestra. Turns out iv been saying it wrong, along with basically everything else i tried to say before coming here. haha)  I love her so much and Im so grateful to be able to work and learn with her for the next 8 weeks.  My district is wonderful too! We are all so close already and we are all going to moscow! Before coming to the MTC I thought that the number of sisters and elders would be about even by now. nope! the Elders still out number us BY FAR! but everyone is so friendly!! And everyone says hi to everyone! In their mission language! So that is pretty cool. 

My first day here we dropped the bags off in the room and went immediately to class where Brother Tate was waiting to start out first lesson. EVERY WORD was is Russian!!! For 3 days!! and we have 6 hours of lessons a day! It was soooo incredibly hard but by the 2nd day I was starting to understand him even though I couldnt respond back. Also, Iv learned how to give simple prayers in Russian!  It brings the spirit so strong, even if we are butchering it. 

Thursday (day 3) we got an investigator Lena and got to know her and taught her the restoration and the book of mormon.  It was so difficult and we probably...no i KNOW we slaughtered the language. but the spirirt was there. I gave the opening prayer in the lesson and right when I did I felt the Holy Ghost.  Friday we taught  her a lesson on families and our language abilities improved tremendouesly.  We  taught her Saturday and Monday and our last lesson is tomorrow, then we get a new investigator. There was one time we were practicing for an instructor and instead of telling her that God told Joseph that  there were no true churches on the earth, I said that God told Joseph that there were no true worms on the earth. She was like...yeah probably dont teach Lena that. haha i guess an embarrassing moment was bound to happen eventually! haha

 The zone leader said that the first testimony meeting, new missionaries dont usually bear their testimonies, and if they do, they do in english.  But all of the new missionaries in our zone except for one bore their testimonies in Russian.  I wasnt that one! It was such an incredible feeling to bear a simple testimony that our savior lives and that the book of mormon is true and the gospel brings hapiness.

Can I just say...The gift of tongues is real. There is no way that I could learn This much Russian in 6 Days if it wasnt for the Lord. There is still tons more to learn but I know He will help me.  Thank you for all of your prayers and letters! I love you all so much!  I know that I am exactly where I need to be and I am so happy to be here.