Hey Everybody,
First week in the MTC has flown by. It's a lot different
than I expected but I am for sure loving it. On my first day here I found out
that I was a "solo companion", which basically means that in the whole MTC, I will be the only missionary learning Ukrainian for the whole 9 weeks that I'm
here. It's super tough but it is for sure a blessing at the same time. I walked
into my language class and my teacher didn't speak any English to me at all. For
about the first 5 days it was nothing but Ukrainian--diving right in!! I'm the
only one in my class which is awesome because instead of a class its like I have a one-on-one tutor and I'm learning pretty quickly!
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| I'm in this room for 6 hours a day with my teacher - he is awesome |
My companion is Elder Malmrose,
and he's awesome. He doesn't say a whole bunch but when he chimes in he's way
funny. Altogether my district and my zone are way cool and I'm pretty tight with
just about everyone! It's so cool to be with such a diverse group and develop
so many different relationships with so many different Elders and Sisters.
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| My district |
Funny story time. So on my third day here at the MTC, I was
supposed to teach a lesson to an investigator using 100% Ukrainian. At this point I knew about 20 words. I walked in the room to Христина (Christina) sitting
there, waiting for me to teach her about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Because I'm a solo companion, I have to teach all by myself. I made eye contact with her and
immediately my body temperature skyrocketed. I had forgotten literally everything
that I had learned. My face had never been more red and she could tell that I was nervous. It took me 20 minutes to introduce myself, ask her about herself,
and tell her that God loves us. That's all I said to her. Any time I asked her a
question I had absolutely no idea what she was saying. I just nodded and tried
to smile. The whole time, DROPS of sweat were falling from my brow onto my
notebook. In Ukrainian, she was asking me when we were going to meet next. At
the time, I obviously had no idea what she was saying. She ended up drawing on
the white board to explain what she was trying to say. I had no idea how to
respond, and I had forgotten to bring my Ukrainian dictionary. My stomach dropped even more. I wanted to say "one second" to her, but I only knew the word "one". So, I stood up, said "odin" and left the room. I sprinted down the
hall to my classroom and logged on to google translate as fast as I could. I practiced saying "Thursday night" like 10 times, sprinted halfway
down the hall back to tell her, and forgot how to say it. So I turned around and
went BACK, and looked it up again. I sprinted back to her and said Thursday
morning in Ukrainian. Then of course, she asked me what time. I didn't know any
numbers!! I said "one" in Ukrainian again, and repeated this process
of learning how to say "6 oclock". I came back and we got everything
figured out. By then I was drenched. We closed with a prayer that I completely
butchered, and she even laughed at how I pronounced words in the middle of it. I shook her hand, said "bye" and went and sat in my classroom all by
myself. I needed a shower ASAP. I sat and laughed at myself for a good 5
minutes because I just couldn't help it. I wanted to punch the wall and cry but I just couldn't help but laugh it off. My zone loved that story
and a majority of them say that it might be the worst "first lesson"
story that they've ever heard. What a humbling experience!!
I see my friends from BYU all the time here and it's such a
blessing. It's always nice to see a familiar face in the first couple days
because I feel so alone sometimes, especially when I'm doing a lot of things by myself, that most people do with their companion. (I am one of 4
solo missionaries in the MTC right now. There's like 1000 people here!)
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| Me and Elder Brodowski |
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| Sister Davis - a super cool girl from BYU |
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| Elder Nielsen and Elder Call - at temple walk |
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| Some of my BYU friends |
We watched a talk by Elder Bednar called, "Character of
Christ". I have never felt the spirit so strongly from a talk and I definitely recommend setting aside an hour of time to listen to it! My love and
testimony of the Savior has grown so much from it.
A couple of other things just to wrap up:
-I'm part of the MTC choir, and it's so fun to sing with
them! We got to sing at the devotional yesterday where Elder De Feo from the 70
came and talked to us. So cool
-Me and my companion got selected to be in
this new missionary video, and we might get some interviews in front of a
camera for it! The video is an open house video for the new MTC building that
is almost finished! (we will be the first missionaries ever to go in it!)
Altogether, this has already been one of the hardest, most
frustrating weeks of my life. At the same time I have been so humbled and grown
so much in just a week! The language is actually going a lot better and just
yesterday, me and my investigator had a 25 minute conversation about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. Being able to pray and share
your testimony in another language is so awesome because you still feel the same
spirit and love.
I would love to get some emails/ letters/ packages from any
of you guys! I'll always respond and I always appreciate it a ton! I love
hearing from you guys.
Love you all!!
Старишина Stott (Elder Stott)
