I want to leave the MTC. And I don't. I don't know. Apparently I still have things to gain here. But I've already gained so much. In fact, last time we did service that involved non-missionary clothes, my jeans were a leeetle bit tight. Hmmm. Those dang MTC dryers, am I right? Also I'm losing things, like the ability to write or spell in any language. And I'm losing some of my shyness talking to people I don't know. So it balances.
I've gotten really good at guessing where other missionaries are going to serve. It's weird.
The weeks are flying now and I don't know how to talk about what happens. July 4th we had a special devotional, after which they herded us all out into the parking lot. From there we could see fireworks all around, especially from Rock Canyon park and the BYU stadium. So it was pretty American. They also gave us permission to stay out later than usual (they said "until the show is over"...) so everyone got to bed about an hour late. That was dreadful. I never want to do that again. I value sleep more than freedom, I guess?
We've also had some pretty good devotionals. Sunday's was with Jenny Oaks Baker, which was awesome because music! It's always good if we have musical devotionals on Sundays because my attention span for people talking is usually shot by the end of the day.
Russian continues. I think as of a week ago the missionaries in my district who had no previous Russian caught up past the point where I was when I came in, which is awesome. Apparently four weeks of MTC time equals eight months of real time. It sometimes feels like that, for sure.
Ridiculous language things of the week: In Russian there's not really a word for "short", at least as far as height goes. So I just say that I'm "nottall". There are a lot of words like that, actually. Like the word for safety is basically "without-danger-ness". I also learned that there are a lot of verbs that have the prefix "na-" and have reflexive endings. They basically mean "to do [whatever the root is] to your heart's content". So there are some very excellent verbs, like "to have a good cry" and "to sit for way too long". English really does have its drawbacks. I also keep picking up random colloquial words. A stareishina who's been here two weeks longer than me told me the word for "womanizer", which I really did not need, but I'm not going to forget it either. Also, I learned the word for "nerd". It's "botanik". Yes, that also means "botanist". Go figure.
You are all lovely. Last thing, I managed to attach some pictures:
The sisters in our district with one of our teachers, sister Allred. She is unbelievably sunny and inspired and I love her. She's leaving in a week to go to Ukraine (where she served her mission) with her family. I'm trying not to feel too betrayed...
Cheesy photo of me being a botanist with a kniga mormona :)
Make good choices, find the spirit's help in everything! Help people.
Sister Nielsen
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