Week 4

Здравствуйте Friends
and Family!!!
Week 4 in the MTC!!!
... Just like week 3. Haha This week was a little crazy though. It seems it's gone by really fast. Russian is coming along and it's getting easier to understand but it's just as hard to speak it :P. The MTC has seemed really empty lately since the group of Russian speaking missionaries before us has left now, so our group for meal times, gym times, and TALL times (a computer exercise
for the language) is really small now. But this week has been pretty relaxing for me. As mean as it may sound, my companion got really sick and it was nice. I got to stay in the room and "take care of him". I usually just ended up writing letters, reading scriptures, studying the language, but mostly taking naps. He's much better now. It was also kind of funny. The illness came from nowhere. He was out and about socializing and having fun the night before he got sick. Then really early that morning I woke up just hearing him blowing chunks in the bathroom. Haha then he slept for the next 3 days pretty much non-stop. Now he's all healed up and back to his spunky self. I don't remember if I've told you this already but my companionship of three is now two seperate companionships because we assimilated an elder who had surgery and had to stay behind. So now it's just me and Elder Fillmore. (It's weird to have to type out Elder because I'm used to saying it in Russian. I'm too lazy to figure it out now though)

In our room we decided to start a little project. There's a certain soda that I've only ever heard of
here in the MTC. It's called a Cactus Cooler. It's actually really good but since we're at the MTC and there's not much to find funny and entertaining, we blew it way out of proportion. We started building a little "Cactus Cooler Tower of Babylon" in our room. It's more of a pyramid but as of right now it's about 60 cans big. On day 5. and yes... that's the most exciting thing to have happened all week. Haha we've had plenty of devotionals and good thoughts in class and things but right now I feel kind of like the teachers and the devotional speakers are all just dangling candy infront of our faces and not letting us eat any of it. They keep saying things like, "I know you're not in the field yet, but when you are, there's so much amazing stuff for you! So just remember that while you're sitting in class studying." They keep telling us all of these things and how awesome it is and how hard it's going to be and how worthwhile it will be. So I'm getting a little antsy (however you spell that) and I really want to just head out. But... I definitely don't have the russian for that.

Thank you everyone who has been sending letters. They really are one of the highlights of the day. Even if there's not much it gives me someone to write to and let's me know that there is still a world outside of the fences of the MTC. It feels like I've been here forever now. Haha I got my first haircut today.... It really made me miss my long hair. I had been sporting a semi-accidental fohawk for the last few days. My hair happened to dry kind of up one day after I showered and it
got stuck. I could get the sides down but the top stayed up and gave me a little mohawk type thing. It was pretty cool. But I cut it today. In one month at the MTC my hair grew about an inch. So... I'll get it back soon enough. Although I think I'm required to get another right before I head into the field. Oh well. I've completely given my hair to the Lord... for now...

Yesterday turned out to be an awesome day. It was Elder Fillmore's first full day of being back from the dead and there were a few really cool things that happened. The coolest of which was taking in the spirit through osmosis during the devotional. The talk was like ten minutes long (not really, it was a full talk but the beginning of it was kind of slow and it got really good when I dropped my pen and almost got whiplash as my head bobbed backwards. In case that wasn't hint enough, I fell asleep.) but I had definitely recieved some good insights. None of which the
speaker was talking about. Haha the first thing I've been thinking about a lot lately is that everyone always says that on a mission you need to completely devote yourself to the lord and you need to give everything to him, always be selfless, lose yourself in the work, etc. etc. etc. To me, that kind of implies, suck it up and just become a robot already. But then again, people are
also always saying, be yourself, you were called here for a reason, God loves you for who YOU are, etc. etc. etc. which to me, implies that we need to be individuals. So, I've been trying to find the balance between these two. In my case in particular it's pretty important because most all of the things I like to do are not allowed at the MTC. I can't sing the songs I like, I can't play the guitar, I can't do flips, I can't breakdance, I can't play rugby, I felt pretty worried a few days ago because we had a lesson about stress relief and they had us write down ways that we used to relieve stress before the mission and everything I wrote I was not allowed to do, I'm not stressed now, but when I become stressed, I don't know what I'll do. None of it's allowed. Haha But anyways, back to the spiritual thought. I was thinking about it and I found that the person I am, (this goes for anyone) is not defined by the things I do. The things that I do are defined by who I am. So I can 100% be myself, and also 100% obey God's commandments (and mission rules). So that was a little insight on it even though I still don't feel that my concern has been completely addressed. Then the day ended really nicely with us giving all of the sisters in our District a blessing as the grandeur of the MTC dims and the workload and stress stays if not gets worse.

Well I've got laundry waiting for me right now. I love you all and wish the best for you.

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Старейшина Чен
(That's what my nametag's gonna look like.)

Elder Chun