WHOA, we're half way there (kinda)

It's almost been an entire month here! Weird! It gets better and better!
I honestly don't have much new to report this week, so this email might be a little short. My schedule's basically the same every week, so I don't want to bore anyone with all the same stuff I've already said!Since there are a bunch of new Russian speakers coming here in the next few weeks, the MTC took one of my district's teachers away from us to teach the newbies. We were all super bummed to hear that, because we all love him! BUT our other two teachers rock too, so I guess we can share.Russian does weird things to your mind.... There are 4 genders (if you include plural and neuter), 6 cases (which basically means that every word has like 1024395876 different versions), and sentence structure doesn't really matter. It's a lot to take in, and I guess everyone goes a little crazy, but it makes the district more fun! The other day, the teacher left the room for a minute, and we totally broke out into one of those High School Musical moments, and one by one, everyone started tapping out beats with pencils, highlighters, and by drumming on their desks, until we had this like 10-layer track going on. It only lasted for a minute because we realized we were being ridiculous, but it was great. :)This week, I've realized just how important the scriptures are. I have been so amazed to find answers to my questions when I truly go into scripture study with a purpose, and with the intent to learn something. Sorry for the short email this week, I'm completely out of time! I love you all a ton!Love,Cectpa Montierth  

Another week down!

Hellooooo everyone!

Week 2 is done, and apparently I'm some kind of veteran here now. It's funny because you feel so old after even one week. I get to watch new missionaries come in every Wednesday, and it's super weird to realize that was me such a short time ago. I legitimately feel like I've been here for at least a month. But it's good! I'm learning so much.

My district continues to rock. I still can't believe the power of the testimonies that comes from everyone here, although we're really just a group of teenagers. It really testifies to me that missionaries are called of God. There is no way that I could make any sort of impact without Him.

Last week, our investigator, Igor committed to baptism. I know that it's just a role-playing activity, but I really loved teaching Igor, and I was so excited when he followed up on commitments, and when he said that he felt the Spirit. I'm super excited to start meeting and teaching people in Russia. I hope they're as patient with me and my small Russian vocabulary as these MTC investigators are....:)
This week, we started teaching Lena. She is sweet and so willing to listen to us, but she has a lot of questions. We get to meet with her again on Saturday, and I'm hoping that we can share something that helps her to really feel God's love. 

The language is improving... there is a lot to learn, and we haven't even started on most of the crazy grammatical rules yet, but I'm loving everything that we've gotten into so far. It's a beautiful language! I say my prayers in mostly-Russian now! I'm excited to get to a point where I can not only understand what my teachers are saying, but actually know how to respond to them in Russian. Haha, it's going to take a while. :)

The MTC choir is amazing. Basically everyone does it, so there are like 1000 missionaries every week, but I think that makes it even more powerful! I think that has been one of the highlights of my MTC experience so far. You can just FEEL the truth. It's wonderful. I also am super grateful for the devotionals here. We have two per week, usually by some past mission presidents or general authorities. They're always amazing.

The other day, in the middle of class, our teacher made us take a break from studying and run around our class building. So there we were in full church clothes, sprinting and shouting and laughing like crazy people. I think we probably scared all the missionaries who were studying outside, but it was super fun, and it was definitely a nice break from cramming our brains full. 

Some of my favorite quotes from this week: "He must increase, and I must decrease."
"Faith is stepping into darkness, knowing that the light will follow." --Elder Holland
"You're either serving time, or you're serving the Savior." --L. Lionel Kendrick

I love you all so much, and I'm super thankful for all the emails I've gotten! It means the world to me to have your support and love. Have a beautiful week! :)

Love,
Cectpa Montierth

The MTC experience

Zdravstvooytye everyone!!

Wow has it only been a week? I can't even believe how much has happened, and how many stories I have.... I don't have much time left, but I'll do my best to talk about the important things! 

Basically as soon as I got here, they ran me through a thousand rooms, gave me 7000 pounds of books and study materials, and then shipped me off to my classes. I started with a Russian class, and let me tell you, they don't kid around here. They put everyone in a small group (district) of missionaries learning the same language, and they basically stick them in class for 3 hours at a time, talking about either the language or about the gospel. My teacher greeted us in Russian the first day, and literally spoke nothing else to all of us. Looking back, it must have been so funny for her to watch our faces as we listened to her speak this strange gibberish...:) The second day, we got a new teacher who was even more confusing, and the lesson was longer. Everyone just stared at him and he had to ask questions in russian like 6 times (with hand motions) before anyone would respond at all, because we were so confused. When our teacher left the room and shut the door, we all just looked at each other and died laughing, because we were so lost, and I don't think we knew what else to do.

My district is 5 sets of elders and my companion (Cectpa Meade) and me. Cectpa (pronounced Syes-tra) Meade is from Provo, and she's very sweet. We get along fine, and we are able to teach pretty well together! It's been super nice to have a chill companion, who likes a lot of the same things as me! The rest of my district is hilarious. All but one of the elders just graduated from high school, but they're all mature and have the most sincere and incredible testimonies of the gospel. I have honestly been inspired by each one of them so far. This place is amazing for spiritual growth, and that really shows in the way that my district acts. Luckily, everyone is also really funny, so half of the time we just joke around and help keep each other sane. I'm so happy about how well we all work together! I don't think I could've asked for a better district (which is great, because we spend like 9+ hours together every day)! :)
Unfortunately, we also seem to be cursed... I don't know if it's just the fact that we're new, but somehow no one in our district is ever told about what's going on, so we have had some WAY confusing days. We had the wrong schedule several times, so we went to the completely wrong place, and our teachers had the wrong schedule one time, so they weren't there to speak Russian to us, and... just things like that. Really weird miscommunications. My companion and I have also accidentally gotten locked out of our room several times.... haha, I have some really great stories that I really wish I had time to share! Let me just say, the locks in the MTC are not easy to pick with a bobby pin.... And we have a very elusive maintenance lady who holds the master key. (Don't worry, we eventually made it into our room.) 

We started teaching an investigator, Igor, this week. He's not a real investigator, but he role-plays as one, and he only speaks russian. We started teaching him on the third day, and it was kind of a disaster... We could NOT communicate. It's gotten progressively better, and I've been surprised by how much I can feel the Spirit in our lessons. Even though it's just a scenario, and we have very very broken Russian, the things that we are practicing teaching are true, and you can feel the peace that they bring in our meetings. I have absolutely loved that part of the MTC. The Spirit is always so strong, and I have already learned so much more about the gospel and about myself and my testimony. I just love it. In our lesson to Igor yesterday, Cectpa Meade and I actually sung a song from the Geemnee (Hymns) for our investigator. In Russian. It was a super quirky (and tricky) idea, but it was SO fun, and I love how the hymns can share a message much deeper than we usually can! Haha, it was great.

I have loved running into so many people that I know here. It's basically been like a BYU 56th ward reunion! And then a few from home, too. Seriously, every time I turn around, I see someone else that I know. I love it! :)

Cool, weird story--so, Cectpa Meade left some vazhna (important) stuff when she came to the MTC, so we got permission to go off-campus and buy tennis shoes and other such things. I know we've only been out for a week, and we only went to JC Penney... for like, an hour... but it was super weird to leave the MTC and it felt like a field trip.... so I took a thousand pictures. I'll share the escalator picture with you all. I'm sure I was very helpful, ecstatically taking selfies while she was trying to shop.... 

I really don't have time to write much else. but I love you ALL so much! Thank you for your love and support.

Ya znaoo shto Eesus Kreesto nash Spaseetyel, y eta Bog nash Nebyesney Atiets. Ya znaoo shto tserkov eestinah! (That's me trying to phonetically spell out Russian words because I don't have a Russian keyboard... :) I love Russian.)

Love,
Cectpa Montierth

OFF TO THE MTC

Sister Montierth heading towards Security

Yesterday morning Sister Montierth finally headed out to the MTC. Her flight left pretty early so we all got up around 5:50 in order to make it to the airport on time. And although the morning was filled with tears, she was so excited to go and start this new adventure in her life. There were quite a few other missionaries leaving on the same plane so she was already making new friends! She was safely at the MTC by 1:30 and now we're just waiting for our first email:)