Last Email from the MTC!!!!

I had to use that subject line because about a month ago I walked by a Sister's computer and saw her type that. I remember wishing so badly it was my last week and now it finally is! Praises be. I'm so excited. I love the MTC. Really and truly, I do. It's a great place. But I've been here for 56 days. We're offically the oldest ones here. Oldest being longest ones here. And I'm out of my mind excited to be in the field. This week has flown by (as every week seems to) but a lot of big things have happened too. We got our travel plans!!!! We will be leaving Monday morning at 4:30 am. We go to the Salt Lake Airport and have a direct flight from there to Moscow. Yeah, it is insanity. Apparently there is no scheduled flight that does that so the church arranged it special for us. Which is cool. I do wish we had a layover though because it will be around a 16 hour flight. We leave the Salt Lake Airport at 8:30 am on the 24th and get to Moscow at 9:30 on the 25th. CRAZY TOWN. I'm going to Russia. Wow. Anyways, we also got our new nametags with the Russian spelling of our last names. It looks sweet. Oh, we also got moved to the new Russian Branch that was created. There are now three Russian Branches at the MTC. We have 110 new Russians coming in tomorrow, the majority of which will go to our branch. Included will be the first ever all sisters branch. Crazy, right? I would not want to deal with that much estrogen. Haha. Also, my companion and I are now the Sister Training Leaders. Which is kind of the female counterpart to the Zone Leaders. We will take the new sisters on a tour and conduct interviews with the senior sister companions in our branch. We're leaving in 6 days so it won't be for very long but we're excited to be able to help out.

 

In other news, I got to go on a field trip yesterday. It was so great. I had to go to the dentist and so we go to leave the MTC for the first time in 55 days. I had totally forgotten the outside world even existed. It was so good to see that life goes on outside the MTC and there's more to the world than skirts and nametags. It made me excited all over again to go to Russia and start talking to people even though I probably won't be able to understand them and they probably won't be able to understand me. It'll be a party. Things inside the MTC are alive and well. I feel like since the age change the normality of sister missionaries have leveled out but no worries, there are still some very... unique Sisters here. I don't know if this is an appropriate story but I'll tell it anyways. Cool. One night I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and two Sisters come in. They go into stalls next to each other and start talking. Not that weird... yet. So I'm finishing washing my face and I hear one of the sisters start to coach the other sister on going to the bathroom. She's like, "You can do it!!! Keep trying! You've got this!" And then the other sister replies and she's like, "Oh my gosh, thank you. I don't know if I can. Nothing is happening. I just don't know." And I was honestly so confused. I was just like, who are these people? It continued for like the next 5 minutes. I couldn't even get a grip because it was unreal that had just happened. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for companionship unity but I legitmately treasure the time I have in the bathroom by myself. Is that weird? I hope so. Maybe it's just our hall. We have a room right next to the Hermanas (the sisters going to Spanish speaking countries) and for some reason they like to have a fiesta right before we go to sleep. I have no idea what they do in there or why but all I know is they have a good time doing it. It continues to be a Snow Canyon High School reunion in here which is super cool, I love seeing familiar faces.

 

We have so much to do before we leave! They want us all packed before Thursday. Thursday we have in-field training all day long and then Saturday we get to meet our mission presidents. And Sunday we get to sing for the Prophet! We are all so excited. It's going to be a really cool broadcast. The Choir alone will be 2200 people, 1300 missionaries and 900 members from throughout Utah Valley. We have another devotional tonight at the Marriot Center as well. Basically, I'm going to Russia so soon and it's the coolest thing of my life. A week from today I will be in Moscow. Probably asleep. So that will be nice. I plan to spend the majority of the flight sleeping because that's become a foreign concept to me these days. Everyday it becomes more and more clear to me that Heavenly Father is very mindful of every one of us. We got to go to the temple today for the last time for probably our whole missions. I love the Temple. And it hit me again why I'm going on mission today while we were there. The Gospel is all about families, all about love, all about the opportunity to be with the people we love forever. And that is possible through the Temple. I'm so grateful for the Temple and for the blessing it has been in my life and I know that I want other people to experience the joy the Temple brings. I want them to see their family in the Celestial Room and have that feeling of, "Yeah, this is what heaven will be like." And that's why I'm going on a mission. That's what keeps me going even when I'm so tired I don't know left from right, (who am I kidding, I don't know left from right on a good day), when I have no idea what English is being spoken to me, let alone Russian. That's what makes me excited to be a missionary and to spend this time serving my Heavenly Father and my Savior. I love you all so much it hurts. I hope you are doing so, so, so well. Have a wonderful week! The next time I talk to you I'll officially be in Russia!

 

Love, Cectpa Harris

 

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