Week 1 Apricot trees and bunk bed trapeze

It has been a great first week here at the MTC everything goes by super fast! The days last really long and the weeks just fly by. We have already began to notice that after just our first week. I think it all depends on your attitude and how you feel about the work! 

My District is
Elder Atkinson from Delta, Utah
Elder Grover from Lehi
Elder Stosich from Alpine
Elder Baggaley from Somewhere in the valley
Elder Gardiner from Alpine
Sister Davidson from Rhode Island
and Sister Aalto from Finland

The Russian language is super awesome and we all really enjoy learning it but that doesn't mean that it isn't super hard haha. It seems like we always leave class feeling overwhelmed and then we have time to study and recuperate and we come back to class feeling like we finally know what were doing just to get our minds blown and be all overwhelmed again it's quite the roller coaster! But we are working hard we have a really great teacher who has encouraged us to push ourselves and we are rising to the challenge as a district!

Saturday was a really fun day! The Russian zone is pretty competitive and in our exercise time on Saturday we always challenge the other zones to a "Soccer Saturday" match. We played like 60 on 60 so it is insane people running around everywhere and the ground is still wet from the sprinklers so everyone is slipping but that just makes for a really fun game! Also on Saturday we gave our first lesson in RUSSIAN!!! How crazy is that? After only 3 days of classes we could already give a lesson in the Russian language it went pretty well! We've improved a ton since then though and I am excited for the lesson me and Elder Gardiner will give tomorrow. A funny note about the first lesson  
When Elder Baggaley and Stosich were teaching there lesson they asked the person they were teaching if she had any hobbies and after she told them what hers were she asked back about there hobbies and Elder Baggley said, "Het" which means no and Elder Stosich said, "Nadar" which means to swim in Spanish. So that just kind of shows how good our conversational Russian is coming along

Sunday was a super spiritual day it was a good break from the language and not worrying about that and really showing the Lord that it was his day and we weren't going to worry about all the other stresses that we had going on in our life we were just gonna focus on him and the spirit! We watched the Character of Christ by David A. Bednar and it is amazing!! They only show it in the MTC and it is what they recommend all the new missionaries watch. If you want to hear more about it I'd love to tell you! But it's a lot of thoughts for one email haha

We are currently attempting to grow a tree in our room... Elder Gardiner's mom sent him a package with some dirt and fertilizer in it and an apricot seed so right by our window we have our little can of dirt so everyone cross your fingers that our little tree will sprout because we are starting to worry about him. Also, we have a great little room but the one problem about it is there are three bunk beds and only two ladders... So every night that I go to bed I'm stacking chairs and doing what I can to get in my bed. But I always end up hitting something with a knee or elbow haha Everyone else kind of looks forward to watching me I think.

Yesterday we had a really great Devotional it was incredible!! Elder Kyle S. Mckay from the quorum of the seventy came and he talked about how we are the extended arm of the Quorum of the Twelve and that they consider us to be there companions, how we as missionaries will bear our own special witnesses of Jesus Christ as we invite others to come unto him! He talked about the importance of following the spirit and acting on promptings!

In our devotional review as a district I had a great thought come to mind that I would just like to share with you! There are many different times in the Scriptures that we see as the Saints followed the prophet amazing blessings took place! How the children of Israel marched around the walls for seven days and on the seventh day they fell down! and other stories like this! Sometimes when we are told things from the prophet or our leaders we may think like there is no way that it could work. Like being told to march around the walls each day and then you'll be victorious. Or like the story of Naaman washing in super filthy water to become clean, or even from our perspective devoting lots of time to studying in the scriptures to help us learn the Russian language. But as I have seen us as a district study the gospel in the moments when that is what we're supposed to do and put God first and the language (or whatever it may be second) God can tell us were everything else should fit in and he will bless us because of our faith in him!! 

Love you all and hope you are having a super great week!!
--
Elder Halls


Elder Grover (Lehi), Elder Atkinson (Delta), Elder Baggaley (Utah), Elder Gardiner (Alpine), Elder Halls (South Jordan), Elder Stosich (Alpine)

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