January 9th 2013

Woo hoo it's my first Pday! :) and I just wrote you so I'm not sure what to say so I'll just start where I left off. Sunday was great--as expected. All the Olders told us that if we could just survive to Sunday we would be fine. The Olders are the Russian speaking missionaries here who have been here for a while--9 weeks to be exact. They' are all-knowing. So whenever I have a question about the MTC or Russian, I ask them. There are two Older Elders from Washington, Elder Fernandez is from the Tri-Cities and his mom works for Hanford doing ecological restoration, which is really cool since that's like my top career choice as of now. They also lived in Ukraine for 6 years while she worked at Chernoble (not sure how to spell that). Super cool! Then there's another Older Elder from Yakima... Speaking of which... I met four sisters yesterday at devotional who are going to the Kennewick mission. And one of them is from Alaska and met Elder J. Allen Dyer there! :) I love meeting so many new people and seeing how we're all connected. I met someone from Samara yesterday and Cectpa Lund and I chatted with him for a while. He said that everyone there is so excited to get Sisters, especially the women because they can hug us. lol that's a good sign I guess! Then we also met two people from Rostov (4 people in my district are going to Rostov) and they came to our class and told us more about it.
I have seen Aubrey twice since I've got here. That's always exciting.. the first time I saw her I just about cried lol but it's also kind of weird to see someone from the outside world. And yes--this is a completely different world here at the MTC, with it's own language, culture, and traditions. Aubrey is doing well although she did get that nasty sickness that went around right before we got here. Apparently it was a bad flu that makes grown men want to crawl into a hole and die. Exaggeration maybe, but the result is we can't shake hands, instead we do an awkward elbow bump. I've got a cold but it's not debilitating in any way. Just a stuffy nose.
Russian is coming. The things that were hard for us on day one are now almost second nature. Since we are planning lessons like every day for Roman, most things we learn are gospel related so that we can know what we're saying to him. Which is great, but I think it's ironic that I know the words for Redeemer, Atonement, and restored but I don't know how to say things like food or bathroom. Roman is doing very well. So well that it's unreal. Like unrealistic. We gave our third lesson to him on Monday about the restoration of the Gospel and our teacher told us afterwards told us that he was expecting us to ask him again if he would be baptized and if we had he would have said yes. That was very very exciting to Cectpa Lund and I but also frustrated because we were so close! We literally told him that "God restored the Gospel so that you could be baptized." our next sentence should have been and easily could have been an invitation for him to be baptized. Ah well you can't go back. We just plan on doing better tonight when we see him again. You might be wondering why we (or missionaries in general) ask investigators to get baptized so soon. I've also wondered that a lot before I got here and it's been interesting to learn why. There are two main reasons that I've heard of so far. One of them being a teaching tool. When you ask them to be baptized right off, it shows you as the missionary the investigators main concern. What is their biggest objection (I guess you could say) to the church? For Roman, his concern was that he had already been baptized into the Orthodox church when he was a baby. He didn't know how or why he would be baptized to two churches, which is how we knew that he needed to be taught about the restoration of the Gospel and the priesthood. Another reason to ask them right off the bat is so that they will know exactly what your purpose is when you meet with them-- to bring them to Christ.
I love my companion. We're perfect for each other, which sounds weird maybe. The best I can explain it is that we're on the same page... spiritually and emotionally. And we have  fun. We laugh a ton! Which is partially due to the Elders in our district, especially Elder Jenkins, He's one of those people you just look at and laugh.
The pictures I'm sending are from our temple walk on Sunday. We get to go to the temple today, which is a real blessing because it's been closed the last few weeks. I'm really looking forward to it because it feels like forever since I've been AANNNDDD our teacher Brother Richardson gave us sisters some names to do from his family!! Can't wait to do a labor of love for the family members of someone I've truly come to respect, appreciate and well, love.
I hope this letter has been somewhat cohesive and that you're getting the just of what's going on with me. You'd think a half hour to write would be enough time but it really isn't. I might send more in letter form. :) Love you guys! and keep sending letters!
Cectpa Johnson