March 13th 2013

WOW!! Thank you Elder Peterson!! That is just what I needed to hear! And to answer his question--I confess, it was me, I was praying for him. Him and all the other people in the Russia Samara Mission. That's so amazing, really. I can't wait to go. I can't wait to meet and serve and love those people. AHHHH. It's real, it's actually happening. We got our flight plans last Thursday!! We fly out of Salt Lake on monday (March 18) at 8:30am and arrive in New York (!!!) at 2:55 pm then fly out of NY at 5:35pm and arrive in MOSCOW (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) at 11:00 am (March 19) leave Moscow at 6:55pm then arrive in Samara at 8:40pm (I think this is all in mountian time). Long flights, and one looonnnggg layover in Moscow. You know what that means! Lots of opportunities to talk to Russian people who have nothing better to do than sit and listen to you while their waiting for their flight!! Whew, am I scared. Excited, but defiantely a bit frightened! I feel a bit how I did before I went to the MTC, unsure of the unknown. An elder from the younger district beside us, Elder Droubay is one of the most delightful and enjoyable people I've met. He listened to me to how I felt about leaving and he sat there and thought for a few minutes contemplating then starting writing me this story from the top of his brain.

 

There once was a sheep

Whom was so scared of sleep

Poor little terrified thing.

 

As night would approach

His cheer would erode

For night time brough about dreams.

 

Dreams, dreams, those strange little things

So unknown, so disheartening

How he wished that they wouldn't occur.

 

So each night he would sit by his family and friends

Staring into the void.

Til one night, whence he drempt

He couldn't sleep for no more

His eyes slowly fell shut.

Then he saw large fields

Perfect for prancing

With rabbits, butterflies, lilies!

 

How great! Oh how great!

His mind was freeing!

Oh why? Oh why had he waited?!

 

And as he awoke

He was happy. Yes, even grateful.

 

Fear brings joy.

 

That made my day. :)

 

So I'm thinking the best time to call you is in the morning at the Salt Lake airport so I could get the kids before they go to school and dad before he goes to sleep. That would be at about 7:30 or 8 mountain time so 6:30 to 7 your time. The other option would be to call in New York which would be at about 2 or 3/3:30 your time. I'm not sure which is better. The morning might not be so great since well, it's the morning. Also, am I allowed to call Teresa and Squire and Chantal?? I bought a calling card. It has 500 minutes on it but every call automatically takes 100 minutes. So what mose people do is call with quarters first to make sure you pick up then call them back on the calling card.

This weeks just been full of love. I don't think any district in the history of the MTC has loved each other as much as our district does. Honestly, they're the best. It's going to be so hard to part! We also have been blessed to have the best teachers. They are the most Christ-like, Spirit-led teachers and I've learned a ton from them and their examples. Our main teacher, Brother Richardson, is leaving the MTC and he had his last day on Tuesday. I feel that we were privleged to be his last district. We were also our other teacher, Brother Seitz's first district. So that's pretty cool.  We have a bunch of new Russians coming in again today and there's a slight shortage of teachers so for our last few days here we're going to be teacher-less. We're just going to be spending our class time hours studying together and helping the younger missionaries. There are two Russian speaking sisters that moved into our residence room. It's gunna be a crazy night tonight with all that unpacking and packing and suitcases everywhere but it'll be fun to get to know them a bit. :) Things have definately been winding down a bit as we prepare to leave. We don't have any investigators any more and we've gotten to do some pretty fun things. We watched the Restoration in Russian (which was amazing) and we've looked at a lot of mision pictures from our teachers and heard a bunch of stories. And President Harrison showed us pictures from Rostov where he served as Mission President. It is absolutely beautiful!! Our district has also been eating sack breakfasts together and writing little notes for the younger districts. And today we ate breakfast at the temple together and went to an endowment session together. It was so wonderful. I'm going to miss them and temple. Unless by chance I get to go to Kiev, I won't be going to the temple for quite a while!

To answer your question--yes I got the Katzner! Thank you so much!!! I love it. It's like a land all of its own. I go to look up a word and 20 minutes later I realize I never got to that word because there's so much interesting stuff! Russians have words for some of the wierdest things!

I haven't received a camera or my drivers licensce yet and I'm getting a little anxious for those two!

Well I have to go!!
 Love you!

CECTPA Johnson