Week 7 - July 22, 2015 12 Days Left In My Mother Land...

     My Dearest Readers,

     Wowsers, I can't believe it! I have just 12 days left here in the U.S. 

We get our travel plans on Friday. 

I anticipate a 30+ hour travel time. Won't that be fun? 

At least trips to Taiwan have prepared me for all this craziness. 

I feel bad for those who have NO idea what's about to happen haha. I am beyond excited, 

but I am super duper nervous. 

I just realized that I will be away from all that is familiar for 16 months! So crazy!

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My favorite people so far. .. . St. Petersburg is one lucky mission. . . 

We are pretty restless here. Our good friends, Elder West, Crookshank, and Larsen,

 left for St. Petersburg on Sunday. Kind of hard to believe that they are in Russia! 

You could could say we notice their absence.

 The last Breakfast with our Elders 

The MTC is great and all, but I just want to be out there in the field getting to work! 

Our teacher reads us her emails from when she served in St. Petersburg. 

It just makes us want to go there so much more!!! We really are just on the downhill climb. 

Honestly, things kind of have been blending together. Nothing life-changing in a while. 

We watched the talk Characters of Christ by Elder David A. Bednar again on Sunday. 

I seriously love that talk. 

This time, I learned a lot more on the difference between having a testimony 

and being truly converted. 

People with testimonies fall away from God. People who are truly converted endure to the end. 

I hope to be truly converted. One major way we can do this is to learn about, 

and become the character of Christ. Which is turning outward. 

Every time you are having a rough time, or that you are just feeling down. 

Stop thinking about yourself and help someone else. 

Christ turned outward when you and I would turn inward.

Selfishness is something I really want to work on. 

It is sooooo easy to just focus on yourself and your needs, 

especially if you are going through a trial in your life. 

We have been seasoned to only think about ourselves. 

But we really need to be mindful of all of those around us. 

Every single one of us is going through a trial right now. Every one of us has a story. 

Let's do each other a favor and just help each other, love one another. 

I have a lot to learn, but I am going to make it my priority to have the character of Christ, 

which is also known as charity. 

If you read Alma 26 and Alma 29 in the Book of Mormon, 

it's so applicable to what we are doing as missionaries. 

Especially Alma 29 for me as a Russian missionary. 

Even the best of best missionaries got discouraged. 

Through God and Christ's atonement, we can do everything!

I love you all soooo much. Your support is incredible. I have felt your love so much. 

I pray for you all everyday! Stay wonderful!

Much Love,