Week 4

Hello Family and Friends!!

Well Ive been in the MTC for a month now! and wow how time flies. Seems like just yesterday I was getting dropped off and entering the MTC.

This past week was very good in many ways! Nothing too crazy or exciting happened but I learned so much over the past week!

First off a little fun fact. Last Wednesday was the first time ever in the history of the MTC that more Sisters entered the MTC than Elders. It was pretty crazy. We set up the chairs for all of the new missionaries every Wednesday as our service so we get to see all the new missionaries. We were all talking about how many sisters there were and how it must be a record or something. Then we were talking to the MTC president after the meeting and he informed us with that information that more sister entered than elders!!! It is seriously amazing the amount of sisters that are here in the MTC! Every time we have a speaker at one of our firesides/devotionals they always make a comment about how many sisters are in the room and how finally there is some color in the MTC!! Us Elders dont have much color. Just a black suit and white shirt!!

Our teaching this week has progressed so much. This past week we started to have to teach with no notes and everything from memory. At first I thought there is no way I know enough Russian to teach a 20 minute lesson without notes but it happened!! It has been such an amazing experience. I am actually way more into the lesson instead of looking down at notes to help me. I can actually feel what the fake investigator is saying to me and talk back to him in Russian. I seriously still cant believe how much Russian I know. At times i feel like i know absolutely no Russian but then at other times it just comes to me and I have full conversations with others! Also the last two days I have been trying so hard to memorize Joseph Smith's First Vision in Russian. I got about 3/4th of it memorized. My companion and I just recite it back and forth all day to get to know  it better. We also say it back and forth and it sounds like we know so much Russian and other missionaries at the MTC, not Russian, will look at us like we are pros! It kinda funny to mess with people!

We had a really cool fireside on Sunday! We had the BYU men's choir come and sing to us. They were so good! I loved it so much! They sang mostly all missionary songs and the spirit of the meeting was amazing.

On Sunday i had the opportunity to teach my district during our district meeting. I taught about recognizing the spirit. It was so awesome to teach them but especially to listen to all their testimonies and their specific ways of receiving revelation. My district is seriously so awesome. We have a very sweet spirit among all of us. Everyone has bonded so well and we have become like a family. Every single day before and after class we always sing in Russian. It is so amazing how much our singing has progressed. It was so hard at first because of the whole new alphabet and all the new sounds. At the beginning it was mostly our teacher singing and not us. Its funny to hear the French missionaries across the hall who just got here and they can sing all their hymns so loud cause all they have to do is just read the words! But we have to try to figure out all the new sounds and rules to Russian. It has been such a challenge but so cool.

Today we are getting 3 new Russian districts for our Branch!!!!! I am seriously so excited. We are finally going to be not the youngest Russians in the MTC! I know that we are getting 18 elders and 12 sisters! I am seriously so excited! The older Russians told us that when you get new Russians that you feel so much better about your Russian because they know nothing! haha. 

THANK YOU so much for all the letters and DearElders that you all keep sending me! Please keep them coming. I love to hear from you all! DearElder.com box #154.

Well overall it was great week here in the MTC! I learned so much about the Gospel this week. It is so amazing that for the next two years I get to just focus my life on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not worry about anything else. I love being a missionary and serving the Lord. I love you all and have a great day!!

LOVE,

Elder Grochmal.

 

Week 3!

Hello Family and Friends.

What an amazing week to be here at the MTC! First off i want to tell you about last night. So every Tuesday we have a devotional and guess who spoke to us? Elder Richard G. Scott of the twelve Apostles!!! Everyone so so shocked! See they dont tell us who is gonna speak so we always try to guess and when he walked in it was like the biggest gasps of air ever! His talk was seriously AMAZING!! He first focused on us missionaries and I just felt li8ke he was speaking directly to me. He kept speaking about how hard it is to learn another language and to not get discouraged and that the Lord will help you! He then talked about prayer and vital it is to us as missionaries. At the end he bestowed a blessing upon all of us. It was the coolest thing ever to hear an Apostle in person give a blessing upon all the missionaries that we may learn the language and that we may have success. So once he finished we sang a hymn and right as the girl who was going to say the prayer starting walking towards the stand Elder Scott jumped back up and stopped her and went to the stand to talk some more. He told us he does not want us to fail and that we have been called to serve from God. It was the best talk ever. I feel the talk has changed me and made me so much more excited to get out and serve the people of the Ukraine!

Also my companion and I have been singing in the choir. So last night we sang "Nearer My God to Thee" for Elder Scott. It was the most powerful song i have ever sang in my life. I had chills the whole time. After we finished Elder Scott got up to the podium and said with tears in his eyes, "I feel like i have died and gone to heaven." I felt so special at that moment to be part of the choir.

So ill tell some more about the rest of my week. Last Wednesday we partook in our first TRC teaching experience. Its when students of BYU or locals come to the MTC and we teach them in Russian. It is so much fun! The people usually help you so much and just want to talk to you about your mission especially!

We did 3 more SYL's this week where we only speak Russian to each other! They are getting better. We arent having silent meals anymore as a district. There is usually more talking now.

So this week I was able to give to blessings to members of my district! It was so such an amazing experience! The first was for a Cectpa(sister) in my district. She has been sick for a few days and she asked me for a blessing. It was such a cool experience to have my district help perform the blessing and i also asked my teacher to join in. He is so fun! Then the same day at night time I performed another blessing for an elder in my District. We as a district joined with the district next door in the dorms and did the blessing. The elders next door have become like our best friends! They are all going to the Baltics Russian speaking. We do everything with them. They are so much fun.

My district has become very close. We all love each other so much. Every day our Russian is getting better! We sing in Russian everyday! that is coming along! It is hard to sing because we are still trying to get used to the new alphabet!!

We had two districts from our branch leave on Monday! It was sad to say by to them! They taught us so much! There were about 8 elders going to Kiev in the bunch! My really good friend Elder Knight just left! He told me he would email me all the details and what i need to survive!

Over all it was a great week in the MTC! Ive had so many spiritual experiences and i am so grateful to be on a mission at this time!

Oh and THANK YOU so much for all the DearElders that you all keep sending! I am so sorry I havent responded to most of them! I am working on it! I am so busy! I promise i am getting them and love all of them! Please Please keep sending them! They make me happy! Mailbox # 154

Elder Grochmal

(Ryan has had a few visitors in Provo since he has been in the MTC. Apparently the "run into" him at the temple while he is there with the other missionaries...haha!)

These are some Elders who left for the mission field this week!

Week 2!

Dear Family and Friends!!

Wow! Already done with my second week in the MTC!

First off I want to say THANK YOU so much for all the DearElders that you all sent to me this week! I absolutely love getting them and it makes my day so much better! Please keep them coming! Don't feel like your overloading me with them! Trust me I LOVE THEM!!! just a reminder my mailbox number is 154!

Well this week was very very good! I will definetly say that it was better than my first week! That first week was a struggle but thats what is expected! This week went so smoothly! I have kinda gotten into a routine and I feel like this is just my life now. I dont know where else i would be right now or where else i would want to be. I mean i get to teach the gospel all day everyday. I have probably felt the spirit affect me and teach me these past two weeks more than in my whole life! The MTC is amazing!!!

So first off i will say more about my companion. His name is Elder Boyce straight from Australia. He is seriously so funny! He has never been to America. He is constantly asking me questions about the most randoms things. He has never heard of GOLD FISH or CHEEZE ITS!! i was so sad. Also we always go to the Vending Machines at night to get a beverage and he always pulls out his change and asks me how much is this coin? or how much is this coin?? He cant count American money!! its so funny. i love him so much!! He loves all sports so we get along very very well!

Lots of you keep asking about the food. The food is good! Lots of people are always complaining about the food but i dont see anything wrong with it. If i am hungry and there is a buffet of food, trust me i will do work on the food! haha.

We got to go to the Temple last wednesday. It was so much fun to go to the Provo temple! It was very hard because it was my first time in the temple without my family! But it went good and i loved it. I am going today again!

So this past week i have made so many friends here in the MTC!! Mostly with all the Russians! The Russians are like a gang. haha. We all live in the same Building. There are about 45 of us Russians here. We all have the exact same schedules so with have spot in the cafeteria called the Iron Curtain where only Russians are aloud to eat. We also have lots of traditions. There is this book called "The Book" It has been past down through all the russians for like 15 years. When Russians leave they hide it in there room in there "Narnia Holes" These are hidden spots in our rooms where we hide stuff for the next missionaries to come. We found a bunch of food and notebooks in our Narnia hole. But we broke into a room last week that had Russians who left and we found "THE BOOK". We were so stoked. It has all the secrets of being a Russian at the MTC!

This week my district started to implement this activity called SYL. It stands for Speak Your Language. It is so crazy. We set a day and a certain amount of time and we only speak RUSSIAN! It is so crazy and so hard. We did it a couple of times this week. I will say that those days were really quiet. But i learned so much Russian with in those days! SYL has been such a blessing for learning Russian!

Oh this past weekend for Conference! Ill just say Conference in the MTC was the best thing ever! I will be honest I have never completely watched every single session of conference due to sports etc. But this conference i got to listen to them all and oh how amazing that was! Every single session was so good. I really like Elder Hollands talk and especially the Prophets talk about obedience. That talk hit all us missionaries so hard. We have to be very obedient as missionaries because yes we have lots and lots of rules! haha. But overall i loved conference so much and learned soooo much from all the apostles that spoke. Oh also i liked sister Daltons talk. She is so awesome.

We taught about 5 lessons last week! it was so crazy! i cant believe i am already teaching lessons in Russian. I still dont really know what I am saying or how to say it! But i know the spirit is working through me and helping me so much when it comes to teaching. My Russian is coming along but still not that good. It is so hard!! I am so confused about about most of the stuff that is taught to me but It will all work out in the end!

Well i have been trying to write as many letters as possible this week so i will try to send them today!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Thank you so much once again for the letters! please keep them coming! They help me so much and make my day so much better!

Elder Grochmal!

(The fourth picture down is Ryan writing his testimony in RUSSIAN!!!!!) 

The first week!

Hello Family and Friends. 

Well my first at the MTC has gone great. It has had its ups and down to be honest. My first few days I was feeling very homesick and having some anxiety but every time that happened I would pray for help and immediatley feel comfort and guidance from the spirit. The spirit I have felt so far in the MTC has truly been amazing. 

The first day I got here we met our whole district and started learning Russian immediatley! First off my district is so amazing! we have 7 sisters and 4 elders! We have already grown to be so close and it feels like a family already. My companion is so cool. He is straight from Australia and has such a sweet accent. He loves the gospel and has already taught me so much. On the second day here we got to meet our Branch Presidency. They are so amazing! We had interviews with them and then had a big meeting with the 3 new districts in our branch. We all got to go around and say a quick testimony. It was such a cool experience. Oh and also that night they called me to be the District leader of my district!! I was so thrilled for this and absolutely love my district! 

On friday we had to teach our first lesson in RUSSIAN!! i was so scared and nervous. We have only been studying russian for two days and we already have to teach the first lesson! The lesson actually went pretty good. I have no clue what was said really but the spirit was so strong and I know that the girl we taught felt the spirit. So more on the Russian. It has been so crazy and sooooo hard. The whole new alphabet is just crazy! we kinda were just expected to learn it on our own and be ready to read in Russian by the third day. I bought some flashcards from the store and i study them all day! It is so crazy how much Russian i have already learned since being here. I can already bear my testimony, say a prayer, sing songs, and have some little talk with people! I know i couldnt be doing this with out the Lord's help. 

On saturday we basically did the same thing just studied russian all day! We then got to teach our second lesson. It went really good. But a really funny thing happened. We were teaching our investigator about baptism so we had her read a scripture in our Russian book of mormon. We showed her the scripture to read and she began. We obviously didnt understand what she was reading but we thuought she was reading the correct verse. After she was done she looked at us very confused and asked in russian was this the right one? i quickly grabbed my english book of mormon and looked it up. We accidently had her read a scripture about how thou shalt not kill etc.!!!! It was so funny. She started laughing so hard. We then found the correct scripture about baptism and she read it. 

Sunday was Easter. It was really hard and sad to not be home with my family on Easter. I defienetly missed all of you guys so much. We had a very special entire MTC wide sacrament meeting on Sunday. It was so cool there was about 4,000 missionaries all taking the sacrament at the same time. Most were in the big huge gym and others were in overflow rooms. The speaker we had was the presiding bishop of the church. He was so amazing. I love having general authorities come and speak to us. Its like having conference every weekend! We had a testimony meeting also with our whole branch on that Sunday. After that we got to walk to the temple with our district and most of you know i got to see Caroline. I was seriously so shocked and so happy to see her. I was shaking just talking to her and taking a picture.  Later that night we had a fireside and a lady named Sheri Dew spoke to us. She is the manager of Deseret Book. She was so amazing! 

On monday we had a pretty easy day. We didnt have anything until after lunch. We also taught our third lesson. We asked our investigator to be baptized and she said she would pray about it and wants to know a little more. Its so hard to communicate cause i know i have so much to say but i just cant say it because of my lack of Russian. But monday night as district leader i brought my district together and had a little testimony meeting in our classroom. I felt it would help alot of us out and help my district come closer. It was one the most amazing meetings ive been part of. Hearing everyones stories and testimonies was absolutley amazing. It is so crazy that all these missionaries come from all over the place and have such crazy and different stories but are all here for the same reason. To bring others unto Christ. The spirit that was felt in our room was amazing. I love my district and i am so happy i had that meeting with all of them. 

Yesterday we had a really good day. My russian is slowly coming along. I feel better about it every day! Last night we had devotional and we had a member of the 70 come and speak to us. He focused mostly on Enduring to the End! It was such an inspiring talk and really helped me alot. I learned that this two years is so short and that i need to take advantage of every minute i have in the mission. After the devotional we had a devotional review with our district. I ran the meeting and the branch president was in with us. I was a little nervous because of the branch president but it went so well! My district was a little shy so i did most of the talking but it was so amazing.

Today we are going to the temple! i am so excited! Well all in all it has been a week and highs and lows. Ive felt so discouraged at points and i have also felt so amazing at points! I know that i am here serving a mission for a reason. I know i will have hard times but I know through the Lords help i can do it. Please everyone write me! use DearElder.com! i get the letters the same day! my mailbox # is 154! Please please write me. I love the letters so much! it brings me joy knowing people care about me when i read the letters. Well I love all of you so much! Have a good week! 

Elder Grochmal