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
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