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!!!!!)