Week 4

Hope you all don't mind that I am posting Dianas email verbatim.  She says things perfectly the first time without any editing.  I would only gum it up!

 

I'm "ochin" sad that I still haven't been able to figure out how to change the computer keyboard to Russian letters. Instead, I'll just have to type out phonetically the words that are now incorporated into my every day speech. Maybe you can use context to figure them out?

First and foremost I have a very important announcement to make. The rules of emailing are officially changed. I can email friends and family and basically everyone. Because of this they've increased our time emailing. So let everyone know that my email address is diana.willerth@myldsmail.net. I still have a limited time, but if nothing else I'll respond to your email with a letter. Hopefully this will make it easier for those of you who haven't been able to write me for one reason or another.

Also while I'm begging for mail, I'll throw out a friendly reminder that my birthday is next week. Allow me to introduce you to a fun little site called mtcdelivery.com which I see people getting stuff from every day. Donuts and Oreos are always appreciated ;) haha just kidding. Sort of. But here's something cool! All of you out there in Provo - were you aware that in the basement of the Wilk they have a service that delivers packages to the MTC for $1?? Once again just throwing that out there ;) Okay I'm done! Sorry for being a mooch.

Not much to say about this week, other than that it has been SOOOO much better. Ever since last week's devotional things have been "ochin harasho." I feel like the Russian is finally starting to click. The learning curve is starting to turn up a little now that the words are more familiar to me, so I have started kind of retaining things. We've been making companionship goals of how to step up our game and be better missionaries, and one of them - get ready - is no singing anything but Hymns.

SHTO?!?!??

I live to sing!!! Seriously, every time someone says anything, I relate it to a song and then I have it in my head forever. Or I learn a Russian word, stick it into a song I know with that word in it, and I never forget the word. BUT it's a good goal to have. They're really big on obedience here, and one thing you'll hear a lot is "when obedience is no longer a list of do's and don'ts, but a quest to do what's right - that is when you will start to experience the blessings." I guess the rules here have just been to obvious and easy to follow up to this point (besides the dancing thing - that's "neldzya" and pretty hard for me to follow sometimes, haha). I'm excited though for the chance I this gives me to really discipline myself and do something that's hard for me.

Also, we get new Russian speakers in today! We won't be the babies of our district anymore - so weird! I still feel like a baby! I've been here a month and I can hardly speak sentences! But God is with me every day - I know it! He's the only reason I've learned as much as I have by now.

Thank you to those of you who have written me - dear elders, letters, or otherwise. It's the best feeling coming back after a morning of SYL (speak your language - nothing but Russian) to a letter on your desk with news from home.

I love you all!

Sister Willerth