This week has been so busy! I love it! Lots of teaching and studying, as usual. I can't believe I'll be on a plane in two and a half weeks and I'll be in Russia in 3! Aaaah! Time is flying! I cannot even express the level of excitement that I am feeling.
This week we had the opportunity to be a part of the Ogden Temple Rededication. That was an amazing experience to say the least. All of the missionaries in the MTC crammed into the gym and got to watch the broadcast. President Monson, President Eyring, and President Bednar were at the Rededication. It was so inspiring to watch these men talk about how important temples are to them. I hope in the next 20 years there will be a dedication of a temple in Russia. How great would that be?? Speaking of temples, I'm also very excited to see the Meridian Temple when I get back. I don't know if it'll be done yet, but I've been showing some of the Elders in my district pictures of what it will look like on the outside and I get more and more excited every time I see it. It looks like a tank, it's so chubby. I can't wait to see it in person.
We still had a normal Sunday schedule after the Dedication was over since that took place in the morning. I don't think I've told you this before, but in our sacrament meetings, the Branch President randomly picks two missionaries from the crowd to give the talks. No warning, no mercy. The talk only has to be like 2 minutes long, so it's not even that big of a deal. I was positive that Sister Jessop would get picked since it was her last normal sacrament meeting before her and her companion leave next week and she hasn't spoken yet, so I didn't prepare diddly squat. Lo and behold, I was chosen to speak. I must have blacked out a little bit when the Branch President called my name because I don't remember anything up until I was standing at the pulpit. The topic was on Faith in Christ, something I've talked about a million times in lessons, but I was caught so off guard that I couldn't figure out what to say during most of it. It was definitely a struggle, but at least I don't have to worry about speaking again until I get to Russia.
So... I sort of got food poisoning this week. It was 100% my fault, so don't shake your finger at the MTC cafeteria staff or anything. One of my very favorite foods at the MTC are these dinky little packaged peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I don't even know why I love them so much, they're pretty generic PB&Js. The jelly is delicious, the peanut butter to jelly ratio is on point, they're just good. Anyways, the easiest day to get these sandwiches is on Friday so I sometimes hoard them and eat a sandwich or two throughout the day. I figured it wouldn't be a horrible idea to just save one for breakfast the next day. I've done it before and nothing happened, so I did it. There were obvious physical signs that the sandwich should be avoided the next day, but I let pride take a hold of me and I did eat. I'm not going to go into the details, but let's just say I didn't feel too good for the rest of the day.
Speaking of not feeling good, I've had the worst cold EVER for the past few days. It literally came out of nowhere. I woke up on Monday feeling fine and dandy and then BAM, full blown cold by the afternoon. I have no idea where it came from and I don't particularly enjoy not being able to breath. Thankfully one of my teachers made me leave class yesterday, so I got to take a 2 hour nap. It was heavenly. I wanted to die when Sister McKell and I went to the temple this morning. The nighttime cold medicine hadn't worn off yet, so I fell asleep about 6 times in the Celestial room. Awesome.
We got to teach a native Russian through Skype this week and that was an adventure to say the least. When we showed up to class earlier this week, this guy from the computer lab came in and said we were scheduled to have a Skype appointment in 10 minutes. No biggie. He said that there was some sort of glitch in the system that neglected to inform us of this. We had about 5 minutes to throw together some sort of lesson and go. When we got to the lab, Sister McKell and I picked a sweet-looking Babooshka named Elena. We couldn't get Skype to connect to her for the first couple of minutes, and it cut out like a million times, but I enjoyed it! Elena was seriously SO nice. She is a member and she helped us a lot with our grammar and pronunciation throughout the lesson. At the beginning of the appointment, she asked us a question that neither Sister McKell nor myself could understand. We kind of just stared at each other and said "shto??" (what). Elena lives in Yekaterinburg, so she's about as Russian as they come. Anyways, after we very eloquently asked "What???" she tried to ask the question again, and again we did not understand. She got kind of feisty and asked very sternly, "where do you live" in the most beautiful English I've ever heard in my life. Not really, but it surprised me. I had such a great time talking to her. I had no idea what she was saying most of the time, but that's okay because I think she felt the spirit. I think.
Yesterday, Sister McKell and I got to host a new International sister! The International missionaries get to come a day early because of travel time and jet lag and stuff. This particular Sister is from Japan (military family) and is going to the Baltics on her mission. It was so fun showing her around and taking her to the devotional. We are getting 3 more Russian Sisters today which means they will be in a district of just sisters, which is pretty much unheard of. It will be interesting to see how that all works out.
Yesterday we had the wonderful opportunity to hear from Elder Ballard in our Tuesday Devotional. His talk was SO amazing! He straight up said that he didn't have anything prepared, so he was just going to speak to us like a grandpa speaks to his grandchildren. I definitely got that vibe from him. Elder Ballard talked about family, prayer, and perseverance. It was so inspirational. I loved every minute of it. The spirit was so strong and I felt so empowered after walking out of that meeting. The part that stuck out to me the most was when he talked about families. It's just so amazing to me that missionaries aren't just teaching other peoples' families, we are teaching our own spiritual families. We are all spiritual siblings and we're gathering our own brothers and sisters together. When I try to look at everyone as my literal brothers and sisters, how I perceive and teach the people completely changes. I'm not just saving THEIR family, I'm saving mine. We know the way back to our Heavenly Father, our job is to help everyone know the way back too.
The choir director has informed us that the Elders will be singing in the Priesthood session of Conference. I guess the Sisters got to sing in a previous Women's Conference, so it was the Elders' turn. That will be a great experience for them!
Well... that's about all for this week! Keep your chins up and keep smiling! Thank you all for your love and support. I appreciate all of you!
Da Svidanya!
Love,
Cectpa Megan Wagstaff
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