Inside the MTC

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Week 5 in the MTC

Hey everyone!

 

I honestly cannot remember how many weeks i have been here. I suppose i could count and see.

So I am on another shotty keyboard so please bear with me. (Maybe it's because I don't type as much anymore? Who knows)

 

Anywho, So this week was a great one. A few notable occurances. First off, I was having a hard time finding a purpose here at the MTC besides learning Russian and reading scriptures. I honestly wanted to serve and not just spend my time learning Russian grammar (which is horrendous, by and by). So I prayed about it one night, and the next day a sister missionary in my district asked me if I could give her a blessing of comfort, it being my second blessing, and it being the first blessing my district would participate in. So naturally, I grew nervous thinking of what to say, and 5 minutes later, I blessed her. It was the same sister who knows The Irwins. Her name is Sister Quinn, but anywho, yes I gave her a blessing. It was such an awesome answer to my prayer because I actually got to serve here in the MTC. She was in need of comfort and I was there to help her, and it was so great. The Spirit was so strong as I was giving her a blessing and I honestly had no idea what I was going to say, let alone the fact that i really dont remember what I said in the first place. So I stood there shaking blessing her things that I had no previously thought of. It was so amazing. I honestly can't wait to give blessings to those out in the field. 6 more weeks or so! May 9th, I am out of here. From what I do remember though, about the blessing, is just that I kept on thinking of Moroni 8:3 as I was blessing her, and I shared that scripture with her afterward and she was really thankful for the blessing and the scripture because she needed some help with her family situation. (i recommend that scripture, it's a great one. Nay. A fantastic one).

 

To add, I finished the Book of Mormon already this week and I started Jesus the Christ. Jesus The Christ is one of the most amazing books I have read so far. It's way interesting. Talmage is a fantastic writer. I honestly can't wait to read some more. This week, on Sunday we had amazing Missionary Devotional (we have one every fast Sunday) and the MTC president gave an amazing talk about Jesus Christ and his Atonement. It was seriously so amazing. I filled a few pages alone of notes.

 

Yesterday, All of the older districts in my zone left to the field already. It's empty in my hallway now. It's kind of sad :( But I am excited for them. They are finally going to the Motherland!! I cannot wait to be in their position and leaving. A few of them going to Rostov, Russia had to leave at 5, and so they woke us all up and gave us all hugs and some pass-down items. Someone in the hallway got the passdown mattress pad that's super squishy. Yeah, it sounds like gross, but that's why we have sheets, right? Like i said last week, I got the Gift of Tongues Hat. It's a most choice hat. My companion got these two cheap colognes from another missionary called "Black" and "$$$". It's been a hilarious few momenets with  those colognes. We always say "black money" in Russian whenever we can. By the way, I am convinced I have the funniest companion ever. He just occiasionally says the most hilarious things not meaning to. They make some great stories. He is actually sitting next to me right now writing his family a letter. He's a great lit'l feller.

 

Oh. Another notable thing that happened this week... So yesterday, Elder Clark (my compajnion) and I were sitting down to eat lunch, and we look over and we see an older couple sitting in a table nearby. We had read a few weeks ago that the  St. Petersburg Russia were getting new mission presidents and they had been announced. We saw a picture of them a while ago; a pleasant picture of Brother and Sister Beasley. Well, Clark looks over and is convinced it was them. We go up to them, and sure enough it was. So we sat with them and got to get to know them a little bit. They are from Fort Worth, Texas and know Thaddeus Blankenship! It was cool to hear. But yes. They get set apart in June in July or something, and they are here at the MTC for a week or so for some Russian tutoring and training. They seem like great people and they are eager to have more missionaries stay in the mission home in St. Petersburg (the St. Petersburg mission is actually quite large and goes into Frans Josef land, which is past the Arctic Circle... Yup). So yes. They seem more eager for more missionaries in the city, because obviously there are more people. I also found out they do a lot of service in the Hermatage! The GIANT art musuem! Pretty much every week you are in there during service. A perfect form of service for me... I can't wait!

 

Well, other than that, it has been a normal week. Lots of Russian studying and spiritual growth. I teach my first lesson in Russian tomorrow! I am not sure if I am entirely ready. I will be fine though. I can formulate sentences quite well now. I just need to master how to conjugate on the spot and change case endings for my nouns, which, by the way, includes an intensive chart of Russian Grammar rules. Needless to say, it's getting there. I think I am doing quite well for myself considering it has been noted to be the third hardest language for English speakers to learn.

 

So this morning, I got my haircut. It's the shortest it has been in years. Almost a military haircut. I kind of like it. It's funny how things turn out like that, how at one time of my life I didn't wnat my haircut and I liked it long, but now I prefer it short. perhaps that's the mission doing that to me? who knows. But at any rate, it really eccentuates my hairline and thin hair. I butchered that word. Man. My English is going down the HOOOOOPS

 

I will be sending you a written letter soon, mom and dad! I loved your letter Katie. Those Charlie Sheen quotes really made my night. I have a hundred percent success rate.

 

I love you all, and you're in my prayers everyday.

 

Лобовь.

старейшина Текульви

Week four at the MTC

Hello friends and family!

 

It's starting to seem like the weeks blend together. I can't even remember what has happened this week, but I can assure you, a lot has happened. My routine has been quite... shall we say, routine? We have set schedules everyday. The longest days I have found so far are Mondays and Saturdays. We have gym in the morning, and then class from 9 am - 9 pm (with lunch and dinner breaks of course). But hurray. Today is Tuesday.

 

I got your letter dad. Thanks so much! I enjoyed it muchos. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. The only time I have to take pictures are on Sundays when we go on Temple Walks. I bring both cameras and take pictures. it's a lot fun. In a week the older districts in my zone are all shipping out to the Motherland. There are three others that are going to St. Petersburg. They are awesome. Love em. One of them is named Elder Albee. For a while I would sing the Friend's theme everytime I would see him. But i kind of grew out of it. Sorry if my capitilazition is off. The shift key is messed up a little. so bear with me. anywho, yes they are all leaving in less than a week. So it's going to be a bit quiet after next week. I think we get more Russian missionaries on April 6th. I am not sure when Sean Rooney is coming in, but if he is coming in on the 6th, there is a HUGE chance he is going to be in my zone, which would be awesome. Our zone consists of our hallway in the residence halls. It's a lot of fun. So for about a week, it's just going to be 3 districts of 21 people total left in the hall. that's queit. too quiet.

 

i hope the boat is doing fine. She's gone through much agony trying to pull 4 adults on tubes. If her health fails her, she lived a good life... If I don't see you again when I get back, Bayliner, fare thee well.

 

I am still hoping that the Putin and Biden don't do the visa agreements. Visa runs are going to be way awesome. I would get to visit a few other places across Europe every 3 months, and that's something I would want reaaaal bad.

 

This week, we had a sister in the neighboring district (ukraine speaking district) who got a concussion. She was doing laundry and she hit her head with immense force on the dryer above. She was concussed for a while too. She had to go to the ER once or twice. She's fine now, but it put a lot of stress on the sisters in my district. They are in a three way companionship, so they had to go to the hospital with her and such. My district leader also bruised his sternum while playing volleyball with us. He has since gotten better with the help of his awesomeness and some painkillers. Don't worry. I am not injured, nor do i plan to be. By the way, I think you might enjoy this, dad, but guess who has been taking vitamins everyday? This guy! Yup. I have been quite good at that. Pop in some Centrum and some L-Lysine every morning, and I am set. it makes up for the lack of nutritional quality that is the MTC cafetaria.

 

Oh so the older districts also got their travel plans... Remember how I thought I was going to go to Chicago? So the three going to St. petersburg, their flights go to CHICAGO and then LONDON and then ST. PETERSBURG!!! So i guess my hunch was partially correct.

 

This week's TRC, or in other words, our lesson we teach on wednesdays went kind of eh. The Russian was good. It was a scenario in which to take the investigator onto a bus and converse with them for 15 minutes. I thought I did really well. I have been getting really good at formulating my own sentences now, and not just reciting poorly memorized phrases. The lesson we taught is in English and we had to switch investigators midway though our lesson and it was really confusing, and I felt that confusion (and the fact that the mock investigator didn't read the TRC scenario. [it was supposed to be a college student, but the mock investigator was going on and on about how his back hurts and he had to get knee surgery and was a father]) really hindered my ability to communicate with my Companion visually to see what we wanted to talk about. It was supposed to be on The Plan of Salvation and it ended up being on the Restoration, so in that respect, we did well changing our plans and teaching something not according to our plans. But I know I can do better . Next week we are teaching Plan of Salvation and word of wisdom, and we have to help them move and pack in Russian. cool i know. Next wednesday we are teaching in Russian... jeebies!

 

So last night, since the older districts are leaving, they passed down some of the traditional "pass-down" heirlooms from older older districts. Last night we had a ceremonial passing down of дар езиковь, or the Gift Of Tongues Hat. It felt like the Sorting Hat, and I grew really excited. The Previous owner, Elder Byington had all of us youngies kneel down and he hovered the hat over our heads until it found the right bearer... I was chosen among the sea of missionaries to bear the дар езиковь. [dar ye-zee-koff] An honor among men.

 

Well that's about it for this week, I suppose. A few things I thought were hilarious that my companion said in class was when asked to describe his family in Russian, he responds that he has a white family. And when asked what he was majoring in, he responded taht he was majoring in Isosceles Triangles. I exploded after hearing that.

 

Anywho,

Gotta run!

 

Love you all!

 

Elder Tekulve

 

Again, forgive me if the grammar, spelling, and capitalization is poor. :)

Week 3!

So i am typing this the real way and not trying to get around the 30 minute cap. So here we go:

 

This week was mainly a week of Russian brain explosion. A lot of things clicked in terms of their grammar, which by the way is absolutely insane. They have so many cases and conjugations and stuff. But what I find really cool is that some of the cases for things, Like Accusative and Dative cases, have implied case meanings for them. For example, "of God" would sound like boga, "to God" would be bogoo, and "with God" would be bog-ye. It looks a lot cooler in acrylic. I have all of the letters in the alphabet about down. I can keep up when we sign hymns, which is awesome. I have come to the realization taht Russian is an absolutely beautiful language, contrary to popular belief. Hymns in Russian sound 500x cooler. Be Still Be Soul is so much better in Russian. Hands down. Come Come Ye Saints is an amazing one in russian as well.

 

This week we had a TRC where we had to teach an investigator again, but we had to introduce ourselves in Russian again and invite ourselves in. I drew a complete mind blank, and it was so frustrating. I couldn't think of what to say. I kept on saying stuff and the investigator would respond "nye ponyamoo" which means that he doesnt understand. I was about ready to explode. I am not gonna worry too much though. The language will come in time. Before we taught the "I DONT UNDERSTAND" fellow, we taught this other lady before. She sounded like a Russian native and she was really nice. I would ask her what she thought about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and she would respond as if she was a member who read the Book of Mormon, which I thought was strange but extremely convienient. After you introduce yourselves in Russian, you basically teach the lesson in English for 30 mins, and i was stuck with the man who didnt understand. Anywho, two elders in my district taught the lady and asked her if she was baptised. She replied Yes... a few days ago. She had just joined the church less than a work earlier and signed up to volunteer at the MTC not knowing she was supposed to be playing a role. It was really awesome and hilarious. She had really poor English, but her testimony was so earnest and sincere.

 

Mom. THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE!!! I was sooo excited when I received it. I loved all of the ties, and the sweatshirts! it's so nice to have a hoody now. Go Montana and Killer Whales!! I shall forever support those sports teams in which I have no idea who they are. They do just the job for me :) Thanks mama! And thank you for the many other things in the package as well! They were much needed.

 

I made a tie trade of a life time. I hope you know, Dad, that some of your old ties are spreading across the world being worn on many a missionary. I traded for this one tie that's 100 percent lambswool made in Scotland. I call it O'Lanalyn. She is a beaut. Skinny, Crayola Dandalion Blue color, woll tie. It's amazing. I had the Elder sign the tie before he traded. I actually traded three for it. It was most desirous amongst everyone in my district and zone. So I was victorious. (Don't worry. I kept the ones that meant something). I traded the "Peacock" and "Under The Microscope" and "The Imaginarium". A worthy trade? I think so. O'Lanalyn will support me in the cold harsh winds of the Russian Motherland.

 

So I bought a Russian Hymn book this week and embossed it with Elder A. Tekulve. I also embossed my scriptures with the same name. It took a day, and I felt naked without them. It was bizarre. But I got them back, so all is well. I wish I could have embossed them in Russian because it looks way cooler. Like, way way cooler. But they unfortunately didnt have that capability... So biased.

 

I will send you, Mom and Dad, a real letter today as well. I printed out lot's of pictures to show! The machine that I printed them out on was weird and I couldn't figure out how to deselect some pictures, so I printed out 80 something... Whoops. But I shall send you some. I took a picture of my nametag. It looks rad, and I think you might like it too!

 

I got a letter from Br. P sharing some news about Elder Tyler Abbott. I heard some hilarious hilarious hilarious news. 10 year old giving him a ride in the back of his truck? Pure Gold. If you could somehow have Sister Abbott to forward me his updates to his emails, that would be awesome! 3 Weeks for delivery to Mexico is quite a long time. Add another 6 weeks to Russia, and you are looking at 2 months. Yup. It takes about 6 weeks, I hear. But thank goodness for Email, right? It takes a matter of a half a second. Hurray for Technology!

 

So my departure date is May 9th. The day after Mother's Day. I am not sure if they will let me call that Sunday, but for sure on the 9th in the airport. So expect a phonecall from a man bearing a similar voice to both Ryan and Dad on the phone. He's name is Elder Tekulve. Make sure you answer the phone! Should I be risky and call the House, or one of your Cell phones? Let me know as soon as possibles.

 

I heard about what happened in Japan and the coasts of California. I hope everything is alright back at home, and I hope things are being helped in Japan. It's hard to hear what's going on in the real world in the MTC. I am praying everything is alright for them.

 

I best be heading off now. Expect a letter from me soon, Ma and Pa!

I love you all,

 

Elder Tekulve

Sleep Walking

Ok so I tried to do this sneaky way around writing this email and not having just 30 minutes to write it. Basically write it elsewhere and copy and paste it in the email, but it's not working. All the elders in the computer lab tried it, and it failed... Ahh!

so this might not be a long email, because i have 23 minutes to do so. I wasted 5 because I was gonna go print some, but there was nothing to print. No worries

Thanks everyone for the letters and dearelders I got! They really made my day. I had originally writen a caption for each of you that wrote me, but because I lost it all, Sorry. It's gonna have to be short. It was a really long letter before too... Dang\

Thanks for the Cinnamon Rolls! I haven't eaten them yet, but I will tonight. So considered them devoured already. What's a slab leak? I hope the house okay. Give Zoe my love! I miss that animal. Katie. Kandiskys! St. Petersburg is the home of the Hermatage. That largest art museum in the world. I am probably going to be preoccupied on my pdays in Russian, probably gonna hit me up some Hermatage!

Dad, they love love love Russian Literature there. They see them like Tom Sawyer x100,000. mean, mean pride. So Doctor Zhivago is obviously huge there. Mom, I hope real estate is going swell!!

Oh, before I go on, there are some things I would like/need.... First..  A hoody sweater.I know I have one in my room. But All I got is my Lemus, and I hate to say, but it's doing it's job poorly keeping warm in the mornings. Mom, if you can find some sort of hoodie and ship it my way, that would be awesome :) Also! My white puma shoes. There comes a time when wearing your tennis shoes becomes a hastle, and the comfort of my others shoes becomes nostalgic. I think they are in my closet or on my bookshelf. And another thing. Ties. They are currency here. They have tie trades on Sunday nights. This goes for you all of you. If you are ever at a thrift store, buy some cheap ties and send them my way. They would be put to good use. Plus. I love ties now. Those are the only things that can differentiate days from other days. So many suits and stuff! A little note: Skinny ties and Peisley sell for hot cakes here. :)

So this week.. What happened. Let's see. Well for one, I sleptwalked this week. I was having a dream that it was a fast and testimony meeting and i went up to bear my testimony. I remember saying when i got up "should i start talking?" I then woke up standing over my roommates bed... Mind you, i sleep on top bunk, so i jumped out of bed, walked on over to the other side of the room, and stood over their beds. Elder Johnson told me he woke up from me wrestling out of bed, but he closed his eyes. He opened them back up a moment later and saw a dark sillhoutte standing over his bed. He heard me say "Shoudl I start talking?" It freaked him out. But it became the talk of the day during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. IT was hilarious.

There is an elder in my district who is from Germany! He is so funny. I feel bad at times for him though, because he has to work twice as hard. He sometimes has to translate from English to German to Russian, so it makes it difficult for him.. I talked to him about Germany a few times. And I quote him, "We [Germans] don't have too much luck.... We started two world wars, and lost two world wars".. Just imagine hearing that from someone with a thick German accent. It was hysterical. I really love my district. We are all great friends already, and we have been helping each other out with the language. The language is so intense. I can pretty much read fairly well, probably the level of a first grader... It still takes some practice, but I think i got the 33 russian letters down. They have some crazy sounds in that language. One of the coolest words is for Testimony. It basically sounds like Sve-detlstva. The tlstv consnonant combo is a tricky one.

This week, we had what was called TRC. I forgot what it stands for, i mean, it doesn't necessarilly matter what it means. (Sorry for the spelling errors. I dont have much time). But basically we had to introduce ourselves as missionaries to mock investigators and teach one of them a 30 minute lesson (in english thank goodness). I thought we did very well. It was all about the Restoration. Preach My Gospel is an amazing book and it helped us out on our lesson so much. The hardest part was to introduce ourselves as missionaries. It had to be done entirely in Russian too. I have been getting decent at that. It's difficult remembering what some of the words are. But all in all, even in my broken Russian, i got one of the investigators to accept a copy of the book of mormon! it was a glorious moment!!

The MTC really is an amazing place. The Spirit is so strong here. During my pesronal study time, I just read from the book of mormon. I have read over 150 pages already in the past week. It's amazing. It was hard adjusting, but one thing that was hard was to focus during MDT (missionary directed time). We have about 5 hours a day. We basically are teaching ourselves now how to speak Russian. It was hard to focus on that. But I have changed my work habits and now I am quite the working during MDT. Russian Grammar is one of the most ridiculous things ever. So many different cases, conjugations, plrual endings. There are a million exceptions to everything and quite frrankly it can get annoying. But I know it will pan out soon.

The older districts leave in about 3 weeks. So after that, we will become the older district. I leave may 9th! I dont have my travel plans yet, but I am still excited.

Anywho, I gotta bounce.  Time to do laundry and stuff.

I would love to get some letters from all of yoU!!!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

First Week at the MTC

Hey guys!

I should have told you in my letter that my P-Days are actually Tuesday, so this is when I will be emailing you guys. I have learned a lot in the past week. I can actually read Russian and pray and bear my testimony in Russian. It's really crazy. Remember that Federal Warning Sign after Doctor Zhivago that we tried to read forever, dad? I can probably read it. Well. Sound out the words very poorly and not know what anything means... But nevertheless, I know what the cryllic symbols stand for. It's a really really bizarre language. The H's are N's, the B's are V's, the weird triangle pyramid letters that I cant really do on this keyboard are D's.

My dorm is awesome. I love all the guys here. I really really love my district too. There is a whole bunch of us on one floor all Russian speaking, so it makes it kind of interesting. I try to say as much as I can in Russian to people. (Thank You's, You're Welcomes, Hello, Goodbye, etc.) It's a lot of fun. My companion is Elder Clark, the one who emailed me some weeks ago. He is also going to St. Petersburg as well. He just barely turned 19, so he is the runt of the district. Really hilarious kid though. Love him. My roommates, Elder Johnson and Elder Long, are also great people. They are both companions are going to Russian-Samara mission. Their mission goes into parts of Kazahkstan as well. I found out, the Russia-St. Petersburg Mission is the furthest north Russian mission there is in the Church. Franz Josef Land is WAY WAY up there. It's awesome, but also kind of scary. It's basically the North Pole. There is a picture I walk by everytime I go to the Cafeteria. I call it "A Little Taste of Russia". I will take a picture of it and send it to you guys. It's a real photograph of an Elder baptizing a sister in a FROZEN lake, carved three feet down into the water. It's both hilarious, awesome, and scary.

The MTC Cafeteria... What a place. The food is great, but I will quote a friend about it. "In two weeks you will be surprised by the smells that come from your district". Every single missionary, including the Sisters, suffer from a extreme case of bad gas. I swear, it's uncontrollable... But nevertheless, the food is pretty good. We sit in a part of the cafeteria dubbed "The Iron Curtain". It's where all of the Russian, Ukranian, and Polish speakers go. When I first heard it, I was laughing for five minutes straight. I already gained a few pounds, let me not lie. We have gym everyday though, so I basically run a bit, lift some weights, and then play volleyball. It's a lot of fun because we all equally suck.

My days are incredibly long. I wake up at 6:30, and yes, I am awake. Shower, breakfast, then class for pretty much 14 hours, until 9:30. And then lights out at 10:30. That part is difficult, since we all just want to hang out and relax. My floor is a lot of fun too. We had Fiesta-Noche night, or, in other words, Chips and Salsa night. Apparently it's every monday night, and it's been going on for months, since past older districts. The older district, who are about 6 weeks in, already know so much Russian. It's intimidating. They seem so much older, but the funny thing is that I am older than most of them. Most of the missionaries here graduated in 2010.

I got assigned as Senior Missionary on Thursday, which really doesn't mean anything, since we switch off after 6 weeks. But basically I get to conduct the planning meetings we have everyday at 9:00 and Companion Inventory, which is basically us ragging on what we can do better and what we are doing poorly in a nice way.

The hardest part so far was actually Thursday and Friday. They were incredibly long days, and the first time we checked mail, I didn't get anything when everyone around me got 5 letters each. I soon got over it and got back to focus in class. I eventually got letters from Andy and Sam. It was really nice. I really love em.

The Spirit here in the MTC is so incredibly strong. I love it here. We had a devotional on Sunday night where some MTC president (I am not sure what position he is, but he isn't the MTC president) talked about how life has its turbulence, especially on a mission. It's so true. I have already felt it. It's already been so hard, but already so rewarding. People stood up and shared moments where it was difficult for them here at the MTC, and they had some sad tough stories, but one story that stook out, unfortunately, was when an Elder stood up and said, "I am speaking on behalf of everyone here, but the MTC food here has given us all terrible turbulence.". It's so true.

 We sing and pray in Russia, or Pa-Russki, and we are slowly making some better progress. I had a dream the other night where I prayed in Russian without using any notes, which is something that I have been doing. It's quite difficult remember the words to say. But last night I prayed without out notes and I did a very good job. I was impressed with myself.

This morning, we went to the temple. Their cafeteria is celestial. They have amazing amazing food. It might just top that of Paul's, or even Spanky's, Ryan. It could have very well been that the food at the MTC fails in comparison and this was a true taste of real food. It was DE-LISH!

Oh and Katie, I drink a cup of SOTLET MILT everyday. It's also quite delicious. I love me some Sotlet Milt and Fanta Orange Soda. And nope. No Grape soda here. Or black cherry soda. The forgotton drinks of our times...

Well I the time is running out on the clock on the right hand side of computer. It's blinking in red warning me of the impending doom that is 0:00.

Well I love you guys a lot, and I really miss all of you. It's been somewhat tough here at the MTC, but I know it will be way rewarding. Write me on dearelder.com please :) I can read letters throughout the week but I can only write letters on Tuesdays. So write me lots. I am here for 12 weeks. It's kind of ridiculous. So yes. www.dearelder.com  and then select Provo MTC as the location, and then put in Elder Andrew Tekulve, Russian St. Petersburg Mission, and box number 243. It's all online, free, and they print it off that day and I can read. Letters are what keep my sanity.

So everyone, Please write me. I would love to hear from every single one of you.

P.s: What's Sarah's email address? Forward this to her please  :)

I love you guys,

Elder Tekulve

(Stareshena Tekulve)

Da Svadana!