Dear all,
The Finns are leaving on Monday and it's SO SAD. I told Sisar she was allowed to serve her mission in the Provo MTC or the Hungary Budapest Mission--none of this "Finland" nonsense. She's basically my mini-Mom in the MTC and kind-of an all-around angel--sooo, I might just have to set her clock back so she misses her early morning flight to Finland on Monday. JUST KIDDING. She's going to be an absolutely amazing missionary--aaand she's been here way too long. All the Finns have. In fact, I think the funniest day in the MTC so far has been when the new Finns (who arrived yesterday) who have heard Finnish maybe once or twice in their lives, met the old Finns who have just spent the past ten weeks of their lives and hundreds upon hundreds of hours learning and studying the Finnish language. Lots of wide eyes haha.
Soooooo, this week:
1.) I got to host new missionaries again! There were much fewer tears this week, which was nice--but, I still have to utilize my "signature move." (Not sure if having a signature move is entirely appropriate, but they don't know it's all a play, so we're all good.) So, for any of you who might be hosting incoming missionaries to the MTC one day in the near future let me share with you a piece of advice: if you can tell your missionary is just ready to lose it--the tears are-a-coming--get your best puppy dog face going, open your arms really wide, and when they go in for the hug, just say, "I know, I know." You won't really understand what you know but for some reason the fact that you pretend to know it provides a great deal of comfort, so just go for it. Works every time.
2.) So basically the MTC is the same schedule aaaall the time, so anything that shakes up the monotony (like trips to the dentist--oh, my!) is really exciting. And this week that thing was that it was our teacher's 23rd birthday on the 23rd. So, we made him "golden plates" for his "golden birthday" (because we're cute like that) as his card and it was really great, BUT the point of this is that I've been looking for a good story to share with you all to summarize my district. And this one is pretty on point. Okay, so, each of us got a page in these "golden plates" to write something nice to our teacher. Anyways, one of the Elders in my district took his page and wrote, "hey man, I love you, you're a super awesome guy, thanks for being our teacher, I want you to always have this to remember me by," CUT OFF A PIECE OF HIS HAIR AND TAPED A CHUNK INTO THE CARD with a note that said, "Please no cloning." And that's a pretty good summation of my district.
Also, the birthday song in Hungarian is totally awesome.
3.) Also! The Promised Basketball Buddy Story:
Once upon a time I was registering for my freshman year classes at BYU the summer of 2013 while simultaneously my older brother was preparing to serve his mission in Brazil. I thought to myself: "Wow! Christa, that will be you in a year. You should start preparing." And so somehow, in my brain, one of the preparations would be to take a language class at BYU to get ahead in my mission language (even though I had no mission call...) and I thought to myself (I can say this now that I have my call), "Christa, I'm really feeling Eastern Europe." So I sat down, and because I have some sort of mental problem, decided, "I think I'm going to take Russian." And because my mother believes in me and could probably learn Russian in her spare time while simultaneously being working two jobs (seminary teacher/nurse-extraordinaire) because that's just how my mother is, she said, "Christa, that's a great idea!" And so I did. And I went to Russian 101 and the very first day in class I sat next to this girl named Alison, who happened to also be friends with my roommate. And the teacher had us go around the room and say why were here. But in Russian. And it was at this point that I was realizing maybe if the Lord wanted me to learn Russian, I would not be learning it that semester because HOLY COW, RUSSIAN. Anyways, both Alison and I got up and said we were there because we thought we were going to get called Russian speaking on our missions. Which was pretty neat, and that's how we got to be friends. The difference: I dropped Russian in a hot second. Literally within minutes of leaving class. Alison continued on and took two semesters of Russian beecaaauuse her ENTIRE family has served Russian-speaking missions (seriously, all of them). Her dad was a mission president in Russia. He also teaches Russian at BYU.
Alison is now in my zone at BYU. Alison (Motra Kelly) was called to Albania--speaking Albanian. And that's the story of how my basketball buddy is learning Albanian next door to my Hungarian class after we met in Russian 101. Good times.
4.) Anyways, here are ten two-letter words for you to think about this week: "If it is to be, it is up to me." I love it. That phrase is the perfected version of "you can be anything you want to." Because "you can be anything you want to/set you mind to/want to be" is pretty much false. I literally can't be an a pilot. I have less than 20/20 vision and if I wanted to fly planes for the military, they would say, "Sorry, come back in the next life when your eyes are better at being eyes." BUT--if there is anything I want to be--or anything you want to be--that's a good thing, and a reasonable thing, it's up to you. You decide whats good and you make all the difference. If you want to be more outgoing, better at school, a better friend, better at Hungarian--it's up to you. And through Christ's Atonement and through God's love it's all possible. Any of it. Being better. It's just all on you.
And that, that is a beautiful thing.
I love you all. I miss you all immensely, but I love working hard every day.
Tudom hogy a Mormon könyve igaz!
Szeretet mindig,
Carle Nővér
The Finns are leaving on Monday and it's SO SAD. I told Sisar she was allowed to serve her mission in the Provo MTC or the Hungary Budapest Mission--none of this "Finland" nonsense. She's basically my mini-Mom in the MTC and kind-of an all-around angel--sooo, I might just have to set her clock back so she misses her early morning flight to Finland on Monday. JUST KIDDING. She's going to be an absolutely amazing missionary--aaand she's been here way too long. All the Finns have. In fact, I think the funniest day in the MTC so far has been when the new Finns (who arrived yesterday) who have heard Finnish maybe once or twice in their lives, met the old Finns who have just spent the past ten weeks of their lives and hundreds upon hundreds of hours learning and studying the Finnish language. Lots of wide eyes haha.
Soooooo, this week:
1.) I got to host new missionaries again! There were much fewer tears this week, which was nice--but, I still have to utilize my "signature move." (Not sure if having a signature move is entirely appropriate, but they don't know it's all a play, so we're all good.) So, for any of you who might be hosting incoming missionaries to the MTC one day in the near future let me share with you a piece of advice: if you can tell your missionary is just ready to lose it--the tears are-a-coming--get your best puppy dog face going, open your arms really wide, and when they go in for the hug, just say, "I know, I know." You won't really understand what you know but for some reason the fact that you pretend to know it provides a great deal of comfort, so just go for it. Works every time.
2.) So basically the MTC is the same schedule aaaall the time, so anything that shakes up the monotony (like trips to the dentist--oh, my!) is really exciting. And this week that thing was that it was our teacher's 23rd birthday on the 23rd. So, we made him "golden plates" for his "golden birthday" (because we're cute like that) as his card and it was really great, BUT the point of this is that I've been looking for a good story to share with you all to summarize my district. And this one is pretty on point. Okay, so, each of us got a page in these "golden plates" to write something nice to our teacher. Anyways, one of the Elders in my district took his page and wrote, "hey man, I love you, you're a super awesome guy, thanks for being our teacher, I want you to always have this to remember me by," CUT OFF A PIECE OF HIS HAIR AND TAPED A CHUNK INTO THE CARD with a note that said, "Please no cloning." And that's a pretty good summation of my district.
Also, the birthday song in Hungarian is totally awesome.
3.) Also! The Promised Basketball Buddy Story:
Once upon a time I was registering for my freshman year classes at BYU the summer of 2013 while simultaneously my older brother was preparing to serve his mission in Brazil. I thought to myself: "Wow! Christa, that will be you in a year. You should start preparing." And so somehow, in my brain, one of the preparations would be to take a language class at BYU to get ahead in my mission language (even though I had no mission call...) and I thought to myself (I can say this now that I have my call), "Christa, I'm really feeling Eastern Europe." So I sat down, and because I have some sort of mental problem, decided, "I think I'm going to take Russian." And because my mother believes in me and could probably learn Russian in her spare time while simultaneously being working two jobs (seminary teacher/nurse-extraordinaire) because that's just how my mother is, she said, "Christa, that's a great idea!" And so I did. And I went to Russian 101 and the very first day in class I sat next to this girl named Alison, who happened to also be friends with my roommate. And the teacher had us go around the room and say why were here. But in Russian. And it was at this point that I was realizing maybe if the Lord wanted me to learn Russian, I would not be learning it that semester because HOLY COW, RUSSIAN. Anyways, both Alison and I got up and said we were there because we thought we were going to get called Russian speaking on our missions. Which was pretty neat, and that's how we got to be friends. The difference: I dropped Russian in a hot second. Literally within minutes of leaving class. Alison continued on and took two semesters of Russian beecaaauuse her ENTIRE family has served Russian-speaking missions (seriously, all of them). Her dad was a mission president in Russia. He also teaches Russian at BYU.
Alison is now in my zone at BYU. Alison (Motra Kelly) was called to Albania--speaking Albanian. And that's the story of how my basketball buddy is learning Albanian next door to my Hungarian class after we met in Russian 101. Good times.
4.) Anyways, here are ten two-letter words for you to think about this week: "If it is to be, it is up to me." I love it. That phrase is the perfected version of "you can be anything you want to." Because "you can be anything you want to/set you mind to/want to be" is pretty much false. I literally can't be an a pilot. I have less than 20/20 vision and if I wanted to fly planes for the military, they would say, "Sorry, come back in the next life when your eyes are better at being eyes." BUT--if there is anything I want to be--or anything you want to be--that's a good thing, and a reasonable thing, it's up to you. You decide whats good and you make all the difference. If you want to be more outgoing, better at school, a better friend, better at Hungarian--it's up to you. And through Christ's Atonement and through God's love it's all possible. Any of it. Being better. It's just all on you.
And that, that is a beautiful thing.
I love you all. I miss you all immensely, but I love working hard every day.
Tudom hogy a Mormon könyve igaz!
Szeretet mindig,
Carle Nővér