If you're a Russian in the hallway, what are you in the bathroom?

 I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!! 

Apparently a lot of Red Heads are sent to Russia

So much. Words cannot describe how lucky I am to have this opportunity to spend all day every day learning how to become closer to my Heavily Father and be more like my Savior, Jesus Christ. There have been many hard moments this week, but the moments that are good by far outweigh the bad ones.

Funnies:
If you're a Russian in the hallway, what are you in the bathroom?


If you're a Russian in the hallway, then European in the bathroom!!!
This was super funny because our floor has both Russian and European missionaries on it.

What a fabulous week it has been here at the MTC! Every day is sooo long, but the weeks fly by so fast!

So this week we found out that the guy we were teaching lessons to all of the last weeks is our new teacher!!! WHAT?!? That blew our minds! Lets just say we had some trust issues we had to work out on the first day.... But seriously, this teacher is INCREDIBLE! He is soooo patient and willing to teach us! And most importantly he has a super strong testimony of the gospel and we can feel the love that he has for his Savior every day during class.
Bret- you asked how the whole investigator thing worked: I have 2 teachers. They are both pretending to act like real people they met while they served their mission. It really is a cool experience!!! We are currently teaching BUKTOP (Victor) and MAXC. I think we overwhelmed Victor during our lesson with him yesterday. We are going to have to slow it down, get down to the basics, and find more out about him and what he already knows. I may not be a good teaching yet, but I can feel that I am improving. My companions and I do a much better job at "team teaching" than we did out first week here. At first we focused on teaching with the spirit, but now we know that it is just as important to plan lessons with the spirit. Without God's guidance, we can't do anything!

Speaking of teaching by the Spirit, my loving companion taught a lesson on Sunday. I was totally following along with the topic the first five minutes or so when all of a sudden something hit me hard! I have had this personal question that has been eating me up for the past 5 months. This past week especially I have been praying that I would receive an answer to this question. And then BOOM. I knew the answer. It was crazy. I immediately just wrote like a crazy women in my journal for the rest of the lesson as the spirit flowed in me. To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what the lesson was on. But because my companion invited the spirit into the lesson, I was able to receive an answer to my prayers. And the answer was SOOOO obvious!! I can't believe I hadn't seen it before. I can be so oblivious some times...

This life is not about accumulation, but contributions and service.
It is time to get to work, and tell the world the good news of the Gospel!

Improvement is a HUGE thing! There are so many time when I feel like I don't know Russian. But then I think to myself how much I knew before I got here and feel much better! It is crazy how fast we are learning!

Cool thing I found in my scripture study this week:
After Cain killed Able, he was cut off from the Lord's presence. At this time he went from the WEST to the EAST side of the garden! The Angel Moroni calls people from the West. My mind was blown.
Also, did you know that the BOM was translated in 63 days!!! That's crazy fast! I have a hard time just reading it that fast! It shows us that any thing can be down when we have the hand of God in our lives.

Read Philippians chapter 1. It is great. I've discovered that many a times I start to act like my crazy Elyssa self and start laughing and acting silly. This is fun and all, but it truly distracts me from my purpose here which is to invite others come unto Christ. [Side note, we memorized "Our Purpose" in Russian already and now Imp memorizing the first vision] In Phil 1, (I think it is verse 26?) It says to rejoice more abundantly in Jesus Christ. The days and moments that I do this, I can feel myself immediately coming closer to God. So my goal this week is to focus my conversation and thought around the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have a stronger relationship with my Heavenly Father than ever before. This week has been full of lots of study and heart felt prayers. I know that my Healy Father is pleased with me and my work as I strive to be a good missionary. I also more than ever before, I believe in Christ.

Thank you for the emails and prayers. I feel very blessed! I pray for you all everyday!!
Thanks for preparing me for this moment in my life. The people of Russia are also thanking you, for it is them you have blessed.

I love you all so much!


LOVE,
CECTPA Miller