LAST WEEK HERE

So... it's my last week at the MTC. We had a pretty interesting week. Which is good. On Tuesday night we had a devotional given by Elder Oaks! Elder Jaynes and I have waited in line for the past few devotionals... a few hours early. We don't have much to do on Sundays or Tuesday nights. So we have waited in line. And no apostles. I guess the weeks before we got here was a freNzy of apostles, so we were hoping to hear from one. So Elder Jaynes was not wanting to wait in line so much... then I finally convinced him to come with me. We were the fifth row! It was awesome. I've never seen him smile so much. He kept calling us his fellow servants, that was pretty sweet. He speaks so simply about things that might be really confusing. I really liked it. On Wednesday Elder Jaynes continued his streak of spitting out Russian cusses during lessons. This week it was the s-bomb. Haha. Funny Funny. On Thursday we got our TRAVEL PLANS! So guess where I'm going before you look.

I'm going to Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. Sweet. I've been there before in the air museum. Then I'm off to the Fatherland, good ole GERMANY! I'm flying from D.C. to Frankfurt. That'll be great. I was thinking that Dad passed through there 20-something years ago, and now 20 years later I will also pass through the airport. What a great moment that will be. We'll spend about two hours in both places. Then we'll arrive in Pete about 3 p.m. local time. I'm so excited, in exactly a week from now I'll be sleeping in Russia. Not much else this week. We did get to hear from a former mission president from Kiev. He told us a little about the culture there in Eastern Europe. He showed us a video that totally smashed the stereotype that Russians are a cold, harsh people. It's on youtube somewhere. I'm not sure what it's called. It's got a bunch of little acts of service by Russians. If you can find it, sweet. If not, that's ok too. I'll be in good hands. On Friday I saw Elder Mat Butterfield. That's about it for the week. I'm excited to go to Russia, but I'll miss my teachers and my time here at the MTC. To those who will be here sometime in the future: Eat it up. The MTC is a great place that maybe has a negative reputation. It's an awesome place if you will just dedicate yourself to the work that is done here. It may be tedious at times, but it's awesome. 

 A funny quote from Elder Oaks:

     "No good deed goes unpunished"

Love you all. In a week, I'll be emailing you from Mother Russia!