Halfway Through The MTC

News from Alec:

It was 5 weeks yesterday! We passed the official halfway point this past weekend, so we only have about 3 and a half weeks left. I'm not sure if that math adds up but that's what everyone says so I'm going with it. 

Thank you very much for the package. That was awesome to get.  The cookies and banana bread were still good when they got here, and everyone thought they were delicious. I haven't found a way to use the hammock just yet, but I'm working on it.

The magnetic balls were such a great idea. It's nice to just have something to play with every once in a while. Sometimes you just need a bit of a break from studying and it's crazy the things we have to come up with for fun here. Just a few examples:

The class "pet."

1. Trying to toss the dry erase markers up in the air so they land on top of the whiteboard; extra points if it lands vertically.

2. Buying packs of rubber bands at the store to make rubber band balls. I made one the first couple weeks and it became our district's most prized possession. And then playing ping-pong/spikeball with our hands on the tables in the classrooms.

3. Playing "pocket-ball" where we sit in a circle about 10 feet away from each other and try to throw stuff like Starbursts or quarters into the front pockets on our shirts--if someone makes it in your pocket, you're out.

4. Adopting a flower from the garden beds outside and bringing it inside to be our class pet.

5. Taking plastic spoons from the dining hall and trying to put them in people's pockets without them noticing.

And here's a picture from one of our nerf battles.

It might seem like we never focus, but we actually work pretty hard 95% of the time. 

I think I'm finally at the point where I can hold a conversation (only about church stuff) and not make myself look like a total idiot. My vocab isn't great, but we've learned most of the major grammar points, so the words I do know I at least know how to use. It's just gonna take a veryyy long time until I can speak without having to think about each word I use. Ukrainian has something called cases. Basically, each each noun has to be in one of 7 cases, depending on it's purpose in the sentence (subject, object, indirect object, possession, etc.) and the ending of the noun changes depending on the case. How exactly the noun changes depends on the ending of the noun though and on gender/plurality. so for each of the 7 cases there's 20 different possible declension patterns. So it's a lot of stuff to think about just to say a simple sentence. And there's also something like 200 different possessive pronouns (my, yours, his) that i have to know, so it'll take a lot of practice. It makes me miss Spanish a lot cause of how simple it was.

Our branch president here was the president of the St. Petersburg mission a few years ago, and while there he organized the first stake in St. Petersburg. One of the native Russians who helped him do it visited our branch this past Sunday and talked to us. He lived in Ukraine for quite a while when he was in med school (he's a neurosurgeon with 2 Ph.D's, 4 patents, and currently runs a hospital in Ethiopia) so he knows a bit about Ukraine, too. By the end of the time there, we'll probably be able to understand Russian just as well as Ukrainian, because people speak both languages there. From what I can tell from all the Russian missionaries here, they're pretty similar languages.  

I got a package last week with a giant bag of tortilla chips and salsa and queso and stuff. It was super nice, but I really don't know who it came from. It looked like one of those same day MTC services. I'm just wondering who to thank for them.

There are 13 elders in my district and no sisters. In my zone though (basically my branch that we go to church with) there are a bunch of sisters learning Russian. We all have classes on the same floor so we see them a lot and I've become decent friends with most of them. 

All the other districts have about six people, usually roughly half and half with elders and sisters. And we just have 13 elders. Unfortunately, we have the same size classroom as everyone else so it gets a little cramped in there. 

Finally, here's one outside with one of our teachers, Sister H. 

 She's the teacher that's actually from Ukraine. She's very cool and a lot of fun. 

On Saturdays towards the end of class she'll usually let us go outside and we finish class out there, then she'll bring us a little football or a hackey sack or something and we'll just hang out outside for like 45 minutes after that class period is over. It's a nice break from all of the study time we have on Saturdays​​​​​​.

That's awesome that Abbie got the part she wanted in The Crucible. She was telling me all about it before I reported. That should be a fun trip to make this spring. Also that's pretty cool that Evan got that scholarship. I would never in a million years want to go to Wingate, but I bet he might like it there a lot.

Love you guys and I'll talk to you next week!

Alec