Another Week in Paradise

Hey all!


Guess who knows Russian! Not me, haha. But I'll get there someday. Things are really coming along pretty well. I'm getting into the routine of life as a missionary and I just love it. This week we got a group of Russian natives in the MTC who are going to serve their missions back in Russia. I really feel like a dork trying to speak to them in Russian, because all I can say is "Hi, how are you? Where are you from?" and even that is really slow and broken. It doesn't help that I can't understand what they say back to me either. They're really fun though. One of the sisters is from Vladivostok, and she is really excited that there are a few of us who are going to be serving there. She doesn't really speak english though so I can't talk to her until I learn some Russian, which probably won't happen until after she's gone, oh well.

If there's one thing that I've really learned this week its this: The Book of Mormon is true. I started reading it again from the beginning and I am just finding great things in almost every single verse. There is so much more in there than we usually realize. Don't take the scriptures for granted, each verse was prepared by the Lord for our benefit. If you read the scriptures everyday and pray about them, you'll feel the Spirit and you'll know that they're true too. The Bible is so great too. I especially love the New Testament. There are so many great things to learn from the teachings of the Savior during his earthly ministry.

I learned this week that the Библия (Russian Bible) does not have the books of the New Testament in the same order as they are in the King James Version that I'm used to. It took me a long time to figure out
that James comes after Acts instead of Hebrews...that was a fun adventure. Yeah I felt pretty dopey. I'm sure that I am going to have struggles with that for the rest of my life now. Just as soon as I get used to the Russian order I'll be home in the US and reading in English and still won't be able to find anything. I just can't win I guess.

I'm really grateful for all of you who have taken the time to write me and keep me updated on your life. News from the outside world is so wonderful, its kind of sad to think about how excited we get about the
little things like that.

Keep writing to me, keep praying for me. I love you all,

-Elder Fife