Amy's Email to the Thompsons

I got your email!

I'm so glad!  YAY!!  My life is complete now.It's a beautiful day in Provo!  How is the rest of the World?   Love to Kevin and Joyce both.  I would not have know how to fix it so thank goodness for them both!  So, grandma grandpa, I heard peaches died.  I'm so sorry.  I love you!  Isn't the gospel great though!  We know that no matter what we are going through we can still find happiness thanks to Christ!  I absolutely love you, my entire family.  Families are the best and I'm so glad we can be together for eternity.  This week we lost all of the Russians and the rest of our group, so it's been crazy here.  But, they were ready to begin teaching.  

(Amy's District)

I have a district of 5.  It's pretty small.  3 Elders (male missionaries) my companion and me.  We are the only 5 learning Ukrainian and we were surrounded by a whole lot of Russian speaking and learning missionaries.  IT was great.  We could actually understand a lot of what the Russians were saying.   So, today was kind of lonely.  Yesterday was kind of lonely too.  The hallways in our Russian floor building are quiet.  Gym was rather dull, and our special spot in the cafeteria is always empty.  BUT, I didn't come on my mission to make friends.  I came to serve the Lord.  Although, it was helpful to have their support and of course we practiced with the Ukrainians.  Now we are the old group.  We are preparing to double the branch next week with 80 new missionaries though.  

I'm going to try speaking my language more.  100% by next week?  We shall see.  Of course it will be awful and I'll have to live with my dictionary (I pretty much already do.) The language is very difficult but, I'm loving the experience.  I know that Lord is blessing me!  But, I am excited about this opportunity and I have wonderful teachers. 

I think they moved us up a week and we might be leaving July 7.  I'm excited about that.  I'm always trying to remember who I serve, and How wonderful it is to serve Him!  I love 3 Nephi chapter 13 - so that is my goal - keep focused on Him and our purpose as missionaries.  Not only invite others to Christ but keep coming Closer to Him as well.  I want my heart and eye to reflect!  

We got a new companion.  That's been hard.  She is a solo sister going to Russia.  She was with the other Engilsh - Russian sisters, but we don't have anymore Russian sisters.  So she moved in with us and I've had to get used to that.  It's hard.  I was trying to be awesomely nice to her and she practically despised us because we are speaking Ukrainian, so I totally wasn't happy for a day.  Oh, well.  We'll learn to live with each other! I love keeping my schedule.  Why do we plan if we aren't going to follow it?  But, I suppose their are other things that are more important.  I think I'm to rigid.  I know I should loosen up a little bit and enjoy life a little bit more (Any advice would be great).  BUT, I also am learning a language in 3 months.  This is going to be an extremely hard week for us.  TOMORROW, we teach completely in Ukrainian.  It's going to be a crazy crazy experience and tough...

We are surrounded by the mountains out here.  They are beautiful!  

Tell everyone hello.  Things are wonderful.  Read 3 nephi 13.  That's what we all need to do:  Keep an eye single to His glory!  Come closer to Christ always!  Reflecft His light.

 LOVE YOU ALL!!

You are the best!!!
Have a happy day!
Love CECTPA MURPHY!