Next Stop...RUSSIA!!!

Здравствуйте!

У Меня есть лета документи! (I'm not sure how to say flight plans in Russian, but that's supposed to say... I have flight plans!) We finally got our travel itineraries this week, and I'm seriously so excited! We're going from here to JFK, where we have an 8 hour layover, and then to Moscow, which is a crazy long flight. We seriously have an 11 hour layover in the Moscow airport, which should be pretty awesome! We have to run to the embassy and do something there, but other than that I'm just planning on talking to all sorts of different people! It's gonna be so awesome! It doesn't feel like 9 weeks has passed, it seems like it was seriously last week that I had to say goodbye to all of you and come into the MTC, and now I'm already leaving! It's so exciting though! I feel so blessed to be able to go and serve those people! 

This week has been sort of weird, half of our district left last week, so we only had five people in our classes. Even though we were lacking in people, it was still a really awesome experience! We've been listening to conference talks in class this week and translating what they're saying to English, and I'm pretty sure the people that do the voice-overs for conference play a game called "Let's see how fast we can talk". Haha, it seriously sounds like they put the video on fast-forward. It's surprising how much we understand though! I've learned so many new cool words from that though, like умопомрачителный (Oom-uh-pom-ruh-cheat-el-nee, haha, that's the closest I can get with English letters). When you break it down it literally translates to "Mind darkeningly good," which is basically like saying so great that it literally blows your mind. And then the word сногшибателный (Snog-she-bottle-nee) means feet-sweepingly good according to one of my teachers! So now I don't have to respond with the same two words every time somebody asks me how I'm doing! 

This week has been pretty average, just like usual, study, eat, and sleep! We had a pretty cool devotional this Tuesday though, I can't remember the name of the person who spoke, but he gave a really good talk full of so many awesome thoughts! One that particularly struck me was that fear shouldn't exist in this gospel. If we have faith in Christ and his abilities to guide us, there really is no place for fear. There's no reason we should hesitate to follow promptings, or simply open our mouths, because when we act under the direction of the spirit, we are led down the path that Christ has prepared for us. He told us about a French poem that was translated into English. It went something like this, "A lone man was walking across a mountain path. Another man from a distance called to him saying, come to the edge. The man responded no, for I will fall. The other man called once more, and he responded again with no, for I will fall. The other man beckoned once more, "please, come to the edge". So he did, and he pushed him. And he flew." Sometimes it does not make a whole lot of sense to us, why we have been asked to do something by the Lord. Occasionally, we are even justified in our fear. But when we recognize that the call to come closer was from Christ, and that he will not lead us astray, it is then we learn that we can fly. Please do not misunderstand the analogy here. There are many types of canyons in this life, most of which lead us to nothing but a fall, followed by pain and agony. These are not the types of cliffs we should be jumping off of. When we have the ability to recognize Christ calling to us in our lives though, asking us to take that next step, we need not fear, for through Him we can do all things. I love you all strongly, and pray for you daily. I hope all is well, and continues to stay that way.

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

(FYI:  Because Dustin didn't really say when he leaves the MTC for Russia, I am just letting everyone know that he is leaving Tuesday evening, Mar 8th...he doesn't actually get to Rostov until Thursday evening, Mar 10th!  It's going to be a long few days for him, but as you can tell from his letter, it can't come soon enough!  Next time we hear from him he will be in RUSSIA!!!  So excited for him!)