The Terminus

This is the end. No more MTC. My final P-Day in the USA.

So.

Awesome.

I'm getting out of here!! Finally, getting out of here and going to Ukraine! I can't believe it! We're flying to Chicago, then to Vienna, Austria. Then we head straight to Dnepropetrovsk! It's my last few days in the States!

I'm very happy to announce that we learned how to tell people where the lobster hibernates in Russian.

"Я покожу тебе где раки зимуют!" 

I say this all the time now. So much fun! I even managed to combine it with the whales saying:

"Я покожу тебе, что Земля не стоик на трёх китах!"

(I'll show you that the Earth doesn't stand on three whales!)

I love Russian. It's. Awesome.

We Skyped a Russian member. He was pretty cool, he played guitar like me! Rock guitar! We told him that we're going to Ukraine, and he was like, "You know that there is war there right now? They told you that?" (He was speaking english here). We were like, "Yeah, no, we know". And then he was like, "You'll be fine, just be obedient to all your rules and you will be fine.". He was super cool. We liked him.

I can't really think of too much else that has happened to us this week. I spoke a lot of Russian. That's about what's happened to us. We leave on Tuesday.

So. Yeah. Short letter this week I guess.

Here's us on FLIPPING CHRISTMAS! One of the older zones left, and they gave us ALL of their food. We call this day, MTC Christmas. I'm holding an apple that was very delicious!

​Here's us outside of the temple on our final P-Day as District 22J

                                       (Anderson, Bolingbroke, ME, Fuller, Wilson, Pingry, Clark, Jensen, Arave)

So, the other day, I walk into my room at night, and I find that somebody has left a yellow sticky note on my pillow. It was a verse from the Book of Mormon. It was written in Russian. At the bottom they wrote "You're the MAN Elder Robison". I looked up the verse in English, Alma 7:12. It's all about how Christ came to earth so he could take upon himself death.

Picture!

From left to right:

Elder Arave (He's an amazing Pianist), 

Elder Jensen (An awesome baker), 

Elder Wilson (He's from Nevada), 

Elder Clark (He's from Minnesota... He's really sassy. All the time, just on the inside usually), 

Sister Allred (one of our teachers), 

Brother Grover (another of our teachers), 

Sister Andersen (She's Danish), 

Sister Bollingbroke (She's pretty much legally insane), 

Elder Pingry (He's from Sugar City, Idaho, where sweet things grow), 

Elder Fuller (My companion... I hate that guy!), 

Elder Babcock (He's no longer with us)...

I'm not sure who that guy on the end is though... Looks like a weirdie if I ever did see one!

We all decided that we would wear red and call it Allred day. Because our teacher's name is Allred. We're clever here in District 22J. Brother Grover's tie is red, it just looks like it isn't. We let him know via text that we were doing it, and he just so happened to be dressed right for it.

That's the district! We all love each other! Except for me and Elder Fuller. There is no love there.

Week 7'ish

So, this week... really crazy!

We just bumped up our Russian studies... like by a million-fold. It's insane! I've been speaking so much Russian! I love it though, my companion is finally really devoted to studies now. Plus, I can always talk to my teachers. It's super funny to talk to the new missionaries in Russian, they just kind of look at you and pretend that they understand what you're saying. It's not mean, it's helping them learn!

We lost a member of our district on Saturday. He had a lot of medical issues and is now on a temporary medical release. He will return to missionary service once he's healthy again. What's weird is, there are ten of us in the district, so we kind of payed tithing. In a weird, sad way. Super sad weekend, but we ain't got time for sadness!

У нас нет времини за грустность!

So, we got another new teacher, Brother Storey. He's super awesome. He majored in Russian once he got back from a Russian mission in like 2005. He's super good, and he's a great teacher.

All of our teachers are great, we love them.

My companion was called as district leader on Sunday, and I don't have a calling still. Sort of a good thing, because I need all the time I can get my hands on to study the language! I do get to bless the sacrament this Sunday though. In Russian!!

FUNNY RUSSIAN SAYINGS TIME!!

Apparently, something a Russian might say if they would be saying "I'll show you!" in English, they would say "I'll show you where the lobster hibernates!"

They might also say something like, "Земля не стоик на трёх китах", which translates to, "The Earth doesn't rest on three whales". Don't ask me where it comes from, I don't know. I don't even know in what case someone would say this. It is, however, awesome! I love Russian!

I talked to the Ukrainian speaking missionaries that came in last week, thinking that I would be able to use the 5 Ukrainian words I know. I asked all 4 of them how they were doing, and not one of them understood me. Needless to say, I was saddened to my very soul. They've gotten better though, and they've started to teach me a little Ukrainian! I don't trust it at all, but it's still cool!

Funny convo between me and my companion

Him: "I hate you."

Me: "Yeah, pretty much. Me too."

Him: "You're going to my wedding, right?"

Me: "Totally! Why wouldn't I?"

Him: "I do NOT understand our relationship AT ALL!"

Me: "Я тоже! Are you even gonna get married? You'll be too old when you get back!"

"Shut up! I'm not too old!"

"It's OK, I'm gonna be too bald! You'll be too old, I'll be too bald, and neither of us will be able to speak English anymore!"

And then we laughed for like 5 minutes. I don't have any idea what to make of this, but now, every night before bed, he says "Я тебя ниневидю, Старейшина Робисон! (I hate you Elder Robison)", to which I respond, "Я тоже! (Me too!)"

We're best friends.

Well, that's pretty much it for now. We're almost out of here! Almost! 

I Think It's Like Week 6. Something Like That

Pretty sure it's week 6. Don't quote me on it.

So, I think that something happened that deserves to be noted: The letter Q is stupid. This is a true statement. The other day, I was trying to write "quickly", but it's been such a long time since I've had to write much in English that I didn't know what letter to start with. Then I remembered that it starts with 'q', but this caused another problem; I couldn't remember what 'q' looks like! There is no 'q' in Russian. There isn't even something that looks like 'q' in Russian. 

Upon realizing that 'q' still existed, I was also reminded that 'q' is one of the most useless letters in English. You can't even use 'q' if you don't slap a 'u' right next to it! Who's idea was this? Why not just make a character that is the sound of 'qu' and avoid having such a ridiculous rule?

The moral of this story is, 'q' is a pitiful letter. I can see why I forgot about it so fast. I can't believe I had to be reminded of it.

Second moral: Russian is really specific and thorough, and we should all learn to speak it because it's super cool.

In other news, more Russian!

Хорошо, поэтому, я и мой друг Старейшена Кларк поговорим друг друга, а мы будем говорить свой язык всегда! Наши сёстры тоже говорить свой язык! Это очен класный!

Anyway, we're almost done at the MTC! Just a couple more weeks, and we'll be on our way to Ukraine! Much excited!

It's awesome. Except, I still can't speak Russian. So that's a thing.

I got my key back! Finally!

Also, General Conference was awesome! I loved the talk that Elder Jefferey R. Holland gave! It was great!

Покой!

---Week 6 Plus

I forgot to mention that I learned a little bit of Ukrainian the other night! It's really weird! I want to learn it really badly! But, first I'm going to learn Russian. That's probably a good idea.