I have a New Best Friend

Mom and Fam!

Gma and gpa are coming here m/w/f/ afternoons? Tell them to find me! I
want to see them! Tell them I eat dinner from 5:30 to about 6:00 or 6:15.
Please tell them to find me!

Thank you for the packages! I got the one with the watch and shoes and
stuff as well as the one with the sports bra and retainer, where did
you find my retainer by the way??? THANK YOU!

This week has been nuts, yet again. So basically after this week I
have a new best friend. He is AWESOME! We talk all the time, almost
constantly actually. I'm pretty sure you all know HIM. Its Heavenly
Father. Things can get tough here sometimes, or other times, you know
how open I usually am with my thoughts and feelings, well, I can't
really be that open and out spoken on a mission, so basicslly probably
over half of what I would normally just tell someone or say out loud I
now say in prayer to my Father in Heaven. I rely on Him sooooo much.
Good thing He knows me so well, and cares about me so much, so He
doesnt mind :) Basically he is the PERFECT best friend (no offense to
all my besties out there I love you don't worry!). So He's helping me
through this, and is always rememinding me I can do it.

Like last week, we had TRC. TRC is where we teach volunteers who come
to the MTC so we can work on both teaching, and our language. The girl
we were teaching is from Moscow, was just baptized 3 moths ago, and
was about to go to the temple for the first time the next day. And
besides all that, I could not understand ONE SINGLE WORD she said. oh
I felt horrible, and so embarrassed, but somehow my companion could
understand everything (miracle!) so sometimes she would let me in on
what was going on. So we taught about prayer, and I did say a few
things, but for the most part I was either frustrated/sad, but the
other half of the time I was amazed at this 20 year old girl's faith
and courage. At the end of the lesson we walked out feeling bad cuz
even though my companion could understand some of it we felt like we
taught horrible and that we were all over the place. After we teach at
the TRC they have the volunteers fill out a form letting us know how
we did and what we could work on. All she wrote on it was that she
felt comfortable with us, felt the spirit, and that through faithful
prayers we can recieve what we ask for. We were AMAZED! We could not
believe she understood and learned exactly what we wanted her too. And
that she felt "comfortable" with us even though there were plenty of
awkward pauses and awkward sentences as we tried to understand
eachother. It was SO COOL!!!!!!! I can't explain it but God works in
mysterious ways and we needed to know that we can still teach even if
our language sucks haha.

OOOOH another tender mercy. So we had one of our teachers leave for a
week so we had a sub. Our teacher just got back Monday. Before he left
I could never understand what he was saying and what we were supposed
to be doing in class (remember our teachers ONLY speak in russian ALL
the time), but on Minday when he returned in class I could understand
everything he said! Whether it was what we were supposed to be doing
or when he was teaching us something I could understand almost
everything! It was weird to actually know what was going on (hahah),
but seriously. I know I have soooo much to learn with Russian still,
and when I get to Russia I doubt I'll understand anyone, but to know
that in a weeks time I have learned enough, gotten so much better to be
able to understand so much more is crazy!!!

Oh guess what I did on Sunday, gave a talk! Oh my gosh it was soooo
scary but sooooo thrilling! I think I explained this already, but
every Sunday EVERYONE prepares a talk in Russian and then they
randomly call 2 of us up to give it. Last week our branch president
told us sisters to be ready so I had feeling I wopuld be called. (my
branch president is super scary and intimidating but SO NICE and he
LOVES the sisters :) The talk was on the Holy Ghost (my FAVORITE
topic) and I did pretty well. It was frustrating having to read my talk
the whole time (you know I hate reading my talks I just kinda like to
say whatever I want) but I kept the Russian extremely simple so
hopefully everyone could understand what I was trying to say. I ended
with my testimony and my favorite thing I said was what i finished
with. Directly translated from Russian I ended saying "God wants so
that we know what to do". And I know thats true! God wants to help us,
so look to Him, ask Him your questions, tell Him your thoughts and your
frustrations, tell Him what you've been thinking about. He wants to
hear! And I know he will help you.

Oh, best news ever! One of our "investigators" has a scheduled
baptismal date. Woot WOOT!

So I think I've forgotten to tell you every week we have do "service"
basically meaning we have a sceduled time to clean the MTC haha. We
ALWAYS clean the Barbershop. Ha, isn't that funny there's a barbershop
here? Anyways, for some wonderful reason our service is 6 am every
monday (makes me want to kill someone) so we always look hilarious as
we clean becasue 1) we always wear our hair in pigtails (its for fun).
2) we're all super angry cuz its so early in the morning 3) Just the
fact that we are cleaning a barbershop is hilarious. So yea, just a
small little fun part of my life I'm priveledged to do so early in the
morning.

OOOh we had an awesome speaker last night. Elder Zivic of the 70. It
was amazing. I wish I could tell you everything. My favorite thing he
said was this quote "God grant me serenity to accept what i cannot
change, courgae to change what i can, and wisdom to know the
difference". He followed the quote telling us that we cannot change
our physical height but we change change our spiritual height. So
true! So make sure you're not stressing/worrying about the things you
can't change, and that you're working on changing what we have the
ability to change :) I know I really needed to hear that. Makes me
think of the most annoying scripture ever Mosiah 4:27 (i think). The
one that says we cannot run faster than we have strength. Makes me so
mad cuz I just want hit the ground running and be awesome right away
at everything. I hate not being good at things and having so much I
need to work and improve on (and believe me the MTC is a great place
to go if you want to earn alllllllllllllllllll of you faults and
weaknesses) but we just need to trust in God and know that he knows
we're trying our hardest.

Goodness I feel like Im preaching to you, sorry! I just have so much
cool stuff im learning I gotta share it! I love all of you. Thank you
for your prayers, and your letters and concern. Can you believe I have
less than 3 weeks? Time flies! I love you!
Love,
Sister Tenney