Elder Christopher Russell, Donetsk Ukraine Mission July 2010 - July 2012

Christopher Russell was found worthy to serve a proselyting mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints, and received his mission call from President Thomas S. Monson to serve in the Ukraine, Donetsk Mission.

Chris will spend the first twelve weeks of his mission at the Mission Training Center in Provo Utah learning, Russian.

On October 13, 2010 he will start his journey to the Ukraine.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

First Letter Home (Note his signature) August 3, 2010

From: Christopher Russell
Subject: Hi Everyone
Date: Tuesday, August 3, 2010, 1:30 PM

Hello everyone
So I literally get just a 30 min time slot every week to punch out these emails so I'll try my best to get them in.

My P-Days are on Tuesdays so you won't get any mail from me until then, I've been told that I'm "not allowed" to write directly to friends from my email account and that I'm not supposed to read emails from friends. So if Blake wants to talk to me he should do it through Dear elder. That rule about email only applies while I'm here at the Mtc so once I'm in the field things are different.

So far the dear elder thing works great. I am told that it even works while I'm in the field since it's basically pouch mail. The reimbursement check is in the mail and Dad's shoes aren't in my suitcase. My official day for departure is Oct 13.

I love my companion, we are very much alike and we seem to work very well together. Right now I'm the senior companion. We started learning Russian and it's really really hard. I think it's a bit funny that I keep reverting to french when I can't think of russian words. Apparently I need to learn how to roll my r's which Dad said was genetic and my companion says is practice. We'll see. We taught a lesson on Saturday and I thought that we did pretty well for our first time. And then Monday we taught another one which didn't go so well, mostly because we were thrown into a situation with little background instead of starting out fresh.

I'm writing this on P-Day which is very confusing in the MTC. Lots of clothes changing, but we get to go to the temple.

I talked with Brian and things seem to be going great for him too. We cought up and everyone is right about the timing since everything seems to be going really slowly and quickly at the same time.

Oh! The seal on my watch wasn't put back properly and my watch died several times......I told you Dad.....They don't sell watch screwdrivers so if you could send one it would be great. There's an elder that looks like Carson nichols and my companion looks like Steven Shattuck. I like my nametag's looks.

I need the appropriate ties that I left behind if you could get them in a box and send them up. I forget them.

The MTC is great and I can't believe it's been a week already. I've been told that I probably won't be able to got to the kiev temple but other than that I've heard good things. Apparently though they have the "tu" and "vous" thing like in french and if you do the wrong one they will either laugh at you, punch you in the face, or start beating you with the closest object(usually a broom).

Good things happen in the MTC. I'm glad everyone is doing well: plants are growing, babies teething, cousins busy, and siblings camping. Thank you for all of the letters and please keep writing them! I'll keep in touch!

Старейшина Russell

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