Week 3: No Volleyball :(

Hello everybody, 

This week here at the MTC was another generic one. I cannot believe that I have already been here for 3 weeks. The Russian is coming along very slowly. There is so much grammar and case stuff, it's hard to wrap my head around. It is getting better though because when I look back to where I was 3 weeks ago, I knew nothing. Two days ago Elder Hartman, the Harvard football player, was shaving. He comes back into the room and his nose is bleeding. I asked why and he said that he cut it while shaving. I was laughing so hard. Later that day in class when our teacher was trying to teach us a spiritual lesson, I thought about it again and started to quietly laugh. It turned into this laugh attack with Elder Hartman and me. My companion is still correcting me on everything that I say but it's fine because he plays the piano really well. He loves music and to talk about music theory stuff. He got a 5 on his AP Music theory test. That's pretty cool. They took down volleyball so we had to make up for the loss. So now we go outside and play spikeball. It is very competitive in our zone. I have grow a lot and am excited to gain more knowledge. 

Elder Franckowiak

Week 2: Holy Cow Pt. 2

This week at the MTC was a little better than last week. There has been a lot going on here in the MTC.  The MTC in Provo just completed an expansion and so they have opened it up for the public to come and tour.  There are tours that will be taking place in the old building and the new ones. The tours will even go through a corner of the gym.  It is funny because even though the tours just go through the corner of the gym, none of the missionaries can play volleyball for 6 weeks.  The tours don’t even start until 4pm but they still won’t let us play from 12:20-1:20. Volleyball is how most elders in the MTC get through this place.  So I don’t know what I am going to do with my time now.  We are talking about starting a petition to get some volleyball back in action, but who knows how far that will even go! 

The Sundays in the MTC are quite different than at home.  And honestly, I am not a big fan because its church and then 8 more hours of class and then a 2 hour devotional and you get to go and watch a hour long conference talk.  I am adjusting to that slowly.  And the number of lessons we have taught are insane…both in Russian and English. 

Cole told me last week that my friend Josh will be spending all his time in the Provo MTC and I have been excited ever since (He is going to Ukraine and was originally going to the Spain MTC). We get new Russian missionaries every 3 weeks so next week we will get a big group and then 4 weeks, Josh’s group, will be about 40 new people in our zone and only 20 are leaving. Haha.  It’s going to be cool being the older guys and being able to help them out because the older guys right now have been helping us new elders out so much. Of course we are almost at their level by now but that first week and a half was insane. 

The Russian language is coming along very slowly.  We are just now starting to learn the grammar.

We have already memorized Our Missionary Purpose, The Baptismal Invitation, Moroni 10:4-5, and the First vision in Russian.  Only 7 more weeks to go and I will still barely know anything.  Wow!  Hope you all had a good week.  I'm doing good!

Elder Franckowiak 

Week 1: Holy Cow

Hello friends and family,
It's crazy that I am actually here in the MTC right now and I can't believe how much I have learned in this past week. When I first got to the MTC they took me to my room and we dropped off our stuff and went straight to class. We learned a few things while waiting for everyone to show up. Well it was time to go to our orientation and I still didn't have a companion. I just followed a partnership until it was dinner time and I found Colson Anderson, a friend from high school, and we just went and ate. Finally I went back to my residence and found my companion. Me and my companion, Elder Page, have been doing really well together for the past few days. It started off really frustration and I just looked at it as a joke but we are now doing good. We are the only Elders going to Rostov in our district.  Two sister are going to Rostov and one Elder is going to Ukraine and another Elder is going to another mission in Russia.  Me and some of our group go to the new MTC building to the 6th floor and study for PCL. They also took a picture of a devotional for the new MTC brochures, so if you go to the open house you can see where I study and maybe look for me on the brochures.
Hahah, mom and dad the toaster that you guys sent me was good for a few days until I found out that they are very against the rules and I could be sent home if they found it in our room.
Russian is so hard but it is going to be so cool to look back at and see the improvement that I have made. I have been loving it here for the past 3 days and can't wait to learn more.
Elder Franckowiak

Day 1: MTC Drop off day!!!

Hello. I have made it and am just chilling. My p-days are on Wednesdays. I tried to send a picture but the wifi was doing something weird. Love you so much and I will continue to strive to do my best. 

 

    Love,

    Elder Franckowiak