Possibly Insightful Ramblings

Early Tuesday morning, Sister Dimick, Sister Lewis, and I woke up for the last time in the comfortable bedroom of the mission home. It was quite fitting that we had begun our journey as missionaries together 18 months before, and now were ending it together. It seemed to us that we had just barely flown into country, and now President was driving us to the airport to get on the plane that would take us away. It was a very surreal feeling as we went through security, said our goodbyes, and boarded the plane to Kyiv. My heart was full of emotion as we flew away and I watched the Dnepr river and the streets and buildings I love pass from underneath me. After an exciting layover in Kyiv where we all managed to make it to our planes on time, I had a wonderful conversation on the plane to Amsterdam with a man from Kyiv. He quickly became like a grandpa to me and he shared with me his wisdom from many years of travel (not to mention he taught me the word 'vestibular' in Russian). We...

After fifteen and a half years spent in a classroom, it's definitely weird to not be in school in January. It almost feels like I've just been sluffing all of my classes for an extended period of time. Except different. It was a strange adjustment at first, realizing that I didn't have to study physiology or do o chem problems, but that my time really belonged to me. While most of my friends are doing homework or stressing over midterms, I'm shopping, playing music, reading, writing, and relaxing in a completely homework-free environment. And I almost feel guilty for how much I am enjoying not having homework. (Although my subconscious doesn't seem to understand that I'm not in school right now and still entertains me with nightmares about failing tests. But, according to my physics professor, those dreams never really go away, so I'll cut my subconscious some slack.) Despite loving being at home and not having homework, there are definitely some things I ...

All of you who have served missions know that in your final interview before your papers are submitted, you're asked if you are willing to serve whenever you are called. Well, those aren't just idle words - they actually mean that. And sometimes they try to make sure that you really meant it when you said "yes," so they change your MTC entrance date. Twice. Thursday afternoon my stake president called me. With his unsettling preface, "You're used to them changing your date by now," I silently hoped that my date had been moved up a week or two. But alas. I am now part of a pilot program the MTC is doing to try to cram 11 weeks of Russian and gospel knowledge into my brain in only 9 weeks. Which means my MTC stay (and entire mission) just got shortened by two weeks and will now begin on February 15th. (And to be honest, I was kind of looking forward to Valentine's Day in the MTC - we could all commiserate together on our single and separate state ins...