Of Fighter Pilots, Mission Presidents, and Apostles

Hey everyone!

 

Your Idaho vacation sounded awesome! I wish I could have gone!  Good job shooting, Danica.

 

Last Friday was that special devotional.  Elder Bednar spoke, with his perfectly parted hair.  There were 6 other apostles there too, but they didn't speak.  Then we got to meet our new mission presidents after the meeting.  Our new mission president is really cool.  His name is president Gibbons and he was a judge in Salt Lake, I think.  He is one of those really eccentric and crazy people, in a good way if you know what I mean.  Like the kind of person who sets ridiculous goals, but then is fully committed to them and always achieves them.  He served his mission in Germany, and apparently he had multiple dreams and promptings about how he was going to serve a mission in Russia, so when he got back, he took a couple years of Russian classes.  Then I guess he didn't study Russian for a while, but he taught some law classes in Ukraine and even though he taught in English he spent a bunch of time there.  The reason I say he is crazy is I guess a few years ago he decided he needed to get in shape so he lost like over 75 pounds and just started doing marathons out of nowhere. And he has read the book of Mormon through like 7 times or something like that.  I don't know if those numbers are right, but that illustrates my point a little bit.  So because of all of his dreams and stuff, he was actually really surprised that he got called to Arkansas and not Russia.  But then it got changed like 2 weeks ago or something like that.  He's here in the MTC with us and leaves about a week before we do I think.  He's working really hard on Russian because he wants to do all of the member interviews in Russian by himself starting on day 1 he said, and I don't doubt him. 

 

He talked about how the church invests a lot of resources in Russian missionaries, especially with all of our visa trips, and we are like the fighter pilots of the military, how they would only send missionaries with high potential to Russia so he gave us a little bit of confidence and also talked about how we had to work hard to make it worth it.

 

Most importantly, I found Elder Braiser.  One day I was playing soccer on his team and he was wearing a centennial shirt so I introduced myself to him.  I'm glad the gym is open now.  Soccer was kinda fun, but there are so many people, you barely touch the ball at all.  Every game is Russians vs. Italians, and there is only one field.  I almost scored once, but I was just wide.  On a good note, I've dunked a few times in basketball games now, but they were easy ones and I'm still working on doing it on somebody now.

 

I, along with my whole district, joined the MTC choir for the Friday devotional because we all wanted to leave class early in order to make sure we got a seat in the gym for the devotional.  It was actually kind of cool to sing in the choir.

 

I talk to sister Sanford a little, but I don't really like talking to Sister Missionaries, its really awkward, so usually I just try to avoid it altogether.

 

That's cool that you found Elder Hoggan's blog, he was really nice.  See if you can find Elder Bennett's (try spelling it differently).  He is really funny, so he might write some good stuff on his.

 

Russian is going really well.  Last Sunday night I watched the Testaments in Russian.  It was pretty sweet.  I could understand what was going on because I could pick out the words and I've seen it before, but other than that I couldn't really understand it.  Our district is now supposed to speak in Russian 5 days a week, when we are wearing a tie, except for when we are in class holding a special item that allows us to speak English.  It's really hard, and it isn't upheld all the time, but I like it and it's really good practice.  I'm blessing the sacrament on Sunday in Russian, so I'm pretty excited about that.  I've mostly just been trying to memorize vocab.  It's really hard because the words all sound so similar and nothing like English words.  Russian grammar is really hard, but I love it.  To me its like math.  There are rules and charts and formulas that you need to follow, way more than in English, but there are fewer crazy exceptions like in English, so the grammar comes pretty easy to me. Also, I have a pretty good grasp of English grammar which really helps when you are doing Russian grammar. 

 

Our teachers have been shaking things up when we have been doing the pretend investigator thing.  They will come to lessons with weird questions or problems, or they didn't keep our commitments or something like that.  And one time he even brought his "cousin" (another teacher) to the lesson and surprised us so we had to teach a whole different lesson.  But I actually really like those, they are challenging and fun. 

 

I'm excited the newbs are coming today, so I get to meet all of them and I get to teach a lesson to all of them about how to do companionship inventory, haha a super exciting subject. 

 

The temple is closing for a few weeks so I don't know what I'm going to be doing with my P-day mornings.  They might tell us, if not I'll have more time to study which will be awesome.  The temple this morning was awesome, after the session Elder Fausett and I volunteered in the laundry room and we got to use these crazy folding machines that were really awesome.  It was really fun just to be able to do something different that is productive and helpful. 

 

Anyway, I'm doing great and am really loving it here.  I love all of the time I have to study the scriptures and the language and I wish I had more. Hope everyone is doing well!

 

- Elder Topham

Changes

Hey Everyone!

 

I'm doing great, I'm having an awesome time here and I feel like I'm still learning a lot every day.  Thanks for the food Mom, its very nice to have some snacks for after dinner, and I have plenty now, so thank you.

 

It's a pretty crazy week here for a couple of reasons.  First, the older group of Russian Elders left on Monday and Tuesday, so it was really weird to see them leave already, it was also pretty sad to see them go.  Also, all of the new mission presidents are coming in today, I think.  There is a special devotional Friday night and it's supposed to be really good, and everyone is really excited about it because usually a bunch of apostles come this week, so that should be really cool.  The down side to all this is that they closed the gym all week! I guess they do trainings and stuff for the new MPs in there, but its terrible because it means no basketball.  That means that I have to play soccer during gym time, so that really stinks.  I tried the volleyball here but the quality of the games is frustrating so I can't do that.  The soccer is actually pretty fun.  I had to play last Saturday because Elder Mantell got the first vision, and I've been playing this whole week because the gym has been closed.  The only problem is that there are too many people, so there is never any space on the field.  Also, they have a no-header rule, so when the ball is up in the air, Elders do ridiculous things to try to hit the ball with their shoulders, which I bet is much more dangerous than letting us use our heads... Anyway it's still pretty fun.

 

Oh yeah, I guess it's also pretty crazy this week because they changed all of the leadership.  So I was assigned as district leader last Sunday.  MTC district leader doesn't really do much.  I just check the mail now and run the District Meetings on Sunday, the District devotional review on Tuesday and the planning meeting on Friday as well as interview all of the senior companions. 

 

So we should meet our new mission president on Friday after the special devotional.  Sister Sanford told me that they recently switched the new MP because of visa issues or something like that, and we now have whoever was supposed to be the mission president in Arkansas or something like that, but he has been in Russia teaching law the last few years. I don't know where she got that from or if I heard her correctly or anything, but I'm just passing along what I heard, I should let you know next week. 

 

The new Russian Elders should be coming in a week from today.  So they do come in every six weeks, but we only stay here for 11, so we have a week by ourselves, if that makes sense.  I'm excited for Carter to come and have another close friend here.  A cool part about the older Elders leaving is that we could upgrade our desks by taking them from their class rooms.  Their desks have more writing space and a basket underneath them and the chair is much more comfortable than our older ones.  It may not seem like a big deal, but it really is.  Things like this make all the difference in the MTC, especially because we spend more time in our desk than we do in our bed -  haha.

 

I have the first vision down.  It's slow and shaky at the end, but I have it.  Elder Fausett is really good at it, so he is going to do it at our lesson tonight at TRC.  He is better than me at memorizing, and I am able to grasp the language concepts a little quicker, so we make a very good team when it comes to studying and teaching. 

 

Can someone please copy and paste the results of the NBA draft and dear Elder them to me, I would very much appreciate that.

 

Bridger had some wonderful questions about the MTC so I would like to answer them now

1. There is some grass at the MTC between some of the buildings, but they are also doing a lot of construction on the walkways and overhanging structures, so its not very pretty around the class rooms right now.  But there is a huge grass field across the street that we get to go to every day where we can play soccer and frisbee and things like that.

2. There are flowers at the MTC, mostly in front of the cafeteria building and they are very pretty

3. They have pancakes for breakfast about once a week and they are very good.  But my favorite breakfast here are the breakfast burritos.

 

I hope you all are having a great time in Idaho! It sounds really fun and I definitely wish that I could have gone.

 

I love all of the time I have to study here.  I've been able to read so much of the book of Mormon and other scriptures, I've also been working on reading it in Russian, but is extremely hard and a very slow process, but I'm getting better.  I'm also getting better at making up sentences in my head with the words that I have memorized, but its very tough because of all the grammar rules in Russian that we do not have in English, but its going well and I actually really enjoy it. 

 

That's about it for this week. I'm having a great time and my testimony is really growing. Love you all.

 

-Elder Topham

Primary, Prayers, and Pictures

Hey Guys!

 

I'm doing great, I hope everyone is doing well.  That's so cool that school is out, although it doesn't sound very fun for Danica with all that work that she has to do.  Matthew: I hope you are having fun and playing hard at basketball camp.  To answer a few questions:

 

I think my resistance bands are working, I only do them for about 30 minutes in the morning, and with bands like that I don't think you can really build bulk, but I've been getting stronger and looking more toned, but I still haven't gained any weight here despite how much I eat.  I do love the feeling for the rest of the day after I've worked out.  I don't wake up early, I just get ready quicker than the time allotted, and we have a little free time before breakfast so its enough.  Nobody else really brought any equipment, but the pull up bar is nice, and we are creative with some other things.  They give us a little missionary health packet with a lame little resistance band in it that does nothing, I'm glad I brought that set.

 

I'm getting all of your mail so the address seems to be working, but on the paperwork I got on the first day it said August first is my estimated departure date, so I don't really think it matters whether you put 0801 or 0802.

 

The food here is still awesome, and I'm still loving it.  This time, they had chicken cordon bleu for Sunday lunch so that was a pleasant surprise.  I'm doing really well on food.  To Mom and Danica: I have plenty of mints, thank you and I also have plenty of candy. I'm doing really well on food so I don't need anything, but if you did happen to send something, those fruit leather bars are awesome and maybe some more beef jerky, but please don't go overboard because I have plenty of food.   I heard the weight limit for baggage to Russia got lowered so I may have to lose some stuff, we'll see.

 

We have to teach 4 lessons a week in Russian.  3 are to our teachers who pretend to be someone they taught on their mission. and every Wednesday night we have TRC which is basically a practice session of everything we learned throughout the week.  Former Russian missionaries come in and pretend to be investigators, and we have a task like: get to know them, ask about their family, and work, and school. then we have to teach them a lesson.  Most of the missionaries dread it because it can be a little embarrassing to look stupid and not know how to say a lot of things or what the heck they are saying, but I look forward to it because its a challenge and I can gauge how much I've learned throughout the week.  It's very difficult to answer their questions about the lessons because they usually aren't what you planned to talk about, but I still enjoy it.

 

I'm glad you found some help with the lawn dad, hopefully it will be looking better than in was when I left. I still haven't me Elder Braiser but I'll keep my eye out for him.

 

Most of the elders in my district like to play soccer during gym, but we have a few ballers.  Elder Mantell who is from London has been nagging me since we've been here to go out and play "futbol" with them, but I keep telling him no.  Anyway, I finally made a deal with him that if he memorizes the first vision in Russian by today I'll play for 2 days and if he gets it by tomorrow I'll play that day, because he's pretty close.  I'm pretty close too, I'll have it by TRC next week where that is part of our task.

 

So sad story, I got a note in the mailbox that said, "Dear Elder Topham: a fast food item was delivered to you and because of MTC regulations was thrown away... blah blah blah... we thank you for your understanding."  And it was attached to a letter from Laurel who had tried to send me 5 Guys which I would have loved! Because that's my favorite. So I was pretty bummed that I didn't get the food, but it was a very nice thought.

 

I got some awesome drawings in the mail this week from Bridger and Ryan, and I've also got some from Matthew and some letters from my other cousins.  Yesterday at devotional the primary general president was the speaker, and I'm not going to lie, I was a little disappointed when I was expecting an apostle's name and picture on the projector and it came up with Sister Wixom.  But I'm also not going to lie, that was my absolute favorite talk.  She had a sweet tone, but it wasn't the over exaggerated primary president tone I was expecting.  She talked about so many simple things from primary, and I remembered the strong spirit that I used to feel in primary. It was awesome.  She ended by reminding us that all of the primary children all over the world are singing songs about us and praying for us.  I hadn't really thought about that. That, combined with the pictures and mail I've received from my siblings and cousins made me very emotional, and inspired me to work even harder, and it felt great. 

 

The older group of Russian elders leave very soon, maybe early next week, it's crazy that they are already leaving.  Time has gone by very fast here, I feel like I have only just barely arrived and it has already been a month. On the other hand I feel like I've been great friends with the Elders in my district for years.  The older Elders have been extremely nice and always very willing to help us practice and they are really cool.  I can't wait to be able to do that when the next group of Russian Elders arrive.

 

A bunch of my friends have been coming in and it's been great to see them.  (Funfact: I'm sitting next to Elder Allen right now in the computer lab as I am typing this) I'm excited for Tanner to come pretty soon. 

 

I don't know if you all found out, but they just created the first stake in Russia, it's in Moscow.  I hear that all of the Russian members are very excited and that there will probably be a temple there pretty soon, so that's awesome! I'm really excited to go, and I'm just trying to learn as much as I can before I get there so I can be effective.

 

-Elder Topham

Never Say Never

Hey Guys!

 

I've been doing great out here!  Thanks for the letters and the packages that you guys have sent me.  Monday was an awesome mail day.  FYI we don't get any dear elders on Saturday and obviously not on Sunday, so anything that is sent after noon on Friday comes on Monday.  Monday was so awesome because I got a bunch of dear elders that had built up over the weekend.  I also got a letter from Jordan.  It was really funny because he put all these hearts and stuff all over the envelope, so the whole district was freaking out when it came in the mail. They were like, "Topham! You told us you didn't have a girl," and stuff like that.  But I saw the Texas return address and knew it was from Elder Dudley.  It was funny, the first line was, "I hope your district liked this envelope," haha and they did.  I also got 2 packages! Thanks for the food and the pants mom, and thank you Ericksons for the Apple pie, my district loved it!

 

The food here is actually really good.  You pretty much have three choices for each meal.  Basically two different entrees (sometimes spaghetti) or a burger.  They also make really awesome salads so I always get one of those for lunch and dinner.  I'm not bored of the food yet, but it is really good to have some snacks back at the room because dinner is pretty early, and especially on the 2 days when we have gym right after dinner I get hungry at night.  But now I have a good supply of food, so thank you for that. 

 

The language has been alright. We had our first 100% Russian lesson yesterday and it was pretty rough.  I was trying to teach about the apostasy and the message was very hard to get across, but I think I did alright.  I've been here long enough where I can kind of project how much I will know by the time I leave, and I'm beginning to see that I won't know very much at all.  I mean, Im learning a ton every day, but I'll have so much more to learn once I get to the field.  The Rossetta stone definitely helped.  I've passed it as far as grammar and sentence complexity, but I know a lot more random vocabulary...like. Nobody else here knows how to say "the brown horse ran fast"  because they don't teach stuff like that at the MTC.  So I have a little wider knowledge base to work off of.

 

A little more about my companion Elder Fausett. He is going to St. Petersburg actually, which I think would be an awesome mission. He told me he has a blog too.  Look for it Elderfausett.blogspot.com I think.  We are getting along well.  We are nothing alike, but I think that actually helps in our teaching situations sometimes, when I have no idea how to relate to what the investigator is saying, sometimes he does.

 

I've been loving the basketball here. My goal is to get a dunk before I leave here.  The games are only half court so there aren't any breakaways, so if you try to dunk its always very contested, so you have to earn it. I missed one the other day and it was almost really sick, but I'll get it.  Elder Walker and I started working out for half an hour in the mornings this week with my resistance bands, and there is a pull up bar right outside of our door.  I've haven't put on any weight yet! Even though I've been eating a ton. But I have been getting more toned from the workouts, so hopefully I'll get a little bulk.

 

Matthew, I miss you too bud.  Good job beating Dad in golf the other day, you would have definitely beaten me too!  I love you bud.

 

Dani, great job getting straight A's, I hope that plaque looks really nice on the wall! I'm so excited you are thinking about running for president. I know whatever position you decide to run for you will do great!   Hey Dani I have a special job for you. I need you to send me the lyrics of Never Say Never by the Beibs.  Its my favorite song to sing in the shower and it gets everyone pumped up, but I only know two lines, so that would really help me out if you could do that.

 

I hope you guys had fun at father-sons, I wish I could have gone!  There are a few native Russian missionaries. They are in the other Russian zone/branch, so I don't see them as much as some others, but we talk to them every once in a while and practice what we learned like bearing our testimony to them and stuff. 

 

It gets a little discouraging here sometimes when you think you aren't progressing very well, but there are many scriptures that tell us that we can do it if we keep pushing forward and keep trying.  Like when Nephi says, "I will go I will do..."  so its nice to read those pick me up scriptures or to remember the words of the oh-so-wise Justin Beiber when he said, "I will never say never, I will fight for forever..."  Haha we love to sing that one. 

I hope everyone back at home is doing well! I love you guys.  Thanks for sending the pictures Mom, I love them, I'll hopefully be able to send a few more sometime soon. 

 

Love

Elder Topham

Temple Trip Pictures

Elder Harrison, Elder Walker, Elder Topham, and Elder Crowell

District 9F

Back: Elders Tucker, Blake, Schmidt, Mantell, Harrison, Walker

Front: Elders Davis, Smith, Peterson, Harris, Topham, Crowell

Outside the Provo Temple with Elder Crowell

Life in the MTC

Hey Guys!

How's it going for everyone?  I'm doing great out here and am having a great time.  I actually really like the schedule that we are on, it's not too bad at all.  Some Elders don't like it, but I have no problem with being in class for most of the day and waking up early.  The only hard part for me is how much pressure everyone puts on us to feel the spirit and teach by the spirit and things like that.  But anyway, I'll start by answering some of the questions you guys sent me in your letters.  Thank you Mom, Dad, and Dani for writing me, I really love getting mail.  Its like getting a text, no matter what it says, you feel good because someone is thinking about you... Oh! and a big thank you to Grandma Ellen for sending me those cookies.  They are delicious and all of my friends that I shared them with say thank you too. Anyway here we go.

 

Elder Fausett had been in a threesome since the first day because there were apparently an odd number of Russian missionaries.  He had to move over to my district, so I felt bad for him, but I am really glad that I did not have to change districts.

 

The Rosetta Stone and my other studying have helped quite a bit, and I have been able to help a bunch of the Elders during language study.  There are some very bright guys in my district.  But I think they expect you to learn most everything on your own, so I've just been trying to study hard and push myself.

 

I have not seen anyone else from home besides everyone who I have already mentioned, but a bunch more of my college friends came in last week so that was really awesome to see all of them and a bunch more are coming in the next couple weeks.

 

I have a couple questions for you guys to investigate.  See if Dave knows Elder Tyler Harris from Alpine, he's in my district and is a close friend.  And ask Grandpa if he knows a Logan Topham from Lehi because someone in my branch presidency's daughter married him and they always almost cry every time they see me because they are so excited to see what it will look like when their grandsons grow up or something like that.  But it did remind me of how much my Grandparents love me and are proud of me, so that gave me a nice morale boost.

 

So, funny story, we were working on our testimonies in Russian the other day and I wanted to tell my teacher that "I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God"  but apparently I said "I know that Joseph Smith killed a prophet of God" so that's not good.... I'm glad I got that one out of the way in the MTC.  The words for "was" and "killed" are much too similar and whoever invented Russian should have thought about that beforehand- ha ha.

 

I'm going to get a few picture prints in the mail today,  I'm still working on a way to send you guys some digitals but I don't know if it is possible.  I will also write my message to Bren and respond to Dani's letter in that letter because I'm short on time.

 

I love it when everybody asks me questions in their letters because it gives me a good idea about what I want to write.  But I'll tell you guys a little more about the day to day here.  The schedule is pretty standard.  2- 3 hour class sessions. 1 hour personal study, 1 hour language study, and 1 hour of TALL which is a computer program to help you learn the language which I really like and I think it is pretty helpful. The class sessions are different than I expected.  About 1 hour is language teaching and practice, 1 hour is basically studying PMG and learning about how to help investigators make commitments or something like that. And 1 hour the teacher leaves the room and pretends to be an investigator who he taught on his mission and the companionships go out and take turns teaching him while the others do companion study, its interesting.  In some ways it helps to practice, but in other ways its weird that they are pretending to be someone else.

 

Oh, and to Rob -  they had delicious Chicken cordon bleu last Wednesday.  They do it when the newbies come to give them a good first impression of the MTC.

 

Love you all!

Elder Topham