An Exciting Week for Mitch!

It has been an exciting week for Elder Paul! He left the Provo MTC on Monday, and was able to call us from the airport!!! He spoke some Russian for us, it sounded good, but then again we don't know Russian. haha. Mitchell is now in Russia!!! He recieved a short e-mail from him today, his new p-day will be Wenesday.

From Elder Paul:

I'm doing great, and I caught up on a little sleep last night. Yesterday I went and saw red square and we did some contacting. The schedule this week was changed, but normally, P-day is going to be on Wednesday, which is today. I am going to be finding out who my new companion is today. Elder Ablett should be coming in sometime this week. The metro is awesome and the city is great! I cant wait to experience more of it. I will email you next week and I will have plenty to tell you. Have a great week!

Can't wait to hear from him next week!!!

How to Write Mitch

Mitchell's mission is a pouch mission, therefore if you wish to write him a letter, write to the address on the right hand side bar of the blog.

Pouch Mail Instructions:
To prevent possible fines, only postcards and letters that are single sheet, folded into three-panels, and taped at the top only (no envelopes)may be sent trough the pouch. Packages cannot be sent trough pouch mail.

If you do not want to deal with these specifications, write a dearelder! It is free to Mitchell's mission!(therefore you do not have to set up an account)

Dear Elder Directions:
- go to www.dearelder.com
- Click "Write a letter"
- Select Russia Moscow from the drop down menu
- Enter your return address
- Enter Elder Mitchell Paul
- Enter your e-mail address (they will send a copy of the letter to you)
- Type your letter
- Press send letter

It's as easy as that! They print your letter in Salt Lake and send it in the pouch to Mitch!

I hope this information is helpful! Just comment, and let me know if you have any further questions : )

Thank-you to all of those who are writing to and supporting Mitchell! We truly appreciate all you are doing for our brother, and son!

Last E-mail Sent from the Great State of America!

Dear Children,

This will be the last email I will send from the great state of America. My travel plans have arrived and my life has officially begun. I leave on Monday, the 30th of August at 840 am on Delta Airlines headed to John F Kennedy airport in NY. I have an hour layover and then I'm off to Moskva. I will be arriving in Moscow at 1010 am on the 31st. It's about time I leave, cuz I’m sick and tired of American food. Which is one reason why i loved so dearly Papa's package-24 crunchie bars...I only have two left. So we did the anchovies for a while, but I don’t think we are doing that anymore, but we are still syling erry day, and i ate a few anchovies and I also tried out the black fungus-really disgusting. Elder Rosell left Monday and now I’m in a tripanionship. Also, thanks for the letter Delaney, it was great! and along those lines, you will never guess who was in our sacrament meeting this Sunday. John Heder's twin brother. Yeah, napoleon dynamite's twin brother. No big deal. He is actually the first counselor in the branch presidency's son in law. And yeah. Also, I’m going to be in Russia in less than a week. I will be sending home a package of junk I’m sure. And yeah...we hosted new missionaries and it rained once or twice, and my buddy artiom, who lives in Moscow, is down here in Provo visiting, and he told me all about the mission. And the senior companionship that I met in the bookstore that one time are named Elder and Sister Gronning. I know this because I was selected to give them a special delivery of passports. And I’m flying alone because elder Ablett has to go back to London to get his visa. He could serve in London for a few weeks before coming to Moscow. And I'm beginning to pack today. And we are just reviewing this whole week, and it’s hard to stay concentrated on boring class work that you already kinda know when you know you’re heading out to Russia in less than a week. But I will do my best. And I’m totally stoked. And yeah, so I can’t wait to let you all know how the motherland is. I’m sure my next letter will be much more entertaining/interesting, and hopefully much less grammatically correct.

Write to you from Russia next week!

Elder Paul


I apologize to those who wanted to see how grammatically incorrect this letter actually was, I try to edit Mitch's letters a little bit grammatically before I put them up :)

"Englih is stupid, it not makes sense."

Dearly Beloved,
We are gathered here today in the computer lab in a race against the clock....
Alright, so here's the deal. We are officially doing 100% SYL, and so far everyone is participating 100%. You might ask me "how is that possible? I’m sure not everyone is speaking 100% in Russian!" I would reply with two words: "Capital Punishment"....well, almost. So remember how I have a bag of dried anchovies? Well, I'm actually using it. The rule is, the first time someone slips and says something in English, nothing happens, but the second time they speak in English, they have to eat a dried anchovy (by the way, i tried one of them, and they are terrible, I almost threw up). The next time the person speaks in English, and for every time after that, their companion must eat an anchovy. So far only two people have had to eat an anchovy. Today i accidently said something in English, so I hope I don’t mess up again.
Also, Elder Rusell got his travel plans a few days ago. He is going to Samara, and for some reason, elders going to Samara leave a week earlier than everyone else. I should get my travel plans by next Tuesday and there should be no problems with the visa.
I have seen Elder Andrew Taylor quite a bit, and now he's gone to the MTC in Guatemala. If only...
All the weeks are mashing together, and I don’t remember...
Thanks for the Shopka Papa, I totally dig it! and the octopus anatomy chart is great. Octo-pies are just giant organ sacks...way cool!
...what i was saying...
sounds like all is well in the outside world...not so much in the motherland though...hope that...clears up.
Dear sterling. I hope you thoroughly enjoyed the dried anchovies.
well. That’s that. I think I’m going to go buy an Armenian shirt today. and so...yeah
English is stupid, it not makes sense.
Love and such,
Elder пал

News from Elder Fell

Dear Outside World,
I am well, and all is well. Hoping all is well out there too. Well, this past week went well. I love the Russian CTR ring, it brings me much joy. The highlight of this week was when elder Ablett told me that he heard me talking in my sleep...In Russian! Totally awesome. Ummm, so we taught the second lesson this past week and tomorrow we teach it again in Russian, and we get to talk about medical illnesses that our fake branch president has. I learned how to say "he is a leper", but I mostly learned useful things related to the gospel, so no worries there. I got my Russian name tags this week and my name, phonetically is spelt "PAL" it looks very weird to the Russian natives because it is so short, they all have very long and almost impossible to pronounce names. In Russian, my new name means FELL. so now i am officially Elder Fell...its pretty awesome! I have about 3 weeks left and we still haven’t cracked open the pigs feet...even though they are expired we plan on breaking them out before everyone leaves. Also, thank you so much for the dried black fungus and the dried anchovies...I haven’t eaten them yet, but we probably will when we open the pigs feet. We are doing three SYL days this week, we did one yesterday and we have one tomorrow and then another on Saturday. I wish i could leave the MTC early, cuz I just want to get out there and get goin!
Also, Papa, Thank you infinitely for the biographies, they might just save my life.
I am writing this email before going to the temple today. 7 of the Natives are going through the temple today and we get to go through with them! I’m so stoked!
I am still mentally and emotionally stable, and I am getting plenty of physical exercise at gym where we play a game that we made up called Super Smash Ball. its awesome.
Also I want to personally thank Sterling for the flies that he sent me. they were not still alive when I received them, but i loved them as if they were.
and if someone could send me an octopus anatomy chart, it would be much appreciated, because we have been trying to figure out how big an octopus' brain is and what that stuff is that makes its head so big...
Love you all!
шдфвакуе!!!
Elder Fell
p.s. that Russian word is not really a word...yeah

Thank you to all of those who are supportng Mitchell on his mission! He truly appreciates your packages, letters, and prayers!

Pictures from the MTC!!!

Mitch with his cousin Alex in front of the Provo Temple


Mitch in front of the Mt. Timpinogos Temple


Mitch being Mitch on P-Day :)

The Latest from Elder Paul : )

Dear John,
Wow, this week has been totally crazy and this next week will be even more so. We did SYL (speak your language) all day on saturday and all day yesterday. Im starting to really get a good grasp on the language and I'm loving it. I want to leave the MTC right NOW! only about four more weeks left...in less than a month i will be on my way to the Motherland. Apparently Elder Uchdorf was hanging out at the MTC yesterday and elder Ablett and i just barely missed him. There are two new districts in our zone and the new native russian district just came in today...so sundays from now on are not going to be nearly as small. I taught a lesson for district meeting last sunday...it was about finding people to teach, but i put a big emphasis on shepherding.
The more I learn and read the scriptures, and the more i find out about Russian culture, the more excited i am to go to Moscow and to be a shepherd.
Thanks for all of your love and support,
Elder Paul