Princess of China in Siberia

Well it's been another lovely week in Siberia. Fall is here and the
leaves are so pretty! I love contacting in the park and seeing all the
fall colors. It's getting darker though and it's been raining a lot.
Once upon a time I bought an umbrella for 500 rubles. Which is like 15
bucks. Ridiculous I know! And it broke the first time I opened it....
But I've been managing to use it and repair it but it officially died
yesterday. Lucky for me it's pday and we're going to the mall and
buying a new one. And more tights and maybe see if they have an
inbetween coat. Like not a rain coat, and not a huge winter one. But
we'll see!

Adventures of this week:

1. Monday: Went tracting for a while and although we've had many
people open there doors and then close them on us we had one family
let us in! It was a cute babooshka and a deadooshka (grandpa) and this
random other girl that lived with them that wasn't there daughter.
They had a really nice apartment and a dog and at first we thought
maybe they thought they knew us but they were just so delighted to
have company and talked all about our lives and america aparantly the
babooshka lived in california for 5 years and she spoke decent
english. We tried to share our message with them they kept asking are
you orthodox or baptist? Or jehova's witnesses and they didn't really
understand. Until we started talking about the book of mormon and they
went "OH YOU'RE MORMONS!" Haven't heard that one in a while.
Especially not in Russia! They are jewish (at least I think. I
couldn't really understand what they said. but they had a monorah on
the shelf) and they just went on and on and they asked us about Mitt
Romney! (how is the presidential election by the way?) That's the 3rd
time I've been asked about Mitt Romney. Who knew the fact that he was
mormon would get all the way to Russia- let alone Siberia!. Anywhoo we
tried to give them a book of mormon but they said no and kept saying
We will not be mormon. And I don't like you're prophet. But yet they
told us we could come back! And they wanted to come to english
practice! So hey we'll see!

2. Adventure number 2 happened Saturday. I went on a split with Sister
Sanford from Vegas. She is great. She has 3 months left so she's a
pro. We went out to visit Tatiana a recent convert who got baptized in
July (by sister sanford. and by I mean like she was the missionary who
converted her but as well all know she doesn't have the priesthood
authority to do that.) Anywhoo. Tatiana lives in this cute town called
Beerdsk it's about an hour outside of Novo. She lives in this tiny
little house with a huge garden. She has no toilet but an outhouse (as
many russians have). We went over and everyone was busy working in the
garden in the rain. And we got in and were about to get started on the
lesson when she told her 10 year old daughter to go get to work
outside. We offered to help and lo and behold we did. We went outside
and started shoveling dirt. And sifting it. Apparently they use the
fine dirt and mix it with water or something and paste it to the sides
of the house to keep it warm in the winter or I'm not sure. So here
were are in our skirts and coats and gloves sifting dirt. It was fun.
Oksana the daughter sang us the phineas and ferb and hannah montana
theme songs in Russian and then I sang them for her in english. it was
a good time. Then after that we went in and Tatiana gave us a bunch of
food. Which always makes me nervous. She barely has enough money to
make it to church and pay for the train and here she is feeding me
huge spoon fulls of who knows what. It was cabbage and onions and
carrots and boiled down to like mush with some sort of meat and bones
in it. Luckily there was bread so I kind of managed to eat the mush
and then take some bread. I think she was a little offended when I
left the bone with meat on it. Cause I really didn't know what to do.
Luckily she just fed it to the cats. Anywhoo. We finally got to the
lesson about service. Kind of ironic right! And it was good. Tatiana
likes to talk so we went off on a tangent for a while and I have no
idea what was said but anywhoo it was fun. It was nice to be with
Sister Sanford. I learned alot from her and she has great russian so
she could actually tell me everything that was being said. But I did
miss sister barlow.

Oh. You're probably wondering what the title of this email has to do
with anything. On the way back from Beerdsk we rode in the tiny little
marschrootka and it was playing a bunch of american music. It
definitely was a little guilty pleasure of mine to hear leanne rhymes
and some other song I recognized but then low and behold princess of
china started playing! The coldplay and rihanna song! I kind of felt
guilty for like a split second listening to it and enjoying it but
then I decided it was a little tender mercy of the lord. i just ate
all that mush and sifted dirt so it was a reward. haha. I thought of
all of us singing it. And then that one time when mary and I sang it
for christmas and everyone was like hmmm. yeah. don't know that one.
but anyways. It was grand. Russia is grand. I love the people here and
the members and every day I meet great people I just can't wait for
them to get baptized! haha. I know the church is true! It's amazing to
see how it changes peoples lives and to see the process. Sometimes I
think we forget cause we are so used to it. Everyone asks me, when I
show them pictures of my family  "Are they ALL members of the church?"
And I say yes! And tell them how my dad served a mission and how my
brother is on a mission and they are just amazed. I am truly blessed
to have a wonderful family who are active members of the church and
I'm so grateful for all your support. And all the support from all of
you who aren't family! It makes every day better and I'm always
working hard so that 1. I can help the people here in Russia and 2.
Not let all of you down! And most importantly the lord! I love you!