hello people! or as they say in russian люди. The snow in siberia has
finally fallen. and stuck. but don't worry. it's just a little bit.
and it's only been like -5. So that's pretty normal. Or as they say in
russian. нормально. It's actually quite perfect. People love this
weather. One day I thought dang. it's a little cold and I asked our
investigator if she was cold or if she thought it was cold outside.
and she told me NO! it's beautiful weather today. It's funny how in
america if it snows and it's fairly dark outside people complain but
here they think it's perfect. I like it too! at least right now...
This week was another good one. Except for the fact we had to sa
goodbye to our two Russian Companions. I'm not going to lie it was
pretty sad! The first week was way hard but after that we really
learned to love eachother and just laugh and have fun! It's been very
quiet ever since.
Tuesday we got to do service! We haven't really had many
opportunities. Russian people are very stubborn and they don't want to
appear weak. So if you ask anyone for help they are like NO! I'm good.
Or no of course not! Every once in a while a babooshka will accept
your help but a lot of times they wont. They are very strong women. I
had to help one up the other day she fell on the ice. It was scary and
I felt really bad. She was so grateful. But anywhooo. One of our
recent converts Tatiana- the one who lives in Berdsk has this huge
garden and is working on a remont to build a little room for her
pregnant daughter and the future baby and husband. So the 4 of us
sisters and 2 strong young men headed out and did some yard work. It
was really fun. Raked leaves and rotten vegetables out of the field.
She was so grateful. She later told everyone in relief society during
good news minute how great it was. I'm a little afraid everyone is
going to be calling us this week t do that for them!
Wednesday- Fireside! In russian fireside literally translated means
night at the fireplace. I hope it makes sense cause it was written on
all these flyers we handed out! haha. but i'm assuming whoever made
the flyers knows russian better than me. We had Sister Stevens of the
General Relief Society Presidency here and Sister Cheryl Esplin of the
General Primary. Sister Esplin is from Lovell! Crazy eh? She thinks
she had Kirk Jameson as a teacher. She said she knows some Taggarts
and Jamesons. It's a pretty small world eh? Even smaller- Sister
Barlow's sister was called to General Relief Society Board. So during
conference weekend in between sessions they have a fancy lunch so she
and her dad had lunch and sat by Sister Esplin. So basically they came
here looking for Sister Barlow to give her a hug from her family and
they talked to us for a while. But they are great. They gave more like
a training instead of a fireside but it was really good. It was nice
to listen and be uplifted! They did a 15 day tour of Russia! Crazy
eh!? So they stopped in our mission and visited Novo and Omsk. Then
headed off to some other mission. I can't remember which one.
Thursday- One of our members is in the hospital. Her name is Sveta-
Sveta Sveta. Or otherwise known as THE sveta. She reminds me of a
russian christine romito. So kind and happy but just a little off. I
don't know what she technically has but she's so great. She always
gives us referalls. But usually the people are not very interested or
not really all there. So it's kind of hard to teach them. A couple
weeks ago she was walking by the river and fell and broke her leg. She
is a very heavy woman and she laid in the water for 50 minutes while
people tried to pull her out! Isn't that sad?! She's very depressed
and in the hospital because russians always go to the hospital for
everything and they stay there for a long time. We went to go visit
her with natasha a member. This hospital is way in the middle of
nowhere! I really felt like I was in Siberia then because it was
snowing and in the middle of a forest. But hospitals here are weird.
They are basically apartment buildings. And not clean. And really
scary. Not to mention we were in the mentally handicapped part of the
hospital. I'm so glad we had a member with us because I had no idea
what we were doing. Sveta was glad to see us but it was a very sad
thing. her leg is poorly wrapped in a cast and they have her on some
sort of medication so she wasn't her usual self. They don't have any
shampoo for her and she has none of her personal belongings. We left
her a snickers a book of mormon and a card we made and we let the
relief society president know. It was really sad. Anywhoo. Lots of
members asked us the address on sunday so it looks like the relief
society is getting to work!
That took up most of our day. But....
On the way back we had another book of mormon miracle! We were almost
home and walking through this parking lot carrying my book of mormon
and some guy yelled at us out of his car. We were scared at first
cause usually when a guy yells at your through his car it means
something else. But he asked "What's that book in your hand!?" he is
baptist and very interested in learning about our church and asked us
if we were prophesiers and we told him we are missionaries and he
wants to meet with us! When we told him about the book of mormon he
grabbed it out of my hand before I could give it to him! He is way
cool and his wife later walked up to us and she wants to come to
church too!
Well that pretty much sums up the highlights of our week. I did get
kissed on the cheek from a former investigator/ husband of a member.
He says that he is Jesus Christ and that church is in his heart. He
has religion in his soul. So that's why he doesn't need to come or be
baptized. he has read the book of mormon like 2 times. And he wants us
to come back and do family home evening. He's hilarious. Apparently
he's an actor. But he doesn't work right now. he's working on the
remont of his home. he is installing tile in their kitchen and aaron
and ethan you would die. There's this huge tile with a tiger on it.
Like straight up spirit animal tiger tile! His bathroom has dolphins.
It's apparently very cool here! haha.
I love you all. Hope you are having a great week. The work is great.
Russia is great. My language is better! But most importantly the
gospel is true! If you don't know that for yourselves yet- you've got
work to do! The Book of Mormon is the word of God! Read it! And then
pray about it! I know that God answers prayers and will let you know
that it is true. Love you!
Сестра карлинг
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