Two people want to be baptized

February 10, 2014

Okay, this week blew by, which means it was good. First off, the weather felt wonderful, hovering around -1 degrees Celsius. (30 degrees Fahrenheit) Last Monday was an adventure. Sister Reece and I decided to check out a restaurant in Center we had seen, called Two Goose. Looked fancy, not so great. I do look forward to a good old American restaurant. Then we did everything else, got home, and turned around to go to two FHEs. Got home at 9:20pm and...locked out. Yep. Sister Reece left our keys inside, on the one night where I didn't ask if she had them (our door locks behind us automatically). I have a set, but they're cut wrong, so they're useless (why do I have them? Don't know). So we called our Elders, tried my keys for about 15 minutes, and ended up spending the night in an elders' apartment. Luckily the Elders were in Donetsk for some registration stuff/transfer meeting. So an elder's apartment smells like elder. That is all I will say.

Tuesday morning we woke up, ate a little bit of oatmeal that was left over in the apartment, and attempted to do studies. In the middle we called our landlord, and he said he would be over in 1 1/2 hours. So when it came time we took our unshowered, slept in make-up, same clothes, unbrushed hair selves over to our apartment. He didn't show, we called, he said it would be another hour. He finally comes and lets us in, and we're just grateful we cleaned the apartment well on Monday. Turns out, the lack of urgency on his part was due to the language barrier, and he just thought he was coming to collect rent. So then our week could actually start. 

The following is just a list of highlights from the week:

 We had a lesson with the mom of Sister Reece's friend, and she said she wants to be baptized, but she wants to wait until summer when her son comes home (understandable, and still very exciting).

We had a lesson with a guy from India who is here studying. We met him on the bus several weeks ago, but then Sister Reece lost the notebook his name was written in, but he called us, we set up an appointment, and I got to help teach a lesson to someone without a Christian background. It turns out he lives in the Elders' area though, so we passed him to them. But he was interested. He said of all the Christian things he's heard, ours was the best (because it's true!)

Because the weather warmed up, people came back to English, and we had about 10 people there. The game I came up with was a hit, and we had a great discussion on the Olympics and sports in general.

We received two new Elders into our district, including an Elder I served with in Petrovsky. With their arrival also came the arrival of a package from home, and some letters. This package was the most perfect package ever, and I cannot properly describe the happiness that came from it.

But even greater than the package was Saturday night when we had a lesson with M and D, and M said he would be baptized! We set a date of March 1 for a goal to work towards. THIS IS SO EXCITING. Sister Reece and I were giddy.

And then on Sunday, three less actives came to church, including one with whom we have been working with for many weeks. She's the one that moved to Moscow, stopped going to church, and then forgot everything. Just a little while ago she was saying she wasn't ready to come back, and then to see her walk in, and the branch members greet her and everything...oh, it was wonderful.

Sister Reece and I have really been working our tails off, and it's really rewarding to actually see stuff come from it. I actually feel like I'm making somewhat of a difference. We both are just so grateful to have so much to do.

Love you all, enjoy the Olympics. I hear the Americans are killing it. Go USA.

Sister Tanner

Here are the questions that I sent with my letter this week and her answers.

How is the Olympics affecting people’s willingness to meet with you? On my mission, during the World Cup, no one wanted to meet with us and they kept asking why we were not watching the World Cup.

The Olympics have not affected our teaching in the slightest. World Cup in South America = bigger deal.

How is your Russian coming? Are you still getting up and doing the extra studying?

Russian is coming. I understand quite a bit, but speaking is still awkward sometimes. There's just so much grammar. And it takes a lot of concentration, so if people go off on something for a really long time, I start to zone out. We stopped getting up in the morning because we were already exhausted enough, and it was making life real rough.

Was your apartment warm when it was so cold outside?

We have a small heater, but when it was real cold, our apartment got pretty cold (we're also on the first floor). Sometimes I studied in my blanket, and we started leaving the heater in the main room and closing the other doors when we left (only for the really cold days). But nothing like water freezing in our apartment as some of my MTC teachers told me.

Do you have a bed at this apartment? 

I do have a bed in this apartment, but my couch was more comfortable. It's just this tiny rectangle that is stiff as a board. 

The moon over the city

This view is out of a building window. We see this view all the time as we tract - every time we go one more level down on the stairwell. It is of a place called Meernie. The tin roofs are the center, which is actually the reenok, or outside market. Then there are four sections of apartment buildings that surround the reenok. 

The statue is one I see every day as I walk out of my apartment on the way to the bus stop.

The graffiti says "I (heart) Parkour" which is an...activity is the best way to describe it. It's the thing where you run and jump of walls and stuff. I took a picture because when I did pole vault we used to jump around the mats when we were putting them away, and say "hard core, parkour."