March 31, 2014
Well, plans really are meant to be broken, as evidenced
by this week. Seriously, you spend so much time planning a day, and then it
just don't happen. But it's whatever.
So Monday was spent trying to buy a new
toaster/electronic oven. Thankfully the taxi systems here are awesome, because
there are tons of taxis everywhere, and they all complain that there is not
enough work, so they will basically work as your personal chauffer, taking you
from store to store, and waiting the 20 minutes outside as you purchase a new
oven, and then carrying it to the car for you. Booyah.
Tuesday we were on our way home for dinner when we
stopped to talk to this one girl, and it turned out she was studying to be a
translator for English, and then her friend came up, and that is how we met our
new friends O and C. We never did make it to dinner, because we ended up
talking to them for almost an hour, about them, about us, and about the church.
C was studying at the music university that we pass by every day, and she took
us inside to see it, which was way cool. They both seemed interested in the
church too, which made everything better. We parted ways for a bit, to have a
great lesson with S, the contact that forgot about our lesson Sunday night (he
said that he finally decided to meet because so many missionaries had called
him over the years), and then C and O came to youth night that night. It was
like the beginning of a fairy tale. Unfortunately, not a Disney fairy tale as
I'll get to in a bit.
Wednesday we went tracting because our lesson with C
and O had to be postponed. Because it was such a beautiful day I convinced
Sister Reece that we should go chastnie dom tracting (aka outside). We knocked
this one chastnie gate, and this almost blind old man answered, and all his
dogs escaped.
Anyway, he turned out to be very nice, blessed us with health
about 5 times, and at one point was like "do you want potatoes?" and
then disappeared for a little bit only to return with a bucket of potatoes. I'm
looking at the bucket, thinking "he's not going to give us the bucket,
right?" and I was right - he reached us and was like "put out your
bag!" and I'm thinking we have no bag, Sister Reece kind of sticks out her
hands, and then I realized I did have a bag - my shoulder bag. So I open it up,
and he pours in about 15 to 20 little potatoes. I have put some strange things
in my bag, which may be why the zipper has started acting funny. Luckily it was
time to go home about that time for dinner, during which Sister Reece and I did
the only sensible thing and made French fries. And yes, they
were delicious.
Thursday was Sister Reece's year on the mission mark, and
what a day it was. First we left the house during lunch to pick up my boot from
the restoration place (the zipper on my other boot broke), and because it’s
right next to the grocery store we got some ice cream. We got back home...and
Sister Reece has left the keys inside. I would say "we", but I asked
if she had them and she told me yes, so I'm throwing her under the bus. Don't
worry, I still love her, and she's a great missionary. Anyway, so we were stuck
outside, and District Meeting was in an hour, and the Lochheads were coming to
it. Thankfully, we have the best landlord ever, and he came to unlock it for
us, even though he was almost out of the city and it took him 45 minutes to get
there. So we got in, and had just enough time to grab stuff and get to District
Meeting. District Meeting was great, it was nice to see the Lochheads, and then
it was off for a lesson with the lady we tracted into with the food. We were
going to have a member with us, but then they cancelled and we couldn't get
anyone else even though we called everyone in our phone as we were locked
outside. It may have been a good thing though, because we arrived, and it
started out with a light interrogation about politics from her drunk son before
she sent him out, and then when we tried to start the lesson, she informed us
she thought the Book of Mormon was not the word of God, she refused to read it,
or even listen more to us about it, and then she returned the book. She did
insist on feeding us though, and we thought we should eat to leave her with a
good impression at least. IN the end, she said she has respect for our church,
she appreciates what we are doing, but she is too old/does not want to change
or even think of changing. Sad. Oh, and because we don't drink black tea or
coffee, she gave us sugar water. I felt like a hummingbird. The night ended
well at least, with a lesson at one of our favorite member's home, M, and her
mom. Her mom used to be against the church, and then started letting us come
over for FHE, and now we have legitimate lessons. That night we talked about
prayer, and she agreed to start praying and even disclosed she wants to
"start growing her faith." Plus she liked my cake, even though it
turned out completely different than I thought.
Friday for English we played Mafia because a regular
comer really wanted to play and he had little cards with the roles and
everything. Suspiciously the four mafia members were all missionaries.
Well, this letter has become very long, and I am almost
out of time, so I will end it. Sunday was pretty normal in case you're
wondering. Oh, and you may also be thinking "Sister Tanner, you said all
your plans were broken, but it seemed pretty normal to me." That is because
you cannot see my planner, and what was actually supposed to happen every day.
So yeah! Love you all! The work is moving forward! Stay
safe, and enjoy General Conference this weekend! I'll get to watch it a week
later, so don't spoil it too much for me :)
Love,
Sister Tanner
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