Blue Dumpling

Zdrastvuitye!

This week was slightly less eventful than usual, but still great nonetheless! The Russian people are amazing!!!

Miracles everywhere!!! This week Sister Johnson and I met this guy on the bus who wanted to buy the Book of Mormon from us. He read from it many moons ago, loved what he read, and wanted to find out more. He obviously hasn't been able to find the Book of Mormon anywhere since we don't sell it. When he came up and talked to us he said the he is looking for  truth, wants direction in his life, and is willing to change... umm... Did he fall from heaven??? We gave him a Book of Mormon and met with him the next day at one of our Senior Couple's apartments. He LOVED everything about the restoration and agreed to be baptized!!!! The Senior Couple was hosting a Christmas party for some of the members and less actives and Sergei was dying to stay! He had such a blast and was fellow shipped by lots of people. He's such a gem!

We have an investigator named Tanya who works a zillion hours a week, so it's been kind of a struggle to meet with her. We've taught her at her at work and in the tiny break room. That was an interesting lesson. Despite the general awkwardness of the lessons, she absolutely loves the gospel and wants to get baptized. The only problem is actually meeting with her to give the lessons and getting her to church. The day after Christmas, Tanya invited us to her work party and it was so much fun! They had a bunch of food and got get numbers from two of her coworkers who were super interested! Tanya has been such a great missionary and talks up the church to her coworkers whenever we're around. Company baptism party, anyone?

I am physically unable to walk on Russian terrain! I haven't had an issue with walking on the excessive amounts of ice and snow until this week. For some reason everything is especially slippery. The other day when Sister Johnson and I were walking down a little slope as we were crossing the street, I fell... ...HARD. Sister Johnson turned around to face my mangled body on the ground and said, "That was seriously so loud." I landed right on my tender little knees and that did NOT feel good at all. My right knee turned a beautiful blue color and swelled up like a dumpling. It didn't hurt too bad until the next day when I slipped AGAIN! This time it literally looked like a clip from a movie. I stepped on a piece of trash as we were walking down the sidewalk and... BAM!... fell right on my knee again. Now it's purple. Today I didn't even fall on that knee and it still got hurt. I slipped on a snowy tire track and bumped it as I was trying to stand up. Of course. Time to break out those shoe chains I suppose.

Today Sister Johnson and I bought a plethora of food for our New Years feast! On New Years Eve we have to come in early for safety reasons, so we needed some things to munch on while we're studying. Shall be a party! Today we also went to the Reenok (the giant outdoor shopping area with a zillion booths) with the intent of buying Russian souvenir scarves, but I ended up buying a watch. The metal on my cheap watch was starting to corrode, so I was in need of a new watch that would stop turning my wrist green. I am literally obsessed with my new watch. It has a big face with roman numerals on it. Because of inflation, this watch was also super cheap, but great quality. Win-win.

Well, that's all for this week! Keep smiling and don't turn green, blue, or purple!

Do Svidanya!

Cectpa Megan Wagstaff

Eat Your Plov‏

Zdrastvuitye!

This week has been full of lots of traveling and adventures.

The train to Penza was so great! Our journey could have had a better start, but that was completely our fault. Somehow we miscalculated the amount of time that we needed to get to the train station since the departure times on our tickets were in Moscow time, so we showed up at the train station with only 15 minutes to spare before our train left. Talk about running for your life. We had to grab some overpriced food from a café since we hadn't eaten anything all day and then we bolted to our platform. Thankfully the conductor was super nice and helped us get settled in before the train took off. The first trip to Penza wasn't as posh as the trip back. Our first coupe was pretty small; just two little beds (one directly over the other) in a small compartment. It was surprisingly very cozy though. The trip coming home was way more comfortable because we were in a coupe with 4 beds. Lots of room! Apparently when the AP's ordered our tickets, they ordered us some food along with it, so the conductor in charge of our train car kept harassing us to eat the food. Literally every 10 minutes she'd come in and say: "Do you want your plov?" (Armenian rice) "When do you want your plov?" "Your plov is here." "Why haven't you eaten your plov yet?" "Are you going to eat your plov?" "Aren't you hungry yet?" "Look, just eat your plov." After about 4 hours of this, we gave in to her peer pressure and ate the plov. Both train rides took about 8 hours. Not going to lie, I felt like I was in Harry Potter. Lots of time for scripture study, journaling, pondering, staring out the window, and feeling the spirit.

Penza is such a great city. Contrary to other Russian cities that I've been in, Penza has a hill! Not many hills, or even a mountain, just a single hill. It's not a huge hill, just a hill. Lovely hill. There are a lot more actual houses in Penza than there are in Samara. The part of Penza that goes toward and on the hill has lots of homes. The central part of Penza is all apartments though. Also, it's been interesting to hear the different kinds of Russian accents. In Samara, everyone has kind of a monotone accent. In Penza, it almost sounds like people are singing when they talk. I don't know how to describe it. They just intonate their words more, I guess.

I had a great time in Penza! Sister Johnson and I went on splits with two sisters named Sister McKell (not my MTC companion...) and Sister Twede. I was with Sister Twede the first day and it was a blast! First, we visited this sweet old lady named Baba Katya. She was the sweetest lady ever! She's super ancient, is missing an eye, and loves the missionaries. What more could you ask for in an investigator? She has this adorable, rascally little kitten that likes to play with socks. I don't know very much about Baba Katya, but she is a fireball! She chewed me out after I prayed. She lectured me about how she thinks you're supposed to reference the name of our church before you close the prayer. Sister Twede leaned over and whispered, "Don't worry, she's never prayed like that in her life," after she saw the confused expression on my face. We just read a chapter from the Book of Mormon with her to help her feel the spirit. Reading in Russian... still super hard for me. Baba Katya frequently interjected and corrected the way I pronounced things as I was reading. It was really hard to keep from laughing. Love that lady. After we read, Baba Katya said, "Alright, let's go out on the streets." She went contacting with us and barged in to an apartment building to go knocking. She was a hoot. Every time someone opened their door she'd walk right up to them and say, "So you want to talk about God, do ya?" After about 4 failed attempts, we tried to persuade her to change her approach, so she changed her intro phrase to: "Let's talk about God. Let us in." People were not okay with that. Baba Katya was such a huge inspiration. If this old, rickety, half-blind lady has the desire to knock down doors and trek through the snow to talk about God, then I can too. Way to go Baba!!!

After Baba Katya, we met with this girl named Kacenya who recently returned from a place called the Krem. The Krem is a piece of land between Ukraine and Russia that they are currently fighting over. Kacenya lived there for about 6 months and saw lots of things that no person should see. We gave her a pretty low-key lesson about baptism and invited her to be baptized. Unfortunately she is moving back to the Krem shortly and declined our invitation. She said that there are a ton of missionaries in the Krem (not really sure about the accuracy of that statement) and promised to meet with some of them there. As a whole, I had a great experience in Penza! Such a great city full of so much potential!

Oh, the weather. It has literally been snowing consistently all week. There's about 8-12 inches of snow on the ground depending on where you're standing. It rained a little bit yesterday so there are slushy puddles galore and lots of ice. Also, I just discovered that my winter boots are, indeed, not waterproof. Thank you slushy puddles for making this known unto me. Might have to throw down some Christmas money for some better boots. Yay. Just what I've always wanted. Also, apparently shoveling sidewalks is not a thing in Russia. The other day, Sister Johnson and I were walking down the sidewalk and there was a perfectly level, sheen layer of ice on the pavement next to the metro station; essentially a baby ice skating rink. Tons of people go in and out of that station all day. People were dropping and sliding as if it were a dance party. I don't know who authorized this or decided that this was an swell idea, but I guess someone decided that using one of those road cleaners (you know, the ones with the big brushy thing on the front that spray a layer of water on the ground) to clean the snow off of the sidewalk would be quicker than breaking out a good ol' shovel. Definitely not wrong, but I'd rather walk through snow piles than have to cling to my companion for dear life to keep from sliding into a creepy man or falling on my face. Good times.

Well, that's all for this week! Keep on smiling and doing good deeds!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Sister Wagstaff

Mafia Man

Zdrastvuitye!

This week has been the busiest thus far and I have a feeling that the following week will be just as busy! Sister Johnson and I are going by train to a city called Penza. I've heard that it is really pretty and looks like it's from a fairytale! Super excited! I've never been on a train before and I am pumped! It'll take about 7 or 8 hours to get there, but I've been told that the view is beautiful!

On to this weeks activities! We had our fair share of crazy and spiritual experiences. Let's start with the spiritual ones! We finally got one of our investigators to come to church! The process of getting her to church was a huge miracle! We planned with her and reminded her several times throughout the week that we would help her get to church. When we visited her on Saturday, she did not seem very excited by the thought of going to church. We called her on Sunday morning with no answer, so Sister Johnson and I traveled on over to her apartment to help her and her kids get ready. As we were walking along the sidewalk, we ended up running into her on the way there! She later told us that it was a miracle that we bumped into her because she said she mostly likely would have decided to go visit her babooshka's house instead of coming to church had we not brought her ourselves. She had such a wonderful experience at church! She met with and bonded with so many members! She has a baptismal date set for the 27th, so we're constantly trying to make sure that we have the faith sufficient to make that happen. It will happen!

Sooo... we accidentally met a man from the Mafia. Like... he was legit from the Mafia, not an exaggeration. We have an investigator named Natalia who's from Brazil and she speaks English. We had one lesson with her and she didn't seem super interested, but she ended up inviting us to a gathering with her friends. All of the friends were Russian and they all spoke at least a little bit of English except for like 2 of them. One man who didn't speak any English was named Andrei and he was definitely a character. He told us about how he used to be a body guard for a very powerful, evil, man and about how he'd seen a lot of his friends die in his previous profession. Andrei spent about 5 minutes talking about all of the "special skills" that he gained from being in the Mafia... one of which was karate or something... kinda weird. He said that he got a lot of money from his past career, had severe drug addictions, alcoholism, all sorts of stuff. He never straight up said that he was in the Mafia, but we knew. Anyways, we ended up teaching this group of a dozen people the plan of salvation. Andrei was the only one who got super into it. He told us his really cool conversion story. Granted, it was some sort of Evangelistic Church that he converted to, but it was really interesting to hear about he had his " mighty change of heart." He's a really great guy now and he works as a lawyer. We didn't make much progress with him when we taught the plan of salvation, but it was still a spiritual experience for them I think.

I have so much more that I wanted to share, but Sister Johnson and I have to be at the train station soon, so I have to go. I hope you all have a fantastic week! Keep being wonderful examples and doing good things!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Cectpa Wagstaff

Sketchy Forest Herbs

Zdrastvuitye!

This week has been so crazy and so busy! Many adventures and interesting experiences! Thankfully I'm over whatever illness possessed me last week. I still have a little bit of a cold but it's been so freezing here that the snot literally freezes in my nostrils. Not even exaggerating. At least I don't have to worry about blowing my nose.

Anyways... Sister Johnson and I have had many.... different experiences with our investigator named Keira. She's the one who's 17 and is married, which we have confirmed is legit. She has legal custody of herself... so weird. That's besides the point. Apparently there was a crazy incident at her school with somebody cutting themself and then there was a thief prowling the halls at the same time... I don't really know. It was kind of hard to understand. One way or another, the theify blame was placed on Keira. To make the story short, let's just say she got mad and broke one of the finger pointer's noses and got expelled. Ever since then she's been in a strange spell of depression and has been really hard to get into contact with, which isn't good because she has a baptismal date set for this week. This is her third baptismal date, but both Sister Johnson and I feel good about this one. Thankfully she's starting to soften up again and I know that she will get back on the right path soon enough.

Remember Andrei the witch doctor? Yeah... he's back at it again with his cray cray visions. I'm not even going to tell you what this one was because it is so blasphemous. Anyways, we visited him this week and showed him the new Christmas video that the church released. Haven't seen it yet? Watch it. I seriously love this video! It's so beautiful and we thought it would touch his little witch doctor heart, but alas... it did not. He stared at the screen blankly the whole time and then expressed that he didn't feel anything when it was over. The senior couple that we brought with us on the lesson looked repulsed when he said that it didn't have any effect on him. I have never seen such a judgmental look of disgust come from such a sweet Senior Sister. I'm fairly confident that Andrei can't read very well, and that's probably why he didn't get anything from the message. He was pretty feisty during the lesson, so maybe he was just sleep deprived. All he does is sleep and make dream catchers, but maybe he stayed up late working on the "hydrogen generator" that he showed us when we got there. It's literally composed of one bottle with dirt in it and another bottle with water in it attached with a plastic tube and a bunch of scotch tape. Super official. He'll come around some day.

Funny translations!!!! So there's this guy in our Branch named Brat (pronounced brAHt not brat) Vinegradov, which literally translates to Brother Grapes. For the past week I have been calling him Brother Grapes whenever Sister Johnson and I talk about him in our apartment and it literally makes her want to do mean things to me. I can't help it... it's too funny. Also, there's another man in our Branch names President Bleenkov which literally translates to President Pancakes. Guess what I call him?? Your guess is probably valid.

Let me just say I am so glad that missionary work requires a lot of walking because Sister Johnson and I have eaten at two fast food places this week. 2. I have never eaten at so many American fast food places even in America. We ate at KFC one day and then the next day we ate at Subway. KFC in Russia has things on the menu that they don't have in America. Our Mission President is obsessed with this thing called a BoxMaster... say it in a Russian accent and that's what it's called in Russian. Anyways it's literally just a ginormous chicken wrap with mayo, lettuce, tomato, chicken, and a big old hash brown in it. Why the hash brown? Because Russia. I don't know. It's actually really good... not gonna lie. When we went to Subway, we actually went with a potential investigator so that we could eat and talk about the gospel. Didn't work out too well. Her name was Anastasia and all she wanted to talk about was what age people get married and get pregnant in America. Really weird. She totally shot down any idea of reading the Book of Mormon. She didn't even consider reading it. Not even a thought.

So our Branch is compiling a choir in order to put on a Christmas program for the community. The idea is that we as missionaries will be able to use it as a finding activity. So far, the practices haven't been super successful at finding people. At the last practice, there were literally 4 members, 1 investigator, and about 5 or 6 sets of missionaries. All sounded terrible. We are singing Carol of the Bells for one of the pieces and that song is FAST. Try singing it in Russian. Not easy. I mostly just mumble through the words and blurt out the ones that I do know. So beautiful.

Sister Johnson and I have been trying to get better at meeting with active members so that we can strengthen relationships with them, so this week we visited with a member named Tatiana. Last time we visited her, we had just started a fast with the other missionaries and she was super offended that we wouldn't eat her food. Tatiana always stuffs us full of cake, candy, tea, and random fruits. We made sure to not offend her this time, so we willingly consumed her cake, candy, tea, and random fruits. Tatiana is literally the Aurora Branch missionary mommy. If our scarves aren't on right, if our coat isn't zipped up all the way, if we're not wearing gloves and hats, or if anything is wrong with our appearance, she fixes it. She also gives us food every week at church. Love her to death. Anyways, when we visited her this week, she freaked out when she heard me coughing a little bit as a result of my illness. She ran into her closet and grabbed a bag of random, sketchy looking herbs. When we asked her what kind of herb it was, all she said was that it was from the forest. Random herbs from the forest.... not about that life. Tatiana gave me instructions on how I'm supposed to steep them to make a cough remedy. Love her. Hopefully they aren't actually sketchy herbs.

Well... that's all folks! Let's hope I don't get high from Russian tea! Have a wonderful week!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Cectpa Wagstaff

Germy Puppet Bread

Zdrastvuitye!

I don't actually have a lot to report on this week because I had the flu for the first half of the week. I had lots of Sisters around to babysit me since there were quite a few companionship's visiting for transfers and visa trips. I'm not exaggerating when I say they babysat me. One of the sisters, Sister Chase, bless her heart, literally babied me. She warmed up a rice baby for me, brought me food, tucked me into bed, the works. Sister Chase is such a gem. Another Sister that babysat me, Sister James, watched movies with me... church approved of course. We only have like 3 short movies, so I watched a few of them multiple times. Living the dream. This went on from Monday to Thursday... being sick is definitely not great on a mission. Can't bring people unto Christ when you can't get yourself out of bed.

I was still pretty sick on Thanksgiving, but thankfully Sister Johnson and I were able to pull something together! We ate a ton of unhealthy foods, but it was so worth it! We ate pastries, candy, Russian pancakes, ice cream, lots of different types of cookies, and a cucumber to make it healthy. Not a typical Thanksgiving for sure!

On Saturday, Sister Johnson and I got to help out at a primary activity which was a ton of fun! The Relief Society President organized a puppet show and we got to play some of the characters. Since it was for the children, the theme of the puppet show was "eat your fruits and vegetables." Thankfully the dialogue was on a recording because I'm pretty sure if I had to come up with the words on the spot or read off a script, the children would have laughed at me and not at the actual play. Everything worked out though. Sister Johnson had a nurse puppet and a mother puppet, the Relief Society President had a little girl puppet, and I had two fuzzy, bright colored puppets that were supposed to be germs. Of course I ended up with the germs. The plot was the following: the little girl didn't listen to her mom and didn't want to eat fruits or vegetables... the germ puppets somehow infected the bread that she was eating... the little girl got sick and a nurse told her that she needed to eat her fruits and vegetables... the germs died when she ate a strawberry. The end. Short, but informative. I had a blast helping out with the puppet show! I had no idea what the recording was saying, but I guess it was funny because the kids were laughing. The activity was such a nice break from walking around in the cold for hours, and it was great being able to help out the members.

Yesterday Sister Johnson and I got to go to a family night at our Senior Couple's apartment. One of the members in our branch has a sister who isn't a member, so she wanted us to become acquainted with her. The member, the member's daughter, and the sister showed up with three live crayfish. I think they were intending on eating them when they got home, but the crayfish were definitely alive when they showed up in the apartment. We spent a good 10 minutes playing with them on the table which probably wasn't the best idea, but it was super funny. After that we ate tacos since the sister had never had them before and then the Senior Couple shared a spiritual thought. When the thought was over, we played the game "Hot and Cold" by hiding a little toy sheep and then having one person try to find it. We were all pretty partied out after that. Two of the crayfish died by the time the family night was over, so the member's daughter wasn't as excited by them at that point. As a whole, it was a successful family night. Everyone had such a great time.

Today, Sister Johnson and I went to McDonald's for lunch... as per usual. I may have misplaced my camera battery charger, so we went to the mall to try and find one after we finished eating. No such luck. This mall happens to have an H&M in it, so we looked around while we were there. I bought a cheap hat that isn't super thick because the babooshki always get mad at me when I go outside without a hat even when it's not that cold. Now they'll have nothing to complain about.

Well, that's all folks! Keep smiling and being happy! Have a fantastic week!

Ask for my Autograph

Zdrastvuitye!

Many adventures ensued this week! I can now say that I've survived my first cycle in Russia! Sister Johnson and I will still be together in Aurora for this next cycle, so that will be a huge blessing. Not very many people actually got transferred, but a few people headed back to good ole' America to continue their civilian lives. Sad days. On to the fun stuff!

The second exchange that I've been on thus far was in Kazan. Oh Kazan... my new favorite place on the planet. Not the best traveling experience, but it was worth it to get to that beautiful city. Lemme talk about the bus ride first. Sister Johnson and I woke up bright and early on Monday morning to pack our things and buy some food. And by "buy some food"... I mean, buy some chips and Russian chocolate. Super healthy. We headed over to the bus station and started our 8 hour journey to Kazan. I learned some interesting things about Russians and Russian culture on that bus ride. 1. They do not get comfy. Ever. Not one person took off a single glove,  a scarf, a coat... nothing... on the entire trip to Kazan. Sister Johnson and I were lounging like it was our job. We were sprawled out across our seats, had candy wrappers strewn across the aisle, all of our coats, hats, gloves, and boots were used as decorations. We were comfy. 2. The frequent smoking stops. Every hour or so. Consistently. The whole way there. 3. Nobody speaks. Dead silence. 4. You have to pay for a piece of toilet paper. In every bus stop bathroom, we had to pay like twenty cents for a little sheet of TP. Not my forte.

The bus ride wasn't that bad, but it was only supposed to take 8 hours. At about hour 4, we took a 2 hour pit stop in a cute little Russian town, so it ended up taking 10 hours. The town kind of freaked me out initially though because the outskirts looked similar to something you'd see in an apocalypse movie or after a world war. The center of the city was beautiful though. It had a nice combination of old and new buildings, which was nice to see. Russian architecture is so interesting. The rest of the bus ride was fine. Just lots of studying and being judged by Russians. Living the dream.

Initial shock and excitement hit me when we arrived in Kazan. Seriously so beautiful! It's like a Russian Vegas! The sun sets at around 3 in the afternoon in Kazan, so it was already dark when we got there. All of the buildings were lit up in extravagant colors and I was literally in awe. There is no way my descriptions could do it any justice, so just Google: Russia Kazan and enjoy the show. Kazan is one of the most modern cities in Russia, so it was very contrasting from Samara. Obsessed! There are temples and churches and huge buildings and hotels everywhere! When Sister Johnson and I first got there, we had about an hour to kill before we had to start our exchange, so we went down Kazan's "walking street" called Bauman and ran to the Matryoshky store! I bought a medium sized matryoshka doll and a smaller one. They are so beautiful and detailed. I haven't actually taken a picture of them yet, but I will! They're splendid. Before we headed over to the Kazan sisters, we stopped at McDonald's (of course). Russian McDonald's are so fancy!

I had an amazing experience in Kazan. I met so many wonderful people and helped teach a few amazing lessons. We were on exchanges with two sisters named Sister Leavitt and Sister Manley. I lived with Sister Leavitt in the MTC for about 2 weeks before she headed off to Russia, so it was great seeing her again! Sister Manley is just a gem. I had quite the interesting experience when I was with her. Soooo... the sisters were planning on helping out one of the members in their branch at a school that the member worked at. Since Sister Manley and I were together that day, it was our task. As far as we knew, we were just supposed to speak in English with these school children and teach them about geography. No big deal, just teaching the children how to speak English and how to look at a map. Easy peasy. Yeah..... That is NOT what ended up happening at all. We showed up at the school, talked to the Principal for like 45 minutes, and then got escorted into a giant Recreational Hall. We somehow ended up being part of the "jury" for this school's talent show. Literally the weirdest experience of my life. There were about 200 Russian kids ranging from ages 9-24 all in this room. They took this talent show very seriously. It was meant to be both educational and entertaining, so they would talk about a certain part of the world (this is where the geography part comes in I guess) and then follow it up with a performance that corresponds to that part of the world.  It was actually really amazing! At one point they talked about Texas a little bit and then followed it up by dancing to "Cotton-Eyed Joe." Typical. The acts were great! There was lots of singing and dancing and laughing. Definitely a cherished experience.

After the acts were over, we conversed with the other members of the jury, picked the winners, and then handed out the certificates on the stage. The principal had us talk about ourselves in English for like 2 minutes and that was that. For some reason there were some university students visiting, so they swarmed us like we were celebrities. They took a million pictures with us, asked us for our Facebook information, and escorted us everywhere. It was strangely very amusing. Apparently this school had a little historical museum in it, so the principal and the university students took us to look at it. I loved it! There were a few displays about some Russian pilots in WWII and lots of little plane models. We were literally in there for about 5 minutes, so I didn't have time to take pictures. It was very cool though!

Our last night in Kazan was very mellow because it was really cold and nobody was outside when we were contacting. There's a beautiful river that runs through the middle of Kazan, so Sister Manley and I walked down that for a while. At one end of the river is this BEAUTIFUL government building called the Kremlin. I always thought that people were saying gremlin, but alas, it is Kremlin. Seriously so amazing! It has these really tall, breathtaking spires and the building itself seems unreal. Lucky for me, my camera died right as I was about to take a pictures of it, so you'll have to Google that up. So amazing!

Thankfully I didn't have to miss out on Thanksgiving this year! Last night one of our senior couples hosted a Thanksgiving activity for the youth in our branch. Just about everything you would normally eat at Thanksgiving was there. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin casserole (apparently the yams here are kind of sketchy and hard to buy, so we ate pumpkin stuff), cranberry sauce, vegetable platters, pies, cinnamon rolls, gravy, a million different types of bread, and corn. I don't think this is a thing in America, but I tried chocolate butter for the first time. I don't know how to describe it... it's literally exactly what it sounds like. I ate way too much of that on some bread. So good!

Unfortunately I have picked up a case of the flu as of yesterday, so that's been fun. Just trucking through and trying not to cough on anyone. Good times!

Well... Keep being amazing and doing amazing things! Smile at everyone and everything!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Cectpa Megan Wagstaff

Joining the Baptists

Zdrastvuitye!

Hello everyone! These past couple of weeks have consisted of a lot of traveling and a lot of adventures! Due to the excessive amount of travel, I wasn't able to write on P-day and I now have a very limited amount of time to write about my weekly happenings. I will talk about the goings-on from last week in this letter so that my letter on Monday isn't two sentences long. Let us begin!
So.... Last P-day Sister Johnson and I rode on a bus for about 2 hours and arrived in the good ole city of Tolyatti. I seriously love Tolyatti! It's like a modernized version of Samara! So cool! On the first day, I went on exchanges with a Sister named Sister James. My first appointment with Sister James was with an eternal investigator who we met with at McDonald's. Let me just talk about the McDonald's for a second. In this beautiful McDonald's you had the option to order your food at the counter or at these super futuristic-looking kiosks that descended gracefully from the ceiling. Why is this not a thing in America??? Even the children's area was amazing! I totally would have played in it. There was a huge coloring table and a bunch of interactive decorations. It was nuts. I cannot even handle how classy these fast food restaurants are. Anyways, back to the appointment. The investigator that we met with was named Eegr (Egor) and he's been investigating the church for 6 years. Crazy because he's only like 25. Anyways, Sister James's birthday was the previous day, so he bought her a cake and we feasted! It was pretty interesting sitting in McDonald's eating a big old cake and sipping raspberry tea. There's a first for everything I suppose. Eegr was so great! He speaks nearly perfect English and understands sarcasm, which is basically unheard of for Russians.  We had a pretty good conversation with him about why active members of the church just decide to stop going. It was actually really interesting. I had a pretty intense pondering session to figure out how to answer this question. There are so many reasons why active members of the church stop going. There isn't one, universal answer. If there was, we'd be able to get all of the less-actives back to church. It was a very thought-provoking conversation indeed.

The second day in Tolyatti was equally as interesting. I was on exchanges with a native Sister named Sister Kozmenova (thankfully she speaks English). Our first appointment was with a lady named Svetlana. She was a gem! Svetlana basically force fed us apples and clementines as soon as we showed up at her apartment. We shared a message with her from "The Living Christ" and I felt the spirit so strong. Definitely a very inspired document. Read it! After we met with Svetlana, I got to try knocking for the first time. Let's just say I'm not a huge fan. Sister Kozmenova's family was found through knocking, so she utilizes every opportunity she can get. At the first door, a youngish man answered the door and took everything that we gave him, but he ended up declining a follow up visit and walked away to smoke a cigarette in the stairwell. Lovely. The second door went okay... sorta. A middle-aged woman answered and she agreed to take one of the pamphlets, but she clearly was not interested. She was literally shutting the door on Sister Kozmenova's back, but Sister K kept fighting. She testified and testified about how important this message is and how much it would bless her family, but the lady wouldn't budge. I pretty much had to pull Sister K away from the door to keep her from getting crushed. Good times.
We went back to the apartment afterwards to grab some grub. After watching Sister Kozmenova make food for herself, I've discovered that Russians are the strangest cooks. Sister K literally threw whatever she felt like into a pot, cooked it, and ate it. Some strange creations were concocted in front of my eyes. Glad I didn't have to eat it. One day she made this nasty pasta thing with old cheese, olives, and mayo that physically made her gag. Her favorite thing to do is throw a bunch of sliced potatoes into a pot and add basically everything in the fridge on top of it. Cheese, olives, beets, tomatoes, celery, pasta, bread, mayo, ketchup, anything and everything. Very... unique?
I did a lot of contacting with Sister Kozmenova and it was quite the adventure. We talked to a lot of little old ladies because they can't run away very fast. They were all so sweet! There was one man that we tried to talk to but he clearly did not speak Russian. He walked up really close to us, muttered something unintelligible in some strange language, and did the weird cross sign over Sister K. I had to muster every fiber of my being to keep from bursting into laughter. It was great.

The next day I was with Sister James again and we had an appointment with an investigator named Marina in a beautiful park. I think it was called the English equivalent of "Liberty Park." It was so amazing! There were a few tank replicas, a cannon replica, and some soldier headstone displays throughout the park. There was also this really cool monument called the "Eternal Flame" that is circular and shape and has some symbolic pictures on the inside. There was supposed to be a flame burning on the top, hence the name, but there definitely wasn't a flame of any sort, so that was a lie. Anyways, I guess the only investigators that I met with in Tolyatti spoke English because Marina also spoke English. Marina and I are basically besties now. She was so nice and wanted to know all about where I came from, my mission call, my thoughts on Russia, and how America is. She was fantastic! Marina is learning Japanese right now and she loves anime and British shows. I hope I get to see her again someday!

Sister Johnson and I witnessed a few miracles this week! Here's one! After one of our appointments with an investigator fell through, Sister Johnson and I were kind of at a loss with what we should do. We called pretty much everyone we could think of to try to set up an appointment with no luck. After contacting for a while without any luck, Sister Johnson and I pulled ourselves off of the main sidewalk for a minute and said a quick prayer asking for miracles. After we closed the prayer, the first person we came across was named Vera (Russian word for faith). Her name fit the bill perfectly. Vera was quite an interesting lady. She isn't a lawyer, but she works for some sort of lawyer information firm. She expressed to us how much she wanted to talk to us and about how her daughter's family would most likely be interested as well. She literally was a miracle.
So... for the past couple of weeks, my District Leaders have begged me to straighten my hair. Since last Friday was the last District Meeting of the cycle, I decided to humor them and straighten it while I exercised that morning. It took an hour and I'm not sure if it was worth it, but I did it. Let me tell you, it is not easy to do wall-sits and yoga while straightening one's hair. Not at all.
Sunday was a very... different day. One of the Sisters in our zone, Sister Coleman, called and asked us if we could go on an exchange so that she could go to a Baptist church service. Of course we said yes. President approved it, but he thought it would be best if Sister Coleman went with one of us and not her native companion. Sister Johnson had to give a talk in our branch, so lo and behold, I got to go. Apparently the Sisters have this potential couple who are Baptists. They agreed to come visit our church on the condition that we visit theirs'. The Sisters' branch and the Baptist church started at the same time, so we figured it would just have to be a righteous sacrifice to miss our church. It took about 30 minutes to travel to the Baptist church but we arrived about 15 minutes early, so Sister Coleman and I just chilled at the bus stop in front of the church. While we were sitting there, we received a phone call from President and he sounded pretty frantic. He told us that apparently there had been some sort of misunderstanding and that we wouldn't be able to attend the Baptist church since it is at the same time as ours. He reminded us that it is a commandment to take the sacrament and that it definitely wasn't okay to go to another church in place of taking the sacrament. Totally didn't even think about that, but it makes sense. I guess I won't be getting baptized into the Baptist religion this week. Oh well!
That's all folks! Keep being good people and doing good things! Have a fantastic week!

Do Svidanya!
Love,
Cectpa Megan Wagstaff

Gypsy Nuggets

Zdrastvuitye!

This week has been very interesting and kind of stressful. Still good, nonetheless! Sister Johnson and I will be going on exchanges in Tolyatti today, so lots of adventures will ensue in the near future.

Currently, Satan's been working really hard on our investigators with baptismal dates. Keira has expressed to one of the members that she no longer wants to come to church anymore. She's had many ups and down on her journey, and this happens to be one of the down times. We have confirmed that she is legally married since her husband is 18, but they recently got in a big fight. Keira is one of our most difficult investigators for sure. Tanya, another investigator with a baptismal date, has basically dropped off the face of the planet since our last lesson. She never answers our phone calls and is never home when we visit. I don't think she's having a faith crisis or anything, but she is certainly a lot busier than before. Our last investigator, Veeka, just agreed to be baptized on Monday. She came to institute on Tuesday and has thus far dropped off the face of the planet as well. We seriously have no idea what happened. She was so excited and enthusiastic about everything at institute; she even gave Sister Johnson and I excessive amounts of candy. I hope she's just been busy and isn't having second thoughts or anything. All we can do is pray for them at this point and try to get in contact with them. They're in the Lord's hands right now, I just hope they're doing alright and that they come back soon.

On a brighter note, Sister Johnson and I had the really amazing opportunity to watch a couple of the people that we teach receive blessings. The first one was Andrei, the witch doctor. We actually had a lesson in his apartment which was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. Sister Johnson and I went over with one of the Senior Couples and a member from our branch, so there were 6 of us total, including Andrei. Not really sure why, but Andrei decided that we would all fit inside his tiny little bedroom. Yeah... we didn't. I wasn't lying when I said that the Spirit does not reside in his home. He had some janky stuff hanging up in there. Andrei had about 7... um... interesting-looking dream catchers hanging around his room. How I wish my glasses had a camera in them. One of them looked like a normal dream catcher, but the others made my skin crawl. There were some creepy looking symbols/idols hanging off of each of them. Oh yeah... and there was a box with a Hookah in it next to my feet. Lovely. He had a bowl with straight up garlic cloves in it. Who keeps fresh garlic cloves in a decorative bowl on the nightstand??? Not I. Perhaps he's afraid of vampires. Anyways, I have a sneaking suspicion that he's anticipating the apocalypse because he had about 7 jugs of water on the floor and three huge hiking backpacks thrown in the corner. At least he's prepared. Oh yeah... the blessing. So, before we taught the lesson, Andrei told us that he got beat up on his way home from church last week and the only other time that has happened to him was the week after he got baptized. We spent a lot of the lesson consoling him and trying to convince him that no, he did not need to carry a stabbing knife with him as he travels to and from church. He agreed to receive a blessing after that. He sat underneath a dream catcher with a dead bat hanging off it during the blessing and that, my friends, was weird. The blessing was really good though. Andrei was promised some really great things that I hopes he takes to heart.

The second blessing was for our investigator Deema. I haven't talked about Deema in a while. Right now he's working on applying for Oxford and he works as a navigator on a ship. He reads the Bible in Greek every day, he spends about 8 hours a day studying for absolutely nothing in the library, and he's just an all-around oober smart guy. When Deema has doubts about anything spiritual in nature, he turns to his intelligence rather than seeking inspiration from Heavenly Father. We've taught him every single lesson at least 3 times and his lack of faith has been such a major road block. Recently he's been struggling to know which job to take, as he now has two job offers, so we offered to have the Elders give him a blessing. He eventually agreed and it ended up being one of the most amazing blessings I've ever heard. Thankfully Sister Johnson was smart and wrote down what was said as the blessing was given. Deema was on cloud 9 after everything was said and done. I hope he remembers how he felt during and after the blessing and uses that experience to guide his decisions. He has so much potential and it's so hard for him to see it and believe it. I have faith that he will come around though. 

Today Sister Johnson and I went to good old McDonald's for lunch because... why not? Ain't nothin' wrong with McDonald's. This is the third time I've eaten at McDonald's whilst being in Russia. Pretty sure I've never eaten there this often in my entire life. Anyways... Tears of joy literally streamed down my face when I discovered that the cheeseburgers taste just like the American ones. Streamed. While we were eating our spoils, a little gypsy boy came over and started begging for food. Sister Johnson kept saying "NO!" to him all mean-like and that definitely threw me off. She said that gypsy kids always come into restaurants to beg for food and they will steal your food without a second thought unless you get angry with them. He was pretty convincing... not going to lie. Sister Johnson wasn't afraid to get stern with him because a gypsy kid straight up stole her companion's chicken nuggets once. Just walked away with the whole box. No more nuggies. Let's just say some unhappy feelings were released. Lesson learned.

Well, that's all folks! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Keep smiling and being happy! Be good examples!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Cectpa Megan Wagstaff

Spiritual Samara‏

Zdrastvuitye!

This week has been a great adventure! Lots of fun stories to share!

First of all, we literally had a million Sister missionaries in our apartment from Tuesday to Thursday. You want to know how hard it is to journal with a million females lounging around in your space... eating your food... singing Babylonian music... talking to you... and being all nice and stuff?? Really hard, that's how. It actually wasn't that bad, but we did have 12 sisters in our apartment one night. That was cray. There were quite a few sisters that had to go on Visa trips, so their companions got to hang out with us for a little bit. We also had zone conference on Thursday and we had to combine with another zone, so that's why the number of people in our apartment was so excessive. It was a ton of fun though. Cectpa McKell's companion was one of the sisters that had to go on a Visa trip, so I got to see her again! I don't know how wise of a decision this was, but Sister McKell and I, the two sisters who had only been out two weeks and barely spoke any Russian, went on splits in my area. Let me tell you... greatest learning experience of my life. I honestly have no idea what I said most of the time. We probably taught some false doctrine on accident a few times, but we tried our best. I don't think I've ever learned so much in my entire life. We ended up giving away 3 Book of Mormons and received 3 peoples' telephone numbers, which is basically unheard of. We were exhausted that night, but it was so worth it. Being new missionaries, it's really easy to kind of sit back and let the senior companion take the reigns. It was really eye-opening to see that we really can make a difference even with our limited knowledge.

On Wednesday I went on splits with a sister named Cectpa James. For some reason it ended up turning into a mini P-day. Cectpa James has a lot of dietary restrictions and wasn't able to eat any of the food in our apartment, so we got to go to the mall in our area to buy her some num-nums. There is a grocery store in that mall that has a special "diet foods" section that she needed to pick apart, so lo and behold... we went. We aren't allowed to proselyte in malls and we're only allowed to go in malls if we get permission, so this was a first-time experience for me. I kid you not, this mall looked EXACTLY like the Boise Mall. Honestly freaked me out a little bit. Besides all of the Russian words everywhere, it was pretty spot on. Made me a tiny bit homesick but then I moved on with my life. After Cectpa James got her "special food," we went to McDonald's

and KFC and she proceeded to eat all of the things that she's not supposed to. Good times.

Last P-day we went to this market called the Reenok. Oh boy, was that an interesting experience. It was like a giant maze of booths and crazy people. Cectpa Johnson told me that the Reenok is the biggest street market in Europe, so that means it's legit. I learned how to bargain which was fun I guess. The key is... you have to pretend like you hate the thing that you love and then they will lower the price on the thing to make you love the thing that you already love but supposedly hate. Make sense? Anyways, I got a really nice navy blue coat with burgundy fur for way cheaper than it should have been. I love how all Russian coats have matching belts. Not going to lie... the style of the belt is totally what sold me on it. Belts are so classy! This coat is definitely warm enough. I literally get heat stroke just trying to put my arms into the sleeves when we're getting ready in the apartment. It takes a solid 30 minutes of being out in the cold to cool down from dressing up. I forgot to take pictures of the coat, but I'll work on that. It's great. I also bought a wallet at the Reenok that I'm obsessed with. It was super cheap and, again, it looks classy. It does the job. Cectpa Johnson needed... well... I don't know if needed is the right word. Cectpa Johnson wanted to get a fur hat, so we went on a little scavenger hunt for that. We went into this one booth with fur hats and the two men who owned the booth were hilarious! Every time Cectpa Johnson put on a hat, they "ooo"-ed and "aahh"-ed and said "soooper" in their goofy Russian accents. Super funny. One of the owners wanted to take a picture with us before we left which was a little bit strange... Good times. A cherished experience for sure.

That night we taught a member named Galeena about patriarchal blessings and it went pretty well. We all felt the spirit so strong and she committed to prepare herself to receive one. The hard thing about that is the Patriarch only comes once a year, so she will have to wait until like March or something. It's okay though. The Lord will help these people persevere. Galeena got kind of freaked out when we told her about the lineage/tribe aspect of the patriarchal blessings. She straight up said that she refuses to be from the line of Judah since he betrayed Jesus. That was fun trying to resolve. All is well though.

Speaking of freaking out... Andrei the witch doctor bore his testimony in church on Sunday. When he started walking towards the pulpit, there was an audible gasp from everyone in the congregation. We all assumed that he would start prophesying about his visions and about how Jesus isn't the Messiah (he mentioned that in Sunday School last week... that was fun). Honestly, his testimony was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. He bore simple testimony about how he knows that this church is true, how the Book of Mormon is true, and that he knows Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. He talked about how he remembers feeling the spirit when he got baptized and how those feelings are coming back as he meets with the missionaries now. Andrei's testimony was amazing. Granted, I didn't understand hardly any of it at the time, but I wanted to cry when Cectpa Johnson told me about it later. I've noticed that as he learns more about the truth, he lets go of his strange views and ideas about the church and the doctrine. The spirit has an amazing ability to teach in ways that we cannot. We are able to speak words, but the spirit is able to change hearts.

This past week we have discovered a couple "golden investigators." Nay... they are more than golden... They are platinum investigators. They are so prepared you guys!!!!! The first one is named Veeka. She is a gem. She is 19 years old, is shorter than me, she's studying to be a designer, has bright orange hair, and just got dreads as of two days ago. Seriously the coolest girl I've ever met. Cectpa Johnson and I met her briefly on the street last week. She agreed to read the Book of Mormon even with the minimal information that we gave her about about it, she agreed to come to an activity with the Branch that week, and she agreed to come to church. That never happens... ever. She's a miracle! When we saw her again a few days later, she had already read half of the Book of Mormon! Not even devout members do that! She's going to get baptized... period.

The other platinum investigator is named Tanya. She's amazing! She wants to learn everything as quickly as possible so that she can get baptized. Tanya got a baptismal date after the first lesson and she's still sticking with it! She literally snatches pamphlets and brochures from our hands so that she can read them and she always says, "What kind of question is that! Of course I will!" when we give her commitments. The Lord answers prayers, my friends. No doubt about it!

Remember the investigator that I talked about last week, Kiera? Yeah... she's got a baptismal date too! There was one particular day of the week where we only had lessons with active families and not with any investigators, so Cectpa Johnson and I prayed for us to be able to have a lesson with a nonmember. Completely out of the blue, Kiera called us and asked if she could meet. We ended up having a really deep conversation about repentance and I felt prompted to ask her to be baptized. She admitted that baptism was still something that she wanted and she agreed to be baptized! Yay! The spirit was so strong and I know it was because of this that she said yes! Again, the Lord answers prayers, my friends.

I didn't have to miss out on Halloween this year! Our Branch had a Halloween activity since the Senior Couple in our area is big into the holidays. It was SO much fun! There was a ton of really good food, really good people, and really good experiences. Veeka came to the activity and she even asked if she could stay to help us clean afterwards. I could tell that she was very comfortable with the atmosphere and genuinely enjoyed being there! She's the sweetest. Anyways, we had a bobbing for apples activity, a costume parade, and a fun group game that I'm pretty sure someone just made up on the spot. Such a good time!

Well, that's all for this week, folks! Keep being amazing and doing amazing things! I love you all!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Cectpa Megan Wagstaff

I'm Addicted

Zdrastvuitye!

Lots of fun and strange things have happened this week! I love Russia so much! I'm so grateful to be here at the time that I am.

The food here in Russia is my addiction... I literally cannot get enough of it. Sister Johnson is going to make me so fat, but I'm not even ashamed. First of all... my most favorite candy. The candy here is legit in general, but there's this one candy that is sent from above. It's called добрянка and it is heavenly. Imagine a huge glob of Nutella surrounded by a crunchy wafer cocoon, all covered in a thick layer of chocolate. Salivation! Seriously so good. I ate six of them in one day. Not good... but it tastes good. Another of my favorite foods is called шаурма. Sooooooo goood! It's basically like a Russian gyro. They take a Russian tortilla and fill it with a little bit of mayo, some raw carrot strips, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, a meat of questionable origin, and top it off with a delicious tomato sauce. Really simple, really amazing. I've heard many rumors of what the meat actually is. Most recently I heard that it is dog... but it seriously tastes so good, that myth will not deter me!

Oh, the weather. What to even say about it... It is REAL cold here. Like... really cold. Like... it's snowed every single day this week and we've had to break out the sleeping bag coats. It's cold. People spit loogies on the ground all the time from chewing tobacco and smoking and it literally freezes in like .5 seconds. Kinda fun to watch. The other day it was snowing SO hard and I was just wearing a headband thing... yeah... my hair froze. You probably could have served iced beverages to everyone on the block with the amount of frozen water that accumulated on my head. Sister Johnson and I had to run to the store during the snow storm and I felt so bad because the snow hill on my head was melting everywhere. I left a stream of water behind me. Oober embarrassing... lots of weird looks. It's cool though.

There's a lot of crazy people in Russia, but I love them. I get a lot of weird looks because of the way that I talk... especially when I accidentally say "как вы прожёвываете?" (How you chew well?) instead of "как вы поживаете?" (how are you?)... You'd be surprised how many times this has happened. Love it.Oh yeah... During one of our lessons the other day, this random lady busted in the family's front door with a little box of unprescribed medicine and begged us to give her a shot. She didn't leave for a solid 10 minutes and it was the craziest thing. The family that we were teaching hardly even knew her... they called her the "weird neighbor." They ended up calling an ambulance for her and made her leave. Great fun. Totally ruined the spirit of the meeting... but it was still good.

Oh yeah... we have a less active member in our branch named Andrei. He's a character fo' sho. He's about 25 years old, sells dream catchers for a living, and he thinks he's a witch doctor. Legit. Anyways, nobody teaches him the lessons in his apartment anymore because the spirit does not reside there. He has a bunch of demonic-looking stuff hanging up everywhere and his necklaces were pretty satanic looking. The lesson that we had with him wasn't terrible... but it could have gone lots better. We taught Andrei about General Conference and Joseph Smith. When we got to the topic of Joseph Smith, we asked him how he knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet. Andrei was baptized in 2000, so he knew at some point that all of this was true. He then went on about how he prayed to God to know that Joseph was a prophet and God took him back in time to see the first vision happen in person. On a later subject, he talked about how he's been to the spirit world and how he's seen spirit paradise and prison. Let's just say things got a little bit weird. Thankfully the spirit was able to come back after that and he agreed to read The Testimony of Joseph Smith and pray about. Very strange... very spiritual-ish? He came to church on Sunday and that was a train wreck and a half. Not even going to talk about that. He's fine, but the faith of all of the members is a bit shaken up.

Also, a hardcore baptist invited us to come over and we literally just stood there for 20 minutes while she tried to explain why our religion is wrong. Let's just say she wasn't a huge fan of our faith. Not really sure why she wanted us to come over in the first place. She was like 90 years old and knew the Bible backwards and forwards, so we didn't have much to contribute. To make matters even better, her friend came over and they both went at it. All we could do was bear our testimonies and give them a copy of The Living Christ since they basically spat upon everything else we offered. It was an interesting experience for sure. It's okay though. God loves them and so do we.

Now that I think about it... we've had lots of crazy lessons this week. We have an investigator named Kiera and she is basically the definition of a drama queen. We love her to death, but she can be a handful sometimes. She's 17 years old, was literally about to walk into the waters of baptism (not even joking... she was in the baptismal suit), and found out that her brother died minutes before she was supposed to be baptized. Kiera's kind of fallen away since then. Most recently she eloped with this guy of whom she brought to the lesson that we had with her. It was really hard to get the two of them to concentrate because they were distracting each other (to put it lightly), but she eventually made him leave and we were able to give a powerful lesson. She told us that she still has a desire to be baptized, so she's not as far gone as we thought.

The Relief Society had a super fun activity this week that we were able to go to because all of the Senior Missionary Sisters from our area came, so we had to translate for them. They planned a cute little tea party! Well... I guess it wasn't little. There was enough food to feed the entire ward. I can now say that I've eaten caviar. We ate lots of блины with fish eggs in it and there were about 6 different kinds of pies and cakes. So good! At the activity we almost burned down the church building. No joke. Since it was a special occasion, it was unanimously decided that the tea was going to be heated with a tradition "tea pot" called a сама вар. This thing's legit. You pour the tea into a big cavity in the pot and literally light a fire inside of a tube to heat it up. Heaven knows why, but for some reason it was decided that the closed balcony with a tiny ventilation window would be the best location to light a fire in the building. Let's just say people still smelled like smoke after leaving sacrament meeting the following day.

Lots of fun things have happened with our apartment this week. First of all... our air conditioner broke at like 5 o'clock in the morning one day. I don't know why Sister Johnson had it on in the winter, but she did. Anyways, she turned it on when it had been snowing outside and it started making dripping noises. We thought it was like an animal or something because of how quiet it was. Then the AC full-on started dumping water onto Sister Johnson's bed. Seriously so funny. It stopped water falling when we turned it off but it was making horrible crackling noises for the rest of the night. So great. Also, all of the lights in our apartment except for two tiny ones decided to go out. it was the strangest thing. When the landlord came to look at the lights, he got all mad because apparently we're not supposed to have the AC on in the winter... probs broke it forever.

Anyways, those are my adventures from this week! There has been a rumor going around that as of Thursday, we won't be able to wear our tags anymore. I don't know if this is true or anything, but it's just a heads up. I hope you are all doing well! Thank you for all of your love and support!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Cectpa Megan Wagstaff

Vot! Eta ya, v Russia!‏

Zdrastvuitye!!!!

Welp... After almost two full days of travel, I'm finally in Mother Russia!!! Such an adventure! I actually didn't have have very many opportunities to proselyte on the journey because I sat by my travel group literally on every single flight. That usually doesn't happen... like ever... but for some reason it did! Also, we're not allowed to proselyte in airports, so that was like half of our travel time. Anyways, we began our journey bright and early at 3:30 in the morning. We got on a big chartered bus and rode over to the Front-Runner station. On our way to the airport on the Front-Runner, we had an amazing opportunity to sit by a man who works in the media department for the Liahona magazines. He shared so many inspiring stories with us and it was a great way to start off our journey with a spiritual experience. His last name is Migy or something, so you might be able to see his name in the back of the magazine. Anyways, we had quite a few hours to kill when we got to the airport after we checked all of our bags and stuff, so my travel group and I went and got some Cafe Rio for breakfast at like 6:30 in the morning. So good! We had to say goodbye to our MTC District shortly after that and it was a lot more sad than I thought it would be. Such a bitter-sweet moment. Three of them are headed to Moldova and the other is going to Rostov. They are going to do great things over there!

The first plane ride was so fun! I sat by Elder Peterson who is also serving in Samara and he had never been on a plane before. Let's just say it was highly entertaining to watch how he reacted to everything! I'm just glad he didn't throw up. We sat by a wonderful lady whose name has escaped me right now. She was so nice! We got to talk to her a little bit about what a mission is and how the leaders of our church issue our callings. It was a strange experience teaching in English. Still great nonetheless. We didn't commit her to baptism or anything, but it was a really cool learning experience. I can now say that I have seen the Statue of Liberty... barely... but I have seen it! I saw it very far off in the distance when we landed at JFK in New York. Our flight was a little bit late leaving SLC and we only had an hour layover in NYC, so we literally had to charge through the airport. I have never run so fast in my entire life. That's actually a lie... but you get my point. When we got to the gate, everyone in our group decided that they needed to use the bathroom... terrible idea. The people at the gate started yelling at us and said that plane was leaving. We basically had to scramble for our lives. Thankfully, we made it on time. This plane was SOOOO nice. There were two huge seats per section and there were little TVs on the backs of the seats in front of us. We couldn't watch the movies or anything, but we could play the little crossword puzzles and there was a Russian language game on there that was kind of fun. There wasn't anyone sitting in the section next to me, so I couldn't really attempt to talk to them in Russian. My seating assignment was next to Elder Peterson again, so we did a lot of crossword puzzles and stared at the map on our screens for a majority of the trip. This flight was 9 hours so it consisted of a lot of sleeping.

We were all exhausted when we got to Moscow because it was kind of hard to sleep for more than an hour at a time on the flight. While we were in the airport we had our passports checked in this really beautiful room and then we had to sign a bunch of documents. We headed to the Embassy after that. The drivers in Russia are literally all crazy. I cannot express to you how many times I thought I was going to die just on our 45 minute drive from the airport to the Embassy. People park on sidewalks when they want, people cut you off when they want, people DRIVE on the sidewalk when they want, and I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a speed limit. There are so many potholes in Russian roads that it feels like we are doing an off-road excursion all the time. Anyways, the Embassy was super boring because we were all falling asleep the whole time. It took a couple of hours because all of the employees were on a lunch break. We turned in our passports, payed for another passport, and sat around for an unnecessary long time. So great. We said goodbye to the rest of our travel buddies and Sister McKell, Elder Peterson, and I hung out in the airport for like 9 hours. Elder Peterson wasn't feeling well so he was basically just a lump that we dragged around everywhere. There were a couple of times that we got to talk to Russian people, but they couldn't understand anything that we said, so that was swell. After a lot of walking around, sleeping, and being bored, we finally got to go on our last flight. Thankfully this flight was only about 2 hours and the plane wasn't even bad. I, again, was by Elder Peterson and we were sitting by a man named Roman... he didn't want to talk very much. We basically just slept the whole way to Samara.

It was about 2:30 in the morning when we got from the airport to the apartment that we were staying at, Sister McKell and I spent the night with two sisters who were serving close to the Mission Office, They were so great! They were up and waiting for us when we got there. Cectpa McKell wanted to sleep on the floor, so I got to sleep on the bed. Their apartment has 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitched, and a fairly large entryway. The only thing that was weird about it was the bathroom. The bathtub faucet was directed into the sink for some reason and the shower curtain went straight across the bathroom... not even covering the back end of the tub. Strange. The next morning the two sisters dropped us off at the Mission President's apartment and we got to eat breakfast with them. Their apartment was seriously so nice! It looked very American and had lots of decorations. We ate pancakes, eggs, bacon, and juice with the Mission President, his wife, Elder Peterson, Cectpa McKell, and the PAs. Russian juice is the best thing on the planet. It's legitimate, straight-up juice. Not filtered... not artificially flavored, not all diluted. Just juice. So good. Everything that we had was delicious! After that, we had an orientation where we talked about all of the legal stuff and what we should and shouldn't do in Russia. President Schwab briefly interviewed all of us and then we got to meet our new companions! My companion is so amazing! Her name is Cectpa Johnson and we have so much in common. She is really short, she went to Utah State, and we both like a lot of the same things. After the initial hello, we got to eat some KFC. It doesn't taste a whole lot like the American kind, but it's still good! We got our area assignments and said our goodbyes one last time. Elder Peterson and Sister McKell are serving in different areas in Saratov. Sister Johnson and I are serving in an area in Samara called Aurora (Аврора).

Our apartment is seriously so nice! All of the sisters who come back from Visa trips, are here for Zone meetings, leadership conferences, or exchanges stay in our apartment which is why it is so big. I have been told that we have one of the nicest apartments in our mission. Our bedroom is bigger than it looks in the picture. The big curtain is just covering the back half of the room because that's where we store our suitcases and stuff.

I've had the opportunity to experience many different types of Russian transportation. The Metro is my favorite! The picture of the blue tile wall with the columns is what the Metro station looks like. It's so cool! The Russian buses are pretty normal, but they have these van things that are literally death traps. Everyone crams into this little van and we hold on for dear life as the driver whips through traffic as if no one else is in the vehicle. Scary! Most of our transportation is walking though, so we don't get to experience that too often.

We teach at least one lesson every day with our investigators. The first night I was there I got to help teach a lesson to an investigator named Deema. He speaks English and usually takes the lessons in English, but since I was there they decided it would be best to do it in Russian. Great. We taught him about Joseph Smith since he's been having some doubts on whether or not he was actually a prophet. The lesson went well, I thought. It's hard for me to understand everything that people are saying because they talk so fast and he uses words that I'm not familiar with. Anyways, Deema is a great guy. He is very nerdy and intelligent which hasn't helped him at all in his conversion process. He turns to his intelligence and not Heavenly Father when he has doubts, which creates even more doubt. Not good. We're working on it though... he's getting close.

A majority of our day consists of contacting. I'm not so good at contacting yet because I have no idea what people are saying. We mostly just walk around a lot and avoid the drunk people. We did have a cool experience when we were contacting the other day though! We met a wonderful woman named Natalia and she was a miracle. Natalia was standing outside of a shop with one of her friends and it was obvious that her friend wasn't interested in the least. Natalia put up a cold wall at first, buit that broke down really fast. Sister Johnson and I taught this lady on the sidewalk for literally an hour. Natalia's friend got tired of standing there, but Natalia just waved her off instead of following, which was definitely a miracle. The light that I saw in her eyes was indescribable. I felt the spirit so strong even though I could barely understand what was going on. Her personality and her likeness took such a profound switch when we started talking to her. There's no doubt in my mind that the Lord had prepared her for this moment. She agreed to come to a baptism that was being held the following day after we basically taught her the entire first lesson. I had lots of other cool experiences too, but I've already made Sister Johnson sit here for like 2 hours, so I should probably go soon!

I haven't eaten any super crazy Russian food yet. I did get some McDonalds the other day and Sister Johnson bought me a canoli which was really good! Nothing too exotic though! I will try to catch you up on all of the cultural stuff later. Russia is an amazing place and I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to serve the people here! I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Cectpa Megan Wagstaff