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