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!