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