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