No Easter Bunny‏

Zdrastvuitye!

I love Solnechney! I can never say that enough times. The ghetto-ness is growing on me! There is an amazing grocery store here called Lenta that we buy all of our food from. It is HUGE! If Costco and HomeDepot had a baby, that is what the interior of Lenta looks like. It literally has everything! Even brown sugar, which is surprisingly hard to find in Russia. I don't know how I forgot to mention this, but there was an IKEA about 40 minutes outside of my area when I lived in Avrora. The Russians pronounce it like Ee-kay-yuh. Weird. One of the members in my branch worked there and gave the senior couples bags of Swedish meatballs and gravy frequently. Did we eat them at Branch parties? Yes. Were they delicious? Yes. None of the missionaries ever went to IKEA because it is kind of out of the way on the outskirts of town, and it would have taken up a lot of P-day time. Not worth it. Probably.

Yesterday was Easter in good old Russia and it was definitely a lot different than in America. People walk around the streets saying, "Christ is Ressurrected!" And then you reply by saying, "Truly Ressurrected!" Why? I don't know. Provaslavic thing. Don't say it to Muslims though... they don't believe in Christ and they get really uncomfortably... trust me. The members got to watch the Russian translation of General Conference this past weekend, so the missionaries watched it in a separate room in English. Loved it! On Easter Sunday, I recieved so much candy and 4 decorated eggs from the members. A lot of them give out these plain brownish-red colored eggs that I guess are dyed using some sort of onion? They're not the most beautiful thing, but it's a Russian thing. There's also a special cake that people make/ you can buy for Easter. I think it's pretty good! It looks like a big cupcake, but it's actually a type of sweet bread with raisins in it and frosting and sprinkles on the top. Really good! Also, the Easter Bunny isn't a thing here as far as I know. They take their religious holidays seriously here... except for the fact that they all get hammered on every holiday. The Russian equivalent of the 4th of July is on May 9th, so we'll be having a lock-in that night to stay safe from all of the drunkies. 

The members in Solnechney are the best!!! Just before I moved here, the Sisters who were serving here baptized one of the most amazing women I've ever met. Her son got baptized a few months ago and that sparked her interest in hearing about the gospel, thus leading her to be baptized. The other day, we went over to her house to have a new-convert lesson with her and she informed us that she had invited 3 people over for us to teach!!! That is unheard of! She loves this gospel so much and she has become the greatest little missionary because of her faith! We are in the process of getting her youngest son baptized, and we know great things are going to come from this wonderful family! I love them with all my heart! Even if I can't understand them all of the time or vice versa, my love for them and their love for the gospel is never lost in translation. The church is true!

There is still a pretty prominent language barrier between me and the Russian people. I speak and understand a lot better than I did when I was in the MTC, but I still make a lot of mistakes; a lot of little ones, a few serious ones. The other day this kid ran up to Sister Wilson and I and asked, "Why are you (Americans) making war with us?" after hearing our American accents. I, thinking he was just asking why we were here, said, "Why not?" Definitely not the right answer. Sister Wilson tried to mop up that mess and I didn't really understand what was going on. She asked me afterwards if I understood what he asked and I said no. She then explained what had just happened and I was mortified. Thankfully he was only like 16 and I'm pretty sure he was high. He ran away laughing, so I hardly think he was impacted by any of it. Yikes.

So many miracles are about to happen here, I can feel it! I feel so "at home" in this area, despite how dirty and run-down it is. There are lots of people waiting to hear the gospel! We just have to find them!

Welp, that's all for this week, folks. Eat lots of big cupcakes and remember the Savior!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Sister Megan Wagstaff