Zdrastvuitye!
This week was interesting to say the least. Lots of great miracles and other wonderful random things happened. The only not so good thing that happened was that I had the stomach flu for a couple of days. Not the funnest, but thankfully it didn't last very long. It was pretty cloudy and rainy this week so thankfully there wasn't a ton of heat to contribute to the fever that I had. Phew! Other than that, all is well in Penza.
The biggest miracle that we saw this week happened at church yesterday. Guess how many random people showed up at church yesterday? 6 people! That is unheard of, especially since we only invited one of them! One of the ladies that showed up had been to church once a long time ago and decided to randomly show up. Another lady came with her son and they were invited by one of the members. A cute little family came and they were invited by another member. A crazy lady showed up, but she always shows up. One of our investigators showed up as well and that was such a massive miracle! Sister Thomas and I were so overwhelmed by the number of people that showed up, we didn't know who to talk to first! We ended up getting a lot of lessons set up and we're really excited to see what the Lord has in store for all of them!
Another wonderful miracle happened this week as well! Our investigator, Valentina, prayed for the first time in our lesson with her and it was one of the most tender prayers I have ever heard in my life. It made me tear up a little bit because I felt the spirit so strong. She asked Heavenly Father to help the missionaries not forget about her, she prayed that the work would be made lighter for us, she prayed for her family, and then she asked Heavenly Father for forgiveness for anything she might have said wrong in her first prayer. It was such a precious, humble prayer and I don't think I'll ever forget how much her sincerity impacted my testimony. It just amazes me how these people who know so little about prayer can give these amazing, life changing prayers and people who have prayed their whole lives take it for granted. I know I do. Valentina is such an example to me! Before our lesson, she asked us to forgive her for not reading the brochure that we gave her more than one time. She told us about how she read the Restoration brochure right after she got home from our last lesson and that she wanted to read it again one more time but that she didn't have time. It's usually like pulling teeth just to get people to skim the brochures! She testified to us about how everything just makes sense and she knows its true. Such a sweet spirit! She has definitely been prepared by the Lord and I have no doubt that she will be baptized in the near future!
On a less spiritual note, I have made some wonderful food/beverage discoveries in Russia! First off, beverage discovery. I pretty much never drink the milk in Russia because the way they pasturize it makes it taste really weird and I don't like it very much. BUT, the other day Sister Thomas and I found a place that sells milk basically straight from the cow. It isn't sketchy, I promise. You buy it from a kiosk that has pictures of grass and cows on it. It's legit. You bring up a bottle (or you can buy one) to the machine, stick in the money, and it fills up your bottle for you. Literally the most delicious milk I've ever had in my life. Tastes just like the stuff in America, but better! Love it! Yay, calcium! And it's cheaper than the stuff in the store, so that's a win. Okay, food discovery. Over the past month or so I kept seeing these little berry things that look just like grape-sized watermelons. They are either green or purple. The other day I finally got to try some and they are so good! Their texture is just like a grape but they taste like kiwis! Look like baby watermelons, taste like kiwis, what are they? I have no idea. I just eat them.
Sister Thomas and I went to a petting zoo this week! It had the most random selection of animals I have ever seen in my life, but it was still fun nonetheless. Here is a list of the animals that were there: bunnies, goats, a raccoon, meercats, piggies, a chinchilla, tiny monkies, two weird animals that looked like anteaters, a random assortment of birds, squirrels, a ferret, hamsters, guinea pigs, hedgehogs, and tiny turtles. It was probably the most exciting 30 minutes of my life (not really). It was fun to play with the little animals and track rabbit poop all over the place. A kid tried to pet the raccoon and it started growling and showing its teeth. All of the adults freaked out and ripped him away real quick. I died laughing in the background. Who thought that putting a raccoon in a petting zoo would be a good idea?? It made some great entertainment though. While I was looking at one of the tiny monkies, he lept over to me and tried to eat the camera strap around my wrist. That was pretty funny and super cute. Sister Thomas didn't catch it in time to take a picture. Good times. A big, orange, inflatable dome randomly appeared in one of the mall parking lots in our area and we later found out that it is full of monkies, 30 to be exact. I think there are reptiles in it too? Don't quote me on that. Sister Thomas and I are going to go by today and pet some monkies after we're finished writing home. Should be a fun time! Maybe I'll even get to hold some sort of scaley creature as well. We'll see!
Welp, that's all for this week folks! Invite some people to church and don't pet any raccoons!
Do Svidanya!
Love,
Sister Megan Wagstaff
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