Zdrastvuitye!
This week was a very adventurous one to say the least. First of all, we got our transfer calls on Saturday and fortunately Sister Thomas and I will be together for another cycle! Yay! Love that little goober. We were both having little anxiety attacks whilst waiting for our tranfer call, but all is well in Penza. It's going to be another great cycle! Also, Fall has definitely fallen upon Russia. All of the leaves on the trees have started changing colors already and we've resorted to wearing sweaters and even jackets on some days. There was one day this week that was pretty toasty outside, but other than that we've been able to see our breath every night as we're contacting. Baby, it's cold outside.
Let's get on to the story that denotes the warning at the top of this letter. Shew away the young ones now. So, once upon a time Sister Thomas and Sister Wagstaff were walking down a quiet, peaceful sidewalk on the way to some fancy houses at the edge of town. With much excitement in their hearts, they merrily skipped along the cracked, unstable path that laid before them. Upon realizing that the phone was ringing in her bag, Sister Wagstaff took her eyes off the broken sidewalk to answer the call from this beloved child of God. Not seeing just how treacherous the road was in front of her, Sister Wagstaff unknowingly stepped on a wobbley rock and lost her balance. Unable to catch herself, she gracefully crashed into the weeds on the side of the path. After much laughter, reenacting, and dusting off, Sister Wagstaff looked down and noticed a bloody, tender knee that needed to be tended to. After awkwardly poking the bloody mess trying to assess the damage, Sister Thomas and Sister Wagstaff brilliantly concluded that a bandaid would be the wisest remedy. Shortly thereafter ensued much rummaging through their purses and, unfortunately, not a bandaid was found. There was, however, a particular item in Sister Thomas's bag that was specially designed for the absorption of blood. With the blood pool growing on Sister Wagstaff's knee, they had no other option but to bandage up the wound with a pad, complete with the bright-blue protective wrapper. With much humiliation, and a slight limp, they continued on their journey to find the disciples of Christ.
Yeah, my knee is fine, but I got a lot of creeped-out looks from people that drove by us. I ended up ripping the pad off after only having it on for like 10 minutes because it made me, and everyone else, uncomfortable. Good news, Sister Thomas and I did eventually find the fancy neighborhood. Bad news, we couldn't figure out how to get in. Actually, that's a lie. We knew how to get in, but it involved walking about a half a mile down a high traffic road that didn't have any sidewalks. Yeah. Now you understand. We found a path that we thought would lead us into the neighborhood the long way, but we never ended up finding a way in from there. We did, however find some of the prettiest scenery that I've seen in Russia so far. It is going to be even more beautiful in the next week or so when all of the leaves change. There were wooded hills, a little pond, wild flowers, grasses, and hiking trails everywhere. Even the weeds were pretty! It kinda reminded me of the big field in Twilight where the vampires fought each other. So majestic. As we were walking down a weedy path on the way back to the main road, I looked down at my skirt and saw about a dozen thistles stuck to me. I screamed a little bit thinking that they were big old bugs climbing up to eat me, and then I laughed when I realized what they were. Twas a fun adventure.
A few days later, Sister Thomas and I braved the scary road and ended up going back to that neighborhood. The houses were so nice! I didn't get to see the inside of any of them, but a lot of them were nicer on the outside than a lot of nice American homes that I've seen. Money in Russia can take you a long ways! Anyways, whilst Sister Thomas and I were knocking, we came across a house that had about a million growling dogs behind the fence. Not really thinking anything of it, we rang the doorbell on the gate and out came a lady. When she opened the gate, one of her evil little dogs ran up and bit Sister Thomas on the leg. All the lady said was, "Oh, sorry girl." She didn't even end up taking a brochure. If your dog bites somebody, the least you can do is have the courtesy to take a brochure! Thankfully the dog didn't break her skin or anything, he just nipped her leg pretty hard with his front teeth. It left a creepy striped bruise, but nobody got rabies, so that's good. Shortly afterwards during our tracting adventure, Sister Thomas and I met a really nice athiest who surprisingly invited us to come back. He said that he's not usually into "religious stuff", but that we could come back and talk to him about it if we want. Miracle!
Another miracle! Sister Thomas and I go to the same store pretty much every other day to pick up extra food or little things that we need around the apartment, so we see the workers in this store a lot. Usually we just say "hi" and go about our buisness, but for some reason a couple of them initiated conversations with US! It was super cool! A really nice worker started talking to us as if we were really close friends and we were able to share with her who we are and why we're here. As we were leaving the store, the cashier at the register asked us where we were from and why we're in Penza. Another great testifying opportunity! It's really interesting to see the different ways that the Lord softens people's hearts.
On the flip side of that, Sister Thomas and I have seen a lot of blatant opposition on the streets. People have been more persistent and eager to chew us out for what we're doing. It honestly is so hard to not fight back and make them eat their words, but I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm here as a representative of Christ. He wouldn't speak or think harsh things towards these people because he loves them perfectly. It has been a mission-long and even a life-long battle to dig up even a speck of love for people that are yelling in your face. It is hard, but that's why it's the Lord's work and not ours. Keep moving forward!
Welp, that's all for this week folks! Use bandaids when needed and run away from growling dogs!
Do Svidanya!
Love,
Sister Megan Wagstaff
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