Bobbing for Babies‏

Zdrastvuitye!

Transfer calls are in! Momma's having a baby again! I am so pumped to be training another new missionary... in Penza! That's right, I'm staying in Penza. Sister Thomas and I were sure that I would be the one leaving Penza, but that is obviously not so. I love Penza with all of my heart, so I'm not complaining. Sister Thomas is going to be in a tri-panionship with one of my previous companions, Sister Wilson, and one of the Sisters that she came to Russia with. She will be joining them in the beautiful city of Kazan. We are really bummed to be getting split up, but we both knew that it was going to happen sooner than later. Many tears will be shed at our parting. We will be heading out on a train at 5:30 tomorrow morning to Samara and I will spend the next couple of days there while Sister Thomas is on her Visa trip. Then on Thursday Sister Thomas and I will say our final goodbyes, I'll head over to the office to get my baby, and we will be homeward bound once more. Sister Thomas still has a bit of packing to do and our apartment needs some deep cleaning in preparation for the new baby, so this email won't be too long. 

Along with the crazy transfer call, the weather has also been pretty crazy here. At the beginning of the week the skies were clear but the cold was almost painful on my face. As the week went on, it started getting cloudy and then on Friday night the sky dumped about 2 inches of snow in a 3 hour period. The next two days were straight rain and today we woke up to more snow. We are walking in a winter, spring, and fall wonderland. 

On Friday our Branch had a Halloween party. Well, kind of. It was more of just a Fall Night. It was kind of strange, but it was still fun nonetheless. The party wasn't held on the actual day of Halloween because a big group of members from our Branch went on a trip to the Kiev Temple on Saturday, so there would have been a very small turnout had we waited. There were a lot of investigators that showed up to the activity, so that was a very unexpected miracle. There were all sorts of games for the children and adults, there were snacks, and there was a random opera singer that came and performed. We as missionaries got to help out with Bobbing for Apples. It was all fun and games at the beginning until the kids starting spitting in the container of water. You could literally see the saliva floating on the top of the water. It was repulsive. Super entertaining as a whole, though! I think it was an enjoyable experience for many people. None of the investigators that showed up have any interest in learning about the gospel, but we will keep working with them to help them gain that desire.

So... for the past month or so Sister Thomas and I have engaged ourselves on a workout journey that we named "Project Pudge." Neither of us are fat by any means, but we ate a lot of candy at the beginning of our companionship, so we have some baby fat in our cheeks (both sorts) that we wanted to get rid of. Here are some of the parameters that we set: 5 servings of fruits and vegetables daily, no pasta on Sundays and Thursdays (we are inside for a majority of the day on those days), no sugary things, no snacking after nightly planning, no bread, no making cookie or cake batters for eating, etc. etc. Along with that we made individual workout programs for ourselves. Sister Thomas was such a brave soul and tried to follow Project Pudge with exactness. She hardly ever slipped up while I, on the other hand, pretty much only slipped up. She would be munching on her little salad whilst I was downing a bowl of pasta. She picked out apples while I selected an icecream for myself at the store. She would munch on a carrot while I shoved brownies down my shirt so that I could sneak them into the bathroom and eat them without receiving judgement. Let's just say I wasn't winning the Project Pudge game. Thankfully I didn't gain any weight from that failure, but whilst I was reading from the Bible during personal study one day, I came across this scripture in Romans that should be the motto for Project Pudge. 

Romans 14:2-3

 2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

 3 Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.

I literally started laughing so hard during studies that I had to stop everything and share it with Sister Thomas immediately. We laughed hysterically for a good 10 minutes. Let's just say I'm not the weak one who eateth herbs. 

Welp, that's all for this week folks! Don't spit whilst bobbing for apples and beat project pudge!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Sister Megan Wagstaff