Hair and Humility

Zdrastvuitye!

This week was quite the adventurous one. Lots of traveling and bustling around! Thankfully the weather wasn't quite as adventurous as it was last week. As a whole, it was just plain old cold. Jack Frost didn't come to visit, but there is currently a rain storm going on outside. Hopefully the snow comes back so that I can have a white Halloween!

We had Zone Conference a few days ago, which means we got to travel to Samara! The train ride to Samara was great, as always. Sister Thomas and I got some amazing sushi before our ride and then we slept for a majority of our 7 hour journey. We got to Samara pretty late at night, but I still enjoyed seeing my mission birth place once again! In about a week we will be back in Samara for transfers and Visa Trips and such, so that'll be a good time! I never get tired of going back there. The morning before Zone Conference was a lot more hectic than I had anticipated. Heres a little background: About a month or so ago I decided that it would be fun to bleach the ends of my hair to get the "ombre" effect. It looked amazing... for a little while. I had noticed that it was starting to look a little bit more bronzy as time went by, but I just ignored it thinking that it probably wasn't too bad. Sister Thomas snapped a candid pic of me on the train to Samara and I was appalled to discover that the bottom half of my hair was straight up yellow. I'm talking school bus status, here. Horrified by the thought of having to hide my yellow clown hair from two General Authorities, I opted to going out on a hair dye hunt the following morning. After running around Avrora at 7 in the morning like a chicken with it's head cut off, we finally found some hairdye at our last stop. Hallelujah! Needless to say, I was able to enjoy Zone Conference without being preoccupied with concealing my yellow hairs. 

The Zone Conference with Sister McConkie and Elder Kacher  was a wonderful revelatory experience. Sister McConkie and her husband talked a lot about how all of the miracles in the scriptures and all of the miracles in our everyday lives are brought to pass according to our faith. She used the stories in Luke 17 to emphasize this principle, so study that chapter when you have some time. Elder Kacher stressed that if we wanted to reach any of the goals that we set throughout our missions and throughout our lives, we have to change our "mindsets." He said we have to "BELIEVE that God can bless us" and that he will help us achieve our goals. He then asked: "Are you willing to change how you think?" We were invited to ask ourselves if we are willing to do so, because it is such a key. During the conference, Elder Kacher drew a "ladder of faith" on the board which had five rungs. The five rungs were as follows (starting from the bottom): 

1. "This is too hard and I'm no good. Nothing will happen." 

2. "This is too hard and nothing will happen, but I made a commitment, so I'll go through the motions." 

3. "I can make it happen. ­­I can work hard and it will happen." 

4. "I can do this. ­­I'll follow the Spirit." 

5. "The Lord can do this. ­­I can be an instrument in His hands."

The point of this exercise was to emphasize that we cannot rely on "the arm of flesh" if we expect to find success. We were asked to honestly evaluate ourselves and ask ourselves where we are at on this ladder. This ladder can be applied to anything in life; faith, school, callings, work, family, etc. We all need to work toward getting to that 5th step, no matter which rung you are on right now. Change how you think! Require yourself to believe that God can do all things. Remember that "if you do what you've always done, then you'll get what you've always gotten." INCREASE and change what you are doing, and see how you are blessed because of those sacrifices! 

Sister Thomas and I saw quite a few miracles this week as we strived to exercise our faith. First of all, we gave talks on Sunday. That was the first time I have given a talk in Russian, in Russia. I was feeling pretty confident in myself (first mistake... pride) as I prepared my talk. It was on missionary work, so I figured it wouldn't be too hard. As I made my way up to the podium, the Lord smacked me with a big old palm full of humility and I realized just how little I had actually prepared. A wave of panic struck me to the very core as I stood infront of the branch and began to speak. It was hardly intelligible; I literally forgot all of the Russian that I had spent over a year studying. Of course everyone was sweet and said that our talks were wonderful, but one member walked up to Sister Thomas and I and said, "you tried." Then he just shrugged and walked away. Thank you for the honesty. The other miracle was that there were a million less actives at church on Sunday, so they probably showed up and thought, "so this is what it's come to..." after hearing the missionaries speak. Well, the gift of tongues only comes if you ask for it, I guess! Never forget to ask for it...

Also, Betty Crocker is back! There's a pastery in Russia called Samsa that's not really Russian, but I still love it. It's basically just a flakey triangle shaped croissant filled with seasoned sauteed meat and onions. Well, I was craving Samsa the other day so I made little baby bite sized Samsi! They were so good! Sister Thomas and I didn't let them live for more than 5 minutes. I will certainly make them again in the near future. I also made apple crisp, but I'm not going to tell you how quickly we cleaned out the entire pan.

Welp, that's all for this week folks! Hide your clown hair and speak intelligibly.

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Sister Megan Wagstaff