Thank You, Technology

Zdrastvuitye!

This week has got to be one of the most interesting ones that I've had on my mission. It was one of the funnest, most adventurous weeks, but in the most unexpected ways.
First off... Kazan! The plane ride to Kazan was one of the most unanticipated adventures of the entire week! First of all, I didn't even know that there was an airport in Penza because of how small the city is, so I spent about 20 minutes scanning our giant map with squinted eyes trying to find a tiny airplane-shaped icon that indicates where the airport is. After discovering that it would take at least an hour and a half, probs two hours, to get there by bus, we opted to taking a taki there instead. It took about 45 minutes to taxi to the airport and I hardly recognized it as an airport when we got there. It was PUNY! It definitely isn't an internation airport, that's for sure. The building was the size of a large two-story American home and the waiting area was about the size of a 2 car garage. Cozy! After Sister Warnick and I went through security, we were expecting to be escorted onto a decent sized airplane... nope! We watched this tiny nugget of a plane land on the strip and scoot to the terminal. It was the smallest plane I have ever laid eyes on. After seeing the exterior, I was pretty terrified to see the interior of the plane; I was expecting the seats to be something equivalent to lawn chairs strapped to the floor with some rope and staples. Upon entering this mini 8 passenger airplane, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it was actually REALLY nice inside. I felt like I was in a fancy private plane, except that you couldn't stand up all the way inside. No complaints though. The ride was smooth, no turbulence, and we actually got to Kazan earlier than expected. The ride was a little under an hour and a half long, so it wasn't dreadfully boring. I am so grateful to have had that experience. It was a blast and Sister Warnick and I had the time of our lives!

After we landed in Kazan, it took another hour long taxi ride to get to the apartment in Kazan. If you haven't Googled what Kazan looks like, do it, but that is completely irrelevant to everything because the area that the Kazan Sisters live in looks pretty reminiscent of Penza. The further you go to the outskirts of cities, no matter how beautiful the city is, the more poopy and boring it gets. We didn't see anything too breathtaking on the ride. The coolest thing that we saw on the way was this huge soccer arena with one of the outer walls made out of a gigantic movie screen. That was cool. Sister Thomas and I had such a sweet reunion when we were finally reunited for the first time in almost a month. I missed that goob so much! It was also fun to see Sister Wilson. She's actually finishing her mission in a week, so it was great to talk to her and hear about all of her plans for "the after life." That'll be me before you know it! Anyways, I don't have a whole lot to talk about regarding our experience in Kazan. Sister Warnick and I worked with Sister Wilson the first night and we met with a super sweet member family. I worked with Sister Thomas and her other companion Sister Nelson the second day and we visited a couple of investigators; both of which are preparing to get baptized very soon, so I was really grateful to have had the opportunity to help teach them before baptism!

Unfortunately, the only return flight back to Penza happened to be on Wednesday, so we were only able to spend one full day in Kazan, but nonetheless it was a blast. All of the Kazan sisters have super blonde, straight hair, Sister Warnick has super blonde, straight hair, and I have crazy brown, curly hair, so of course we had to take a picture of all of the blondies surrounding my curly head before we left. I looked like a black sheep lost in a field of golden wheat. On Wednesday morning Sister Warnick and I boarded our classy 8 passenger plane and flew back to good old Penza.

The next day was a pretty unusual one, that's for sure. It happened to be Thanksgiving, but neither of us remembered that until the next day... didn't even celebrate it. Anyways, everything started off pretty normally. We got up and did some contacting, came home and did studies, and then we commenced in our weekly planning session. Later in the afternoon a HUGE blizzard blew into town. As we were finishing up our planning session, I called a member and set up a lesson with her family and then our phone randomly stopped working. Any time I tried to call or text somebody, a little message saying, "Emergency Calls Only," would pop up and I couldn't do anything. I thought that the blizzard must have knocked over a phone tower or something, so we just waited it out. We aren't allowed to leave the apartment without our phone, so I had to somehow figure out how to cancel our lesson for the night without a cellphone. Great. I ended up having to call back the member from our dinky little fax machine phone and we spent the rest of the night hiding indoors from the blizzard. After calling our District Leader about 20 million times from our fax machine phone, he finally answered and we were able to get the phone-fixing process started. Turns out, it was actually the SIM card that bummed out, not a tower. We tried many methods to get the phone fixed with no success, so we ended up having to go a couple of days without a phone before everything got resolved. Thankfully we were able to go out and work, we just had to be extra careful since we didn't have a working phone. I am grateful for modern technology and that I don't have to use a tiny, baby, fax machine phone to make calls from. How missionaries survived without cellphones, I haven't a clue.
Funny story! So, probably none of you remember this story from the beginning of my mission, but I got a call not too long ago that forced me to reminisce this experience. Read it and then I will elaborate:
 Oct 27, 2014 "[O]ur air conditioner broke at like 5 o'clock in the morning one day. I don't know why my companion, Sister Johnson, had it on in the winter, but she did. Anyways, she turned it on when it had been snowing outside and it started making dripping noises. We thought it was like an animal or something because of how quiet it was. Then the AC full-on started dumping water onto Sister Johnson's bed. Seriously so funny. It stopped waterfalling when we turned it off but it was making horrible crackling noises for the rest of the night. So great. Also, all of the lights in our apartment except for two tiny ones decided to go out. it was the strangest thing. When the landlord came to look at the lights, he got all mad because apparently we're not supposed to have the AC on in the winter... probs broke it forever."
So... yeah... we did break it forever. I got a call from one of our office Elders a couple of months ago asking about what happened with the air conditioner since I had lived in that apartment before. Apparently the Sisters in the Avrora apartment had been sleeping on the floor in a different room with a working air conditioner all throughout the summer because it was too hot for them to sleep in the bedroom with the air conditioner that Sister Johnson and I wrecked. I couldn't even hold a normal conversation with the office Elder because I was busting up laughing the entire time thinking back to when this happened. I never thought that experience would come back to haunt me almost a year later. Lesson learned. Always tell somebody when you break something, and don't turn on the AC in the winter.
Oh yeah, Sister Warnick and I contacted, or rather, got contacted by, a couple of Protestant missionaries this week. They were on their way to a service project somewhere and they heard our weird accents and saw that we were talking about the gospel with a lady on the street, so they interrupted our conversation to talk to us. They ended up being super nice and really respectful, but one of them was getting a little too close to Sister Warnick. Hard pass. They invited us to their church and we invited them to ours. It's always interesting to see missionaries from other churches. I sometimes forget that there are more churches than just the Mormons and the Russian Orthodox.
Sister Warnick and I saw some amazing miracles this week! One of the less actives that we tried to meet with ended up bailing on us earlier in the week, so we decided to drop by another less active that lived close by and say, "Hi!" When we got to her apartment, she couldn't get her own front door open and we heard the voice of a man behind the door egging her on. She lives alone, so we were pretty freaked out by that. When we finally got in, turns out, the guy that was in there was another less active that we've been searching for for months. All of the members of his family are members of the church, and we've been stopping by week after week trying to get in with no luck. He just so happened to be over at this less active's house to help her move. Such a miracle! We were able to have a really great gospel discussion with both of them and I could tell that they both felt the spirit. Also, a random less active decided to show up to church on Sunday, so that was great too.
Welp, that's all for this week folks! Hug your modern technologies and don't break things!

Do Svidanya!
Love,

Sister Megan Wagstaff

Party Potatoes and Planes

Zdrastvuitye!

This week has been a pretty crazy one, that's for sure! Lots of traveling, cooking, and illnesses have ensued over these past 7 days. The weather has certainly jumped on board with the craziness. It has been blizzarding pretty much all week long and we had about 6 inches of snow on the ground for a while. As of two days ago, we've been hit by a pretty big rainstorm, so all the snow is gone now. Sad, but fortunately Russia is known for it's snowy winters, so it'll be back before we know it!

On Thursday, our Zone had Zone Training! Woop, woop! Which means that Sister Warnick and I got to hop on a train and head to good old Samara on Wednesday. The 7 hour train ride was actually really great. I usually just sleep for half of the ride and then stare out the window for the other half. Occasionally I'll whip out my scriptures to seem like I'm being productive, but this last train ride was a pretty intense study sesh. I got a lot done and I learned a lot from them Holy Scriptures. Zone Training was great as well! President Schwab talked a lot about casting out discouragement and the Zone Leaders talked about confidence; two considerably conflicting topics, but they merged together really well. Spiritual upliftment was attained. That same day, Sister Warnick and I hopped on another train and went back to good old Penza. Before going into the train station, we decided to stop by a KFC that was adjacent to the station and pick up some lunch. So good! There was some kind of scary evacuation thing going down at the train station, so Sister Warnick and I just hung out in KFC for a while. I have no idea what was going on but there were policemen everywhere, all of the people inside the building were being ushered to stand behind a barrier of policemen, and there were some firetrucks as well. Pretty weird. Everything was cleared up by the time we finished eating, so I don't think it was anything too serious. Strange, that's for sure. 

I'm not really sure why, but our Ward has a knack for celebrating holidays a week earlier than they're supposed to be celebrated. Which means, Thanksgiving is already said and done in Penza. Our Ward had a Thanksgiving Party on Friday, and I placed upon myself the responsibility of making as many dishes as humanly possible in a space of 3 hours. There is one day set aside each week where we have 3 hours to plan for and discuss all of our investigators, less actives, members, and potential investigators. During that three hour period, we did all of the items listed above, with the addition of me cooking like a frantic caterer. My companion can't cook squat, so I was running around like a turkey with my head cut off trying to get everything ready. Three hours is not enough time to make Thanksgiving dinner, my friends. Not enough. I did manage to make a big old pot of mashed potatoes (the biggest hit with the crowd), some apple crisp, and a pan of banana bread (also a huge hit). My companion was great at encouraging me and testing the food. The activity ended up being super fun! There was a cute skit about gratitute, a few talks about Thanksgiving, and karaoke of course. I'm glad that we decided to bring food, because there wouldn't have been a lot of options without our addition. The Elders tried, but they made some bread sticks that tasted pretty reminiscent of glue. They did their best!

This weekend has been one of the strangest ones that I've had on my mission. I woke up on Saturday morning with a pretty intense pain in my stomach. Sister Warnick and I went out and contacted in the morning, as usual, but it didn't go away. I ate a little bit for breakfast hoping that it would clear up, but it didn't. We ended up having to spend the day inside because I felt like a moldy sack of potatoes for the remainder of the day. Fast forward to the next day, I woke up feeling fine, still a little weird, but great as a whole. I looked over at Sister Warnick after waking up and she was clutching her stomach. Uh oh. She was feeling worse than I did the day before, so she just went back to sleep. We had to miss church because she could barely move. A few hours later she got up to try and eat some food, and ended up throwing up a few times before she could even get settled at the table. Yikes. Thankfully the Elders were able to give us blessings last night and now we are doing great! We think the KFC came back around to kick us in the butt. Who knows!

It is great that we are doing great now because... guess what??... we are FLYING to Kazan for exchanges today! Yay! I went to Kazan a little over a year ago (what?) with Sister Johnson for exchanges when I was still being trained, so I am beyond excited to go back! I cannot even describe how beautiful Kazan is, so just Google it and you'll understand. Kazan is super far away from Penza; I'm talking a 12 hour bus ride away from Penza. We were originally going to have to take 2 buses to get there, total travel time equaling about 12-13 hours, but we got a call from the Assistants a few days ago saying that we would be flying instead! The flight will only be about an hour and a half long, but I'm interested to see what kind of tiny Russian plane we will be flying in to get there... Shall be interesting... I am literally so PUMPED to see Sister Thomas in Kazan! I miss my old baby so much! It will be a grand reunion for sure!

So... the extension news! This is President Schwab's response to my extension request: "Regarding your question about an extension, 18 months from your MTC entry date of August 13, 2014 would be February 13, 2016. Your current release date is March 1, 2016, which is already 16 days past the 18 month mark. Because of that, I don't think we will be able to extend. I compliment you on wanting to serve longer. However, as the Brethren have said, we should have as much faith in accepting our release date as we do in accepting our beginning date. We love you and appreciate all you are doing. Work your hardest and spring to the finish!" I kind of had a feeling that this is how it would turn out, but I am not sad about it! I already get an extra two weeks on my mission, so I'll take that as my "extension" and run with it. Since my release day is March 1st, I celebrated my "100 Days Left" mark a bit too early. Whoops! As of today, I have 99 days left, so it should have been celebrated yesterday, but considering the condition of our stomaches, Sister Warnick and I will not be recelebrating it today... or ever.

Welp, that's all for this week folks! Make lots of food for Thanksgiving and don't eat any Russian KFC.

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Sister Megan Wagstaff

Prophecies and Photos

Zdrastvuitye!

Let's just get the biggest news out in the open. On Sunday, I was blessed to be able to watch, via Skype, the organization of the Saratov Russia Stake! This event has definitely been one of the most cherished highlights of my mission. What a great blessing this is for Saratov, this Mission, and all of Russia! The creation of the Saratov Stake will bless the people of this entire Mission, and this entire country. The future creation of a Stake in Samara, which will just as surely come, will also do so. Here are a few comments that President Schwab made concerning the organization of the Stake: 

"Watching this Stake be organized today made me realize how many people have contributed to it over the years. For 25 years, missionaries in Russia have labored, slowly building up the Church to where it has a strong enough foundation to support the growth which will come. We have often mentioned that the same thing happened in Brazil, where missionaries labored for 30 years, slowly building the Church member by member, and Branch by Branch until enough of a foundation was in place to sustain the incredible growth that suddenly exploded there. Now, there are about 1.3 million members, 34 Missions, and 6 temples in Brazil! 

A Prophet of God has indicated that 'Russia is the next Brazil.' It is interesting to note that we are actually ahead of Brazil's pace, and have more baptisms in our first 25 years than they did in their first 30. But it is not a numerical contest or a race, and we will keep working until the Lord causes such an 'explosion' to also occur in Russia."

This "explosion" is going to happen before we know it! I am so excited to see what the Lord has in store for this Mission and for this Country! Countless miracles have already come to pass in such a short amount of time and I am confident that they won't be stopping anytime soon. Support and sustain the Saratov Russian Stake and pray for a Stake in Samara!

Speaking of new, I have two large, considerably contradictory items of news that I thought I should share with you! First off, at the beginning of last week I called up my Mission President and submitted for an extension on my mission. A mission extension is only an added 30 days on my mission, so it isn't anything too long. Without regard to the extension, if the remaining transfers on my mission play out as normal, my release date will be somewhere around February 23rd. My Mission President told me that it is very rare, if not impossible, to have an extension granted, but if it is, I would be returning home around March 23rd (my birthday!!). I have pondered and prayed about extending my mission for quite some time now and the Spirit has confirmed, multiple times, that this is what I need to do. If it isn't granted, which is what President Schwab warned me will likely happen, I can walk away knowing that everything worked out the way that the Lord wanted it to. I am completely comfortable with whatever happens.

The other piece of contradictory news is that (if my extension isn't granted) I hit my "100 Days Left on My Mission" mark a few days ago! If I find out that I did, in fact, receive the extension, I will be recelebrating this milestone in another 30 days. Sister Warnick and I went all out to celebrate the occasion; I even made a cheesy sign out of pictures from the Liahona to commemorate the event. We basically turned the entire day into a photoshoot and I took goofy pictures with this sign along with my favorite foods, infront of random objects, with my companion, at McDonalds, with other signs, with literally everything. It made contacting go by a lot faster and we had a blast! We'll see whether or not I get to recelebrate this day! 

Let's talk about the weather for a sec. I have never gotten so wet in my entire life! It was pouring rain for the first half of the week, which means... mud. Lots of mud. More than a handful of times, Sister Warnick and I would be walking down the street and then "FOOOSHHHH," a car would drive through a puddle and soak us from head to foot. Multiple times, my friends. After about 4 days of rain, there was one solid day that was as cold as death. No nose drippage there because everything freezes immediately up in your nostrils. As of two days ago, it has been snowing nonstop. It is blizzarding outside as I type this. I'm looking at it through a library window this very second as I type this sentence. Yep, there it is. Majestic. I think this is finally the snowfall that will never melt. There's always one snowfall at the beginning of winter that is the foundation for the rest of the season. It doesn't melt, everything just snows and freezes on top of it. It won't go away until next April or May. That's what we're hoping anyways. 

This week is Zone Training, which means another train ride! Yay! Sister Warnick and I will get on a train on Wednesday and head over to good old Samara. Train rides are the best. I always feel like I'm in Harry Potter. Should be a fun one! The day after we get back from our trip is our WARD (not a Branch anymore) Thanksgiving Party, so that is going to be a blast as well!

Welp, that's all for this week folks! Hug your Stake Centers and do a photoshoot!

Do Svindanya!

Love,

Sister Megan Wagstaff

News and Noobs‏

Zdrastvuitye!

I have some super big news that's going to blow your mind!!! Are you ready??? THERE IS GOING TO BE A STAKE IN SARATOV!!!!!! We got the call yesterday morning that the first Stake in our mission and the third stake in Russia is going to be formed next Sunday in Saratov!! I cannot even describe how excited I am for this! President Porter of the 70 will be heading down to Saratov on Sunday with President Schwab to create the Saratov Russia Stake!! What a great blessing that is, and it is something which has been worked on for many years by missionaries and members. We are all so grateful to the Lord for this and I know it will be such a huge blessing for the whole area. I have my fingers crossed that the construction of the first Temple in Russia will be announced in the coming sessions of General Conference. I'm not exactly sure if I will get to be at the actual Conference where the Stake is being created, but I'll get to watch it via Skype if we don't get to go to Saratov. Penza is in the Saratov Zone, so we'll get to see it one way or another. My excitement cannot be contained!!!

We had an interesting lesson last night with our investigators who agreed to be baptized last week. Everything lesson-wise went great. The weird parts were what was happening around me. First of all, they have these two creepy little dogs that smell like booty and they are always trying to manipulate you into petting them. Nast. We did a short Plan of Salvation review with our investigators at the beginning of the lesson using these little cutouts that help you explain the Plan step by step. There wasn't a table or anything in the front room, so I opted to setting up the cutout map on the floor. The little butt dogs were all over me as I sat on the ground and I almost threw in the towel on the map idea. After about 5 minutes, one of the dogs moved on to bugging my companion and the other one was just chilling next to me. Before I knew it, an overwhelming smell of bad tacos filled my nostrils and I looked down to find the dog that was sitting next to me chomping down on a brown log that previously was not there. Yep, I got up real swift-like and remained on the couch for the rest of the lesson. Yikes. Anyways, our investigators have decided to become noncommittal on the baptismal date, so we are focusing on helping them understand the basics like prayer to give them that desire to be baptized. We keep hoping and praying for them! I have no doubt that they will get baptized in the next month or so. The daughter of our main investigator is obsessed with OneRepublic, so she made us listen to "All the Right Moves" on their computer. It has been ages since I've heard that song, and it kind of freaked me out that I remembered all of the lyrics. I can barely tell my companions what my favorite movies are and what kind of music I like because it's so hard to remember all of that stuff when you've been away from the world for so long. It's a strain in the brain, that's for sure. 

The other day, Sister Warnick and I went on a hunt for less actives and it was REAL cold outside. After walking around for about an hour and a half, we decided to meet with one of the members that lived close by since we could barely feel our appendages from the cold. We stopped by a member named Baba Katia. I talked about Baba Katia in my letter about a month ago. She's the crazy old lady who told everyone at church a story about how she lectured someone for shooing away a dog. She is cray. Anyways, Baba Katia has one of the most hilarious singing voices I have ever heard in my life and we always start off our lessons with her with a song. This being Sister Warnick's first time experiencing the singing of Baba Katia, she was trying so hard not to hyperventilate from laughing so hard. Seeing the hysteria of my companion's laughter made me start laughing during the Hymn as well. Every once in a while Baba Katia would smack me on the arm with her wrinkly hand, but I just couldn't hold it in. After the conclusion of the Hymn, Baba Katia looked me dead in the eyes, well, in the eye since she only has one eye, and said "Why were you laughing during this holy Hymn?" Not wanting to hurt her feelings by telling her that we were laughing at her singing, I made up some excuse about how I was feeling overwhelmed by the Spirit and the joy made me laugh. She then spent the next 5 minutes throwing down about how laughing during Hymns is the work of the Devil and that I needed to repent if we wanted to find success in the work. She continuously referenced this incident throughout the lesson and Sister Warnick and I left feeling thoroughly chastised. Lesson learned. Don't laugh at one-eyed old ladies. 

I had another interesting experience on the streets the other night. Sister Warnick and I were making our way home from a long day of contacting when we saw two drunk 15 year olds goofing around on the sidewalk. As we were just about to pass them, one of them waltzed in front of me and tried to grab me by my shoulders. As he was raising his arms to block me, he told me to stop walking and then went in for a smooch. My companion doesn't understand squat in Russian, so she just said "no" in English and shuffled to the side of the sidewalk opposite from where I was being facially attacked. Thankfully he didn't have time to plant one on me before I scurried around him, but he did manage to get a hold of a big chunk of hair as I was running away. I got a nice, painful yank from that. I was terrified that they would try to chase us down, but fortunately they were too wasted to even figure out where we went. No fear!!

Since our Branch in Penza celebrated Halloween a week early, Sister Warnick and I decided to officially celebrate Halloween a week late! That was mostly due to the fact that we could never find time to buy pumpkins until a couple of days ago. We spent a dinner hour carving pumpkins and drinking apple cider. Good fun! I attempted to carve the Hymn Book organ logo on my pumpkin. Didn't turn out too well, but it could have been worse. It didn't really help that we only had large kitchen knives to carve the pumpkins with. It was still fun, nonetheless. 

Welp, that's all for this week folks! Don't sit by poopy small dogs and never laugh at other people's singing. 

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Sister Megan Wagstaff

Babies and Baggage

Zdrastvuitye!

Crazy traveling week! Transfers are always full of planes, trains, and automobiles, but especially this time around since someone was moving out of our apartment and another was moving in. Sister Thomas and I took a train from Penza to Samara at 6 in the morning on Tuesday. I'm sure our neighbors hated us because we were basically throwing her luggage down 8 flights of stairs at 4:30 in the morning. Sorry neighbors. The train ride consisted of much sleeping and lots of reminiscing about our cycle together. That evening I was reunited with Sister Thomas (the older) and we helped out with the english group in Avrora. Lots of fun! 

The next day Sister Thomas (the baby) went on her Visa Trip to Riga, Latvia so I got to go on splits with a Russian sister named Sister Mateikina. She is such a sweetie-pie and I had such a great time working with her! We had about a million lessons that day and we were running around like a bunch of rabbid rabbits trying to get to all of our lessons on time. We didn't even have time to get back home for dinner. We stopped by the store to get something to eat and I decided to try out some Philadelphia Sushi-Roll flavored chips (there are some weird chip flavors in Russia). It tasted like the smell of cat pee on the first bite, but then it got kind of better after that. Emphasis on the 'kind of.' Probs won't be purchasing again. I had such a fun time working with Sister Mateikina. She definitely knows how to work.

The next morning everyone was scrambling around trying to get everything situated before heading off to the mission office to get the babies. Sister Thomas and I said our final tear-filled goodbyes and then Sister Mateikina and I taxied to the office. There were 10 new missionaries arriving in this batch, and only 3 of the 10 trainers had ever trained before. We had a little pow-wow together with the Assistants just before meeting the trainees and we talked about the dos and don'ts of training. It was mostly just me and the 2 other experienced trainers giving advice on how to train. I could see the fear in the other trainers' eyes as we shared our experiences. Training really isn't that bad, you just have to develop a lot of patience in order to be an effective trainer. A lot of patience. After about 10 minutes of counseling one another, President Schwab called us in to the conference room and we got to meet our babies! My babies' name is Sister Sariah Warnick. She is literally the coolest! She is from the exotic city of Provo and she studied at BYU for a year before her mission (just like 75% of the missionaries that are already serving in this mission). She is super short like me and she has really long, blonde hair like my previous companion Sister Wilson's. Ever since we've been together she keeps telling me that she isn't tired and that she's over her jet lag, but every time I look over at her, she is either dozing off or she's asleep. Super funny! We get along super well and I'm super excited to get to work with her! It is going to be such a miraculous cycle! I can feel it!

Sister Warnick and I took a train back to Penza that night and noisily heaved all of her luggage back up the 8 flights of stairs. Sorry again neighbors. We have only been together for about 4 days and we've already seen some amazing miracles! Sister Warnick has gotten to meet a lot of the crazy less actives in our branch and even a couple of our investigators that we haven't been able to meet with in forever! We actally met with these investigators last night and had a super solid Plan of Salvation lesson with them. These investigators happen to be a mother and a daughter and they are both very receptive to the message of the gospel. Everyone was feeling the spirit super strong during the lesson and we asked both of them to be baptized after everything was said and done, and guess what?? They said YES! I haven't had anybody agree to be baptized in so long, and I honestly didn't really know how to react because I was so excited. You sometimes forget how to express normal human emotions when you're on a mission because you get to used to being turned down so much that you forget what it's like when you find someone that actually wants it. Sister Warnick and I were so ecstatic and now we're working hard to prepare them for baptism! If we keep seeing miracles like this, the Lord is going to help Sister Warnick and I baptize all of Penza before the end of her training. I'm so excited to see what the Lord has in store for this area in the near future. 

Hello, new cycle! Hello, more miracles! Welp, that's all for this week folks! Hug your friendliest friends and ask people to be baptized!

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Sister Megan Wagstaff