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
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