Hello, friends! I hope that you are all enjoying the weather wherever you are in the world, because we are freezing our buns off in Russia! Yesterday, it was about -22 degrees Celcius all day long (almost -8 degrees F). Today, it's about -18 degrees Celcius. Nice and toasty! In the summertime, you can hardly see out the bus windows because of all of the sweaty condensation that collects on the glass. In the wintertime, you can't see out the windows because the condensation freezes to the window panes and it's almost impossible to get off. Yesterday I had to use a hardback copy of the Book of Mormon to chisel a little hole through the window ice so that I could see where we were. Great fun!
Well, we were hardly in Penza at all this week since Sister Warnick had a Visa Trip. We got up at a ridiculously early hour on Tuesday morning and headed out on a train to Samara. We didn't get back into our area until Thursday night, so we really only spent 3 full days in Penza this week. I had a really good time in Avrora though! I got to see my other baby, Sister Thomas, which is always an adventure. It was fun getting to catch up with her and talk to her about how the work is going in her area. I can't believe that she's been in Russia for more than 6 months! It feels like just yesterday I picked her up from the office on her first day in Russia! How time flies! This was the last time that I will get to see her until she gets home from her mission, so we had a pretty emotional parting. She's going to be an amazing missionary, she already is! Mommy raised her well. Anyways, while I was in Avrora, I had a full day of working with the sisters there since Sister Warnick was on a bus to Kazakhstan. I got to work in a tri-panionship with one of the sisters that came in with Sister Thomas's group and a sister that has been out for about a month and a half. We spent a majority of our time contacting, so that was wonderful... my sarcasm hand is raised. I can't decide if I like contacting in a tri-panionship or not. It's kinda nice because you can tag-team it and everyone takes turns, but it usually just ends up being an overwhelming situation for both the missionaries and the victim on the street. A good learning experience for sure. I was relieved to be back as a normal companionship after that... we'll just put it that way. On Thursday afternoon, Sister Warnick and I waved goodbye to Samara for the hundredth time and left on our train. The good thing about our trip back home is that we got first class tickets, which means we got fed! We had the option of choosing between chicken curry or some kind of beef stew, so we both chose the the chicken curry. I was super pumped about eating it until it was physically set in front of me. There wasn't a hint of curry, or anything exotic for that matter, in it at all. It consisted of a few chunks of chicken covered in rice and topped with a sauce that I'm pretty sure was just the water that they cooked the rice with. Mmm. Savory. It definitely could have been worse though. Train food is typically pretty sketchy anyways, so I'll take my bland chicken rice over stomach worms any day.
The train ride back to Penza was pretty interesting. We received quite a few pretty serious phone calls over the course of that 7 hour trip that probably should have been saved for a stationary location with better signal. Anyways, the first phone call had to do with my assignment as Sister Training Leader. None of the Sister Training Leaders changed, but all three of us are serving in the Samara Zone now, so they had to make some changes to our area assignments. Instead of having stewardship over Toliatti and Bezi like I did last cycle, I have been given 3 out of the 4 areas in Saratov to be in charge of. My last cycle is literally going to fly because of how many exchanges we are going to be going on! I have never been so excited to receive a phone call in my entire life because one of the areas that I am over now is Solnechney!!!! Not only do I love the sisters that are serving there, but Solnechney was my favorite area besides Penza. Also, when we go there for exchanges, I will get to meet with one of the converts that I baptized and see her for the first time since June! Literally so pumped! The same week that we will be doing exchanges with Solnechney, we will also be going on exchanges with another area. I have actually never been to this area in the mission before because it just barely got opened up to sisters about 2 cycles ago. It hasn't been open to sisters because it is the sketchiest area in the mission for both Elders and Sisters. They haven't had any incidents there in a while, so that's good news. This area is called Zavodskoi and apparently the Sister's apartment is the nicest one in the mission, so I'm interested to see what it's like. The last area that I have stewardship over is right between Solnechney and Zavodskoi and it's called Volzhski. We are going to have the Volzhski sisters come to us in Penza though so that we aren't out of our area for a solid 2 weeks. I'm excited to go back to Saratov, even if it's just for a short time.
The second phone call that we received on the train was super confusing at first. Literally our District Leader said, "Tomorrow morning we are having Zone Conference so you need to be ready by 9:00. *Click*" Ummm... Let's examine the situation for a sec. We are sitting on a train going AWAY from Samara, we just barely had Zone Training 2 weeks earlier, and there's just a lot of information missing from that statement in general. I called the Zone Leaders shortly after and they clarified that there would, indeed, be Zone Conference the following day, but that it was going to be via Skype as a mission-wide broadcast of sorts. We've never had a mission-wide anything before, so that was super cool to hear. Thank you, district leader, for your clear instructions and wisdom.
So, here's a little background as to why we had a last-minute Zone Conference that gave everyone ulcers. Here it is: Since there aren't any Stakes in Russia besides in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Saratov, that means there isn't a Patriarch in any of the other territories in Russia besides those three. Since there are obviously strong members of the church in other parts of Russia besides those three that want Patriarchal Blessings, the church has a "traveling Patriarch" that visits certain areas of Eastern Europe at certain times of the year. Now that there is a Patriarch in Saratov, the "traveling Patriarch" (his name is Patriarch Moenschwander) was in town so that he could train the new one. Since he was in town, we all Skyped in to hear his words of wisdom. He definitely had lots of wise words to bestow upon us. I'm not going to go into detail about everything that he talked about because I don't have enough time. He went over a list of about 5 things that he's noticed in successful missionaries. Some of them are very much mission-related, but one of them was, "having a genuine enthusiasm and gratitute to the Lord for their calling (or insert whatever you want in place of "calling"). That one is actually really easy to neglect. Sometimes it's easier to switch into "robot mode" and just go through the motions instead of taking the time to put thought and meaning into what you're doing. It really does take a different mindset. Definitely changed my perspective, that's for sure.
On Wednesday, the Church held a World Wide Missionary Broadcast that us missionaries in Russia didn't get to watch until Friday because of transfers and the time difference and such. It lasted a couple of hours and went over a plethora of topics. The broadcast was fine. That's all I'm going to say about it.
Sunday was a day of miracles, to say the least. We called a lot of less actives on Sunday morning to invite them to church and only 2 of them said that they would for sure be coming. With the weather being as brisk as it is, it's really hard to even get active members to come to church sometimes. Anyways, by the time that Sacrament Meeting started, there were 6 less actives in the chapel and almost all of the seats were filled by members! I have never seen the chapel so full in my life! It was such an amazing experience!
Welp, that's all for this week, folks! Eat some exotic food and hug a Patriarch.
So Svidanya!
Love,
Sister Megan Wagstaff
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