Phew! This week was a pretty stressful one. I'm honestly glad that it's over. We had the Sisters over from Bezi (the area next to Avrora) for exchanges and it was quite the whirlwind to say the least. I had a blast working with them, but there were quite a lot of issues with that companionship that contributed to the growth of many ulcers inside my body. After they went back to their area, Sister Warnick and I had a nice long weekend to get back into the swing of things. Then, we got an unexpected text on Wednesday from one of the Assistants to the President giving us our plans for the unannounced Zone Training in Samara that is in two days. That means Sister Warnick and I get to wake up nice and early tomorrow morning and ride a train to Samara once again. Yay! I love last minute adventures, but we also just barely found out that the Sister Training Leaders will be given a slot to fill in the upcoming Zone Training. We literally have one day to plan it. Thank you, Elders, for your consistent wisdom and good decision-making skills. Not.
Anyways, exchanges with the Bezi Sisters were actually super fun! I love the Bezi Sisters so much! One of them is Russian, and her name is Sister Greshina. The other one's name is Sister Graham (not Russian). They are both pretty young in the mission, so it made sense that they were having some struggles. I worked with Sister Greshina the first day, and we had a blast! Our Ward put together a big New Years Party for the children that we ended up going to and there was a huge turnout of less actives at the activity! Some of these less actives hadn't come to church in years, but the non-threatening atmosphere of a New Years Party was enough to get them to come back! And.... all of them came to church the following Sunday! It was one of the most amazing miracles I've seen in a long time. Another interesting thing happened at that activity, but it surprisingly had to do with the Sister that I was on exchanges with. Sister Greshina is from Saint Petersburg and there are a few members in our ward that served there 15+ years ago that met her when she was a toddler. It was an interesting experience seeing her reconnect with these missionaries that taught her family when she was little. It just goes to show that you never know how big of an impact your missionary service will have/has had on people and their families until later down the road, or more likely until the afterlife.
My day on exchanges with Sister Graham wasn't any less miraculous than the one with Sister Greshina. We were planning on meeting with one of our less actives named Tatiana who just barely moved into a new apartment, but it ended up turning into quite the party. We showed up at Tatiana's house pretty early in the afternoon and we had planned on starting the Restoration over with her since she doesn't really remember anything about the missionary lessons. After sitting in her kitchen for about 5 minutes, Tatiana's brother and his wife (both less actives) showed up out of nowhere! We taught all three of them the beginning of the Restoration and committed them to come to church! And... guess who came to church that Sunday?? They did!
As a whole, this weekend has just been packed full of crazy miracles! Usually when we go out contacting, only a handful of people will take a brochure or stop to talk to us. This weekend was the complete opposite! There were only a handful of people that DIDN'T want to talk to us! We had so many solid conversations on the streets and it was so fun to see the Lord's hand in our area. Also, at church on Sunday, 6 less actives showed up to church. 6! We consider ourselves lucky when one less active a month comes to church! There were 6! And the craziest part was that only 2 of them received a formal invitation. The Lord is blessing this area, for sure!
Of course, there is opposition in all things, so I experienced a few embarrassing moments to keep my pride from developing. First off... my boots are destroyed. That isn't the embarrassing moment, but the physical state of my boots led to some public humiliation. So, Sister Warnick and I were making our way down the street on our way to a lesson when we came across a small, awkward hill. This awkward, small hill is pretty annoying to hike over, so we usually just walk around it. Thankfully the edges were covered with snow and ice, so I couldn't see a tree branch hiding underneath a snowdrift that I was about to walk in to. That little branch there hooked itself into one of the gashes in the side of my boot and sent me plummetting to the ground. I full-on faceplanted in the snow. Usually when I fall, I land on my butt or on my knees. Never have I ever fallen as stiff as a tree, face-first into a massive snowdrift. Sister Warnick and I got a good laugh out of it, as did all of the people around me. No shame.
Welp, that's all for this week folks! Have a last-minute adventure and buy some new shoes!
Do Svidanya!
Love,
Sister Megan Wagstaff
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