Poopy Pumpkins‏

Zdravstvuitye!

This week went by really fast! A little too fast, I might say.

At the beginning of the week we had Zone Conference in Samara. My last Zone Conference. This was the first and last conference that my MTC companion, Sister McKell, and I got to spend together. It was actually a pretty emotional one. I thought I'd be able to hold myself together, but by the end of the meeting Sister McKell and I broke down. I can't even describe how surreal it felt to say goodbye to everyone knowing that it was an actual "goodbye" and not just a friendly parting until the next conference or training. So strange. It was a very memorable conference, that's for sure. 

Our train ride home was nuts. We had to be at the train station at 5 in the morning, which means we had to get up at like 2 in order to get there on time. Almost the entire 7 hour ride consisted of sleeping, so that was nice. Lucky for us, our train had the nastiest bathroom that I've ever come across on any form of transportation in my life, so that was a really nice discovery. There was some kind of brown residue that was settled on pretty much every surface on the bottom half of the bathroom. I'm not going to try to guess what it consisted of. If you weren't completely awake before walking into the stall, the fumes coming from that tiny room would have woken you up quicker than a cup of coffee. Health hazard? I think so.

Tonight and tomorrow night all of the missions in Russia are being "locked in" from 6-9, thanks to a Russian holiday called "Defenders of the Homeland Day." It's basically just Veteran's Day, but on steroids since it's in Russia. The Russians are already prepping early for it though. Yesterday when Sister Warnick and I were on our way home from church, we saw/smelled at least a handful of hammered men sitting around us. Yeah, there are lots of drunk people around on the daily, but not quite like there were on Sunday. It'll be a holiday that not very many people remember celebrating when it's over.

Besides Zone Conference, there isn't really a lot else that I have to report on. Oh! One of our less actives named Tatiana (the one that just barely moved) threw the biggest old lady tantrum that I have ever seen in my life! We were just chilling in her kitchen one day waiting to start the lesson when her brother (another less active) walked in and started talking about the Plan of Salvation brochure that we were holding. Tatiana busted into the room and went off on a 15 minute bash-fest about how all we ever do is talk about Salvation, how we are just a bunch of pamphlet-reading monkeys that can't do anything else, how you can only be saved by people not Christ, and about how she's never coming back to church again because she doesn't feel like it's a sacrifice she needs to make. Sister Warnick and I just sat there stunned at what had just transpired. Her little whiner fest literally came out of nowhere and we didn't know how to handle it. Just when we thought things were settled down, she went off again about how we never help her and that she shouldn't have to ask us to help her because it's our calling to serve. I got a little defensive and we yelled back and forth for a while about how we literally ask her after every single lesson how we can help her and she always answers by saying, "How can you help me? You are just young, weak girls. You can't help me with anything." Great. In the middle of the argument we just looked her straight in the face and asked, "How can we help you?" Well, she took that question and ran with it. We signed ourselves up to help her carry some huge pumpkins across town the next day. She doesn't hate us anymore, but I'm starting to question whether or not she has bipolar disorder.

Welp, that's all for this week folks! Clean your bathrooms and watch out for cranky old ladies.

Do Svidanya!

Love,

Sister Megan Wagstaff