Hey, everybody! This week was quite the adventure, so I have a lot of stuff to talk about with not a lot of time to do it in. I'm just going to get started and ditch the quirky intro.
First of all, we now have a new missionary schedule. A little over a year ago the Europe East Area instituted a new schedule called "The Morning Schedule" which consisted of going contacting right after we wake up, doing a little bit of studies after that, going out contacting again around lunch time, and then concluding the day as usual. This schedule was created in order to catch the "higher class" citizens that were on their way to work and then coming out again for their lunch break. After trying it out for a year, that schedule has been trashed. I don't particularly like the new schedule that has been created, but I'm leaving soon, so I don't really care that much. The biggest change between the two schedules is that we no longer go contacting in the mornings as we previously did. I'll just list the new schedule for you to see:
6:30-7:00 Get up, pray, work out
7:00-8:00 Get ready
8:00-9:00 Language Study (Pretty random... This is the part that I honestly dislike the most)
9:00-11:00 Contacting
11:00-12:00 Lunch
12:00-3:00 Contacting
3:00-4:00 Personal Study (Why the crap would I want to do personal study at the end of the day???)
4:00-5:00 Companion Study (Sure... let's plan and study together now that the day is pretty much done)
5:00-6:00 Dinner
6:00-9:00 Contacting
Not a fan. We have Zone Conference this week, so this new schedule is going to be a pretty hot topic, I think. We'll see what happens.
Anyways... exchanges! The highlight of the week! I honestly had such a blast this week in Saratov. I am so grateful that I was given stewardship over the Saratov Sisters! I learned so much on all of the exchanges and I got to visit the places that I served when I lived there a year ago. Sister Warnick and I hopped on a bus last Monday and rode a pretty uncomfortable minibus to Saratov. I was expecting a nice, big chartered bus to roll up when we were waiting to board, so I was pretty surprised when a dinky little minibus pulled up. Sister Warnick and I were seated towards the front of the bus in a row of seats that were facing the seats in front of us; kind of like sitting at a dinner table without a table. It was a pretty squishy ride. Thankfully the people that were facing us ended up being some girls that were about our age, so I didn't have to awkwardly avoid eye contact with any creepy men. I felt a little bad for them though, because I kept unintentionally playing footsies with the chick sitting across from me everytime I shifted positions in my seat since we were all so close to each other!
We started off our Saratov adventure in an area called Zavodskoi. This is the newest area to be opened to Sisters. I've heard rumors that Zavodskoi is the city where "The Saratov Approach" took place, and I don't doubt that for a second. The Sisters have a section in their area labeled "THE DANGER ZONE" and they are NEVER allowed to go into it. I don't think the Elders are even allowed to go there. Pretty shady area. Even contacting at night got a little sketchy at times. You'd think the Sisters' apartment would be pretty crappy then, wouldn't you? Nope. It was the biggest, most beautiful apartment I've ever been in! It was literally massive and I almost forgot that I was in Russia when we were staying there because of how modern it looked inside. Super cool!
Anyways, I had a fun time working with the sisters there. We had some great lessons and did a good amount of contacting. One of the lessons that we had ended up lasting about 3 and a half hours and consisted of eating a lot of Russian pancakes and talking about America, but we don't need to talk about that.
Solnechney!!!! The last area that we got to do exchanges in was my beloved Solnechney! Man, talk about a nostalgic exchange. Just the drive to Solnechney made me miss that area so bad. I am so grateful that I got to go back before I go home!
I cannot even describe how excited I was to go back and work in Solnechney, but Solnechney wanted to kick me out as quickly and painfully as possible. Let me give you a little background. This next part might seem completely unrelated, but I promise that it is, so just bear with me. So, about 3 or 4 weeks ago I ditched my last pair of ratchet boots and bought some new ones. No, they weren't the best quality because I only needed them to last for the next month and a half or so. Immediately after I bought them, I noticed that the traction on the bottom was pretty much nonexistant. It was hard for me to not slip all the time, but I got used to it since Penza's sidewalks are shoveled pretty well. Fast forward to Solnechney... Solnechney is a pretty hilly area. Saratov as a whole isn't a super "up-kept" area, so no, nothing was shoveled. Within the first 30 minutes of being in Solnechney I fell... hard. Like... everyone around me turned to see what kind of catastrophe had just occurred that would produce the horrendous noise that my body made when I hit the ground. Ouch. Very bruisy. Very sore immediately after the fall. Fast forward to the next day, one of the sisters and I were out contacting when we came across a super iced-over section on the road. I had just barely survived a trek over another icy patch, so I didn't think too much of it. I pranced right onto that ice slide and immediately flew onto my back. Again... ouch. Fast forward about 4 hours when we were heading home from a lesson... I had a cake in my hand that we were planning on consuming to celebrate one sister's 4 month mark on the mission, my companion's almost 4 month mark in Russia, another sister's 11 month mark on the mission, and my 18 month mark. Yeah... We were making our way down an icy path when I fell harder than any of the previous falls combine. The cake went flying, my limbs went flying, and I walked away feeling like I had been backed over by a truck about 5 times. The cake looked worse than I did after the fall though. By the end of the day I had to take an Advil PM in order to fall asleep because of how much pain I was in. The following day I was popping pain pills pretty much the entire day in order to walk like a human being. I fell, hard, 3 times in less than a 24 hour period. Thankfully, one of the sisters in Solnechney was nice enough to give me a pair of boots that didn't fit her, so now I'm on my 5th pair of boots since starting my mission. What an accomplishment. I haven't fallen since then though, so that's a blessing. I have more bruises on my body than I can count and I cannot tell you the location of most of them because this is supposed to be a "family friendly" letter.
The biggest blessing from Saratov was the fact that I got to meet with one of the converts that I baptized when I lived in Solnechney. Her name is Natasha and I freaking love her to death! She has changed so much since the last time I saw her and it brought tears to my eyes seeing how much she's progressed. We had a great lesson about faith and I was on cloud 9 getting to catch up with her. The little nugget refused to take a picture with me though, which was super irritating, but I'm just grateful that I got to see her and see how much she's grown.
It was a pretty bittersweet moment saying goodbye to Saratov for the last time in a while. I made so many memories when I served there and more memories were added as we were there for exchanges. I already miss the mission like crazy, and I'm still here. These next few weeks are going to be an emotional rollercoaster, that's for sure.
As soon as we got back to Penza from Saratov, Sister Warnick got sick, so we've been inside since then. But tomorrow our traveling adventures will resume once again as we head to Samara for Zone Conference.
Welp, that's all for this week folks! Don't play footsies with stranges and buy some shoes with reliable traction.
Do Svidanya!
Love,
Sister Megan Wagstaff
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