getting in the swing of things
I've officially been on my mission for over 3 months, over 100 days. I've finished my first transfer. I think the biggest time accomplishment is that I have been in Saratov for a whole month and a half without being kidnapped ;) lol jokes aside, it has been amazing! Everyday has a new challenge, and we never have time for everything that we want to do, but we are working hard to do the work here in Russia.
My first transfer here was packed with so many things. First things first, not a single person here can pronounce my name. You would think that it is very simple, but no. The bishop consistently asks me what my name is. Every week. Along with every member, and every person I meet on the streets. Up until two weeks ago, we went by our first names on the street so I never really noticed it before. But then our mission president changed it so we introduce ourselves as sisters and elders even though we are not wearing our nametags. It is funny to watch people react when we both put sister as our first name. Everyone thinks we are a cult and gets weirded out by how we refer to ourselves. But all is good.
A few weeks ago, we went to Marks, Russia on splits with the sister training leaders. It is a small branch of about 8 people. We all went up there, played our violins in sacrament meeting, taught the young women (only one young women) lesson, then went around the city to an inactive members house. The people/members who took me and Sister Willis around were an interesting group. One of them had housed the voluteers when there were some in Marks. She is a sweet old lady. Another one of them has skitzophrenia and conistently told us he needs to be in the "looney bin." We ended up meeting his girlfriend who turns out also has skitzophrenia and is pregnant. So that was cool! It was such a cute small city.
One of the things I love about Russia is that EVERY single city, big or small, has a statue of Lenin. All in different poses. Sometimes the statues are huge, sometimes little. But they all have one of him.
Last week we traveled to Samara, Russia to go to a conference with Apostle Renlund. We took a night train there and back. That was an adventure in itself. But Samara and the conference were amazing! Because Elder Renlund lived in Sweeden until he was 13, and then served his mission in Sweeden, we played a Sweedish hymn. The first verse was sung in sweedish (1 elder, 1 sister), the second in russian(1 elder 1 sister), and the third in english (all 3 elders and all 3 sisters). We had a sister playing the piano. And me and my companion, Sister Richter, both play the violin so we did a little bit of an intro, interlude, and played a little bit of the last verse with everyone and did a postlude. It was so fun! The spirit was so strong. Apostle Renlund started crying and thanked us for playing that song because it was his favorite hymn! He also shared a really great message on how we need to be preparing for the Sacrament on Saturday. He challenged us all to take time to think and plan out how we will prepare for the sacrament on saturdays so we can better renew our covenants on Sunday.
The other week we also prepared and served a Russian meal to homeless people on the streets here. After we made the meal, we were able to try it for ourselves. It consisted of borshe (soup), some vegitarian plov (rice dish), and kompoat (a drink). Very yummy! It took almost all day, but such a great experience.
Towards the end of last transfer in our district, there was a little bit of drama between the zone leaders and sister training leaders. So I was assigned to give the district lesson on being humble and striving for humility. Very funny. Both the elders and sisters were silent.
Funny things these past few weeks:
-one time when i was washing my hands, there was an entire HUGE bowl of small dead little fish that were right next to the sink. it took all i had to not puke. i prayed so hard that we would not be eating that.
-when we moved apartments the other week, i walked in on our new landlord IN OUR APARTMENT in his underwear. so that was great :) hes like a 50 year old russian man. rip. also we have this smell in our apartment that we CANNOT get rid of ? smells like rotten boiled eggs and kind of like someone died ? any ideas ?
-saw someone smoking their cigarette right before they walked into sacrament meeting for church
-everything here is known as a "perioge" muffins, cakes, tarts, bread, cheesebread, anything. They bake it in a circular pan, and cut it like you would cut a pizza. so everything is in triangles. so interesting.
-got told by a drunk guy that mine and my russian companion's russian skills were "moletsi!" (that means good job/great job/amazing in russian) he kept giving us thumbs up and congratulating us over and over again. it was nice and funny because most of the time the russians here tell me that I am not very good at russian.
-the russian people put dill on EVERYTHING here. dessert, breakfast, main dishes, appitizers, pizza, cheese bread, anything. they love it. i thought i did too, but not anymore. they really go crazy with it.
Something me and my companion have noticed is that almost every week here in Russia/Saratov is that there is a new celebration, or something going on in the city square. And it is kind of confusing to us why there are so many celebrations and stuff the the city is spending money on. And one of our taxi drivers told us, "They have celebrations here every week so they don't think about the real bad things and revolt against the government" and then a few days later a 14 year old girl who was skipping school and hung out with us for an hour said "You would think that they would spend the money fixing the streets here, or making the city nicer, but no they just spend it on huge, useless celebrations"
ALSO SOMETHING AMAZING HAPPENED THIS WEEK AT CHURCH. We visisted some youth this past week, and got them to read come follow me for this week. They haven't come to church in months. And after visiting with them, challenging them to read 2 corinthians 1-7 in preperation for this upcoming sunday (and also promising them candy bars if they came), they came to church!!! We also gave a lesson this week to a less active who hasn't been to church in over a year. We talked about the importance of the sacrament, and SHE CAME TO CHURCH TOO! Miracles on miracles this week at church!
pictures:
-FAMILY at apostle conference! my mom (trainer) is sister richter, her mom is sister alto, and her mom (my great-grandma) is sister august! (also sister klevakana was trained by sister alto, so she is my aunt (she is the one in the middle).
-the volga river
-temple in saratov
-pizza night after running through the city to be home on time
-me, sister richter, and sister davidson in samara!
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