its been a cold minute
Things are getting colder here in Saratov, Russia! Every week is one week closer to the infamous Russian winter. The people here are not very good at estimating the weather because at least 2 times a day people will tell us it will snow tomorrow and somehow it still hasn't snowed here.
I know I am just a little bit late, but I wanted to wish everyone a happy 21 of september!! hope you all listened to the song on repeat all day :) listen to it again for me, and eat some cinnamon altoid mints (i ran out of those this past week. rip to me for the next 14 months)
These past few weeks have been a little bit rough here. With University starting and work getting back into the normal routine, it has been difficult to get people to commit to plans. Russians have no issue canceling plans after they were supposed to be there. So often times it's a 50/50 chance on if our 4 meetings for the day will actually happen. A little bit depressing when everyone cancels on you, but as I like to say, "whatcanyado??"
In fact a few weeks ago, we hosted a Bob Ross Paint Night!! GREAT idea. I was so excited, thinking it would be a great idea to get all of our friends to the church and to do this with us. Here's basically what happened:
Imagine that you are having a birthday party. You invite over 20 of your friends. At least 10 of them responded saying that they will come. Your obligated best friend helps you set up the party and get everything ready. Then the two of you sit for 2.5 hours waiting for everyone to come, and no one shows up. Then at the end, you start eating your gross birthday cake out of sadness, and your two brothers walk in with their friend they were hanging out with and eat the birthday cake with you.
That's what happened at the Bob Ross night. We prepared so much, invited so many people, got people to commit. Me and my comp set everything up. No one came. And at the end the elders walked into the branch building with a member they had a lesson with and we all ate some gross apple cobbler that me and my comp had made (it was gross bcuz the apples here are different). Shed a few tears on the bus ride home, but whatcanyado. SO IF ANYONE HAS ANY IDEAS FOR HOW TO GET PEOPLE TO THE CHURCH, or activities to do, lmk. ideas would be much appreciated :)
BUT BLESS UP because this past week we hosted a ward activity, and we had about 40 people show up :)))))))) That was amazing! We even invited our 20ish friends again, and we actually had one show up this time!!!! Me and my comp had been planning this beach party for over a month and were really worried no one would come after the bob ross fiasco, but thank goodness people came! At first we were a little worried, because we were calling people the day of the party, like 4 hours before it started, and they were like "umm we don't know yet. we will see how our day goes" And if that doesn't describe making plans in Russia, idk what does.
ALSO FOR mutual this week we played indoor hockey. 10/10 would recommend. Then afterwords waited for 30 minutes for a marshutka (the bus system here) to take us home. You never know what time they finish for the night, and hope that there will be one that comes by to take you where you need to go lol.
This week we also had Zone Conference. Great reminder to just keep pressing through the work, and pushing through hard things. Things don't always go how you want or would expect them to go, but it all will work out in the end. ALSO I am finally getting to know my way around the city! We went on splits, and I had went with one of the sisters not from here. I took her to one of our friend's house, and we didn't get lost! BLESSINGS
General Conference was great! So far, I have only listened to Saturday morning and afternoon, but they were awesome. It really hit hard on making sure that your foundatin is built on Christ, and that we need to trust in the Lord. Great reminders for all of us. I'm excited to be here in Russia strengthening people's faith and sharing the message of the gospel (with members only of course;) )
Fun fact: in russia (or saratov, tbh idk) they paint the bottom 1/2 of tree trunks white. they do it so during WWll they didn't have to use their lights on the car at night, and potentially be found? I think. And they have been doing it ever since. So every tree here is painted 1/2 white. kind of interesting.
Since I am not allowed to send pictures of Russians, you get pics of me and my comp:)
1- me and sister richter at our beach party
2- all the sisters from zone conference
3- in the church, there is a no smoking sign. its the little things ;)
4- fall has fallen
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