August 24, 2020

 another one bites the dust

YIKES another month flew by. Time goes so quick!! I've been in Russia over a year. Love love love this place. So grateful for everyone I've met. 

I've now been in Krasnodar for a month. But sadly have only been to this frozen yogurt place 3 times. Sorry to let you all down by not taking advantage of the first semi good ice cream place I've had here. I'll do better. ;)

But Krasnodar is so far so good. It's super weird because somehow I haven't met any of the members here in person. Its super hard remembering names and details about a person when you meet with lots of them a day, in the same situation. Me and my companion had to sit down one day for like 3 hours so I could write down everyone I "knew" and all the info and things about them so I could keep track of who we were talking to and about what. (Now you might say.... that is what area books are for.... why are you not using those?? Ya lol that's illegal. Dont have any sort of tracking records or anything like that. Our branch list is a few years old, incomplete and without any phone numbers. But still!! Somehow the work gets done) 

Almost died this week. I found a HIIT workout, and there was like the modified version and the hard version and I was like hahahhaha no way I'm doing modified 😤💪 but lol @rookie me who basically has the muscles of a slug now. Should've done the modified. Safe to say I crawled around our apartment throwing up for the next 30 minutes or so after the workout lolol 

Our mission president told us this week that we are very lucky to serve in russia because in russian there are 33 letters. And in English there are only 26. Which means that we can have 7 more backup plans. 

We had an investigator (Larissa) get baptized a few weeks ago, and on one of the lessons after baptism, her friend who had referred her said, "I'm so grateful that FINALLY she made a right decision in her life" 

Also about Larissa- sister клевакана and Дмитриева were teaching her along with some elders in the Moscow mission via technology (long story). Then I came to Krasnodar. Was on a lesson or two with her, watched her baptism. And now participate in a lot of the post-baptism lessons with her. 

One of the members of the church in Sochi (a single woman) told us a little fun story about how her Sunday had gone the week before. Арминэ looked at the clock and saw it was 11. Realized it was time for the sacrament. Got the bread and water. Blessed it. Partook. Me and Sister Дмитриева had to explain to her that since we didnt hold the priesthood, we couldn't bless the sacrament. I dont really know how we are 5 months+ into home church, and we didnt know she was blessing the sacrament herself, but I guess it happens. And then we told the Rostov sisters (my old area) and they told us that on one of the lessons this week with one of my old investigators, he had told them that he had blessed and partook of the sacrament as well. So lots of good lessons about the priesthood going on here!! 

This random super loud fire alarm thing went off in the corridor at like 1 pm and we were like ?? So we went down the 17 flights of stairs to ask the front desk lady what is going on, and she just said they're doing maintenance on the elevator. So lol @us. Couldn't use the elevator to come back up. So walked back up those 17 flights. Some flashbacks to having to do that in Rostov very often. 

We went to this super cool park called Парк Галицкого. Super cool water fountains. Since we arent allowed to use public transport, we had to take a car. The senior couple's son's family came to visit them. So on a pday we all hopped in and spent the day there. So fun. His family was sooo cute and it made me miss mine lots lol 

This week we decided to deliver cookies to all the members within walking distance. We delivered about 1/2 of them so far. And wow legit its SO far to walk. Send your prayers my way as we finish up this week lol. 

A while ago, there was this ysa conference here. Usually all the ysa gather in one city and do it, but because of corona, they held it online. And they asked a few of the volunteers to translate. So I translated this game, a pioneer story thing, and then not only once, but TWO times I translated the seminar of a lifetime. 10 Secrets on How to Get the Attention of the Opposite Gender. So the girls and boys were separated into two different places. And I translated the 10 secrets for the girls. And woowowowoowowow she had lots of advice. Super weird being a missionary and thinking of all that stuff. Several times she gave really... interesting... advice, and me and my comp had to mute the translating microphone and laugh. Also threw in a little bit of my own advice in there when I didnt pay attention because I was laughing.... lol but no it was super fun. Learned some new words I guess. Just know, that if a girl gives you a compliment, it's more than just a compliment I guess ;)

I gave another training this past week. We decided not to have zone conferences anymore, only mission conferences because our mission is getting so small. And like I had planned it in English, but jokes on me suddenly there I was and gave it in Russian. If you know me, you know that I speak fast in English. Turns out, russian is the same thing. And then even faster when I'm nervous. I've been told by several grandmas to slow down. Which sometimes actually hurts my case, because I dont think about what I'm saying, and then I say it wrong. :( ANYWAYS. But it's all good. I think I got the point across in my training lol. Hopefully we can all manage our time better in the mission now! 

Also this same conference, me and sister Дмитриева decided to buy tons of yummy chocolate so we can snack while we sit in the conf. Turns out the conference was like SEVEN HOURS and wow I ate so much and had a HUGE headache afterwords. I haven't eaten anything sweet or chocolatey since... 

Okok I'll probably finish this off with a bunch of pictures. Self timers that never turned out right. Pictures from the park. People not answering our calls. Cookies we delivered. 

God is real. He know us. He know our needs. Line upon line. Here a little, there a little. Some days are great, some days are not. Just learn to live with it and enjoy both parts. If we didnt know the bad, we wouldn't know the good.