Wow, I got some major mail today! And TONS of pics! Too bad I'm at an internet that I can't see them on! I'm super mad, but I have some major pic action to look forward to next week. :)
This week, my comp and I have been doing a TON of contacting! One day we tracted and contacted for 8 hrs straight and it was FREEZING, so total torture. But seriously, I'm loving it, being with Varygina because we both really push each other to work hard and we feel good with what we've done by the end of the day. Then we die on our beds. It feels super good. Sure, we don’t have any investigators and nobody wants to meet with us...haha, but it's not for lack of TRYING.
I'm loving Varygina...Chooda! (Miracle, haha) We were pretty open in the beginning about how terrified we were to serve with each other again. But very quickly, we just fell into an awesome relationship with each other. I love her. I think she's my favorite comp (besides my MTC comp) that I've had yet. I just respect her a lot, and I think she respects me. I think we both just changed a lot in the last 6 months, and it was enough to make us come together and love each other. I'm sooooooooo thankful.
She did the most fun stuff for me on my birthday! She woke me up in the morning with something SUPER bright in my face. I realized the lights weren't even on....it was a cake she made for me! And the 22 candles that lit up our whole apartment building. I'm sooooo freaking old! What the heck? When did this happen? On my birthday, I know. That was a stupid question. Anyways, she knows I'm not eating sugar or anything, so the cake was made solely of fruit. She's so cute. Then we went out to the kitchen and she had decorated it all really cute with balloons and "happy birthday" and stuff. It was so super sweet! I wanted to cry, cuz I really wasn't looking forward to my birthday, but she made it totally fun. Then she died on her bed, cuz she had been up in the middle of the night doing it all. She rocks me.
We have a lot of fun fantasizing about being Sister Darcy and Sister Knightly. We both love Jane Austin AND Harry Potter, and sometimes I stop us after hour long convos about us basically living these books and I'm just like, we're sooooo weird and CRAZY! ahahahha! It's so fun.
The FLDS issue on the news is huge here in Russia, and totally taking a toll on the streets. EVERYONE seems to have heard about it. And the thing is, none of the missionaries really know what was on the news and what the fact really are. But people are like, "MORMONS! NOOOO" and like all about Mormons being rapists and stuff. They don't get it that it is NOT our church!
One guy on the street the other day, tho, was way rad. I noticed him come up really close behind us, so I brought my purse to the front of me so he couldn't rob me, but then he stopped us and asked if I was from Samara or something weird. When I told him I was from America, he was super stoked and shook my hand. Then when I told him I was a Mormon, he freaked out again and shook my hand. He was super funny. He told my comp so many times that she was AMAZING at Russian, even tho we told him every time that she was BORN in Russia. He FINALLY got it, haha. At the beginning of the convo he asked my comp if I didn't understand Russian very well and was talking all about me, hahahahaha and I told him myself I understood EVERYTHING he was saying.
Conference was AWESOME! Loved it! I LOVE President Monson, he is sooooo rad! He was hilarious! Gabriel, (who is TOTALLY getting baptized by the way!) was like, "this is the prophet?" and then listened sooo intently. He was so excited. So yea, on Sunday after conference, he announced he wanted to be baptized! I was sooooooo excited and I couldn't contain myself, I wanted to jump on someone, but I couldn't hug any of the elders. They all thought that was hilarious, watching me freak out and struggle not to touch anyone. But finally I saw sister Martineau and jumped on her.
I cut a bunch of hair of course this week. I cut mine and my comps today actually. And I did a perm, which was super fun cuz I haven't done one since school. Turned out awesome.
So my package ROCKED! It took most of the day to get it, but soooo worth it! I loved everything! And the clothes are so cute! I wore the black and white plaid shirt yesterday and today I'm wearing the cute black tweed jacket. toooootally hot. Guigalchyi planned some birthday thing for me today, which is nice, but has caused major drama, cuz we're meeting at the Mexican restaurant Tres amigos, but it's a rule that not more than 6 missionaries can be in a public place at a time. So I got reamed by a bunch of people last night, and I didn't even WANT this thing to go down. I BEGGED guigaulchyi not to do it. But she is. Half way it's sweet. But I really didn't want it. But she's nice to do it.
The other night, Varygina and I were on our way home and we got onto the escalator. We decided to climb it, which is KILLER, but we wanted the exercise and needed to get home quickly. Tons of people on it. Well, on our way up, of COURSE I fell...it's me. And it was a huge fall! hahahahaha! My leg is super bruised and scraped up. I think we laughed for 3 hours straight after that. Varygina said it wouldn't have been so dramatic and bad, if I had just fallen instead of falling, screaming, laughing, and shrieking my apologies for taking her out with me. For some strange reason, I reacted when falling by grabbing her leg with an iron grip and not letting go!
I'm out of time already. But I love and miss you madly! Don't forget me. I love you!
I know I'm so cheesy for putting in scriptures, but I liked, and mostly FELT this one when I read it:
Ephesians 2:19
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. (written April 17, 2008)
