Halelujah, praise Jesus! I'm so excited to email y'all and let you know what's going on in my life. LIFE IS GREAT. Oh my heck. The plane ride over here was what anyone can expect when flying to Russia.....cramped....uncomfortable....hot....cold....hungry. haha. But it was so fun! Dad, when you mentioned watching me flying over Iceland, Greenland, Sweden, that is EXACTLY when I was looking at the map on my t.v. :)
Miracles of the plane flight:
1. A miracle we found the Fishers in Salt Lake because later when I tried to use the phone card, it didn't work and kept saying it was "in use." If I hadn't used their cell phone, I probably wouldn't have been able to get ahold of you because I had zero American cash on me!
2. We were in line to buy snacks at a super over-priced store in the airport, when a lady paid for ALL of our stuff! AWESOME. The church is true. She lives in Canada and her sister is serving a mission in Omaha. I love people!
3. Unfortunately, the elders we were flying with didn't buy food of their own (or obtain food like we did), so after eating our few snacks, we were all of course STARVING-- but not complaining about it. On the flight from Salt Lake to New York, some ladies from first class bought us all breakfast on the plane! We don't know who they are, but we sent a BIG thank you note up to first class!
I think that that's all the miracles on the flight.... but it was awesome, and I was just super excited to FINALLY get to Russia. Yay!
When we landed in Moscow, it was pretty scary because everything is in Russian, but we eventually figured it out. A lady came up to us and asked if we were missionaries-- we saw that she had a tag too! She was returning from Novosibirsk to her home in Samara mission after serving her mission, so she hung out with us for a little and made sure we didn't get lost.
Landing in Yekaterinburg was BEAUTIFUL. All the food provided for us on the flights from New York to Moscow and from Moscow to Ekaterinburg was FANTASTIC. I was really grateful that it was good. Apparently the other sisters I was flying with didn't think it was good, but I did! I take that as a good sign. :) It was lightly raining in Yekaterinburg and was pretty cold actually (also, Ekaterinburg and Yekaterinburg are interchangeable names apparently). The President and his wife came to pick us up with the sister leaders and the assistants. We went back to their house, helped prepare dinner, ate dinner, and had a meeting. Thursday was also one gigantic meeting, but it was fun. All the food was really fantastic, and the apartment in Yekat is absolutely beautiful. Our trainers showed up Thursday afternoon and from then on, we went to appointments that had previously been set up by the assistants. It was crazy going on public transport around Ekat with Sister Galli because we both are unfamiliar with the city! She's served in Ufa, Perm, and Tyumen before. We got assigned to Ufa (but a different area than the one she knows), and we were assigned to leave Friday night by train. We taught a lesson on Thursday to an inactive 12 year old about faith and why it's important to keep reading the Book of Mormon. It was really fun to talk to her and have a great time. When we returned to the President's house, we ate some Texas Sheet Cake and ice cream (SOSOSOSO GOOD) and settled in for another meeting thing.
Friday was....interesting. Wednesday and Thursday I honestly hadn't felt jet-lagged at all. I actually do pretty well with time changes as long as I pretend the other time zone never existed. I slept pretty okay on the plane, so I expected to do fine. And I was doing fine. But....Friday I woke up, hopped in the shower (feeling fine), but within the next hour I had literally thrown up twice and sat on the toilet for an extended period of time. Yep. It was fun. The whole day went like that. All of the other missionaries took off for their areas in the morning, and I was pretty much just dying in the bathroom. Sister Galli is really nice and was very understanding, so we went over to the Sister Leaders apartment as planned (we were going to do splits), but instead of doing splits, I just either napped in one of the rooms (excruciating stomach pain) or got to know the toilet, if you know what I mean. It was really a party. I was terrified because that night we had a 14 hour train ride to Ufa, and I didn't want to be sick. Well, skipping some details here and there, we ended up on the train that night, me not having eaten anything all day (the last thing I ate was the sheet cake the night before, and the memory of it was just teasing me....). Lemme tell you, trains in Russia.....I thought were going to be fun/an adventure. But when you're sick and already pretty disgusting and you get on a disgusting train, it's not that great. I slept okay (as well as you can sleep on a train, I guess), and I was extremely glad to be in Ufa the next day. I didn't eat anything all day Saturday again (I nibbled on some things in the afternoon), so I was pretty much starving. Any weight that I gained in the MTC is officially lost. I definitely lost some weight from two solid days of fun, but I prayed super hard Sunday morning (after spending a considerable amount of time in the bathroom again) to be relieved from this pain so that I can focus on fulfilling my purpose as a missionary and guess what? IT'S GONE. I'm so incredibly happy that I feel so much better and that I'm doing so much better right now. So....whoever was praying for me Utah time Saturday night between 7-10, YOU WORKED A MIRACLE. I love you. :)
So.....Russia, Russia, Russia.....where to begin? It's a cross between the Super Mario Bros. Movie (that's right, the awesome 80s one! ----or is it 90s? whatever!) and Castle in the Sky (the Miyazaki film) and probably Howl's Moving Castle, if we're being honest here. Everything is so futuristic, and you can tell that it's all really cool and awesome except for the fact that everything is super old and falling apart. Does that make sense? Things are ahead of their time, but they're so ahead of their time that they're old. I guess that's just how Russia is. The buildings are all falling apart, there are cigarette butts everywhere, everyone is wearing a mixture of super new trendy things and super old clothing, and basically, I just love it. You see little old ladies "babushka's" everywhere or you see ladies walking in stilletos everywhere. It's definitely not America!
Our apartment is really nice, but the sisters before us left it pretty messy, so we have a lot of chores to do today! We are really close to a bus stop which is GREAT since we take the bus everywhere. The area we were assigned to is the biggest area in the entire mission, and Sister Galli and I are both new here, so we have a lot of work to do.
We are also going to go grocery shopping hard-core (don't worry mom, I'm definitely eating enough now that I feel better). I LOVE the apple juice here. And the cherry juice. And basically all the juice. I also really love buying перожки (I don't know the English spelling) which are like croissants stuffed with either cabbage or potatoes or vegetables. I haven't had a whole lot of "authentic Russian food" yet, but I'm excited to try it all. Sister Galli and I are going to buy some authentic Russian candy today. :) Huzzah! I'm excited to try out all my mad cooking skills. I found a "missionary cookbook" in a free bin at the MTC, so I brought that. And Sister Christensen (mission president's wife) gave all the newbies a "Yekaterinburg Mission Cookbook" with all kinds of fast, easy, and awesome recipes including just normal, American meals and authentic Russian ones. Holla! I also cooked eggs-in-a-frame Sunday morning and Sister Galli really liked them, and then for Sunday dinner, we had stir fry. So, to celebrate dad's birthday, I cooked two of his recipes. What better way to celebrate?
Church was AWESOME. My friend Sister Henriksen is in Samara, and in her email she said that after 3 weeks of being there, she still doesn't understand anything at church. So, I went in expecting to not understand anything. WRONG. :)
They had all the missionaries new to the branch bear their testimonies, and I was last. I was SO nervous, but I thought I did okay with the grammar/vocab/etc. and I also spoke my own words (not just recititing a pre-scipted testimony). Seriously everybody came up to me to ask me all kinds of questions after and to compliment my excellent Russian. I thought they were just being polite, but Sister Galli reminded me that Russians only speak the truth. So, I must've done a good job! Is it prideful to say that I'm proud of myself? :) I understand probably after 50% of what was going on in church, and if I didn't understand the words of what was happening, I was really fortunate to understand the gist of what was happening. Sister Galli said she was so shocked that she like didn't ever have to translate for me! I would be talking to people, think that I knew what someone said, answer them and then as we walked away I would confirm what was said in the conversation with Sister Galli. I was always right! I'm so good at guessing and making it look like I know more than I know. :) Fake it til you make it! Or as my friend Ethan Damron emailed me from his mission, faith it til you make it! And I definitely will :)
During church, we got a text message on our phone about a referral received from the internet in our area (text was from the mission office). So, we made plans to head over over to that guy's apartment later that night and bring him a Book of Mormon. Well, when we showed up, he had absolutely no idea who we were and didn't refer himself and didn't know any Mormons and was kinda creeped out we had his full name, address, AND phone number. But he came down to talk to us (we had been talking on the phone by the door with him-- the "doma-fone". We took like a 15-minute walk with him outside, and he actually seems genuinely interested. He asked all the "right" questions and was curious about the things we were talking to him about. We gave him Moroni 7 to read and said we'll call him Wednesday! I hope he reads and prays about it because we need men in the church so bad. Our mission has enough numbers to have a stake, but it just doesn't have the priesthood holders to make it happen. If he's really as interested as he seems, it's truly a miracle. A lot of the times when a woman is converted to the Gospel, her husband will leave her (if he hasn't left her already). In Russia, you see a lot of single moms walking around (wearing stilletos and pushing a stroller). Sister Galli says she's taught a lot of single moms here. This guy's name is F.B., so pray for him. We need priesthood holders around here, and I'm going to try to make it happen to the best of my ability!
I'm just really excited to get started here. There are so many things I want to do and talk to people about, but I just don't have the language for it. I don't want to embarass myself by butchering their beautiful language either. I'm just going to try my hardest and do my best.
This week I really enjoyed reading in Alma 9 (I think) while thinking about all the inactives around here that have turned away from the light that they've been given and how they will be judged for that, just like the Nephites were. In that chapter, it says that their punishment will be more severe than that of the Lamanites who are sinning in ignorance because of the traditions of their fathers. There are plenty of examples of both Lamanites and Nephites here. Some people know the truth and choose the darkness and some people are just sinning in ignorance. Our purpose is to invite ALL people to come unto Christ, so we're trying our best. President Christensen wants all of our contacting to be done pretty much with only a Book of Mormon. He wants us (once we realize that they're somewhat interested-- and some people legitimately are, which I myself doubted before I got here) to get a Book of Mormon into their hand and get them to read some verses out loud (as we're giving a basic historical summary of the book and explaining what it is, etc) and make our message Christ-centered. Then we ask to set up a 10-minute appointment with them to discuss things further. This actually has been pretty effective, and I've seen it work before my eyes too. It's actually worked so well, that the mission is currently short on Books of Mormon. The old mission president would only order 230 a month for the whole mission, but President Christensen has placed an order for 2000 for EVERY month. It just hasn't come yet. :) So Sister Galli and I don't have any more Books of Mormon to give out, so we are anxiously awaiting the next shipment.
I LOVE YOU. Thank you so much for your prayers-- don't think that they aren't working because they totally are! For some annoying reason, the computer isn't letting me post pictures, so just enjoy the email that my President sent you of me arriving at the airport. :) life is great! Also, my eye infection is GONE! Yay!
I love you!
Love,
cecmpa Brown
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