Hellllllllllllllllllllo!!! Or as they say here in Russia, "zdravstvuite"! It's my last week of training, and I'm so excited (but it's not like this changes anything about my life.....). I've decided that Sister Galli and I are probably staying together next transfer and according to some rumors floating around, our zone in Ufa will stay the same next transfer. Also, we're moving apartments this week, so that will be really exciting (NOT). Even though I may not being transferred, I still have to pack up all my stuff (as well as everything that is owned by the mission that is in the apartment) and move via taxi to the new place (apartment still hasn't been found yet.....hmm). So, depending on where we end up living and how far away it is from internet, expect my weekly emails to maybe come at a different time next week. I don't know, sorry!
Also, something that's exciting, our zone got special permission to go see the ballet "Swan Lake" next week! We had to use our own money (about $20), and I'm super excited! A realy Russian ballet!!! I've only seen these on Netflix before, and I'm sure real life will be much more exciting :)
But anyway, it's been another typically exciting week here in Ufa. It's been raining A LOT and the weather reports have said it's been in the negative numbers (Celsius) and only heading colder. It snows every once in a while. Everyone wears hats (berets, ski hats, etc.), big coats, scarves, and boots all day every day. There's nothing more unpleasant than being in the same wet stuff all day long.
Our investigators are great. We went bowling with an investigator and her friend last Monday. And then randomly in the middle of our game (which they were an hour late for...), she turned to me and said she had to go meet up with a guy. So she leaves and comes back 20 min later. Apparently she has a boyfriend! He was interesting. They both came to the Open House at the church on Saturday (2 hours later than she had said) and the ward missionaries talked to him for a while. He had some decent questions, and because of that, he kind of grew on me. But he's still kind of....not deserving of her. She's awesome! She's been trying to quit coffee and because she's really been struggling with it, we found out the root of the problem is that she hasn't really gotten a clear answer yet. She reads everything we tell her, but as far as getting a testimony for herself, she's just been trusting in us and what we tell her. We're encouraging her to stand on her own two feet and find out if it's true or not. At the open house, I think she really learned a lot. There are big display boards about temples, Joseph Smith, Baptism, the Book of Mormon, etc. and we were able to talk with her and have another Elder come and talk with her too about the importance of prayer and finding an answer for herself. I really think it gave her a lot to think about.
Another investigator told us that she knows the Book of Mormon is true. We had what started out to be a great lesson with her, but as it progressed things got worse. She asked a really good question about why Jesus has to come again. I answered and said it's for the last judgment. We pulled out the diagram of the plan of salvation to remind her. The member present started to go REALLY off topic at this point and started to talk about the Millennium and Satan being bound and basically stuff that had NOTHING to do with the lesson at hand. I was on splits with another sister because Sister Galli and I had two appointments at the same time. We both didn't know what to do to handle the situation. If we interrupted in the wrong way, it would have looked like we're trying to hide something. Well, the Spirit was completely gone during the whole lesson. Whereas the investigator had been glowing at the beginning, telling us that she knew the Book of Mormon is true and that there's a lot to be learned from reading between the lines, by the end, she looked absolutely overwhelmed and really confused. Update: she literally just texted me and said she hopes our day is going well. Looks like we didn't mess up too bad!
Her friend is kind of struggling with the Book of Mormon. She also reads everything we give her, but she's suuuuuuper intellectual and so thinks about things wayyyyy too much and over complicates everything she reads. Our plan with this is to try to read a chapter with both of them together and discuss it. Reading the scriptures out loud with investigators always brings the spirit, and hopefully if we're reading collectively, she won't have time to try to literarally analyze everything-- which isn't bad, of course! She's just trying to get a testimony and get an answer to her prayers and it's hard to do that if you're analyzing the writing instead of thinking about the meaning of the words.
The struggle with both of these investigators is that they can't come to church because their families live way outside the city, and they go home on weekends to see them. It's going to be kind of hard to get them to church (and it's already hard). What are we supposed to say, "don't see your families anymore?" Ughhhhhhh.
But......a miracle happened this week: one of the companionships of Elders was at the church last Monday and they saw two girls (about 22 years old) peering in the windows of the church and walking around the outside. So, like any good missionaries would do, as the girls were walking away, the Elders literally chased them down outside and dragged them inside for a tour of the INSIDE of the church. Well, turns out only one of them is sincerely interested in the church, so the Elders gave her a Book of Mormon. She lives in our area (keep in mind, our area is HUGE) which is about 45 min. outside the city, so she's now our investigator! She came to church yesterday, and she really liked it! Our grand total of investigators at church was four, which is a record for me and Sister Galli.
I played a musical number in church yesterday. I played the flute, another sister sang, a member (11 yrs old) played the violin, and another girl (10 years old) played the piano. We did "I Love to See the Temple," and it was AMAZING. There is a lot of musical talent growing up in this branch, for sure! Our other investigators were just absolutely so pleased to hear the musical number and couldn't stop talking about it. They're doctors which means they're excessively busy, and we've only been able to have a handful of meetings with them. They come to church when they can, but it's kind of hard to forge a relationship with them when we never meet or they never show up to meetings. I think the music really helped though because apparently one of them is (or used to be?) a professional dancer, so now she's just so excited that I love music. Also, one of the Elders' investigators plays the guitar and he offered to teach me if I can teach him to play the piano! There's a branch talent show this week, and we'll see what amazing thing I can come up with for it.
We've been using the Book of Mormon with a less active in the branch who has been a member a little over a year and doesn't feel like she has friends in the branch. She's constantly sick, so we've been able to share lots of spiritual thoughts with her. It's so great to see that as we've been meeting with her, the light in her eyes has grown and grown. We read the Book of Mormon with her and share verses from it. She finally came to the conclusion last time that it's probably Satan that doesn't want her to go to church which is why she always gets sick before church. We definitely agreed with her on that and challenged her to come to church. She came yesterday, and she was just glowing! She brought her little boy and a non-member friend and everyone looked so happy to see her. Our last meeting she had asked us if we "made" her visiting teachers come over and visit her, and she seemed actually shocked that we had nothing to do with it! I really hope that she continues to come to church, and we will definitely keep working with her.
The third hour of church was a little strange yesterday but in the end, Sister Galli and I were in a room with all the investigators who had come to church, and together we watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with them. The Spirit was definitely in the room, and after the movie, Sister Galli and I stood up and bore our testimonies on the life of Christ and how we can grow closer to him. I talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and about how each of us needs to have faith to repent. It felt really good to testify about this, knowing that I've been able to use His Atonement in my own life. I talked about how we need to use the Atonement because Jesus died for us so that we can become perfect through him. One of the investigators was in the front row just nodding to everything I said, and I felt so happy inside. I love being a missionary. It's really hard sometimes, but it's always worth it when I know that someone is feeling the spirit.
I love Russia. It definitely feels like home to me. It's surreal thinking about how life is just going right along back in Provo, UT without me there. In just two months, we'll be Skyping!!!
Also, fun fact: I'm pretty sure the french "de la" turned into the Russian "для". They both sound exactly the same (basically) and mean roughly the same thing. It's funny to find all kind of crazy almost French words here.
Have a great, fantastic, awesome week! I love you all! I pray for you all the time.
Love,
Cectpa Brown
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