Dear Family,
Well, last week was probably one of the most interesting of my life. Last Sunday (December 8), I was basically having an anxiety attack all day freaking out about training and such. Well, a lot of things. I'm quite the worrier sometimes. :) The Church has a really good book for missionaries called "Adjusting to Missionary Life" that I read quite frequently from beginning to end because it really just reminds me that all these "panic" feelings are actually really quite normal and it gives me ways to deal with them. Well, I love that book and I used some of the exercises in it to try to calm myself down. Nothing really worked except for sitting in all three meetings of church. By the end, I actually felt relatively calm and ready to face the world. Whew.
Well, Monday we (another Sister being transferred to Ekat-- whom I love dearly) took a taxi to the airport in Ufa. That was quite a hassle. My Russian is decently good, but apparently it's not good enough to talk to someone over the phone and order a taxi. I got hung up on. :) No worries, that's what zone leaders are for. I had him call a taxi and other than the driver getting lost finding our apartment (how is that even possible when we live on one of the main roads in the city?) Going to Ekat is like coming home. Other than of course being my namesake city (and name of my blog!), I love that place because that two times I've been there have just been so wonderful. First, when I came into the country and second, picking up my trainee!
Tuesday morning we woke up early because the two Ukrainian sisters were supposed to come in. Well, there was a big mix-up between the Madrid MTC and our mission because they didn't come in. We figured out the error ourselves and figured out that they would be coming in Wednesday morning instead. I was in training and on splits all day. Wednesday, we also woke up really early and went to the airport. No sister missionaries.... At this point it was awkward because it was too early to call the Madrid MTC and I had a flight out later that night to Ufa. In the end of the end, turns out the sisters came in on a completely different connection than the MTC told us (from Rome instead of Moscow.....) and they took a taxi to the mission office themselves. If it had been me, there would be no way I would've called a taxi. I just would've cried! Ha.
Anyway, my companion, Sister Fedas, is the best. She's really the perfect missionary already and we get along great. She's smart and always knows what to say in the moment (and it's not just because she already knows Russian). If people give us a tough question, I'm always like "uhhhhhhhh" trying to even think of an answer before I think of translating it into Russian, and by the time I come up with something to say, she's already said the exact thing (in perfect Russian of course). She also speaks Ukrainian too, which is pretty dang cool.
The only catch is that she doesn't speak English. She kind of speaks English but not really. And that's totally OK because she was called to preach the gospel in the Russian language and not in English. Haha. This just means that I've been speaking in Russian since Wednesday morning, and I have the biggest headache. I think my Russian has actually gotten worse with a Russian companion because I've been speaking Russian so much that it just exhausts my brain. We had a zone meeting on Friday, and I instantly translated the whole thing for her from English to Russian (except for a story about a bucket with holes in the bottom...) and that took all my strength to do. I was seriously yawning the whole rest of the day.
I really like our companionship, and I know that Sister Fedas and I both have a lot to learn from each other. We get along great already, and we're attempting to speak Russian in the evenings while we do planning and before bed. It's actually a struggle for me because I forget to speak in English.
We have three new missionaries in our zone (including Sister Fedas) one of whom was in the MTC with me and is a great guy. I really love our zone still. The strangest thing is that Sister Galli is still here but just in a different area of the city.
We had an absolute miracle in planning this week. Saturday we made plans for Sunday to visit a less-active that I had last visited several months ago. She and her family are all inactive for many reasons but the focal reason is that she feels like people at church aren't spiritual enough. My last meeting with her didn't go too well, and she has blocked our number from her phone. Well, we stopped by and her domophone didn't work. We stood there a minute trying to think of what we should do (call the neighbors?) but then a young man came out and let us in. We hurried in and went up the stairs. The door before her door was open, and we realized that young man must've come out of her apartment. Well, he came back and turns out that he had been there and let us in. It was a miracle that we even got into the padezd and an even greater miracle that the same man who let us into her padezd also let us into her apartment. We had a meeting with her, her daughter, and her husband, and it actually turned out surprisingly well. They assured us that they have strong testimonies, they just don't feel love at church. Sister Fedas and I have a plan of what to do with them (basically bring active members with us on lessons), and the lady said that we can. It was a big miracle.
We didn't have a lot of meetings because it was transfers week and also finals week for our investigators. We had a really good lesson, however, with our new member who was baptized last month about how she can build upon the rock of Christ. It was really interesting to me because she had no idea what a "rock" meant in this context. It's funny how having a strong Mormon background makes me not realize that sometimes people don't understand symbols in the scriptures. Once we explained that to her, she was able to understand the application. She has a 10 year old daughter who is scared of us missionaries (not exactly sure why...) and refuses to meet us or come to church. We encouraged her to start holding family home evening with her daughter so that she can explain to her what we believe and such.
I love being a clean missionary because I know that I'm able to discern people's feelings easier through the spirit. It's really interesting and kind of cliche, but the more that I see these blessings from being obedient and consecrated the more that I want to receive more blessings through being exactly obedient.
I seriously love being here. Russia is the place for me to be even though it was seriously painful to leave America.
We had a cool little experience yesterday. On the way to a meeting, we were walking across this gigantic freeway in the middle of the city (also really windy and snowing a ton) when we ran into a little old lady walking the opposite direction. She was totally lost and couldn't find her home, and originally had gone out to look for her son who was supposed to come visit her. Sister Fedas wanted to just leave her and go to our appointment, but I really just couldn't bear the thought of leaving that poor little old lady out on the street alone at night. We helped her find her way home (took about 45 min) but the whole time I was thinking "This is what Jesus would do!!" and I knew it was the right thing to do even though it was freezing cold. There is only one path of trampled down snow and we had the old lady walk on that while we helped her on both sides and held her hands/grabbed her arms while walking in 2-3 feet of snow. It was freezing. In the end, my tights were soaking wet, but I didn't feel cold. It sounds cheesy, but I knew we had done the right thing and that made me warm on the inside.
It's hard to believe that it's the Christmas season already and that in just one week (one short week!!!) I will be skyping you. I really cannot believe it. I very clearly remember the day when we all crammed into our grey car and drove me five minutes to the MTC. It was kind of anti-climatic and surreal, but I hate when people make a good deal out of goodbyes anyway. I cannot believe that I've survived six months on a mission and that I'm one-third done. Time flies-- it really does!
I love all of you so much, and I love everyone here too. I love the branch. I love the zone. I love my companion. I really love (and totally respect) my mission president. This mission is the best in the world-- at least for me-- and I know that's why I was called here.
Have a very merry week before Christmas!! I will talk to you in just a few short days. :)
Love,
Catie
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