What a week it has been. After surviving a 16 hour train ride from 3:00 in the morning to 6:00 pm on Tuesday, I thought this week would never end. I didn't sleep too well on the train since we were right next to the room where everyone goes to smoke. We played UNO with the elders for several hours as well as some other good card games (one of the Elders had Star Wars cards, pretty cool, huh?) so that kept us entertained pretty well.
Training for trainers was fun..... I found out where I'll be serving-- a city called Chelyabinsk. My companion is Sister Blau from Hawaii. It's funny because when we met, I knew her face looked really familiar. Turns out we had a couple classes together at BYU! It's going to be quite a challenge to whitewash and train, but I really think it's doable.
Mission conference in Ekat was awesome. All the missionaries in the mission were there (very unusual). President Christensen revealed some changes in the organization of the leadership in the mission. We had never had district leaders before (only zone leaders) but now we will be having both district leaders and zone leaders. We also talked about lots of changes that President would like us to support him in. He's very big on a "culture of consecration." They did lots of training on how to have unawkward conversations with people on transport and such. They also had a couple come in (both RMS and Russians) and talk about how we can be more respectful of members here and their culture.
It was a really spiritual conference and right after, our whole district got on a bus (four hours) and drove to Chelyabinsk. I was really exhausted and kind of reeling from the events of the day. I was really missing one of my good Russian friends (and Ufa....) and just wishing I had someone to talk to on the bus.I even said a silent prayer about it. My whole district was talking super loudly in English, and I was pretty embarrassed by them. I turned to the lady across the aisle at one of the stops and apologized for our loudness. It led to a really good conversation with her. I learned she's from Ufa (from my old area, actually) and she was going from Ekat to Chely to pick up her daughter from being at grandma's. We talked a lot about families and religion, and I was able to talk to her about our church and what we believe. I taught her about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. I got her number and sent it to the sisters in Ufa later. It was a really tender mercy of the Lord that I was able to meet her. I consider it a miracle because we were really able to connect due to the fact that I knew Ufa so well and had been there for so long. If I had had a Book of Mormon with me in Russian, I would have given it to her. I explained what it was and shared some verses with her, and she said she'll go pick one up for herself in Ufa when she goes home.
This week was kind of a struggle after we got to Chelyabinsk though. When we got to the apartment, a lot of things having to do with plumbing were broken, but they're being fixed as we speak-- such a relief. The apartment is wayyyyy worse than my one in Ufa, but my apartment in Ufa was super nice (we had a concierge...doesn't get nicer than that!)-- such a shame that I only was able to live there for one week.
Other than that, Chelyabinsk seems super nice. It's way smaller geographically than Ufa, and it looks way more European. It's hard to describe the difference in architecture, but there is one. People here are also way more "white" than in Ufa, where the majority of the population is Muslim heritage and religion. I feel like I'm almost serving in a different country than "my" Russia!
It's been super interesting to whitewash. I have no preconceived misconceptions about people or my area, so I'm kind of on my own! It's been cool to figure things out for myself, but it's pretty hard. I'm hoping this week will be a little easier.
We had a great lesson here with a less-active lady and her non-member daughter. The daughter was super interested on the lesson and even committed to read the Book of Mormon, so we gave her some concrete chapters to read. She became a new investigator because she agreed to have us over on Thursday. It's cool that we've only been here a couple of days, but we already have a new investigator. :)
Don't think that I'm depressed or anything, it's just understandably been kind of a hard week. I'm excited for this week because I know a lot more will get accomplished since I'm already learning our area and working with people here.
I hope Easter was great. We celebrated it by eating at the Huntsman's (a senior couple serving here). They made us some great chicken and rice-- but not quite as good as mom's. ;) It felt so nice to be in a "home" environment with people that love us.
Have a wonderful week. I love you so much!!!
Love,
Sister Brown
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