11 Months!

Well, hello!

The weather has warmed up a little bit here in Chelyabinsk.I'm a little short on time, but I'll do the best I can to write a decent amount.

It's crazy that I've been out for 11 months today! Sister Blau and I are celebrating by getting some sushi. I love sushi!

What a great week it has been! Seriously. My mood is great, and I'm just so excited to get out the door every day and do missionary work. Seriously. It's the best! I love talking to people and thinking "wow-- I just changed their life!" It's really true though. The conversations that we have with people daily really do change their lives.

A really cool experience this week happened yesterday. We were stopping by some less-active members, and at one of the apartments a man answered the door and said he was the member's friend-- who wasn't home. He was a really nice guy and even called up his friend on the phone (who was at work) to explain that "the sisters" had come by to see him and then handed me the phone to talk to the man. The member was super friendly on the phone (not at all like the notes that were written next to his name on the list) and gave us a time when we could call him back when he would know his work schedule. I asked for his number and he was super nice and said he'd send us a text message with it. Well, the phone conversation ends, and I hand back the phone to the man standing there. I figured it was a perfect time to talk to him about the Gospel! I started, well please give this magazine (March Liahona) to your friend-- it's our church's magazine. Have you ever heard about our church? His answer was "yeah, my friend's told me about it.....but I'm Muslim" And I go "wow! cool! I lived in Ufa for nine months, and I love Muslim people! They're all so great. Do you go to the mosque regularly?" and he goes "yes, every Friday!" I asked, "and you pray every day, right?" and he answered affirmatively. I figured that was the perfect opportunity to whip out the Book of Mormon and give him a little run down of it, so I did! He actually seemed genuinely interested and even kept trying to invite us inside so we could talk more. We kindly refused but took down his number and gave it to the Elders. I love cool experiences like this!

Another cool experience we had this week was a conversation with another lady. We had a huge meeting with an investigator fall through, so we were doing our backup plan, and our plan after that was to take the tramvai home (takes forever). We were debating just taking a normal bus (faster) or to go as planned and contact the whole way home on the tramvai. We chose to stick with the tramvai, and in my mind I thought-- how cool would it be that our meeting fell through so that we'd be on the tramvai earlier than planned and if there's someone there for us to talk to? Well, we finally get to the tramvai stop (it was a decent walk) and start waiting. I know the tramvai is somewhat rare, so I turn to the lady next to me and ask about it, and she starts on this huge rant of how the tramvai was built however long ago, etc. and now it rarely comes! And how she's on the pension and can't pay for ridiculous bus prices! It ended up being a really funny conversation and in the end, the tramvai came. The conversation with her continued on the tramvai and turned into a Gospel discussion. Her husband died when she was 30 and she was left to raise her two sons alone. She didn't want to remarry because she loved her husband so much, so she's been alone for 40 years. We talked about that and the Plan of Salvation a little bit, and I pulled out the Book of Mormon and told her all about it. It was such a wonderful conversation, and I was so grateful to have been on the tramvai at that time to talk to her. She was interested in meeting again but couldn't remember her new phone number, so she gave us her address instead, and we're going to go to her sometime this week. I love these experiences!

Be prepared for a really sweet email next week. I'm going to write a whole ton about what I've learned on my 11 months on a mission! It will be looooong. :)

I love you all so very much, and I keep you in my prayers. Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Brown