August 11, 2014

Dear Family,

What a great week! We had the opportunity to go on splits with two sets of sisters (from Kurgan and Ekat 1st branch). It's crazy how fast the weeks fly by, and this one was one of them! I'm kind of expecting every week to fly by from now to December 9th. 

My week from the beginning:

Monday was a really good day for our companionship because we were able to set a baptismal date with one of our investigators. She's been investigating several months and is one of the most diligent readers of the Book of Mormon that I've ever seen. She should have finished the war chapters this last week. We had a meeting with her and decided to have a deep review of the Restoration lesson. She learns a lot through reading, and so we made copies of Preach My Gospel to read with her and our member and went around in turns reading from the first lesson. It was wonderful! She had really good questions (that were answered in later paragraphs of the reading), and we were able to answer and discuss all the questions that she's had. We got to the end of the lesson and asked her how she felt about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon, and she bore her testimony that she knew it's all true. We then extended her the baptismal commitment boldly. She balked a little at first (she's had one baptismal date before and church attendance is a problem with her because of her garden) but as we talked with her and discussed when she really could and would be ready to enter the waters of baptism, she realized that she was more ready than she had thought earlier. She picked her date out herself, and now we're all working towards it with her. It's wonderful! 

Going to Kurgan was quite the adventure (six hours in a rickety, hot bus and my chair didn't recline) but it was worth it! We had SUCH a miracle. To ride a bus here (a long distance one), you just show up at the bus depot about 15 minutes early and pay for a ticket. The buses are usually empty because everyone flies or takes trains (they're faster), but we couldn't get tickets for the times we wanted, so we were stuck with a bus. We showed up at the station 30 minutes early and all the tickets were sold out to Kurgan. That was BAD NEWS because we had splits planned already, and we couldn't just cancel on the sisters-- we were kind of freaking out (I miss cars). We were freaking out in the bus station and trying to figure out how much it would cost to take a taxi from Ekat to Kurgan, when the lady at the ticket window started yelling for us to come up. Somehow, MIRACULOUSLY, there were two seats on the bus that had just opened up, and she was able to jump on them and grab them for us. It was SUCH a miracle. I wasn't even too bummed that my seat didn't recline and there was no leg room or anything-- I had never been so happy to be on a bus in my life. Kurgan is a really neat city, and I loved being there on splits for one day and meeting tons of people. The only thing that I didn't like about Kurgan was the mosquitoes EVERYWHERE. I got bitten to death.

We returned from Kurgan early Thursday morning and "slept in" (it's not actually sleeping in because we didn't get in until 2 am...) Then we had English group, and it was a really good one. One of the assistants gave the spiritual thought (the subject of English group was making decisions), and everyone really loved it and wanted to keep talking about making choices and hear about our church more. Several of the attendees had some really good questions for us, and we gave them some Book of Mormon assignments to read!

Friday and Saturday we were on splits with the sisters in the first branch. Sister Hellewell and I had a lesson fall through, so we went street contacting with a member and were able to get lots of people's information to follow up on later. I'm really proud of Sister Hellewell because she's SO good at talking to people on transport. For her, it has never been a problem. Contacting on a street was good practice for both of us (it's been a long time since I've done that), and we both learned a lot. We were able to casually start conversations with people and talk about the Gospel. It was wonderful! At the end of the split, Sister Hellewell told me that she had always wondered how to casually start conversations with people while walking and now we both know!

This has been somewhat of a "boring" week (it wasn't really boring, it just seems boring to read/write about it now), but it was a happy one. I think that I'm at one of the happiest places in my mission right now-- physically, mentally, spiritually, etc. It's wonderful. I'm honestly so happy where I am right now, and I'm excited for the months ahead.

Being a missionary is the best decision that I have ever made. Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Russia sounds super crazy, but it's actually 100% possible. My mission is having amazing amounts of success right now, and we're all reaching for the same goals. We're all super united with each other, and it's wonderful. I love everyone here. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Thank you so much for your emails- I really love reading them. I pray for you all daily, so don't forget to pray for me.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister Brown