Well hey!

I can't believe another week has flown by since my last p-day. Time here flies by so quickly. The weather here is getting chillier everyday, and lemme tell you-- everyone here has cranked out the fur. The snow hasn't even begun to fly, but everyone is....dressed like your stereotypical Russian, I guess you could say. I'm excited to see how everyone dresses when it's -40. Sister Galli says everyone looks like marshmallows (still haven't gotten around to buying me a puffy coat yet, but any day now).

Dad, I'm so grateful you bought me those reusable handwarmers! They're been immensely useful already. I'm excited to use them for when it's super-duper cold!

The Sister leaders came this week to do splits this week, and I went with Sister Robbins. She's a really great girl, and she's actually from Orem! Right by Cascade. (Her dad is a doctor, so if dad knows him, tell him hi!)Anyway, we had a lot of fun. It's always a little stressful to do splits because I actually have to know my way around our area instead of always relying on Sister Galli and her awesome navigation skills. Sister Robbins and I got turned around a little bit (I had never been in that area at dark before), but we were able to have a lesson with a potential investigator that Sister Galli and I had taught a first lesson to a while ago. We've tried to get ahold of her, but she's always busy. Sister Robbins and I stopped by, and she was there! We taught her a little bit about the Book of Mormon and why it's important to read everyday and committed her to read every day. We said "one verse is better than none" so she agreed.

Basically, the miracle this week has been our investigator Alice. Her name is a strange Russian/Bashkirian name). She's AMAZING. Her friend has been sick and in the hospital (apparently everyone goes to the hospital whenever they're sick here, so I don't know how serious it is), but the first girl has been dutifully meeting with us. She absolutely loves the Book of Mormon. She said "when I read it, I feel like it's written for me. Like, I can really apply what I read to my life." She does every  reading assignment and comes with questions. She bookmarks every other scripture reference we make during lessons. We taught her the plan of salvation yesterday, and I think we kind of blew her mind, but she agreed to pray about it. It's hard to hear all of that the first time, I would imagine. It's a strange concept, but hey! It's true, so pray about it. :) We're hoping that as she continues to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, she'll agree to get baptized for a set date. She said when she reads she feels like she's finding out truth. She even brought one of her friends to a lesson with us who is now one of our new investigators.

After prayerfully setting goals last week for this week, we did our very best this week to accomplish every goal. We planned on one new investigator, and (seemingly) out of nowhere we got one. Our zone has really been focusing on member present lessons, but this week was a tricky one. We got the correct number of lessons for investigators by Sunday, but the numbers for member present and other were switched. But for the most part, we accomplished our goals. We had plans every day on how to add to our key indicators. We had enough lessons planned to accomplish everything, but as humans are, things fell through. But I felt really blessed because even though every goal wasn't 100% completed, we still had an amazing week with all of our investigators. 

I'm just so extremely blessed to have been born into the Gospel. It's so interesting to see the people here who have never had it. As we teach people more and more, it's so easy to see an increasing light grow within them. I've never experienced anything like this before where you can physically see the Gospel improving someone's life. And the people who have chosen to go inactive (there are a lot of those here too)? Well, it's interesting seeing how truly sad their lives are. They have sinned against the greater light they had, and that's just really sad. It's sometimes hard to be a member of the church, but it's always been worth it to me. This church is true, and if you follow its teachings and principles EXACTLY, then you'll be happy. The happiness that the church gives us isn't the happiness that the world gives us. It's so much better and so much more worth it. I truly feel like my testimony has grown leaps and bounds since coming on my mission. My whole life before my mission was insignificant because all the work I'm helping with here is life-changing. I'm truly helping change people's lives, and I'm so grateful to have been blessed with this opportunity. The church is true, the book is blue, see you in two (minus 8 months).

Love always,
Sister Brown
cecmpa Brown
cectpa Brown
                      Catie Brown :)

p.s. after the fast Sunday for October, only 14 more left until I'm back. Isn't that strange? It makes me feel like there's not time at all here. So much to do, so little time!

What a week!

Well, what a week it has been in Ufa! It's been raining like crazy. Because it's a city, there's nowhere for the rain to go but flooding down the roads. The puddles in some places are a foot deep! We get splashed by cars frequently as we walk. :) But it's an adventure!

So, I got some new running shoes last week (let's be honest mom, we both know my last ones were on their last leg-- no pun intended), and so it's been great to run every single morning this week! I've convinced Sister Galli that waking up at 6:15 is a good idea. We're always right and ready to go out the door at 6:28, so I get a full half-hour in. Then, at the end, I run up the stairs to the 11th floor where we live. It's pretty hot and I get breathless. But the pain is worth the gain! Pain is just weakness leaving the body!!! (also, I now have an excuse to eat more delicious food ;))

Also, as I just emailed mom and dad, I bought a lovely trench coat and a lovely wool/cashmere coat. They're awesome, and I got them ridiculous on sale. Like ridiculous. It's great. They're so classy, so now I fit in just swell. :)

Sister Galli and I have been trying to be more obedient at being home at 9 pm (or 9:30 if we have a lesson) and this last week we have been! Every day we've been home right on time (or even earlier to make phone calls). It's great.

We had an investigator who was an internet referral from the office and he had no idea who we were when we showed up. Remember him? Well a couple weeks ago he told us he wouldn't read and hung up the phone. Well, rather than be devastated (which we were -- he was our only investigator....), we consciously decided to not let it bother us. Better things were in store, and we knew it. And we've gotten so many blessings now! We now have a BAJILLION investigators-- or at least it feels like it sometimes. 

The lady we contacted on the street is progressing wonderfully and still intending on baptism. Apparently she was REALLY involved with Scientology for a long time. She even moved to Moscow for it. It seems kind of painful/weird for her to talk about, so we're pretty certain that something happened that pushed her away from it. 

We have another investigator that the other sisters taught. She's about 22 years old. We finally were able to meet her when we stopped by her apartment randomly (apparently her phone has been broken-- which explains a lot), but we set up a meeting with her. She seems really nice!

We also have two investigators who are both doctors (they're bffs) and in their 60s. they also were taught by the other sisters. They both KNOW the Book of Mormon is true (woah!!!) and because of that "if the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith must be a prophet" (DOUBLE WOAH), but they're hesitant to be baptized because they might move to India or Turkey. We told them the church is there too. :) We're not sure they realize that the church isn't just the one congregation here in Ufa, it's global. 

Two girls that came to the open house at the branch are SUPER interested in the church and do the reading assignments we give them and everything. We met with one of them after work yesterday (the other has been sick), and the first one told us that all her friends/classmates in college told her that we're a sect-- but she stood up for the "Mormon Religion" and said we're not a sect. (Apparently "sect" in Russia means that people participate in human sacrifice. That's what she told us.) She said "I used to think there were only three main religions in the world, but now I know there's a fourth. The Mormon religion." How sweet is that? She's awesome. She's now decided to write a report on the Mormon Religion for one of her classes. She has really good questions for us in general. We had her read Alma 7, and one of her questions was "who is the lamb of God?". She's really doing her reading. Awesome, huh? We're meeting with her and Ana later this week.

So, basically, we're really busy!!! Between those investigators (and planning lessons!) and visiting less active members and active members, we're super busy! There's not ever enough time in a day to think. I wish I could sleep more :) I wish I could study Russian more :) I wish I could study the Gospel more :) But there's not enough time. 

I started reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning about three weeks ago, and I finished it this morning! It's my first time finishing it on my mission. I can't wait to finish reading it in Russian :) I've now started (for the second time!) Jesus the Christ. I LOVE that book. Man. It's so good. If you haven't read it (or haven't read it in a while), I would definitely recommend reading it. I'm also simultaneously reading Teachings of Lorenzo Snow and Teachings of Joseph Smith. Those books are also really good. I've always been somewhat of a book worm. :) Which is why I'm SO EXCITED for the Russian Roots book that mom is sending me. Yay! haha. 

I mean, I don't have a whole lot else to say. Life is great. I'm really not that homesick at all. I do miss home, and I do miss you guys.... but if I came home right now none of us would be happy. :) Just another....15 months? Wow. Fifteen months left. Sometimes that feels like forever, and sometimes that feels like nothing. Right now it feels like nothing. So much work to do and so little time to do it! I hope everything's great with everyone. I know that there have been some birthdays and some birthdays are coming up, so happy birthday!

I love Russia. I can't remember not living here. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it's true. 

Love you!
love,
Cecmpa Brown

First Month in Russia

Well, my "one month in country" date was this last week, so to celebrate, Sister Galli and I ate a lot of really good food. Yum, yum. My favorite thing to get is at Lido's and it's like a cherry pastry thing. I don't ever usually like cherries, but when I eat it, it reminds me of mom (since she eats cherry-flavored ANYTHING), and they're also just REALLY good. They also have something that's basically "pain au chocolat" but the Russian twist. Each of these is the US equivalent of like fifty cents. It's ridiculous how good and cheap they are. I swear I'm not getting fat. :) And if I do, the winter is coming up anyway, right? haha. But I figure since this might be my only time in Ufa, I'd better eat up at Lido's while I have the chance.

In the MTC, they always told us not to serve a mission and have regrets about it. We find out transfers this week and since I'm in training, I doubt I'll get switched or anything. I've heard of trainers getting transferred mid-training, but I really doubt that will happen. Sister Galli and I have a good routine together, and we get along great. We share a love of good food, and we also share a love of just sitting and staring blankly at the wall at 6:30am when we're supposed to be exercising. (It's IMPOSSIBLE to exercise from 6:30-7:00 in the morning when in that time you have to wake up, pray, go to the bathroom, change into exercise clothes, etc. It will never be enough time. Also, I've always preferred to exercise at night anyway. I know i need to be more motivated...hahaha).

Anyway, life is good. I'm getting a little nervous for winter already. There is so much fog here every morning, and we can't even see the apartment buildings right next to us. When I originally arrived in Russia, we would go to bed and it wasn't even dark yet. Now, it gets dark way earlier. It's pitch black when we go to bed. Sister Galli assured me that yes, in the winter, there are like five hours of sunlight every day. It's so strange, and since I'm not used to it, I'm a little nervous to be honest. It's also going to get really cold. We went coat shopping last week, but no luck. We're going to a "Chinese market" today to see if there are any really good deals. I'll let you know how that goes!

Last Monday night, we were contacting on the street (in the rain), and Sister Galli and I were just kind of burned out. A cold was spread around at zone conference, and we were still recovering from the effects of that. We were doing our best to contact people, but it's hard when you don't feel good, it's raining, etc, etc. Anyway, we were literally walking to the bus stop when I thought, "I'm going to contact one more person!" and I walked up to this lady and handed her a church invitation. She actually stopped walking (most people just walk by like they don't see us), and she engaged in conversation with me. Sister Galli and I taught her a street lesson about the Book of Mormon (she asked if we were German-- everyone always thinks our accent is German). She seemed pretty interested. She came to our branch FHE on Saturday night (not Church Sunday, she slept in), but we met with her Sunday night, and we have another meeting today. She's officially an investigator! She has a 10-year-old daughter, and we're 99% sure she's a widow (she wears a male and female wedding ring) and always mentions her husband in past tense. She's really fun-loving (she tried to take us bowling yesterday...), but we like her fine. Her name is I. We really want to commit her to baptism sometime this week. Wish us luck!

Food for thought: You know how Eric had that awesome save at the pool this last summer? Well, remember how I saved him when he was drowning at Grandma's condo pool when he was like two? Everybody else had already exited, but I was the one that turned around and noticed that he had jumped back into the pool without water-wings (moral: never use water-wings with your children. EVER.) Well, because I saved him, he could save that guy this last summer. And missionary work is definitely like that. Somebody helps us, so we've got to pay it forward and help somebody else. Eric didn't realize how dangerous it was to jump into the pool without water-wings, just like some people don't realize they're sinning (and drowning) until someone pulls them out of it. Cool, huh?

I forgot to mention something cool that Sister Hatch (sister leader) had said when we did splits together. She said that my transfer (and the transfer 6 weeks ahead) are very critical transfers in the mission. The last missionaries to come into the mission are all about to hit their year-in-country marks (or they already have...). Anyway, so in six months, we will be the oldest transfers in the mission. It's four sisters and I think five or six Elders total. She was talking about how we are going to be the leaders of this mission for approximately a year-- which is two-thirds of my mission. Isn't that nuts? It's a lot of pressure, but good thing I have six months to prepare for it!

Also, another thing that's really cool is how long this mission age change has been in the works for. If you look back in time, it's pretty easy to see that something big was going to happen. When I was in Primary, the Primary program changed (I got a gold neckalce with the old program-- which I forgot the name of), but right at the end of my Primary time they changed the program to "Faith in God". Then, also when I was in Young Women's with about a year left, they changed the Young Women's program completely (and also added Virtue). All these things have prepared the youth my age and younger to work harder and smarter to be able to serve missions younger. Interesting, huh? I've been having a lot of deep thoughts over here in Siberia.

Actually, technically this city is in Europe, but the Siberian border is in my mission. They're opening up a new area for sisters over there this next transfer. Pray hard. ;)

I don't really have too much more to say, but I love all of you! Keep praying hard for me, and I'll keep praying hard for you.

Alma 31:34-35

O Lord, wilt thou grant unto us that we may have success in bringing them again unto thee in Christ.
Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee.

Love,
cecmpa Brown

Russia!

Well, I think I spoke too soon 2 weeks ago when I said it was really hot here. It has been SO cold the last week. SO COLD. Wow. It's been raining and crazy, and I'm freezing. haha. Fortunately, mom and I bought cashmere lined leather gloves (Nordstrom rack, $10), and those have been a life-saver. Who knew that I'd be wearing them in August though? haha. 

Well, I left my planner at my apartment by accident and that's where I plan my letters throughout the week, but I will do my best to remember my life! This last week was spent doing our usual bus contacting, etc. and preparing for ZONE CONFERENCE. (cue dramatic music)

It was awesome! Elder Malm, an area authority, came and he spoke to us a lot. He's from Sweden, so it was cool to hear his sweet accent and also hear his inspired words. They were 100% inspired. We went over all the numbers for our mission and discussed how they could be improved in specific areas (in the key indicators column). I did a musical number on the flute (How Great Thou Art) while Elder Schneider played the piano and Elder Coppinger and Sister Whitney sang. We arranged it really cool, and it sounded awesome. Everyone complimented us after. Lunch was catered by "Lido" the bakery/restaurant next to the church. Sister Galli and I frequently stop by there as much as possible, and lunch was amazing. They have really good home-cooked Russian food, and it's awesome. I had my first "blini" (Russian pancake/crepe thing) this last week, and it was REALLY good. I bet with Nutella, it would taste exactly like a crepe-- they're just gigantic sized. The diameter is probably 12 inches and then they fold it like a....I don't know anything about Mexican food, but it's how you fold...a chimichanga maybe? each side folds into the center, and it becomes square-shaped. Anyway....haha.

Zone conference really motivated to try REALLY hard on my language. I try so hard already, but I'm really timid in speaking in front of Russian speakers on the street. I've gotten more comfortable with members, but I am so embarrassed to talk to strangers. But, I've changed my ways. On the marshutka (it's basically a "Mormon bus", painted yellow, and they cram like 20 people inside) home from zone conference, I talked to some people and handed out English cards and church invitations with information on them to people. It made me feel happy inside, and I know I need to do it more. It's hard enough to talk to random strangers in ENGLISH about the Gospel (which I feel like would be OK....) but then to talk to RUSSIAN people in RUSSIAN about the Gospel? I would say that ups the hardness by about 5,000%. Wouldn't you? Anyway, I've made a bunch of goals that I just need to be motivated enough to keep in regards to street-contacting. 

Friday, Sister Christensen (Mission President's Wife) went out with me and Sister Galli, and we had a great time. We went to some active members houses and had some lessons and discussions with them (Sister Galli was translating for Sister Christensen). It was awesome hearing both the English and the Russian because I could immediately figure out what I missed in the conversation (no duh), but I also realized how much I actually could understand. It was awesome! We talked to one lady about how involving her non-member daughter in family history work could bring her to the Gospel and how you should never give up on non-members in your family, no matter how long you've been trying to work on them. Which brings me to my next point, Uncle Patrick has exactly 18 months to get baptized and get endowed so that he can see his daughter get married when she gets back from her mission. If he loves Aunt Cathy, he'll want to be with her and their family for time and all eternity. The problems in their family stem from the fact that there is not a priesthood holder leading their family. One of our speakers (I wish I had the notes) in the MTC talked to us about this and how he actually said all of this to the non-member father. Within 2 weeks, the guy was baptized. Uncle Patrick needs to get baptized to set an example for EVERYONE in that family. Make it happen, please. 

Back to my life, Sister Christensen kept complimenting my Russian (not that she knows any more than me! haha) but said she's really impressed with my progress and how everything's going. We had a really good day on Friday in regards to contacting, so yeah, it sure looked that way to her! I really need to be "on" all the time. I taught a street lesson on the Book of Mormon all by myself (if I didn't know a word, I would elbow Sister Galli, and she'd say it). We've been trying to contact in this way for a while because I REALLY need to practice speaking with natives, so she just lets me talk and talk and talk until I can't talk, then she'll talk. It's awesome. I definitely think my Russian is improving every day. So many members have talked to me about how great my language is, and they all asked if I studied before my mission. I say yes, and tell them that it was basically a semester in a month (Spring Term...haha) and how I left 2 weeks early for the MTC. Taking Russian before I came was the best idea that I've ever had. I definitely feel that it was a blessing to take it, and it's a blessing to have that basic foundation here. I learned a lot in the MTC, and that's probably where most of my vocabulary came from. I'm blessed with an incredible memory too (thank you Dad!) so that's helped a lot as well. 

One of the Assistants is a native Russian, and he's awesome! His name is Elder Gladkov, and he's basically the most humble and kind person I've ever met. And he speaks Russian fluently! I was speaking to him Sunday after church (the presidency was still in town from Zone Conference), and he said "Sister Brown, how are you liking Russia? It's, what, your 2 or 3 transfer?" and I said, " I really like Russia! It's not America, but it's great. And no, it's my first transfer." then he remembered that I've only been here 3 weeks, and he sat there for a little bit (mind-blown), and then he started talking to me in super fast Russian basically saying how amazing my Russian is for only being here 3 weeks. Sometimes, I wonder if people are lying to me.... but I trust him. I don't let those compliments get to my head though because I am well-aware that in NO WAY am I good enough by my standards. I still need to learn as much as I can.

We've been doing a lot of area-book work either, whether it's visiting less-actives, in-actives, or potential investigators. It's kind of complicated because the area book isn't updated and hasn't been updated for a long time. The things that have been updated (on people's information sheets, for example) are vague, inaccurate, or illegible. We've gone to apartment buildings, attempting to find somebody only to discover (by asking) that the apartment building was blown up 5 years ago. Or that the people moved 3 years ago. This happens again and again and again. It's a little frustrating, but Sister Galli and I know that this work needs to be done, so every day we go on many adventures. It's nice to clean out the area book and set up other missionaries for success. 

The saddest thing this week was finding out that one of our investigators with a baptismal date, Y., actually has no intention of being baptized. We heart attacked her apartment door (we've been doing that to quite a few people actually) and left a note saying that we're sad we haven't been able to meet with her since we came (she never shows up to appointments and never answers her phone anymore), and she texted us that night and said "I think the other sisters must have misunderstood (the ones here before us). I don't have any intention on getting baptized anytime soon." which means, for a LONG time. So, that was an awkward text to get, especially because her baptism is supposed to be next week.... so we're going to leave her alone for a while and see how it goes.

One of our other investigators with a baptismal date, K., never can meet either. She works a TON (at Lido, actually), but whenever we're there, she never is. It's complicated. But she LOVES the Book of Mormon, and is so anxious to get baptized, but she has to go to church first and has never been able to make it because she gets called in to work last minute. It's really sad to see how much (actually, we've still never met with her but our Zone leader knows her really well and tells us these things) she really wants to get baptized. But she's gotta pay the rent. It's a tough situation!

Life is great, and today Sister Galli and I are going coat shopping. She knows a really good "swap-meet" type thing in Ufa (she was trained here last October!) and her coat was about $84, but she said it's really ugly and for just a little more money you can get a cute one. Boots (fur lined and super heavy duty) are about $60. Looks like I'm in luck! yay! Mom, I'd like to remind you that any sister missionary that I could inherit their coat (who would be going home soon or now) would have gotten rid of it the second the snow melted so they didn't have to lug it around anymore. But I feel good about those prices, so I'll be withdrawing cash from my debit account. Everything is cash only here.

Anyway, I can't really think of anything else to say.... life is great! Oh, I decided to try my hair straightener out yesterday. I used Sister Galli's plug adapter (I left mine at home because dad said I would need a power adapter too), but it worked fine! I only turned it up part of the possible power level, but it worked! My hair would have looked better if it had been hotter, but it worked out great! I was happy to look like "myself" again (although now, "myself" is a frizzy braid. hahahaha). 

The church is true, the book is blue!

Mosiah 24:11-15
1 Nephi 17:50-51
The Lord knows exactly what trials we need to learn, and he could turn our "water into earth" but he knows what's best for us to help us grow. He doesn't promise to take our burdens away but to give us so much strength that our burdens become light. Trust in the Lord. Don't just say you'll trust in Him. He can see so much more than we can, and something that we may view as a problem actually may help someone else later on down the road. Eternal perspective. With God, all things are possible.

I love you!
cecmpa Brown

Hello Again!

Why, hello! It's true, your favorite person has indeed survived another ENTIRE week in Russia. Are you shocked? Are you amazed? Aren't you so proud of me? ;)

This last week we had the Sister Leaders come and do splits with us. Sister Robbins and Sister Hatch. They're awesome and super ecstatic missionaries. They're AMAZING at contacting. I actually don't mind contacting but I hate it because it's hard to know what people are saying back to me. I went on splits with Sister Hatch, and she's super awesome. We went to a bunch of less-actives' houses and shared 1 Nephi 17 with them about how with God, all things are possible-- we just need to ask for help like Nephi did. The interesting thing about being here is that there are SO MANY LESS-ACTIVES. It's nuts. If we never proselyted at all, we still would never have time to go visit all the less-actives here. They're less active for a variety of reasons: they're either old and so they don't have the energy to take the (sometimes) 2 hr bus ride to church, they're poor so they can't afford the bus, they've fallen back into old habits, etc. It's really sad, but I guess that's life.

President Christensen is really awesome because he has developed a technique for contacting that is AWESOME. It's "finding by using the Book of Mormon." Basically, we go up to people, say "have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon?" and then shove the Book of Mormon into their hands, flip through the pictures while telling them:
1. a 1,000 year overview of the Book of Mormon (It starts 600 years before the coming of Christ.......it ends 400 years after Christ)
2. the geography (It takes place on the American Continent-- where they were led through revelation)
3. it's written by prophets (just like the Bible) and has their written testimonies of Christ and prophecies of His coming
4. it answers questions of the soul (What kind of questions in life do you want answered? Why are we here? Where are you going?)

It's an awesome technique because it gets them interested in the story and they're holding the book RIGHT.THERE. and they can feel it in their hands and flip through the pages themselves. It's awesome. Then we have them read some verses for us (for example 3 Nephi 11 etc.) and commit them to having another meeting with us. If they say yes, we give them the book and give them a reading assignment for next time. If they don't say yes, we try to talk them into it or just give them an invitation to church. This technique has worked so well that the mission has run out of copies of the Book of Mormon, so the president ordered 2,000 a month (instead of our old 300-ish a month). While doing splits with Sister Hatch, we did 2 street lessons this way. We met back with one of the people already, but she didn't seem too interested but we let her keep the book and told her it would always answer questions we have. The other person (it was actually a couple) we did a street lesson with, we're calling tomorrow to see how they're doing. Also, the man (in the couple) asked me to marry his 23 year old son. ;) hahahahahahahaha. Apparently it's not uncommon to just randomly get proposed to here, but it was my first time. It was pretty funny. I asked if his son spoke English (apparently he does) and so I gave the man an English card for our English group. haha. Flirt to convert right? I'M JUST KIDDING. Geez Louise people. 

Something that's really cool about Ufa is that everyone here is Muslim (most people). In the MTC, they prepared me to talk to "preglaslavian" (orthodox [also, I don't exactly remember how it sounds....but something like that]) people, but they didn't prepare me to talk to Muslims! I can hardly speak Russian as it is (the grammar is difficult....oh my heck...and also the vocab) that I never know what to say to them. And apparently neither does any other missionary here! So we're going to figure that out. In Ufa, there's also a kind of people called Bashkirian that are from Bashkyrgistan. It's basically been explained to me that they're kind of like the Native Americans in America. They originally settled this region, and they still live here. All the signs here are bilingual Russian/Bashkirian. Bashkirian basically looks like Cyrillic until you look closely, and you're like "that's not Russian!" so yeah....it's fun learning Russian in a bilingual city. :) Maybe I'll come home trilingual?

Something else that I think is funny here is how English is also EVERYWHERE. Everyone listens to American music (stuff that was popular about 8 months ago....like Gangnam style) and wears shirts with English on them. The best part is, is that NOBODY speaks English. Nobody knows that their shirt (with English) makes no sense when read. haha. It's really funny and always cheers me up to read a shirt that says "cath the wave" and that's it. There are a lot more funny ones that I can't think of right now.  We saw a guy on the bus yesterday (who kind of speaks English...we tried to give him an English card) and his tattoo said "Keep it real." It was spelled right, but SO funny that in the middle of Russia, there are people with English tattooed on them.

There are billboards all over town advertising coats and boots, and it's only AUGUST. It's freaking me out a little bit, and Sister Hatch told me to pray that I stay in Ufa for the winter because it's a milder winter here. I'm really nervous for this winter thing, and I've heard some crazy stories already about getting around in the winter. Nuts. Apparently moms just pull their kids on sleds. funny, huh?

Life here is just peachy. Ufa is a huge city (I can't wait to send you pictures!!!), and there's a lot of work to be done. Being here brings a lot of scriptures to mind, especially 2 Nephi 9:28:
"O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think the are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish."
Everyone here is just too prideful and lazy to change. It's really frustrating but that's agency! There are 8 missionaries here (the mission is so big that it's not called a District...it's just our Zone). 4 sisters and 4 elders. We're spread really far out and it takes most of us about an hour to get to the church for meeting and whatnot. This week we have zone conference and the Christensens are coming! I love them so much, and I'm excited to hear from them. Another city of missionaries is coming to Ufa for zone conference (our mission is so LARGE that we have to have 2 zone conferences because of the distances), so we'll be having more sisters staying with us! And Sister Christensen will be doing splits with us on Friday. It's just a fun and exciting week around here, and I'm super excited!

Dad, you'll be proud of me-- I've been baking bread this week! I bought some foil bread pans from the grocery store, and I've been using those. I've perfected the recipe that I have, but it's still not as good as yours. SEND ME YOUR RECIPE. Gosh. The bread here in Russia is REALLY good, but Sister Galli and I eat so much of it that sometimes it's more convenient to just bake it instead of tromping all the way to the grocery store.

Also, if you could send me an email that has a bunch of Russian roots (not the vegetable) and definitions, that would be nice to start learning. 

Other than that...I'm doing fine. We walk a lot, but it depends on the day. We walk anywhere between 6-10 miles a day I would estimate. But my shoes are holding up fine. The roads/sidewalks here are really bad (actually, there aren't sidewalks, just dirt and rock paths by the side of the road) so my shoes are getting pretty worn already. 

I've been reading from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and it's so cool to read about the tribes of Israel being gathered again in the last days (1 Nephi 22:11-12, etc) and how it's talking about RUSSIA. Totally. Every tribe of Israel is represented in this country, but they're just being a little stubborn. Which means Sister Brown is going to be just as stubborn as they are. :)

Sister Brown's goals for the rest of training:
language: be proficient to talk to people on the street. Speak Russian 100% on the street by the end of training.
companionship: keep it going great!
teaching: be a scriptorian. make flashcards of key verses.
finding: be a fearless finder. be stubborn.
personal: choose another Christlike attribute to work on.

I love you! Thanks for praying for me and all that jazz. You're such a great family, and it's awesome to hear about all the adventures you're having.

have a good week!
Cecmpa Brown

Week 2

Well, life is here peachy as always....

Whoever said that Russia is cold was wrong. Really wrong. It's been soooo hot here the last couple of days, and Ufa is pretty far south in Russia, so it's hotter than other areas. I keep reminding myself that it's going to get realllllly cold pretty soon, so I need to count my blessings.

I think the most frustrating part of being a missionary is not being able to make a choice for someone else. Darn that free agency. I can't choose for them, but I can bug our investigators and coach them enough so that hopefully they'll make the right choice. Since Sister Galli and I are whitewashing this area, it's been super interesting because not only is the geographical area GIGANTIC (like I said last week, the biggest area in the whole mission), but the investigators here are....apparently not interested in investigating. The sisters before us had several progressing investigators, 3 of which had baptismal dates for the next two weeks. But, yep. They all either block our calls or don't come to their appointments-- it's a little frustrating for me because I literally haven't had a chance to practice my Russian in a lesson setting yet.

We met a lady on a bus last week who was really friendly, so we set up an appointment to meet with her. She's a really nice old lady in her 50s.Well, she lives a really far way away. We live in Ufa, and she lives past Dioma 25 min a city in our area that's 40-ish minutes away from Ufa by bus), so yeah. It takes a good hour/hour-and-a-half to get to her house. So anyway, we got to her house, which is a little tiny Russian shack in the country, and we began to teach her. She's really superstitious and has a lot of funny beliefs because of the Orthodox church. She agreed to come to church on Sunday, but then she couldn't come because she was sick. I mean, she was probably sick. We really have no way of knowing. We called her Sunday night to see if she was feeling better, and she said her landlord evicted her and she's homeless now. She asked if she could come stay with us....yeah.... kind of an awkward moment, you know? Hopefully we can see her sometime this week, but it's hard to fit her in since it's like a 4 hour time commitment and costs quite a bit of money to get over there. 

We're meeting again today with F. who seems like a really good progressing investigator. We haven't met with him since last week, but he read our reading assignment (Moroni 7) and he has questions about it. We're going to teach him the lesson on the Restoration tonight and bring up scriptures about how good things are from God. He seems somewhat religious, so we'll find out about that, and hopefully as we talk about the Restoration, things will just click for him. 

So about food:

We haven't been invited over for dinner anywhere, so I still haven't had "traditional" food other than that which I buy in grocery stores, but the food here is really good. For a zone meeting we had this week, we had a huge lunch, and I made homemade brownies for it. It was hard because every apartment in the mission is supposed to have basic cooking ingredients, but for some reason ours didn't. It's hard to make a recipe when you realize halfway through there's no cinnamon/vanilla/brown sugar/etc anywhere. But I made brownies that turned out alright, and everyone was glad to eat them since brownies don't exist in Russia.

I also made dad's pot roast recipe (is it really a recipe? haha) for dinner one time sans meat because apparently the meat is questionable sometimes, according to Sister Galli. But we'll see for the future.

I also went to McDonald's over here last week. It was so amazing! Apparently (in Russia at least), McDonald's is like a fancy place to eat and everyone wants to work there. The food was actually pretty expensive, but it was really good. Really good. I had potato wedges and a McFresh hamburger. It was delicious!

On Saturday, we had a branch service project and picnic. We went to the Botanicheski Garden park and picked up trash. There was a lot of trash, that's all I'm saying. Wow. But it was really fun and we also played games like volleyball, soccer, etc. and had a good time. The sisters in the branch brought a big picnic lunch and it was SO GOOD. Salami and cheese sandwiches, watermelon, oranges, tomatoes, cucumbers, and every kind of juice. I definitely stuffed myself, and it was great.

Language:

I understand the general gist of conversations for the most part. If people are talking about something that I have absolutely NO vocabulary for, then I'm totally and completely lost. Whenever we talk about the Gospel, I understand what people are saying, and if I don't understand completely, it's not hard to guess. It's a great feeling to recognize words that I know or just learned. I feel like a proud little 2 year old with my vocabulary. :) I'm anxious to keep learning more because I'm really just afraid of butchering their beautiful language, but I really do try. It's hard to contact people here because they just.don't.care. Their reply a lot is either "нет" or a variation of "I don't care". What we've found really helpful is to just beg people for directions somewhere and usually as they talk to us they hear our awful Russian and ask where we're from and why we're here. Perfect opportunity, right? :) Despite the fact that all of the investigators that were investigating before we came now are no longer interested, we have definitely made some progress to get new investigators on our own. We try really hard, and everyday I hobble home like an old lady. (My shoes aren't giving me blisters at all though Mom, so don't worry-- life is great!)

Gospel:

Well, I really like studying the Gospel. It's fun, and I have a lot of fun reading the scriptures and Preach My Gospel everyday. There's some really good stuff in there, whowoulda thunk? ;) I'm a firm believer in Preach My Gospel, and we've made some goals as a companionship to follow it more closely. It's like a formula: if you plug in the right things, you WILL get results. And we definitely need results. It's hard being in a foreign country, speaking to foreign people (in a foreign language), about things that are absolutely foreign to them-- it's hard. I'm not going to lie. And people here just don't care. People are content to continue to be miserable because they are too lazy to change-- even if changing means that they'll be SO HAPPY. But that's how life is, and that's what agency is. But I know that if I follow Preach My Gospel to the best that I can, that I will get results. It's a formula. Plan the lessons, talk to everyone, invite everyone, be open, be honest, be normal, be friendly, pray sincerely, ask everyone for referrals and guess what? You're going to find at least one person to teach, probably more. My testimony has grown so much just being out here and hearing about how the members of the branch have improved their lives so much by being members of the church. I know we'll find people, we just have to keep looking.  If a negative thought slips into my head, I just ignore it the best I can. I love being on a mission, even though it's hard sometimes. Ultimately, it's just really awesome. Everyday I'm amazed to wake up and find myself in Russia. I'm amazed when a word pops into my head that I totally forgot I knew. I'm amazed that I haven't collapsed from exhaustion yet either. :)

I love Russia. I love the Gospel. I love the Lord. I'm just having a lot of fun here because serving is fun. Mosiah 2:41

I love you! Have a great week!

Love, cecmpa Brown

p.s. once again the stupid pictures didn't upload. It's a complicated system they have at this internet cafe where I have to give them my SD card and they do it for me. But it won't work because "my photos are too big" (it's never been a problem before....). So maybe I'll just mail them if this continues? I don't know.

I survived the week in Russia

Halelujah, praise Jesus! I'm so excited to email y'all and let you know what's going on in my life. LIFE IS GREAT. Oh my heck. The plane ride over here was what anyone can expect when flying to Russia.....cramped....uncomfortable....hot....cold....hungry. haha. But it was so fun! Dad, when you mentioned watching me flying over Iceland, Greenland, Sweden, that is EXACTLY when I was looking at the map on my t.v. :) 

Miracles of the plane flight:

1. A miracle we found the Fishers in Salt Lake because later when I tried to use the phone card, it didn't work and kept saying it was "in use." If I hadn't used their cell phone, I probably wouldn't have been able to get ahold of you because I had zero American cash on me!

2. We were in line to buy snacks at a super over-priced store in the airport, when a lady paid for ALL of our stuff! AWESOME. The church is true. She lives in Canada and her sister is serving a mission in Omaha. I love people!

3. Unfortunately, the elders we were flying with didn't buy food of their own (or obtain food like we did), so after eating our few snacks, we were all of course STARVING-- but not complaining about it. On the flight from Salt Lake to New York, some ladies from first class bought us all breakfast on the plane! We don't know who they are, but we sent a BIG thank you note up to first class!

I think that that's all the miracles on the flight.... but it was awesome, and I was just super excited to FINALLY get to Russia. Yay!

When we landed in Moscow, it was pretty scary because everything is in Russian, but we eventually figured it out. A lady came up to us and asked if we were missionaries-- we saw that she had a tag too! She was returning from Novosibirsk to her home in Samara mission after serving her mission, so she hung out with us for a little and made sure we didn't get lost.

Landing in Yekaterinburg was BEAUTIFUL. All the food provided for us on the flights from New York to Moscow and from Moscow to Ekaterinburg was FANTASTIC. I was really grateful that it was good. Apparently the other sisters I was flying with didn't think it was good, but I did! I take that as a good sign. :) It was lightly raining in Yekaterinburg and was pretty cold actually (also, Ekaterinburg and Yekaterinburg are interchangeable names apparently). The President and his wife came to pick us up with the sister leaders and the assistants. We went back to their house, helped prepare dinner, ate dinner, and had a meeting. Thursday was also one gigantic meeting, but it was fun. All the food was really fantastic, and the apartment in Yekat is absolutely beautiful. Our trainers showed up Thursday afternoon and from then on, we went to appointments that had previously been set up by the assistants. It was crazy going on public transport around Ekat with Sister Galli because we both are unfamiliar with the city! She's served in Ufa, Perm, and Tyumen before. We got assigned to Ufa (but a different area than the one she knows), and we were assigned to leave Friday night by train. We taught a lesson on Thursday to an inactive 12 year old about faith and why it's important to keep reading the Book of Mormon. It was really fun to talk to her and have a great time. When we returned to the President's house, we ate some Texas Sheet Cake and ice cream (SOSOSOSO GOOD) and settled in for another meeting thing. 

Friday was....interesting. Wednesday and Thursday I honestly hadn't felt jet-lagged at all. I actually do pretty well with time changes as long as I pretend the other time zone never existed. I slept pretty okay on the plane, so I expected to do fine. And I was doing fine. But....Friday I woke up, hopped in the shower (feeling fine), but within the next hour I had literally thrown up twice and sat on the toilet for an extended period of time. Yep. It was fun. The whole day went like that. All of the other missionaries took off for their areas in the morning, and I was pretty much just dying in the bathroom. Sister Galli is really nice and was very understanding, so we went over to the Sister Leaders apartment as planned (we were going to do splits), but instead of doing splits, I just either napped in one of the rooms (excruciating stomach pain) or got to know the toilet, if you know what I mean. It was really a party. I was terrified because that night we had a 14 hour train ride to Ufa, and I didn't want to be sick. Well, skipping some details here and there, we ended up on the train that night, me not having eaten anything all day (the last thing I ate was the sheet cake the night before, and the memory of it was just teasing me....). Lemme tell you, trains in Russia.....I thought were going to be fun/an adventure. But when you're sick and already pretty disgusting and you get on a disgusting train, it's not that great. I slept okay (as well as you can sleep on a train, I guess), and I was extremely glad to be in Ufa the next day. I didn't eat anything all day Saturday again (I nibbled on some things in the afternoon), so I was pretty much starving. Any weight that I gained in the MTC is officially lost. I definitely lost some weight from two solid days of fun, but I prayed super hard Sunday morning (after spending a considerable amount of time in the bathroom again) to be relieved from this pain so that I can focus on fulfilling my purpose as a missionary and guess what? IT'S GONE. I'm so incredibly happy that I feel so much better and that I'm doing so much better right now. So....whoever was praying for me Utah time Saturday night between 7-10, YOU WORKED A MIRACLE. I love you. :)

So.....Russia, Russia, Russia.....where to begin? It's a cross between the Super Mario Bros. Movie (that's right, the awesome 80s one! ----or is it 90s? whatever!) and Castle in the Sky (the Miyazaki film) and probably Howl's Moving Castle, if we're being honest here. Everything is so futuristic, and you can tell that it's all really cool and awesome except for the fact that everything is super old and falling apart. Does that make sense? Things are ahead of their time, but they're so ahead of their time that they're old. I guess that's just how Russia is. The buildings are all falling apart, there are cigarette butts everywhere, everyone is wearing a mixture of super new trendy things and super old clothing, and basically, I just love it. You see little old ladies "babushka's" everywhere or you see ladies walking in stilletos everywhere. It's definitely not America!

Our apartment is really nice, but the sisters before us left it pretty messy, so we have a lot of chores to do today! We are really close to a bus stop which is GREAT since we take the bus everywhere. The area we were assigned to is the biggest area in the entire mission, and Sister Galli and I are both new here, so we have a lot of work to do.

 We are also going to go grocery shopping hard-core (don't worry mom, I'm definitely eating enough now that I feel better). I LOVE the apple juice here. And the cherry juice. And basically all the juice. I also really love buying перожки (I don't know the English spelling) which are like croissants stuffed with either cabbage or potatoes or vegetables. I haven't had a whole lot of "authentic Russian food" yet, but I'm excited to try it all. Sister Galli and I are going to buy some authentic Russian candy today. :) Huzzah! I'm excited to try out all my mad cooking skills. I found a "missionary cookbook" in a free bin at the MTC, so I brought that. And Sister Christensen (mission president's wife) gave all the newbies a "Yekaterinburg Mission Cookbook" with all kinds of fast, easy, and awesome recipes including just normal, American meals and authentic Russian ones. Holla!  I also cooked eggs-in-a-frame Sunday morning and Sister Galli really liked them, and then for Sunday dinner, we had stir fry. So, to celebrate dad's birthday, I cooked two of his recipes. What better way to celebrate?

Church was AWESOME. My friend Sister Henriksen is in Samara, and in her email she said that after 3 weeks of being there, she still doesn't understand anything at church. So, I went in expecting to not understand anything. WRONG. :)

They had all the missionaries new to the branch bear their testimonies, and I was last. I was SO nervous, but I thought I did okay with the grammar/vocab/etc. and I also spoke my own words (not just recititing a pre-scipted testimony). Seriously everybody came up to me to ask me all kinds of questions after and to compliment my excellent Russian. I thought they were just being polite, but Sister Galli reminded me that Russians only speak the truth. So, I must've done a good job! Is it prideful to say that I'm proud of myself? :) I understand probably after 50% of what was going on in church, and if I didn't understand the words of what was happening, I was really fortunate to understand the gist of what was happening. Sister Galli said she was so shocked that she like didn't ever have to translate for me! I would be talking to people, think that I knew what someone said, answer them and then as we walked away I would confirm what was said in the conversation with Sister Galli. I was always right! I'm so good at guessing and making it look like I know more than I know. :) Fake it til you make it! Or as my friend Ethan Damron emailed me from his mission, faith it til you make it! And I definitely will :)

During church, we got a text message on our phone about a referral received from the internet in our area (text was from the mission office). So, we made plans to head over over to that guy's apartment later that night and bring him a Book of Mormon. Well, when we showed up, he had absolutely no idea who we were and didn't refer himself and didn't know any Mormons and was kinda creeped out we had his full name, address, AND phone number. But he came down to talk to us (we had been talking on the phone by the door with him-- the "doma-fone". We took like a 15-minute walk with him outside, and he actually seems genuinely interested. He asked all the "right" questions and was curious about the things we were talking to him about. We gave him Moroni 7 to read and said we'll call him Wednesday! I hope he reads and prays about it because we need men in the church so bad. Our mission has enough numbers to have a stake, but it just doesn't have the priesthood holders to make it happen. If he's really as interested as he seems, it's truly a miracle. A lot of the times when a woman is converted to the Gospel, her husband will leave her (if he hasn't left her already). In Russia, you see a lot of single moms walking around (wearing stilletos and pushing a stroller). Sister Galli says she's taught a lot of single moms here. This guy's name is F.B., so pray for him. We need priesthood holders around here, and I'm going to try to make it happen to the best of my ability!

I'm just really excited to get started here. There are so many things I want to do and talk to people about, but I just don't have the language for it. I don't want to embarass myself by butchering their beautiful language either. I'm just going to try my hardest and do my best. 

This week I really enjoyed reading in Alma 9 (I think) while thinking about all the inactives around here that have turned away from the light that they've been given and how they will be judged for that, just like the Nephites were. In that chapter, it says that their punishment will be more severe than that of the Lamanites who are sinning in ignorance because of the traditions of their fathers. There are plenty of examples of both Lamanites and Nephites here. Some people know the truth and choose the darkness and some people are just sinning in ignorance. Our purpose is to invite ALL people to come unto Christ, so we're trying our best. President Christensen wants all of our contacting to be done pretty much with only a Book of Mormon. He wants us (once we realize that they're somewhat interested-- and some people legitimately are, which I myself doubted before I got here) to get a Book of Mormon into their hand and get them to read some verses out loud (as we're giving a basic historical summary of the book and explaining what it is, etc) and make our message Christ-centered. Then we ask to set up a 10-minute appointment with them to discuss things further. This actually has been pretty effective, and I've seen it work before my eyes too. It's actually worked so well, that the mission is currently short on Books of Mormon. The old mission president would only order 230 a month for the whole mission, but President Christensen has placed an order for 2000 for EVERY month. It just hasn't come yet. :) So Sister Galli and I don't have any more Books of Mormon to give out, so we are anxiously awaiting the next shipment. 

I LOVE YOU. Thank you so much for your prayers-- don't think that they aren't working because they totally are! For some annoying reason, the computer isn't letting me post pictures, so just enjoy the email that my President sent you of me arriving at the airport. :) life is great! Also, my eye infection is GONE! Yay!

I love you!

Love, 
cecmpa Brown