Blog 7/23/2012

добрей утра (Good Morning)!!



Well, i don't know if everyone is aware but the time difference here is 9 hours from central and 10 from mountain. This week has been kind of tough, i feel my Jet lag catching up to me. I was feeling really tired this week. And I don't think it helps that its been raining this whole week and all I want to do is curl up in bed and do nothing all day. i have a few pictures of the fun rain here in Nishny! Me and my companion had too much fun taking pictures. We have been quite busy getting around town to all the appointments. It can take about an hour for us to get from our home to the apartment of the member or investigator we are meeting. On Saturday we had a really funny inactive member, it took us an hour to get to her house and then she kept talking that we ended up being at her house for 3 hours it was ridiculous! So trying to get home before 9:30 was an adventure, we were 10 mins away when the district leader called to see why we hadn't called to say we were home. It was fun trying to tell him (hes a kinda awkward fella) but, we finally made it home and i'm pretty sure i have shin splints because of that day! Well enough of my pains! This city is so pretty i went in my first Russian Orthodox church and there are just so many around the city! We have been teaching this investigator whose name is Eva she is so sweet and this week we met again and we asked her if she prayed the way we taught her and if she felt something or what was her experience. She said she tried it and she felt warm inside and like if all her worries were gone and she was just feeling peaceful! That was a really cool experience. Were going to teach her about the Restoration this week! I'm so excited. We found another person who was meeting with the missionaries a while ago but then i think she either misunderstood the Elders or they didn't explain correctly but, she thought our church though God and Jesus are the same person. We explained we don't think that and she said she was really interested in knowing more because she agrees with everything we teach but that was the only thing. So we hope that will be a good one. OK funny story of the week! So I don't know why but we have talked to a lot of people that have been drinking lately. They come up to us. Well, everyone here in Russia is either always drinking or smoking, its gross when you are walking down the street and you just walk into a big cloud of smoke!! So this week alone we have had about 6 people try to convince my companion (i cant understand what they are saying) to stop being a missionary and just marry them, or date them or whatever. i think we got about another 4 invitations to go and drink with a group of guys. It's just ridiculous! it's funny cause some are actually interested but i don't think they would talk to us if they were sober. But, every night we call the elders with new contacts, we have given them about 1-2 every night! It's really good though cause something might come out of that! But, Elder Barker said today that he has never received this many contacts, he's lucky if he gets about 3 in a transfer (6 weeks). Well i must go but I love everyone and hope everyone is doing well.




ps. oh one more thing that I love here, that is really funny! So everyone loves to drink tea here. So the first week i went to an inactive investigators home and she gave us boiling hot tea even though outside it was like 92 degrees! so i had to drink it hot, and then (this one was way fun) at church after Relief Society, the sisters got together and had a little tea party with mini sandwiches and cookies! it was soo cute! i love it and will probably be bringing that tradition back with me! :)




Love,

сестра тэдфорд