My boots
Our tree of life that our landlady gave us! Little did she know there is a real tree of life...
Family and Friends,
SORRY!!!! I am so sad right now thinking about you not getting the email especially because it was the best one I have written on my mission as of right now. It makes me so sad to think you didn’t get to read about the interesting people I met while tracting and all the fun stuff that Sis. Pike and I have been doing! GRRRR! Oh well, we will continue. This week has been good as well and filled with lots of fun and exciting new things. Russia is beautiful right now with all of the leaves changing color and our weather is FANTASTIC! It has been so nice and I have loved being able to walk around and see what Russia is really like. We have continued to explore our area and have really been loving it. Our area is HUGE! And Saturday night we discovered we have “mountains” in our area. What an adventure! Anyway, like usual the best way for me to organize my thoughts is to just tell you what has been happening everyday.
Monday was P-day and we came to the mail and then went to the RINOK! YEA! The Rinok is just a really big market and it was really fun! We bought all of our fresh fruit and vegetables there. We also bought a lot of nuts and dried fruit and everything was so cheap. It was a lot of fun to be in the Rinok and see all the people and hear what was going on. Luckily Sis. Pike has been in Russia a year and a half now and so was able to deal with all of the sellers etc. It was a lot of fun but tiring! We also bought a pumpkin and hauled it home. We have been eating everything PUMPKIN lately especially pumpkin in our oatmeal every morning. It is delicious so everyone should try it this week. Monday was also interesting for another reason. As Sis. Pike and I were getting ready for the day we hear a big pop and then smoke started coming from my straightener. Needless to say it doesn’t work anymore so my hair has been… a little out of control. I think my favorite part of having it curly is the comment I received this morning. We have become good friends with the fruit lady outside our house and so we were there this morning buying some fruit and when she first saw me she just said, “Where are you coming from?!” I just laughed and she said she liked my hair. She then asked Sis. Pike when she was going to get her hair done. All in all I’ve gotten some awesome comments and looks for my big “80’s” hair.
This week we have worked with one of investigator’s Natalya who I LOVE! She is so sweet and nice and I am so excited with her progress. This week unfortunately her cat died and so we went out to her (she leaves in the outskirts of Saratov) and had a lesson. It ended up being a really great experience and we were able to teach her about the Spirit and how Jesus Christ is always there to comfort us. We also talked about having faith. She has said that she knows she needs to get baptized but that she just needs some time. I am excited to see how she will progress and am so excited to keep working with her! She is awesome and so sweet and humble! The people here in Russia are so genuine and care about you so much, I love it!
Our other investigator Valentina—who is our landlady—is in the hospital! It has been a rough week. We have been going to her everyday while there and singing hymns and sharing a message. Although she is in the hospital, it has given her a lot of time to read and she has started reading the last conference Liahona. She always has a lot of questions but she is interested in what they say. We also had a great lesson with her Friday night. She has been sneaking out of the hospital and going home to clean and feed her husband and so we found her there the other night. I think it is so funny that here you can just leave and it’s totally fine. I guess the doctor’s are only there on the week days and so EVERYBODY leaves on the weekends but she has been sneaking out other days to do stuff at home and then returning in the evening. I think it is hilarious! We brought a young adult from our ward, Luba, who is an opera singer here and we sang for her and talked a lot about the church and what we do at church. It was a great lesson and she of course loved Luba who is super sweet and cute and has an AMAZING voice. Hopefully we will be able to continue to work with her and have her read the Book of Mormon more.
We also have a new investigator who is a 14 year old boy named Sasha. His mom is an semiactive member in our ward and we taught them this week and will continue to teach them. They were both at church this week and it was so fun to see them! It is an amazing feeling when you see your investigator’s at church and when they continue to progress.
I think the best tracting story from this week (there were some good ones last week ) was when we accidentally tracted into the Reshetnakov’s house. He is the member of the 70 I was talking about. I was talking and we knocked and just said “we were taking a family survey”. The lady at the door just started laughing and opened it and said “I don’t know anyone else who would open the door for that accent”. They invited us in and we had a great meeting with them and their family. There is such a difference the Gospel brings into people’s lives that makes them happy and filled with purpose. We were able to get some great referrals from them (they know everyone and where everything is). We also helped him with his English, he is going to conference this next session (April) and so is working hard on his English. It was great to have him help me with my Russian and I helped him with his English. They are an amazing family and Sunday they brought me a really cute hat to wear. The night we tracted I wasn’t wearing a hat and so she was worried and brought me one. It was so nice! The members here are AWESOME and I love them and love working with them.
So yeah I think that is the highlights of the week. Sis. Pike and I continue to have a great time and are talking and meeting lots of people. We love our area and working with the people we are working with. I am really really really sad because she will leave the area on Thursday and work in Samara for a little bit and then head home. I will go up to Samara with her to hear Elder Nelson speak this week and then come back down with a new companion. We have heard that she is a returned missionary from the Temple Square mission who is from the Samara area and she will serve with me for a week and a half and then I don’t know what will happen to me. It will be interesting and I will just go with the flow. I really thought I would get to be with Sis. Pike until she left but unfortunately she is leaving me early I feel like I got cheated a couple weeks of a trainer but that is okay. I am excited to meet my new companion and to be with a Native Russian companion. I know it will really help my Russian.
Well all is well here. The church is true! Help the missionaries in your area! Write me emails (siblings). Love you all, thanks for your love and support,
Whitney
Finally a picture of Whitney pointing to the MTC map
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