Tender Mercies!

Friends and Family!
First off... MY MOM IS AMAZING! Thankyou thankyou thankyou for the amazing package. We were so excited about the peanut butter beacuse our's ran out this week! WOOHOO! And the popcorn was delicous! You are the best! Congrats Missy on the baby and although I think he may have been written out of Uncle Tom's will, I will still love him and can't wait to meet him. Well it has been a great week! We have had a busy couple of days but everything is going well. It is COLD and it has been snowing for over 24 hours here (LOTS OF SNOW)! WE have had temperatures in the morning in the high 20's and the nights are about the same but we are dressing warm and having fun coming up with ways to keep warm!
This last week went REALLY FAST and seems like it was just last week we were writing emails but here we are again. WE had Zone Conference yesterday and so that is why the email is a day late. Zone conference yesterday was great and we had a lot of fun seeing other missionaries and getting to hear from President and Sister Bennett. It was GREAT and really uplifting Zone Conference and so now we are all fired up to go out and do the Lord's work. We also had a really cool experience Sunday night. Because Sister and President Bennett were here this weekend we were able to take Sister Bennett to Natalya's house with us on Sunday night. They had never met and so we were excited to be able to introduce them to each other. After church on Sunday we had our interviews with President Bennett and then headed with Roman (the mission driver) and Sister Bennett to Natalya's. We had a great lesson there and were able to talk about how the Plan of Salvation gives us perspective on life that many people don't have. Natalya's podezd has a little bit of a crazy elevator and so as we were getting in it acted a little funny. Sister Stolyrova and I got out of the elevator just in time as it started to go up (with the doors halfway open) and then stop (doors closed) about 4 feet off the ground. Poor Sister Bennett and our member that was with us were stuck in the elevator. They were in there laughing really hard and having a great time Sister Stolyarova and I were tempted to just let them hang out but we called the repair men. The repair man heard the laughing and didn't believe Sister Stolyarova when she explained what had happened. WE were laughing hard too, we ran up 7 flights of stairs to tell Natalya what had happened and she also laughed and went to talk to them through the elevator. About 40 minutes later they were rescued by a big Russian man who opened the doors and we had our lesson. While in the elevator they looked at pictures, listened to music, and had a great time so everyone was happy and it's just one more thing I can chalk up to experience in Russia. I LOVE RUSSIA!
This week I have fallen... a few times... nothing serious but the fall count is up to 17! Good times. There is so much snow now that it defintely doesn't hurt, just a little cold:) Natalya was so sweet and gave me some really warm Russian pants to put under my skirt and so I have been SO WARM! Even though it's been about -28 this week I have found myself sweating because I've been so warm. I am so grateful for her! The pants are AMAZING!
Sister Stolyarova and I have had so much fun this week We (she) made piroshki to give to Natalya this week which were delicious and we have made some other yummy treats for neighbors and investigators. We also had a funny experience this week while tracting that we will save for a different email.... maybe not 100% missionary appropriate! We also found a fire one night out a big trashcan. I don't think it was on purpose but we decided it was a tender mercy from the Lord and promptly warmed our hands and stood there for a few minutes as we warmed up. WE were sure thankful for the fire and the next morning all was put out so I think it was truly a blessing from the Lord (it was WARM).
Well I think that is all this week! We are excited as we finish the 6th week of the cycle and see what will happen next week (transfers?) I love the Gospel, I love this work and I love my opportunity to live in Russia! It is an amazing country with amazing people and I am so excited I still have another year here to do this work! I love you all! Thanks for the emails, love, prayers, and support.
Sister Morris