Gas Water

Hello everyone,

Another week has flown by in good ol' Rostov and as always I'm enjoying the sometimes hectic, roller coaster type ride, that is the mission. Last Monday one girl that we had been working with for awhile -just hard to pin her down because of work told us she wanted to be baptized. But we just heard from her yesterday that she prolly can't make it to church for the next few Sundays because of a girl at work being out of town. Which means we have to push her date back -sigh.....up and down, up and down. But anyway, everything is fine.

We talked with a less active girl who got baptized three years ago but has been in Moscow studying and living with grandparents that don't like the church so she hasn't gone. She was so cute and still had a testimony etc. and she brought her two younger sisters with her. So we talked about the church and showed the restoration video and gave them books of Mormon. They're way excited to come to church on Sunday and we're meeting with them tonight. So yea, the work is moving forward either way.

The weather has gotten a lil better yesterday and today -not as hot with less humidity so that has been very helpful seeing is all we do is knocking/contacting on the street which = very hot! The best is when we're knocking and we ask if someone could give us water to drink. They always do by the way, way nice - and they bring back room temperature, gas water.....yuck! But you take what you can get. I still don't love it (carbonated water that is) but I can drink it now.

We had Cectpa King (she was with me in the MTC) come and work with us for a few days cause they couldn't find a mini-missionary for her. It was fun but hard to orchestrate. Working effectively in a 3-some isn't exactly the easiest, but it was fine and we learned from each other. Today sisters from Taganrog are coming to stay with us til tomorrow to do splits with us so that will be interesting to learn from them etc.

The other thing of note I guess is this Friday we are planning on having our monthly culture night (by the way I've only done 2 of these while being here for almost 11 months, haha) and we're gonna get a bunch of us together from ours and the north zone to see a football (I mean soccer) match here in Rostov. This means we get to wear regular clothes (prolly what I'm most excited about) and it will be way fun since it's always a big deal here. Hopefully it happens 'cause we'll get to see the other sisters and Kristina (a girl from Taganrog -where I served last who is a mini-missionary right now).

Well I better close but I want all of you to know that I love you and that I'm so grateful for all your prayers and well wishes/happy thoughts. No matter if the work is going easy, or if it seems we've hit a wall -either way I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and that he saw God and His son Jesus Christ on that Spring day and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. The only thing that can get in our way of knowing this, is our own selves/pride/lack of faith etc. I guess the one comforting thought is that God knows our hearts and our desires etc. He knows what we want to do and will always understand us.

I just remembered a joke/quote from someone that I heard while on the mission. It's something to the effect of: Missionaries who serve in the states/in their own languages come home really spiritual, etc. Those who serve in places that speak: Spanish, French, Italian etc. come back spiritual, and knowing their languages really well. Those who serve in Russia ...come back humbled. Hahaha, well, something like that. I love this work and in a way am thankful for the trying times because I know that a good time is just around the corner.

I love you all.
Cectpa Rchards