Sunday, November 8, 2015

Kazan Week 8 - "Baptism"

October 5, 2015
All is well :)


This week was awesome because we had a baptism, which doesn't happen all too often so that was wonderful :) Z was baptized by the branch president. Sadly, many of the members were working that day so it was a humble little support group, but those who did come did such a good job at entertaining her little baby and she was so good and quiet the whole time up until the ordinance itself... then she started bawling. Of course :) 

There was one night this week where we only have 5 minutes left of contacting til we had to go inside, but my companion noticed an old old woman kind of hunched over standing by a building. We approached her and asked if we could help her home. She only lived about 2 houses over, but she lived on the 4th floor and it took us about 40 minutes to get there. I can't imagine how long it would have taken by herself. I asked if she had a family, she lived with her son, who is too lazy to go to the store himself so he commands his old mom to. She rolled up her sleeves and showed me dark dark bruises covering her arms. She said it was from her son. Abuse of the elderly really just makes me sick. I am so grateful that I have always lived in a home free from violence and that I have never been afraid to step foot in my house (except those times in high school when I broke curfew). I'm really grateful that my companion followed through with that prompting to help her! The whole way to her home she was just thanking us immensely and thanking God for sending her help again (because this happens more often than not). 

It's starting to get pretty chilly in Kazan, it's supposed to get down to 38 degrees this week already, darn it :( I'm going to miss the warm weather. I'm pretty sure I've turned a bit into a Russian myself... which is funny because Russians are usually super sensitive to the cold, in the summer I remember seeing people wearing turtle necks because it was raining or cloudy but really it felt like 100 degrees outside. 

Last Monday we took a walk around the Kremlin again (this big white and blue beautiful mosque, but not the Kremlin you are thinking of, the one in Moscow) with some members but this time we went inside, it's so gorgeous! So interesting, because I actually felt really peaceful inside the Mosque, I was wondering if it was the Spirit. They had us wear these head-robe things inside and Yana, one of the members we were with was just having the time of her life taking pictures.




 As missionaries we don't get to watch conference until this weekend, but I am so so ready. I am ready for some new revelation as to my own questions and some new insights. One thing that I've really learned on my mission is to really study the conference talks. I have a couple general conference Liahonas that are like gold to me, they're starting to look a little shabby. I have a few favorite that I always go back to :) also does anyone know what to do when your scriptures fall out of the bindings, cause that happened recently... actually it happened in front of everyone at zone training. That was embarrassing haha. 

I love love loooove my companion. I've been trying to be more easy-going with everything and just lighten up a little with how the work needs to be done and the results have been wonderful :) We haven't had any contention in our companionship and our patience and charity for one another is really growing. Everyone on the streets always asks us if we're sisters, we both have blond hair and my name is Sister Wilson and her name is Sister Neilsen. It's also pretty hard for people to pronounce my name for some reason, which in Russian you would say sestra Vilson. 

We found out that there will be another pair of elders coming into our area next cycle so there will be 6 missionaries in Kazan :) it's so fun to have bigger districts, there's only 4 of us right now. Also there are 5 new sisters coming in next cycle. So I'm hoping I can train again :) Also, I heard that Saratov is supposed to become a stake by the end of the year, but those could be rumors. But I hope not. That would be so so cool.

Sister Twede and Sister Hullinger are coming up this week for splits. Today we're going to a huge mall to find some winter gear for sister nielsen and maybe a noble fur coat for me (in my dreams).

Love you all! Thanks for everyone's support


Sister Wilson 

No comments:

Post a Comment