November 9, 2015
All is well :)
Actually I'm really really happy. All is better than well :) I have so much to tell you this week and such little time to write!
I'll start with the good news....
On November 15th 2015 Saratov will become a STAKE!!! That's the third stake it Russia! I couldn't help but shout for joy when they announced it. I spent over half my mission in that part of Russia and I am so so happy that we've finally been able to reach our goal and although I won't be able to go to it I'm glad that I'll still be in the mission when it happens :) Members and missionaries really put their shoulders together working their hearts out for this to be able to happen. And the more stakes a country has the more likely it is for them to get a temple :) I've never seen a people who have wanted a stake so badly.
We have been meeting with a woman named T... she is awesome. She has silver and gold metallic eyeliner and red hair and a bright purple winter jacket. I'll have to send a picture next week... she's the most loving person and in her prayers she says things like, "Lord, please forgive me that I can't come to church this week... I know I promised, I'm so so sorry I will absolutely come next week" or things like, "I thank you times three, times four for all my many blessings." And she gives the biggest tightest hugs. She's got a baptismal date for theh 28th of this month :) then another family we've been working with... that huge 5 kid family, two of them will be baptized the 21th, FINALLY! We've been working so hard with them.
My jacket and my boots both broke this week... so I had to go get those repaired... and one of the repairs ending up making everything worse, so that was too bad. I pretty much have been wearing a rain jacket for contacting for hours in the snow, it's not awful though :)
We also had a lesson with A... that 50 year old man. He's awesome, but we brought our Branch President on the lesson.... He kind of took over and talked to him... It ended up being a lesson where we left and came back later .... . I think that others might have responded well... but A said that he just felt a lot of pressure during the lesson. Yikes.
Also the other night we got in a taxi with this gruff looking guy with huuuge hands and his body pretty much took up the whole taxi.... he was super nice though and had a very deep voice. However I couldn't help but die laughing when I heard his ring tone which was "under the sea" from the Little Mermaid.
Soooo something really freaky happened this week, and since no one was hurt... I'll tell you about it :) In short... I've never had so many problems with drunk people in a week. We were waiting for an investigator on a bus stop when a drunk man walks up to us and was harrassing us pretty good just trying to grab my arm and take me places... he was pretty small though and so we weren't really scared, also their were hundreds of people outside around us, and Russians are pretty tolerant with drunks so no one paid particular attention. Well after about 15 minutes of this and trying to get away from him it got pretty old. So a boy approaches us and asks, "is this man bothering you?" We told him yes and the boy told the man, "hey, someone is calling you over there, come on let's see who it is." so the drunk many follows the boy and then the boys pulls out pepper spray and gets the man real good and we both run away (FINALLY). Later that day...
....we're sitting in the branch building with a member waiting for english to start and this large man in a leather jacket comes stomping in demanding a cup of water. It didn't take long to understand that he too was drunk, so the member grabs him a drink and he sits peacefully for a moment. Next thing I know this man gets up and corners us in the room and is talking 3 inches from each of our faces. I was just praying that he would leave and I was praying not to look scared. Then the elders walk in... who, sadly aren't any match for this man. Then he started getting pretty aggressive and began to take off his jacket to fight, I spoke up and asked for him to leave. He didn't like that very much, he began to yell and take off his jacket to fight me (yeeeeah right?!) in that moment I remembered what happened today with the drunk man and remembered that my brother, Tanner, had given me a small can of mace (stronger than pepper spray) before my mission. I was shaking so bad, the only thing I could do was pull it out of my purse (it's always been in there) and hand it to the elder next to me who gladly opened it up and sprayed it straight into this huge man's eyes. The man immedately fell down and we all had to clear out because the spray was so strong, everyone was coughing and sneezing. I can't imagine getting that in my nose or eyes or face..... apparently people use mace on bears. We then called the police and they came and picked up the poor drunkard who kept saying, "why am I crying?"
As we were walking home I just thought about God's hand in everything today... I don't know if I would have remembered that I even had the mace if the first drunk man weren't bothering us. Also I don't know what would have happened if the member would have been in the building alone without us... or if the elder's wouldn't have come and it wasn't english club. I don't know that I would have had the courage to spray him. I don't know what we would have done without that stuff, I was sure that someone was going to get hit and I wasn't about to let that be me haha :)
Anyway, interesting week. I'm alive :) And all is well. God sure is making my mission interesting! I'm grateful for every experience that comes my way :)
Loooove Sister Wilson
“The Lord protects, guides, and watches over those who are His trusted friends in His work. His work and that of His Father and our Father is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of the children of God. And Satan, the enemy of our happiness, opposes those who serve the Lord.”
"Yet the promise of the Lord’s protection is real and His power is greater than all the forces that oppose His faithful servants, President Eyring said. “He watches over them. He sends help to strengthen and sustain them. I have seen it for myself as you have. The Lord knows both the hearts and the needs of His friends who are on His errands.”
President Henry B. Eyring
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