April 29th, 2013

Hello again! Boy this was the fastest week in the history of mankind and much has occurred. Let's see, as an overview we had lots of lessons (which is awesome!), a woman gave us candy on the street, I got beat up by a little girl, I had a day of firsts, we set a baptismal date with V, I washed a ton of windows and D, our investigator who is waiting for permission to get baptized, returned from Vlavidostok! yay! and my enter key doesn't work on this computer for some reason so this is going to be all one big block of text, excuse me. On my day of firsts we went out to a members house to do service for them washing windows with the Relief Society. This is the first Americanish house that I've been in since I've arrived in Russia. Brother S made it himself! It was so awesome and cozy to be in a home in Russia where the parents were sealed in the temple and have three kids together, to see the kids' artwork hanging on the wall with one saying "I am a child of God", to see things like hymn books and scriptures laying around mid-use, to eat soup together. It was also the first time I've eaten a full Russian meal. It was actually really good. :) And I tried kvac, the fermented bread drink that all the missionaries say is gross. I liked it. Maybe that's a miracle or maybe I'm even more Russian than I thought. That day was also my first time in a car since I've been here and it was the first day we got into a door while knocking! I don't believe I will ever forget that night. S answered the door, I gave a scattered introduction to who we are, he didn't understand so Sister Clyde graciously clarified. He was interested in hearing more so she asked if we could come in or come back later. He had time then so in we went! Thankfully we had Anya with us or else we wouldn't have been able to with this women to men ratio rule. S lives with his roommate, a huge, dark, muscular Muslim man with lots of hair. I know this because he was not fully clothed. S offered us tea which we declined since he only had green or black, then we got to know him a bit and his beliefs. He seemed to think we were baptist for some reason and couldn't really get that out of his head. But we left him with a Book of Mormon so that should clarify some things. He was sooo nice and just a cool guy. We goin' back tonight to teach him the restoration, yay!    Well, talk to you next week! Oh, I received mail from Emma and Michael! Thanks, that was such a treat! I don't know if they'd rather email now or have me write them back but if I did write them with paper it might take like a month to get there if it even does get there. Love you!!!  -- Sister Johnson