Practically December already?

Okay okay okay okay okay okay okay. So. Big news. We have an actual church building! And it's actually finished (ish)! We got word last... oh, Friday ish, maybe, that they'd finished the remodel on the 1st and 2nd floors of our building, and therefore we could move in as soon as Wednesday, after they'd put the final touches on it. So, bright and early Wednesday morning (ish. Early for me as a college student. Early for me as a missionary... not so much. More like middle of the day.) all six of us missionaries and various branch members gathered in the old building and began the work of packing, cleaning, and, for Ivanova and I at least, throwing out a whole lot of unnecessary junk. Then they sent us over to the new building to clean, because apparently the work of lifting and hauling is absolutely not something a Sister of any sort (missionary or not) should ever even think about doing in Russia, much less attempt. And should you choose to disregard this and try to carry something anyway, you'd better hope that the Relief Society President doesn't catch you, because she's not afraid to give you an earful. Haha. I love the members here.

So I'm not sure what it is about my last name, but people around here absolutely love saying it. Maybe because it's so foreign to them, but I don't think I've gone a whole day in the last couple weeks without hearing, "Reet! Reet!" at least once. In fact, as we were standing in front of the new building contacting one day, a whole group of construction (ish. I dunno what it is that they think they're doing, exactly) workers walked passed, looked at my nametag, and then excitedly exclaimed, "Sister Read! Sister Read! Look! Sister Read!" Apparently they'd heard of me. My fame spreads. Ha. Sadly none of them was interested in our message or the Restored Gospel, but we figure that was only because it was our first contact. I read somewhere that it takes an average of 7 contacts with members of the church before a person is ready to meet with the missionaries. 6 more times and we're good to go.

The following is a paragraph especially for Grandma Read, because she wants to hear about people and scenery... or something to that effect, anyway.

Climate-wise, Yuzhno seems to be an interesting mix of Portland and Provo, or somewhere in between. We walk down the street and I feel like I'm at home, because there are a million billion trillion trees everywhere, and because it rains... often. When it's not raining, it's snowing, and being as how the weather around here officially decided winter began on Halloween, it's been snowing off and on for the last month. We'll get about a foot of snow over a period of 4 or 5 days, and then it'll randomly decide that that's enough snow for a while, and it'll all melt off over the next few days. But then, oh wait, it's winter, and we'll get another 6 days of snow. For the record, my coat is a beautiful, beautiful thing. Walking around Russia in a skirt would be less than fun without it.

Opa. The computer just informed me that I've only got 5 minutes left. More on people and things of that sort later, I suppose. For the record, my last pair of regular nylons died last week. It's a good think I've got the winter ones. Dunno what I'll do when summer hits, though.

Anyway, I'm through. Love you all, stay safe, think of me, and... do big things this week.

-Your favorite sister missionary. Calista.

So.

Today is Monday the 23rd of November, and I feel like it should have some special significance.
... Other than being the 23rd, that is.

So basically Geoff and Nicole are my heroes this week. Not only did they write me, but they wrote me letters and then paid for them to be sent through the mail all the way to me in Russia. Best day of my week, hands down. Chris is a very close second, because he also wrote me. His letter though was one he'd sent back when I was in the MTC, and in any case he sent it through free mail, so it doesn't count. Still. Feel free to keep on keeping on in that sphere of things.

Speaking of letters, tell Shana Brown she's got one coming soon... ish. Like within the next month I'll get it sent off. Really. Honestly though, P Day as a day to do any kind of relaxing is one of those lies they tell you in the MTC to make you feel better about what you're getting into mission-wise. Someday I'll know what free time is again. But I'm not sure that I'll enjoy it when I find it. Ironic, no?

Just in case you're wondering, today's internet cafe is much more aesthetically pleasing than the one we usually go to. Much faster too. The only downside is that it's apparently a popular place for teenagers to gather and play Counterstrike. Yes, apparently they have video games even in Russia, and they're played with just as much noise and enthusiasm as at home. I'm pretty sure I've already learned at least 3 new Russian swearwords just in the 10 minutes we've sat here. I'll have to try them out on our investigators at a later date. Ha. I kid. It's not like I can even remember them anyway...

I dunno what else to say at this point. Pretty normal week, for missionary work. Although, now that I think about it we did have more people than usual keep their appointments with us, which was pretty much a miracle in and of itself. Usually about 1/3 of the people we set up appointments with dodge out at the last minute, and then the backup plan ups and falls flat as well. Not this week though. Almost every appointment went through, and as a result we've got a whole bunch of new investigators. The only brown spot in the orange is that they aren't all in our area... Welp. The elders don't actually need to know that, do they?

Anyway, I'm all out of time, and we've got people to be meeting with. Feel free to write me sometime. I enjoy it.

Stay safe, remember that I love you, and have a good holiday.

-Sister Read

And it came to pass (translated into Russian as "and it was," in case you wondered)...

Oh for cute, the most youngest brother is 14 today (well, today for me anyway). Hang on. Bryant. You're 14. When did that happen? Oy. I feel like I should be singing "Sunrise, Sunset" here. Wasn't it yesterday that they were young (born? Small? I forget the word here)? Haha. In any case, happy flippin birthday, Bry! In true Russian style I'm going to skip the birthday song and go straight for birthday wishes: I desire for you a beautiful wife; many happy children; luck in your studies; friends, friends, and more friends; a nice car sometime in the future; a good singing voice; a house with heat in the wintertime; delicious food (also sometime in the future); cleanliness; health; a chance to meet somebody famous; and all your best dreams to come true. I'd go on like a true Russian in True Russian style (no kidding. Get them going and they don't stop until they've hit up every good, ok, neutral, and even semi-neutral-almost-bad thing they can think of for you. It's quite amusing), but I've got other things to report. Consider yourself well and properly desired-for.

In other news, and this you may understand was pretty much the highlight of my life thus far, two of our investigators were baptized on Saturday! Woo! We met Dasha and Yulia my first week out here on the island (literally like the first or second day), gave them a pass-along card for a copy of Finding Faith in Christ, and set up an appointment to watch it with them. After the movie we set up another appointment to teach them the first lesson, and by the end of that lesson they'd committed to baptism. Um. Can we say golden? They showed up at church every week after that (even conference, and they sat through it all!), immediately started drinking herbal tea right after the lesson on the Word of Wisdom (side note: tea, as you may have heard, is rather popular here. I'm pretty sure I'm going to come home composed entirely of tea we drink it so often. But I digress.), and basically did everything else we committed them to do, all with smiles on their faces. The members of the branch absolutely love the two of them, so their baptism was really well attended and amazingly spiritual. Gah! I love this work! Now if only we could get our other investigators to be as cooperative as these two. We've had to drop several because they refused to progress, and that was lame. The last couple of weeks we've been focused on finding more people to teach (yay! Contacting!), and we're only just now starting to see the fruits of those labors. Here's hoping the teaching pool will increase itself soon, because we need those people and they need the gospel.

In other other news, on Friday of this week we (that is, the missionaries) have been invited by the Joneses and the Nobles to celebrate Thanksgiving with them before they all take off for the States and "live like civilized people for a month." Needless to say, we're all looking forward to it (even Sister Ivanova and Elder Papoke are excited about it, and they've never even observed it before now. Apparently word about American holidays (and how we celebrate them) gets around). We've been strictly forbidden from bringing anything other than 1 or 2 liters of juice per companionship, of course, because Sister Noble and Sister Jones are in this and in all things True Relief Society Sisters and have in all likelyhood prepared enough food to feed the entire city. So. No need to worry about your Poor Starving Missionary Daughter (HA) in Russia on Thanksgiving, because I get the feeling she's going to be very very well-fed.

Speaking of delicious food though, can I have some recipes? I want to do some experimenting with Russian ingredients and see what comes out. Please please please I would love coffee cake, pie (apple, blueberry, whatever), banana bread, regular boring bread (it's icky here), texas chocolate cake, and anything else you care to send my way. Oh and also, if at all possible, can I have one of those Joseph Smith Translations of the Bible that they sell at Desperate Book, please? Assuming of course that it isn't too heavy at any rate.

Welp. That's all from me today. Be safe, have fun, and remember that I love you all!

-Sister Read

My favorite English-Speaking-Missionary-Mistake-In-Russian Thus Far: "I love the water in Hell."

Four months on a mission as of Saturday, and today marks the beginning of week 6 in Russia. Crazy. For the record, missions go much faster from this side. Sister Ivanova keeps telling me to make the most of it because I haven't got much time left, but she's one to talk. She goes home in March. We found out today that we're here on the island for at least one more transfer, which wasn't much of a surprise for either of us. Apparently sisters tend to stay in one place for a very very very very very very very very very long time in this mission. At least this is what I hear from the Senior Companion. We shall see.

Today Sister Jones, whose husband works for Exxon (of course), needed to go into town to buy groceries and so she invited us missionaries along. The place she shops is really cheap (relatively speaking, of course. We are on an Island in Russia, after all), but it's difficult to get to without a car. I must say it's nice to have somebody to speak English with once in a while, because I'm beginning to feel like I'm committing a minor sin every time I speak with one of my fellow missionaries for more than 10 seconds in English. We're supposed to be 100% Russian when there are members present, and invariably (except for Zone Meetings on Tuesdays) if we're all in one place it means there are members nearby somewhere. Obviously too much English isn't much of a problem when it's just me and Sister Ivanova, because although she understands more English than I do Russian, she still tends to revert back to Russian after one or two words in English. With Sister Jones on the other hand, anything but English is a no-go, because she speaks almost no Russian. Huh. Who would've thought I'd miss English? (I'm pretty sure I've said that before too. I'm getting predictable in my old age).

While we're on my favorite topic of languages, here's an amusing-ish story that happened a couple weeks ago in church: Brother Noble, the Branch Mission Leader (who also happens to work for Exxon, go figure), is very gung-ho about his calling, and likes to meet with the full-time and branch missionaries at least weekly. So every Sunday afternoon at promptly 1:00 we're all gathered in the Priesthood room, ready to talk about how to make the work go forward faster. Like Sister Jones, Brother Noble also doesn't speak much Russian, so of course he conducts the meeting in English. However, because the majority of the people in the room are native Russian speakers, we as missionaries give our reports in Russian, because it's usually the natives who need our information most. Usually what ends up happening then is that we, the non-native American missionaries are speaking Russian and the native Russians will do the translating back into English for Brother Noble. It's highly amusing.

In any case, I'm all out of town (or time. Whatever) again. I love you all, stay safe - I MEAN IT! - and have a better week, please.

Sister Read

Entertaining subject lines are for the lesser mortals

Last week I had too much time, this week I don't have enough. Go figure. We'll see how much I get written in 15 minutes or less.

Firstly, before I forget: Happy belated Birthday Chickenlegs! Oh for cute, my adorkable little nephew is 2. Here's hoping things are going smashingly for you Marie as well :)

So I guess the weather in Russia has officially decided that we've had enough Fall for one year. On Saturday it started snowing, and except for a small break yesterday during church, it's been going pretty much steadily for a while now.
...Except of course now that I've written that it just decided to stop. Very well. Two can play this game. Gosh. Such a shame that it's not going to be in the upper 90s this week...
Haha. I kid. Snow is beautiful. And lots of fun. Actually, it really is here, assuming of course that you happen to be in the right space.

9 minutes...

It's been a strange week. Every day at least half of our appointments and their backup plans fell through, which meant that we spent a lot of time out on the street contacting. Yeehaw. Sister Ivanova and I were talking about it the other day, and we decided that this week was the Lord's way of helping us come to love contacting, since neither of us really prefers it much. I'm not entirely sure it's my favorite thing just yet, but in any case my relationship with contacting has definitely improved. What an interesting way to share the Gospel - 30 to 60 seconds at a time. This week we're hoping that at least one of the people we talked to will be interested in meeting with us again.

Speaking of Sister Ivanova, I guess I should tell you more about her. She is from the city of Ulan-Ude, which, as I think I mentioned, is somewhere in the Nova Sibersk mission somewhere. She and I have a lot in common, which makes working together nice. She's a neat freak like I am, and, while she like every other native Russian eats strange things occasionally, she and I rarely disagree about what we're going to eat. She's also one of those people who believes that life is better when laughed at, so basically I think she's pretty much the perfect companion.

I'm out of time, but I have an assignment for you all this week: Go to the temple and do some service, because I can't. And then tell me about it. Please?

I love you all, and I promise I'll have more to say next week. Really.
... Really. Promise.

-Sister Read. Calista-style, but of course I don't know that. We have first names.