If it's Monday and you know it...

Well it's officially 2010, which, according to the current most popular movie here (I dunno, maybe it got just as much hype at home. Either way it's definitely brought us more than a few investigators), means we're only 2 years away from THE END. I hope you're all prepared.

In any case, we had a small snowstorm blow in over New Year's, and as a result we're now walking almost on level with the bottom-floor windows of every building. And for the record, those windows are normally about 8 feet above the ground. And this is a "soft winter," or so they tell me. I'm not complaining though. Snow means it's warm, and warm means people are out on the streets. Plus, it's snow. Yay snow! Sister Ivanova and I are hoping to do something fun with it today (time permitting), because you can only trudge through so many snowdrifts before you decide to throw yourself in one. Somehow though it just doesn't seem to fit with the whole Professional, Match-the-Message-You-Preach thing if we were to do so in our proselyting clothing. So. Monday... Also known as today.

Missionary work as a whole though was not exactly the most productive this week. New Year's is officially the biggest holiday in Russia, and so of course nobody had time even to stop and talk with us on the street, much less to meet up with us later. Thursday evening we missionaries had to be in our apartments by 6:00, and Friday we weren't allowed to do any sort of proselyting. So instead we made ourselves a whole bunch of food and got together as a Zone to watch WALL-E. Cute movie, even in Russian. Not a bad translation either, if I do say so myself. Technically the holiday extends until the 7th (Christmas day), so we're still having to twist a few arms to get appointments set up. But in the end it's not so much of an issue, because those we are able to meet with are pretty much amazing investigators. We're hoping to set a few baptismal dates in the near future, so... keep your fingers crossed, or something.

So since I've got a few extra minutes this week, let me tell you about some random adventures (ish) we've had on the street in recent times:

One very deaf old lady, while we were trying to explain that we were in fact MISSIONARIES, and not policemen ("Militianaries."  Very very common mistake people make here), looked at me and declared, "You have beautiful teeth. Beautiful."

Then there was the older gentleman who spent 10 minutes talking at us before we could get a word in, declared he wasn't interested in our message and then asked me, "How old are you? 21? I've got a grandson that age. You two need to get acquainted."

And of course the other older gentleman who, with what could possibly be the world's largest frown on his face, glared at us and shouted, "I AM A HAPPY PERSON! HAPPY! YOU SEE ME? I AM HAPPY! AND IT WASN'T RELIGION THAT MADE ME HAPPY!"

Anyway, that's all for now folks. Have a good week, stay safe, do big things, and heck, feel free to celebrate Orthodox Christmas as well.

I love you,

-Sister Read. Beautiful teeth and all. HA.