Well. I don't remember if I told you about it last week, and if I didn't then it was a ridiculous oversight on my part. But. On Sunday when we got to church we found out that we'd been given an investigator who was not only completely golden, but who already had a baptismal date and was scheduled to be baptized the following Saturday (that is, two days ago). She'd met the missionaries in Nakhodka and was supposed to be baptized there before she moved to Vlad to continue her studies, but for logistical reasons the baptism didn't work out on the day it should have, and it was pushed back another week. Basically what I'm saying here is that we had a baptism this week (hooray!), and it was by far the easiest baptism I've ever had... sort of. Teaching-wise, anyway. We had to do a lot of negotiating to bring the branch presidency around to to it (for various and sundry reasons but which basically boiled down to the fact that they didn't know her and weren't convinced that she had a testimony. Once we got her acquainted with the Branch President though, he was more agreeable), which was horribly ironic in my opinion, but oh well. All's well that ends well... or something. I'm not going to lie, I wouldn't mind a few more of these kinds of baptisms in the future. ... Just not too many. It's nice to be able to see the fruits of your labors too.
In any case, my life continues on. We've got more streets to wander up and down on here in Vlad, and they don't all know me here, which means that contacting is a little more entertaining (although I'm not going to lie, street contacting is officially one of my favorite things to do anyway. So many hilarious people out and about... especially in the bigger cities). We can't split up the threesome as often as we might have on Sakhalin though, because here people try harder to walk off with one or both of my companions (and I mean this in a very literal sense. People are always in a hurry around here, and we're kind of stubborn. Generally what ends up happening is that one companion will stop and talk to somebody who is standing still (usually waiting for the bus) and the other companion will start up a conversation with a passer-by. If we aren't careful, we end up walking several hundred feet with the passer-by before we realize that the other two are still where we left them, and rapidly falling out of sight). It's amusing, when they aren't offering to marry us so that we can take them to America. Sister Tolmachova gets those especially often, and it cracks me up every time.
Incidentally, if you would be so kind as to pass on to President Dalton my thanks and my advice that if his niece is going to buy boots in America and not in Russia, she would be best off getting something extremely warm and cheap, because in all likelyhood they're going to fall apart towards the end of her first winter, and she'll probably end up having to buy more anyway, that would just be peachy. Incidentally, I may or may not be buying new boots this winter...
But that's all I've got for now. Fall has almost begun, the sun is still shining, and I'm officially okay with all of that. Enjoy yourselves this week, and remember that I love you.
Oh yes, and thank you mom, for that hilarious description of your shopping trip with dad: "I went into the shops and Dad sat outside and read his book. It was a win-win situation." Ha. Gosh, is this my family, or what?
Much love,
Sister Read
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