Hello!
How was the trip? I hope it was
fun!! I’ll be honest, I was a little jealous...or a lot. Well, I loved
talking to you! Sorry I cried through the whole thing. I just love you so
much.
A lot happened this week. So
flying was fine. I mean it was long but I slept and read scriptures. Actually
it wasn't great. The landing into New York was awful. I felt so sick and
actually threw up. After that we had 40 minutes to get to our next flight and
we made that. Although, we were the only English speakers on that flight. I had
a couple conversations with them though. One was with a Ukrainian pastor who studied
the Book of Mormon in school. Anyway it was kind of cool. The flight to Moscow
was 9 hours and it was alright. I didn't sleep much. And then we got to Moscow
and everything began going wrong. In our flight plans they didn't say anything
about a 2nd passport but apparently we were supposed to meet people there and
then go to the US embassy. We went to start checking our bags and then
there were these crazy ladies yelling and waving at us. Anyway after much
confusion they told us that we needed to go with them. We went and got
our 2nd passports and then they took us to lunch at McDonalds. So, yes my first
meal in Russia was McDonalds. Then they took us back to the airport and we
still had like 6 hours until our flight but we went to check our bags and
boarding passes. And they told us our tickets were reserved but no one had
bought them. Of course they did it in Russian and we didn't understand so it
was quite and ordeal to even find out what was going on. Once we did they
then sent us to all sorts of places to get it figured out. They all told us the
same thing, that they were reserved and not bought. Anyway, after 2-3 hours of
me attempting to speak Russian and understand they told us someone needs to buy
them, I found out how much and then we were going to try and call the travel
service because that is what our papers said. Only problem we had to figure out
how to use the phone...that took us another hour or so and it was like 10
dollars for 100 seconds. We got ahold of them but they put us on hold to
figure things out and we ran out of time. I was really happy with them at
this point, if you can imagine. After that I just decided to buy them get on
the plane and worry about it once I got to samara.
It was awful. I have never felt that
stressed before. I couldn't speak the language and we couldn't get anyone to
tell us what to do. Anyway, let us forget that nightmare. I am here and it is
great.
SO, I have 2 trainers. We are in a
3-some. Their names are Sister Callister from California and Sister Braginets
from Ukraine. I have it pretty great. A native speaker and when I can't
understand someone to translate for me. Pretty sweet deal. We are in Saratov,
to get here we took an overnight train from Samara which was cool. After being
on an airplane the train was awesome because you could lie down and sleep. This
week has been crazy. Full of Russian...I can understand Sister Braginets pretty
much all of the time but I can't understand the people on the street yet. It
will come. Yesterday church was cool. They have such a great
spirit here. It was a little different but it was cool. They asked me to
bear my testimony because I was new I just didn't know it until the lady next
to me elbowed me to go up. I stumbled through it hopefully I said something
worthwhile. Also yesterday on a transport I sat down next
to a woman who happened to have already talked to the missionaries before. But
the man across from me took priglasheny or invitation out of my hand and began
talking to me. We aren't allowed to talk to men unless they talk to us first. Anyway,
I began talking to him and noticed he was holding a pigeon...I have no idea why
but I thought it was interesting. Any who, they guy next to us joined in the
conversation and then another guy in the aisle as well. So now I had a crowd. I
was nervous. But that is when Sister Callister stepped in and helped answer
some questions.
What else...I just barely gave away
my first Book of Mormon!
Well I have to go; I love you all so
much!
Love
Cectpa Pearce
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