March 25, 2013

Hello family!!

Well, this Thursday I will have been on a mission for a year. Can you believe it? I can't. And sadly that means I only have 6 months left...we will probably do something to celebrate. I don't know what yet. I don't remember what happened this week before Friday...maybe by the end of the email it will come to me.

Friday we had district meeting and the zone leaders were there, that was cool. And then after district meeting there was going to be and activity for the youth. In our branch there is one active young man. He is the elder's quorum president. So we went to work inviting all the youth we saw and knew already. Anyway, it turned out to be a way effective activity. There were 7 investigators there. We played some games ate shashlik (shish-kobobs of delicious meat) and by the time we left they were still hanging out and playing together. Most of them didn't know each other before the activity. Cool.

Saturday we worked with the zone leaders and had sister's interviews. I don't know if I explained what they are before. Once a cycle we work with our zone leaders and once with our district leader. It is a good opportunity to receive training and just figure out how we could be working better. I think they are great because for the first 6-8 months of my mission I just had to figure it out. During the exchange we can ask questions or express concerns and receive feedback.

Sunday was normal...I can't remember. Oh! I spoke. This is only my second time speaking in Russia. Orenburg is a pretty small branch and usually one missionary speaks every Sunday so this week it was my turn. I spoke on baptism. I played the piano for part of primary to help them learn a song.

I still don't really know what happened earlier in the week. A lot of our investigators were sick or out of town so we were contacting and tracting a lot but we found some sweet potentials. We will see what happens.

Story for the week. Anatoly was studying to be a Russian Orthodox priest when he got beat up. There was some brain damage done and so know he just repeats scriptures and Russian Orthodox teaching. Last week when we went to see baba lida he said we were going to hell because we aren't Russian orthodox. This week when we went back he says he thinks we will go to heaven because we are nice people. Score. He’s awesome.

Well that's all folks. see ya' next week!

Cectpa Pearce