April 22, 2013

Hello family!

First things first. Happy princess week!!!!! Tell Marcie happy birthday! I sent her a card but...you never know with the Russian postal system. Oh and I guess, happy birthday to Todd and Greg...

This week has been a bit of a strange week. Monday evening I got a cold. It came on way fast because when I emailed you I felt fine and then by the evening I felt pretty crummy. The next couple nights were spent on trains and then I arrived here in Saratov! After traveling I was feeling pretty bad and Sister Sartori told me to get a dr. appointment when I got here because after taking an antibiotic for 10 days I shouldn't get sick. Anyway, so that was on Friday. They swabbed my throat, took some blood, and even took an x-ray of my sinuses. We’ll get the results sometime this week. I thought I was getting better; I wasn't waking up and coughing as often, my nose wasn't running as badly and now it is  pretty much gone but my throat is super sore and has funny bumps all over it. Sigh. I just want to be healthy...

Church yesterday was so great! I was surprised by how many people remembered me. All the members here are so nice! I called the Branch President on Saturday just to say hello and he just said he was so glad that I came back and the Relief Society President...in short they were all so great. They all complimented me on my Russian (only because there was a drastic difference from my first cycle until now). Apparently after serving with Sister Polyanskaya I have a Ukrainian accent. I am ok with that:)

Last night we had a fireside on missionary work. It went really well. We had the Elders do a role play the Sisters talked about ideas of what the members could do and then the other set of Elders showed a movie and then we had a testimony meeting.

When I was here before the Dachney branch met in a little part of a building but now they meet in the building that the church built here with another branch. The building is so nice! And it is cool to see a lot of members together. After being in Orenburg the church here is so established, it is way cool. I am excited to get to work with the members here. They are willing to go out and contact with you, knock with you etc. it should be a fun cycle.

Tomorrow is zone conference so that should be fun. It is my second to last....strange. Working with Sister Angelos has been fun. She is a chatter box. Sometimes I have to remind her to eat so that we can get out the door on time. I finish and she has only taken a couple bites.

As far as whom we are teaching...not really anyone. But that should change. This week we will be finding people to teach. Give us a couple weeks.

Anyway, I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,
Cectpa Pearce