RUSSIA WEEK 1
Sooo! I am halfway around the world. Weird. But also awesome! Sorry
if I don't have time to reply to all your emails, p-days are too short!
Also thanks aunt Jill and Ashlyn C for the dearelders, they were a good
welcome to Russia present.
So I'll start from where we left off talking to you
from SLC. We flew to NYC and then took a bus to our terminal and got all
checked in at the gate. Then me, elder Lambert and Elder Miller decided
to go find some American food one last time. So we wandered around the
terminal and finally found a burger king. As we were getting our food I
looked down at my watch and thought oh crap we barely have time. So I
was super nervous we were going to miss our flight, and we turn the
corner to our gate and there was nobody there! Shoot. So I grabbed my
bag and stuff right as the lady was saying "last call jfk to Moscow!"
Then.. We flew to Moscow which was exciting because I
could hear russian chatter on the plane and stuff. We got to Moscow and
at the MTC they told us the church would have someone there to take us
to the embassy and get our second passports. As it turns out, that info.
is outdated. So we sat by the baggage claim for an hour and a half
wondering where these people were. We tried calling the mission
president, which is a story in itself..
So we couldn't get the payphone to work. I mustered up
enough courage to ask a russian lady if we could borrow her phone or if
she could help us call this number. I thought we were having a pretty
good conversation going in russian, she said she couldn't help us and
then I asked one more question and she said "Ich Weisse Nicht." If you
don't know what that means, I'm prett sure it means I don't know-- In
German!! Haha me and elder Lambert turned around and I was like I'm
pretty sure that last thing she said was in German and he said yup. So
that's when I realized my russian wasn't as great as I thought it was
haha..
So we basically had no idea what to do so we said a
quick prayer and decided to go up to the aerofloat booth which was our
airline. We got off the elevator and guess who we saw? Two old people in
nametags! We were like hey are you supposed to pick us up, and they
said umm no. But they were the mission president and wife of the
yekaterinberg mission, just on their visa trip and happened to run into
us and they knew exactly what we neded to do. Miracle! So again we were
among the last to get on our flight and a few of us almost missed it but
we didn't.
Next we got to Rostov, finally, and did some paperwork
then went and had a nice dinner with the Prows's. They are so nice! We
went straight to bed and in the morning had some training and I met my
trainer, Elder Belnap from fort worth texas. He is a great trainer and
missionary. I'm so glad to be his comp and we get along really well.
After training, about 7 pm saturday night we got on an
overnight train to Volzhsky It was a bit rainy in rostov and so there
was a group of us walking our bags in the rain to the trainstation, it
reminded me of when me and dad first got to vienna looking for the hotel
in the rain. Pulling luggage around in a foreign country, haha. Oh, and
yeah I said 'overnight train.' I was so excited they had beds on the
train because I was so dang tired! The average temperature on this
particular train was 95 degrees farenheit. So perfect sleeping weather
haha. And of course Russians are superstitious about drafts so we
couldn't open up any windows. But I was so tired I slept well
reguardless of the temperature. It was a train straight out of harry
potter or polar express or something. A steam engine with little
compartments of 4 beds.
We got here in Volzhsky just after sacrament meeting
ended and went to the rest of the meetings, where I could understand
only 60-65 percent of what was being said and someone asked me a
question during the lesson and I just looked at them like a deer in the
headlights haha. Church was great though, our investigator was
there. He is such an awesome investigator. He walked around church
with a massive jug of mtn. dew haha. He wants to be baptized and he
comes to church and everything, but his wife is against the church.
Think of ways we can help him to be baptized please! The only time we
meet with his wife is during english club..
Today we did some contacting in the morning, one
thing that is interesting about our mission is the elders only contact
men and the sisters only contact women. One of the main reasons being we
are looking to find priesthood to support the branches. After
contacting we helped the sisters move some things to their new
apartment, went grocery shopping (I convinced my comp to buy us some
Coke!) and now we're emailing. Whew.
Sorry this letter
is super long, just so much is going on right now! I am so tired, last
night at like 9:30 my comp went to take a shower and I figured I'd look
at flashcards until he got out. That wasn't the best idea, I was asleep
within seconds! Haha so I slept with my contacts in. Our apartment is
actually pretty nice. The outside doesn't look super appealing, 6 story
concrete building like all the home buildings here, but the inside isn't
bad. I even have my own room! I'll try and send pics..
Thanks for everything, there is alot more to say but I
don't have too much more time so I'll tell you one more thing. The
drivers here are awesome, I swear everyone drives like they are in a
high speed pursuit haha. I've never seen a bus peel-out until yesterday.
So we were driving with our investigator and he was blasting Rhianna
and I blinked and all of a sudden thought what the heck is going on?! I
am in a car flying through the streets of Russia listening to Rhianna
haha. Awesome.
So there you have it, until next week peeps. I hope
everything is awesome in arizona, it sounds like you all had a good
thanksgiving. Amy and mom be safe in Hawaii! Take pics for me and think
of me freezing my rastafarian ne'ne's off here in Russia while you're on
the beach. I love you all and miss you tons! Talk to you all on
christmas.
-Scott
