Another week gone by, but this was Thanksgiving week! The Russians don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but that didn't stop us. We got together with the elders in our district and made our own Thanksgiving dinner. They found some turkey and made rolls, and Sister Woodland made homemade stuffing. There were also pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and pumpkin bread. It was delicious!
We're having a big mission-wide conference this week with President Klebingat of the seventy. I was here in January when he did another conference. Over the past three weeks, missionaries have been slowly trickling into Artyom and Vlad. The office has been coordinating so that the people who have been going on visa trips just stay with us or in Vlad. for a few weeks instead of flying back and forth between their cities. Today the final wave is arriving. Yesterday, the sisters from Sakhalin flew in and stayed with us overnight. They were supposed to fly in today, but there was so much snow that they decided to catch an earlier flight. It's a lot of fun being with all the sisters, and it will be even more fun to see everyone together at the conference.
Our fifteen-year-old member whose mom died met with us twice this week, and we got started on her family history work. It was great! She started her account, put in her own information, and then added her immediate family members. She went to the cemetary to get more information for her mom. It was so cool to see her start to put together her own family tree, and one day she'll be able to do her mom's temple work.
We also have been meeting with two of our investigators a lot, a couple who has drinking and smoking problems. The woman might be pregnant, and they're not married. There's some work to do with them, but the woman keeps expressing strong desires to come to church. Their neighbor was there while we were talking. She said she's Muslim, but it doesn't seem like she practices. We were careful while we were talking because we're not allowed to teach Muslims without permission because it could be dangerous for the Muslims, but she was more into what we were talking about than the investigators. She kept backing us up and saying things like "You'll go to church next Sunday? You're going to read?" Even if we can't officially teach her, I hope she gets something beneficial out of sitting there and listening.
It snowed again last night. From what I've heard, Artyom doesn't get a lot of snow, just cold. I've also heard that the air is too cold for snow. I don't know how that could be, but it might be. We've learned how to bundle up well. 3 pairs of leggings and tights, socks, sweaters, two scarves, a hat, a coat.... I've seen several snow-shovelers at work today, and I actually slipped and half-fell down while crossing the street.
Have a wonderful week!
Сестра Спрингер