I don't quite know how to write about what happened this week. I've been thinking about agency, faith, obedience, hard work, no fear and trust in the Lord, goals, love, and being led by the Holy Ghost. Today during personal study, I wrote all these down. For me, these all tie together, and I want to work on all of these qualities so that I can be a better missionary during the time I have left, which is a very, very, very long time.
We also had a plumber come and fix our toilet. Plumbering is not something I am well-versed in, and then we had to desribe the problem in the Russian language. And I now quote, "all thesethings shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." (D+C 122:7)
We visited a less-active couple, and we were a little nervous because the husband can be a little crazy, but it was such a peaceful lesson. We talked about the Restoration, and they both shared how they received testimonies of the Book of Mormon. He said that he prayed about the truth of the Book of Mormon, and then the first word that he read in the Book of Mormon was "da" (yes). They're not ready to come back yet, but their testimonies are still burning somewhere deep inside.
We met with a member last night who fed us borsch. It was very oily and not pink like it usually is. I think she forgot the beets (or simply chose not to put beets in). Then we had pink milk, just with warm water. Nothing like real Russian cuisine.
I hope you all had a very merry Christmas. I definitely did. It's weird to think that I have spent all of 2015 on a mission. This has been such a wonderful time, and 2016 will be great too. With Christmas and with New Year!
Сестра Спрингер
Questions o’ the week
- What did you do on Christmas day?
On Christmas we woke up, exercised, opened presents (yay!), got ready, then skyped. Then we studied, worked on the street a little, went to dinner with the elders (sushi, but I ordered udon soup and pizza and noodles), then had weekly planning.
- Someone asked me today if there is a temperature level that you are told not go outside, like if it is 15 below zero, you are told to stay in—anything like that?
As far as I know, there is no such temperature level. We go out rain or shine, snow or more snow. We just looked at the weather forecast, saw -1 degree Fahrenheit the high, and said, "that's going to be warm!" Yep. That is true. Then we looked at the Ulan-Ude weather... now THAT'S cold.