So. Hi! To be honest, it has been kind of a difficult week. Not discouraging, because I was expecting weeks like this coming into the mission and Sister Mordwinow is so wonderful and we have fun, but it's been tough.
It started off with C. Hmelinina leaving, which was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be, probably because it happened so fast. I gave her a hug and then I turned around and the van had already driven away. Afterwards, C. Mordwinow (hereafter referred to as C. M) and I were sitting in the lobby of the central building just kind of thinking..."Whoa...okay. This is it." It's been crazy--she speaks Russian super well, because she studied it for 2 years at BYU, but she did forget a lot in between her year off and the mission, and of course, I'm still learning a lot and can't remember words, so we just get by. She is an awesome missionary, and trained one of the girls I got here with, but really, we're still both young on the mission (She is at her 9-month mark today, so she's been in Moscow 6 months), and she doesn't know the area that well, and frankly, neither do I because I was so out of it language-wise my first transfer, and so when C. X left, we both realized how much work has to be done.
So it's been a long week of contacting with hardly any success. People haven't even really been interested in taking English prigs this week. Usually we can at least pass them out, even if they end up not showing up. We went to a park to try to pass out some family proclamations, and we gave out 1 in an hour. Even these mothers with children told us they weren't interested in hearing about how their family can be together forever. We had some lady cross us and bless us ("Uh...you don't have the authority to do that..." don't worry, we didn't actually say that outloud to her face), a lot of people just ignore us and walk away. Just pretty typical, but it's been hard since contacting is something that the two of us have a hard time getting up the courage to do anyway. Sunday was a super difficult day as well. We had 2 investigators come to church, so it should have been great--except one of them was very late, so we had to drop one off at the church building and walk back to the metro to go pick up the other one. It was raining, and on the way back we had a car (probably purposely, because it had to drive out of its way) splash us with all this water from the road. And then our investigator got upset with us since we didn't tell her to meet us early enough, when we could have been on time to the meeting if she had showed up when we agreed on, instead of leaving her house 15 minutes after that time. So we were 30 minutes late to church, and people were mad at us. It was just a frustrating day, and we both felt like we couldn't do anything right and that nothing was happening the way it should have. And then yesterday, the woman who had been passed to us with a baptismal date decided that she wanted to wait to get baptized--and not just a week or two. It's good because she wants to talk to her husband (who lives maybe in Moldovia?) about it, and she said that he might even be interested in being baptized too, but frustrating, because we have these goals for baptisms that we're trying to reach and it seems like we're just moving backwards. I know, I shouldn't be wanting baptisms just to reach our goals; I really do want her to get baptized for the right reasons when she's ready because I know how happy it will make her. I'm just impatient and want our mission to reach these goals that the Lord told us we could achieve.
Luckily, everything hasn't been all bad, and we've been able to answer the prayers of a few people by visiting and just being there, which is always a good feeling. And there was one girl who seemed very interested in English Club, so I hope she shows up, especially since she was one of only like 5 prigs we passed out one night. And there were these 2 sisters (?) giving away kittens on our metro. The first day we saw them we wanted to talk more to them, but didn't, because there were people there who wanted to see the kittens and then we were running late for an appointment. We were kind of bummed at ourselves, because we wanted to talk to them because they were really nice, but the next day we saw them again! C. M gave them English prigs, and one of them seemed really excited, so we're hoping that they also come and are maybe interested in meeting with us. There's also another girl from English club who had some really good questions last week that we're hoping can find the time to meet. So there are some options, right now we just don't have a lot of people who seem to be interested in something besides English!
But don't worry about me. Really, I'm still happy and everything is fine. I really don't know what I'd do without C. M. She is so great. We have some wonderful companion studies. We sing together. We have a lot of fun. And she just helps make me a better person. And I got my birthday package yesterday! I was super impressed with how fast it got here. Don't worry; I haven't opened the wrapped presents or made the cake yet, because my birthday's not for another 2 weeks. But I did start using the makeup because you have perfect timing--the last of my foundation ran out yesterday and then I got the package! Whoo! And I read the cards, because I didn't get any other mail (but I got a package, so I can't really complain), so I wanted to read something. So thank you! I still haven't gotten the postcards, but maybe next week. I really want to find out who you met in Nauvoo who knows me. Wait...I think I know. I can only think of one person in Nauvoo...haha...It's so crazy though that all of these little kids are out going on missions. Weird weird weird. Anyway, that's about it on my end this week.
I love you all!
Sister Ashby
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