October 19, 2011

Not much out of the ordinary happened this week. We are just trying to meet with people, get some people baptized, etc. Haha. Not really super eventful. We had a really great meeting with our ward mission leader on Sunday and we are trying to meet with every member in our area by the end of the year. Right now we're really focusing on reactivation and part-member families. And working with the ward and stake. We helped clean up the grounds around the branch building to get ready for winter the other day, and played basketball with the ward mission leader this morning (I even scored two points to help our team win! Ура! Maybe I'm not as sports-hopeless as I thought...) It's been so great to go visit members. I mean, it's something that I've done fairly often through my mission--most of my meetings have probably been with members, whether active or inactive. But they are so wonderful. On Monday, we visited an older sister in our ward who also knows some English and she made us some great food and was super funny and sweet. And she wanted to say everything in English, so that I could tell her if it was right or not. Yesterday, we also had a combined Specialized Training, so it was basically like a mission conference, just shorter. It was soooo great. Everything was just what I needed to hear, just what I had been thinking about the past week. Plus, it's always fun to take a trip down to good ol' Москва. And to see other missionaries. I love the sisters in my mission so much. I wish there was a way I could be companions with every one of them, but even if I had a new comp every transfer, that wouldn't be possible. And I got to see a few people I hadn't seen in a very long time, like Olya. She was probably my first friend here in Moscow, and after she moved out of Kahovski, I didn't really get to see her anymore, especially now that I'm up here in Z-Grad. But training was so great. There was such a sweet spirit there, and not like I was feeling bad before hand, but it just left me feeling rejuvenated. Except for the fact that then we went up to the train station and realized that all the elektrishkis were cancelled for like another 3 hours, so we went had to run around the metro to get to the bus that goes up to ZGrad...oh man. The metro is so loud and crowded and Moscow is exhausting. I love it, but I am wondering how I didn't collapse out of exhaustion when I lived there, because it wore me out on Tuesday. Last of all: first snow this week. On Saturday when we were helping clean up around the building, it started to snow. It didn't stick at all--it was really just flurrying and I didn't even think it was all that cold, but it was definitely snowing. And it hasn't snowed since then, but it's been pretty cold. So...yeah. Winter is definitely on its way. But don't worry. I can take it. I've already told Russia to bring it on and hit me with all it's got.

I love you all! The Church is true!
с любовью,
Сестра Ашби