Second Transfer

Well, I'm officially done with my first cycle in Russia! It went by so fast. I can't believe it. I'm now a second-cycle sister in the Samara mission.

Anywho, so everyone says that transfers are rough business, but you never really understand until you've gone through one. The closer transfers got, the more I kept thinking about how much I didn't want to leave Tolyatti. I LOVE this place. I love the investigators here, I love the city, I love the babooskas, I love Sister Pearce, I love the branch. So, when Saturday came, I was really on edge. We got a call from our district leader, Elder Long (who is the best, by the way), saying that Sister Pearce had gotten transferred but that I was staying in Tolyatti. Sister Pearce and I started freaking out. She was hyperventilating pretty bad. Then 30 seconds later, he told us he was kidding. Sister Pearce almost got on a bus to go punch him in the face. It was HI-larious. Way to go, Elder Long.

That's a long way of saying that I'm staying in Tolyatti with Sister Pearce! Woohoo! At least five more weeks here! I'm so, so grateful. We have 7 progressing investigators right now, one with a baptismal date, and 4 more that we feel are really ready for baptism, and I can't imagine leaving them. So, I'm here in Tolyatti until at least the 17th of December, I believe. 

I heard Obama won the election. I have to admit, I didn't like Romney all that much but I kinda wanted him to win. It would've been so cool to be out in the mission field with a Mormon president in office. But, hey. Thanks a lot, America.

Also, we had our culture night this past week. We got to go see Siberian dancers at the Philharmoni in Old City. It was absolutely breathtaking. It was all traditional Russian dancing and I was spellbound the entire time. I mean, I've watched Russian dancing before, but something about watching it IN Russia makes it so much cooler. Their legs! I don't know how they do the things they do! They're incredible. It made me fall in love with Russia even more. Sister Pearce and I were walking around doing drop bys the other night and we were just talking about how lucky we were to be in Russia, speaking in Russian, wearing Russian coats, walking about in the Russian snow, eating Russian food, helping the church in Russia. I couldn't ask for a cooler experience. I would love to come back and live here one day. Except it's super cold. There's a girl in our brach named Nadia who served in Novasibersk and she said that the winters in Samara are even COLDER than Novasibersk because of the wind. So everyone who says that Novasibersk is the coldest mission on Earth is wrong! Haha. Just kidding.

Anywho, that's all I got this week, I think. I'll try and send some pictures soon, but getting them developed takes up some precious P-day time, so we have to plan it out really well.

Annnd the timer is telling me that I only have 3 minutes left, which means I don't have time to type out my spiritual thought! BUT, that means you can think about it for next time. We've been studying why there's only one true church on the Earth this week since a lot of our investigators have been having issues with that. And it's been a pretty cool experience. SO, ask yourselves: Why is there only one true church on the Earth?


I LOVE YOU! I MISS YOU ALL! BE GREAT! MUAH!


-Sister Sine