woo-hoo!

Dear family,

What a week. I don't even know where to start. Right now I am so exhausted, but the funny thing is, I don't feel as tired as I did before. That probably doesn't make any sense, but that is the case. Today was a good day. (Right - here we are, hanging out by the pond where we ate lunch. Front to back - Elder Olsen, me, Sister Блохина (Bloxina), Elders Мельничук (Melnychuk) and Christianson. Below - the view at the pond, it was really beautiful) We went to the forest for a picnic with our district. Two Elders didn't make it and we don't know why, but it was still fun. We walked to a little lake there, had a spiritual thought, and then ate sandwiches, salad, and had juice to drink. We also listened to frogs sing for us. It almost drove us insane.

Then we sat around the lake for a while while a couple of Elders threw a football. A little later, one Elder decided to climb a tree. It was one of those leaning trees and when I saw that, I thought it would be fun to take a picture of us all there, so I said, let's go, to my companion and we went over. I climbed up and then we called the other Elders over. While we were waiting, one Elder kept pulling on the tree. It was like a little roller coaster or amusement park ride, but it was fun. When the Elders came, we took pictures and then we decided to all jump off and leave one person there. That was really fun, too.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

It was great. After that we had to leave to be able to type home and then go home and change before English, so I am here. (Left - posing on the tree branch. Elder Boster, me, Elders Christianson, Мельничук, and Olsen) It was a good P-day so far, but it looks like I hurt my ankle a bit. I'm sure it will be fine later. However, I wanted to go buy this skirt that I found before I got the money, but it looks like I won't be able to. I hope it will still be there next week. It is really hard to find skirts that I like that work for being a missionary, especially here. So, we'll see what happens. I ended up taking the money out last week so I hope everything is ok with that. I couldn't get into usbank to check, so I really hope everything is ok.

Thanks to those who wrote me this week, mom, dad, grandpa and grandma, Sara, Heather and Adam. Ay, yai, yai, Elizabeth. (Right - posing on the tree branch. Elder Christianson, Sister Блохина, me, Elders Мельничук and Olsen) I told you that if I didn't start seeing a letter every week I will have to have Erin come and give you in the eyes. But, I like mom's new system. I hope that means that I will be getting a lot of letters from you since you don't want to send me emails. Congratulations on the job, dad. That's about time I guess I could say. I know you've been waiting for that for a while. I'm glad they finally gave it to you. Thanks for the news about the family, grandpa. Aunt Heidi's pregnant!!! I didn't even know! Now I REALLY feel out of the loop because that is less than a month away! Crazy. I really feel like time makes no sense now. (Left - posing on the tree branch. Elders Мельничук, and Boster, Sister Блохина, Elder Christianson, and me) What's even crazier is that today we should be finding out about transfers and the chances of there being some kind of change in my companionship is very high. Either I will be leaving, or we will be getting a Russian sister together (because President usually puts new Russian sisters with Russian sisters and my companion is the only one not going home in 6 weeks - but I doubt the second option will happen because we don't have groups of three here, we don't have enough missionaries to do that), pretty much those are the only options but that also means that there is something I don't know and maybe it will be neither. (Right - at our culture night, we were given roses when we walked in the door. Here the Elders posed with their roses - Elders Christianson, Olsen, Boster, and Мельничук)But, we are getting three new sisters next week so there should be some major changes. That also means they may be opening a new area for sisters. I'm really interested in knowing where that will be.
I'm really interested in knowing where that will be. We should find out tonight.

We haven't been able to meet with our new investigator yet, but something cool happened on Monday. We went to a benefit concert for our once a cycle culture night. While we were waiting to go in, two girls came up to me and my companion and asked us where we are from. (Left - Sister Блохина and I also posed with our roses) When they found out I am from America, one girl started talking to me in English. She doesn't speak too bad, but she has a hard time understanding so I ended up talking to her in Russian after a while. I invited her to English and she gave me her cell phone number. She also wanted to know what I am doing here. She asked how our church is different from the Russian Orthodox church and other churches, so I explained about Joseph Smith and the Restoration (during this time, my companion was having a lesson with the other girl, too). (Below -

This was one of the performances of the concert. No particular reason why I posted it here, it was just one of the clearer pictures that shows the big projector screen in the background. Sometimes they used that during the performances, but not always) I felt the Spirit really strong, so I hope she did, too. She should be coming to English tonight. She is really interested in speaking with people from other countries. That should be really cool. It was also nice to see that culture night even has a purpose other than introducing us to the culture of Russia. It can also find us people who are ready (or will be ready) to accept the gospel.

(The film below was taken at the culture night. The benefit concert showed lots of different types of traditional Russian music and some dancing. This was the last dance of the night, the most famous Russian dancing, that is barroom. I didn't get the entire performance on video because my camera died, but they were amazing)

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Other than that, everything is pretty much the same. Oh, I almost forgot, something else kind of funny happened. The Elders invited us to a meeting with one of their investigators so we could meet her and become friends (yes, the Elders still work with girls even though we are here, don't ask me why) and at the end they wanted to set up another appointment. She didn't really seem very interested, but then said, and when will YOU be coming to see me? So we have an appointment with her tomorrow. It was really kind of funny because she started off as an investigator of the sisters (there were sisters here a year ago) and now she kind of is again. It was pretty funny.

Well, I guess that's pretty much all I have to say. I'll let you know what will happen to me next week.

Love,

Сестра Атвуд

Surprise presents!

Here is another story that I never told. Basically, at this time, we were doing a lot of contacting, and we were having a lot of people accept brochures. (Right - with our surprise - Sister Блохина (Bloxina) is holding the cake, and I am holding our brochures. We were really excited about those brochures so we could have a little variety in our contacting) That means that we literally ran out. All we had left was a bunch of Articles of Faith cards, and those are hard to use in contacting. I like a lot of variety in my contacting and that means having several choices of how we could begin contacting. All we could do was take a Book of Mormon with us and use that. We had nothing to give with our information on it, so we could only hope that people would give us theirs.
(Left - our cake) We called our ZLs and asked if they had any brochures they could give us. They said they had some Joseph Smith brochures and that they would bring us some, before we needed to go contacting. What we didn't know is that they would have another surprise for us.
We were studying when our дома-фон (doma-phone) rang. It was the Elders, so we buzzed them through. When they got to our door, we were happy to receive our brochures, but even happier to receive a cake that the Elders had baked! It took us by surprise because no one had ever done anything like that for us before. That is the kind of thing that Sisters do!
(Right - Sister Блохина and I eating our cake, we just had to try it immediately and see if it tasted as good as it looked) Anyway, the cake was a chocolate cake that we called Yuma-Cake (named after the Elder who supposedly created it, or at least that is what my companion said, but in reality I later learned that he found the recipe on the internet and passed it off as his own. He may have made some changes in it, I don't know). It was really good. I have to say that that made my day.

Well, it hasn't been too long since I got to talk to you, so I don't know exactly where to start except to ругать (rugat) Elizabeth and Sara for not writing me. That means something like yell at them for not writing me. (Right - me at the zoo) Even though it was just Sunday, that is no excuse to not write. I want to see an email in my inbox every week from now until the end of my mission. Honestly, I have a picture for them that I don't know when I will be able to send, but it pretty much explains how I feel about them not writing me. But I am grateful that mom and dad write me every week. Thanks for that. It's funny, I got a letter from grandpa a month ago saying he would write me every week, but I haven't gotten another email since. Maybe that is because my emails are still backlogged on my website. Please, dad, get those up as soon as possible. I can't send my emails to Heather anymore and so she has no idea that I actually read her emails to me.
But this is to her, thanks Heather. That really sucks about your tooth! Yikes, I can't even imagine how that must feel, but at least you will be having that taken care of soon. I am also looking forward to the paper letter. I always like getting those in the mail. Somehow they make me feel more loved, especially when they are from you and Erin, with the drawings and colors, etc.
Anyway, I really don't know what else to say except that even though I was only a little sick Monday morning (Sunday evening your time) it is worse now. I had the Elders give me a blessing yesterday because I didn't want to risk it. The weird thing is that most of the blessing was not about my health. It was nice to have it in English. The last time I got a blessing for health in Тольятти (Togliatti), the Elder gave it in Russian, I really don't know why. Though it was a nice blessing, it isn't the same in Russian. This time was really interesting, though weird that most of the blessing focused on everything else BUT my health. (Left - this was a statue inside the zoo) All the same, it was what I needed. I feel a little bad though because my health is worse today then yesterday. I don't think that has anything to do with the Elder that blessed me, I just don't want to let them know. I understand that often blessings are not so you will be immediately healed, but at the same time . . . I don't know how to explain it. I'm sure I will get better soon. I have too many people who заботать (zabotat) (like work, but not work you do on a job) for me, who worry about me when I'm not feeling well, even here in Пенза (Penza) after the short amount of time I have spent here. It is really nice. There is one girl who loves me, I don't know why, but she told me yesterday, don't die! If you die, there won't be anyone here who loves me.
Honestly, I have come to the conclusion that my main mission here in Russia is to help the people around me feel love and support, whether that person is a member, an investigator, sometimes people on the street, or my companion. That's a really difficult mission to have and I hope I am living up to it, but at the same time, its not as glamorous of a mission. Its not a mission that brings recognition of any kind. No one thinks you are a good missionary unless you baptize a hundred people in every city where you serve, but when I think about the life of the Savior, what was HIS mission? I don't think it was to baptize people. His mission was also a mission of love and support. So in that way, I guess my mission is the greatest there is.
Well, I guess that's about it. My head really hurts right now. I want to take out that money so I can buy this skirt I found, but I will probably need to wait a few more hours. (This animal was trying to talk with me. It is called Носуха (Nosuxa) in Russian, and I don't know what it is called in English, but it is supposed to live in North and South America) USbank still says that it hasn't cleared, probably because it is not yet open for business today there. That's too bad, but we probably don't have time today anyway.
We are going to the zoo with our district. That should be interesting, I hope. Then we have English after that . . . our new investigator should be there. We had a good lesson with her on Monday and she said we could talk today to set up another appointment. I am really hoping that things will work out with her, but I know it will be a difficult journey since she has a "husband" who is Muslim. Also, yesterday we met a man on the street who is Muslim. At first he didn't want to hear anything, but at the end he gave us his address so we could talk more. That's exciting. It is really interesting to see what a wide variety of people are attracted to the gospel. I already know 3 former Muslims who joined the church (two are members in Тольятти and one is a sister missionary who has already gone home).
When I heard that sister's story, I became really glad that I have you all for family. Whenever she called home, her dad would yell and her mother would cry. Her older brother even said that he was coming to get her here on her mission. It must be hard for them to accept that their daughter has accepted a different religion when their religion is so strict about even learning about others. But, those kind of members with their strong testimonies are a great assett to the church and I think they will be instrumental in bringing the gospel to nations that are not yet open for missionary work.
(Left - at the zoo, me, Sister Блохина (Bloxina), Elders Бордун (Bordun), Ананд (Anand), Boster, and Olsen) Well, I guess that's it. Just a reminder, write me! I like knowing what is going on and please remind Becky to write me, too. I haven't heard a peep and I feel like maybe she never really existed but maybe was only a figment of my imagination. Crazy I know, but when there is no proof that she exists, your mind can play tricks on you. Also, I expect to have an email from Elizabeth and Sara next week. So don't let them slack off. And dad, please catch up on my emails. If I didn't send a second copy, then they can just be posted. If the Russian is a problem, just post them as they are and don't worry if the Russian part isn't understandable. But people don't understand what is written there anyway. Then, later, when you have more time, you can take care of that if you want.
Ok,
Love,
Сестра Атвуд

Dear family,

This last week has been a long, but good week. I don't even know where to begin. (Left - Our Zone Conference) I have so much to think about, so much that my brain hurts when I try. We watched General Conference last Sunday, then 5 days later we had Zone Conference, the next day began District Conference, followed by the next, too. Add to that the studying, reading, and talking I have been doing and I feel like I need a month to digest all the information that I have received. It is rather annoying because I also feel like there isn't much I can do about it.

I really like Пенза (Penza). In fact, I like everything but one thing . . . our district (or rather some aspects of my district). I don't know why there always has to be problems in my district. I don't know what to think. Either I am the problem, or for some reason the Lord thinks I can handle these problems. Honestly, though, I think it is not fair to the Elders that I was sent here because I feel like I have no energy to deal with these problems so I would rather just ignore them and hope they go away. That means ignoring the Elders, but that is not possible because even though the problems in Толбятти (Togliatti) were bad, surprisingly they are worse here. I didn't think that was possible. But, I think the reason why they are worse here is because our zone is our district. That means there are no other Elders to make things easier. Honestly, even though I already love the people here, and I love Пенза, I would be very happy to get a transfer the next time they come around. Maybe there is no place for me where there won't be these problems. Let me explain. I don't think I can handle a repeat where my companion cries because of the Elders, but it looks like that is where we are headed. She already cried today. I hate that because I have no idea what to do to help her. Is there something I can do to help her? I don't really know. In fact, all these problems are making me really wish that I could get put in a district, without Elders. But unfortunately, that is only a dream, a dream that is impossible to realize in this lifetime even though we could just invite Elders over on the weekends to baptize our investigators and then within a short period of time, there would be priesthood holders who could baptize, confirm, and bless/pass the sacrament. Well, it's probably not a good idea to dream too much about that. I guess I'll just have to live with the district I got.

(Right - Солнечный Приход - Solnechny Prixod - This is the church in Саратов where we held conference. It is really a beautiful building and the members are lucky to meet there) I should make one thing clear, I really do like the Elders in my district. In fact, there isn't an Elder that I have met that I didn't like. I just don't like the problems that happen with them. I can't even say that they cause the problems (though I'm sure that is certainly the case sometimes) because I know that isn't always true. Maybe the easier wish would just be that my companion didn't let things get to her.

As for calling home, 9:30 Sunday would be your time, of course. There would be no sense in me telling you my time when it isn't the same. That will be 6:30 am Monday for me. But, I've started trying to get up at 6:00, so you could probably call at 9:00 instead. Or maybe, if possible, you could call at 8:00. That way it wouldn't through off my study schedule. I am really trying to follow the schedule to a T. I remember something I was told in the MTC, the first few hours of the day determine the rest of the day, and I really want to spend that time the best that I can. So, yeah, if you can call at 8:00, please do, if not, call at 9:00 and that will be fine. I'll just make up that time somehow. I hope you remember how to call because I am going to just give you the city code and our number. City code= 8412 – our number = 64-54-06. So, yeah, don't forget to call me because this time I have no card to be able to call you from.

Let's see. What else. I guess I've been a little too negative during this email, so I'll try to explain why last week was so good. I have really been trying to figure out how I can improve. I don't feel like I have been a bad missionary, I just know that there is always something that can be better. I have read a lot of instances where missionaries were able to work miracles, and I want to be the kind of missionary that believes those kinds of miracles can happen with me, too, or rather through me. (Left - we stayed with the sisters while in Саратов. Here we are eating борш (Borsh). Sisters Гугельская (Gugelskaya), Wheeler, me, and Блохина (Bloxina)) That is the hard thing to do because serving here isn't like serving in other parts of the world where people chase missionaries down the street in order to be able to talk to them. I wish it was, but that is not the culture of Russia. Even though I believe that someday the work will go really quickly here, I don't believe that many people will chase missionaries down the street to talk to them, because that just isn't what people do. People may begin to stop missionaries, but not chase them. But that is besides the point.

I really do love this place. I want to see the gospel grow strong roots here. There are too many good people who don't have the truth, too many people who have no hope of a better life, even in the world to come, too many people who long ago have given up searching for truth and because of that have come to the conclusion that there is no truth to find. Instead, they believe that the only thing they can do is work and live and eventually, FINALLY even, die. It is so sad for me to see that, but that is what I see. There are people who don't even want to believe that there is something after this life because that means to them that the sorrow and pain will continue, too. Of course, there are still people who are searching, who believe in God and who want something more than the empty religion offered by the churches they know, the problem is in finding them and having them recognize that we have something more to give.

I have made a list of things that I want to change in how I work. At the present time, there are only a few things that I have the power to change, but I am working on those things. I hope that by the time I get to the other things, there will be a change in my companion, or a change of my companion so that I can implement those things as well. Until then, I am content to work with the one I have because she really is great. She promised the Lord that she would serve Him on a mission even before she got baptized. I can't even imagine that! Here she is, fulfilling her promise even though at the time she made it, it seemed almost impossible that she would be able to do so since her father was against her getting baptized even. (Right - all the sisters at district conference. Back - Sisters Давыдик, Гугельская, (a member that I don't know), Silva, me, Elder Hunt, Sisters Hunt, and Wheeler. Front - Sister Degroff and Sister Блохина) She has come a long way since that day 4 or 5 years ago and it is really great working with her because she has the freedom to talk with everyone about everything. Working together, we have a lot of power to talk with people. She can talk with those who are more interested in things that are Russian and I can talk with those who love anything and everything not Russian. It makes a great combination.

We spent three days in Саратов (Saratov), a large city to the south of Пенза. That was really nice because it gave me the chance to talk with other missionaries and see how things were going there. Do you remember that Elder whose family took my stuff home from the airport? Well, for the first time since we came to Russia, I saw him. That was really great. I was also able to talk to a few Elders who have set some really high goals because they want to end their mission with a bang. Not only have they set those goals, but they have written a plan to be able to accomplish those goals. It was really interesting to spend that time in Саратов because we are not allowed to wear our name tags there and I saw several anti-Mormon signs that said, Mormons! Go Away! Or Mormons! Leave Саратов! At least things aren't like that in Пенза. For the most part, people here are very friendly and open and that makes starting things a little easier.

Well, I guess that's about it for now. I don't really know what else to say and I am running out of time. Plus, we will have this coming Sunday to talk about everything else. Maybe then I can explain a little better what is going on here. And maybe you will have ideas that will help. (Left - here I am ready to teach English. The building where we met is a traffic school, so it looks like a real classroom. The room was always too big for our class, though) Until then, I will try to keep the peace, even if that means staying as far away from the problem as I possibly can.

P.S. Thanks for the dvd, dad. You are all great. And oh, I got the taxes/insurance stuff. They didn't give them to me until we were already leaving Саратов so I wasn't able to send them back. I am going to try to get them sent off through Russian mail. I hope that will work alright and I hope you made a copy of them because I didn't.

Love,

Сестра Атвуд

Dear family,
It seems like I just barely wrote you, but now here I am, a week later, again sitting at a computer and typing away. Some good things happened this last week. We got to see General Conference. I was really excited about that and it ended up being really good (of course). It was just really hard to pay attention. (Right - Youth Night - We played a game called Пятно (Pitno or Dot). The only requirement is to have a very visible shade of lipstick that can be used to mark people. If you look closely, you will see dots on most of the people's faces. I and my companion were the only dot free ones. The game is played with everyone sitting in a circle. One person says to the next (this is a rough translation, I don't really know how it goes in English) 1- Hi, Harry. That person replies 2-Hi, Harry. 1-Say hello to Harry. - Those exact words must be used. If someone makes a mistake or even stumbles, that person receives a dot. His or her name is not longer Harry, but is Dot. The next time he or she gets a dot, the name becomes Two Dots, and so on. So, person #2 then continues the conversation with person number three. Lets say that person #4 has 1 dot. 2-Hi, Harry. 3-Hi, Harry. 2-Say hello to Dot. If person #2 says Harry, he or she gets a dot. I hope that makes sense. It can be very fun) I have a hard time concentrating when I can sometimes hear the English, so I couldn't focus on the Russian completely. It wasn't until the second session on Sunday that I finally got a hang of it, and then I really liked Elder Ballard's talk. That is the first time that I have heard someone say that it is a GOOD thing when sisters decide to serve a mission. So that was nice to hear since I am here . . . on a mission.
I also got the package you sent. That was a nice surprise, but I was kind of hoping the tax papers would come first, but no luck. At least now I have stuffing, peanut butter, peanut butter candy, those pills, paper, and my puzzle. Thanks for that. (Left - when we first got to our apartment, it was still fairly cold outside, but we didn't have much heat. For the first few weeks until it warmed up, we warmed ourselves by our gas stove. Sometimes, we would even turn on the oven and leave the door open to keep ourselves warm. That is a fairly consistent practice during the winter months) I hope that you will soon get my package since I sent you a birthday present and a card. We shall see, of course, how long it takes to get there.
Oh yeah, mom, you can go ahead and activate my card. I will send the pin code in a separate email so I won't have to cut anything out before this can be posted on the web. Also, we kind of need to find out when you will be calling on May 14th. Though now we can't talk for as long as I would have liked. President said we should keep it to an hour. Oh well, I guess we didn't talk that much longer than that on Christmas. So, the question then is, when would be more convenient? Saturday night, or Sunday morning. Saturday night starting at 9:30 would be possible (I am now living in Moscow time which is an hour earlier than Тольятти (Togliatti)) or if that would be too late to talk for an hour, then Sunday morning starting at 5:00 am we could also talk. Let me know what time it would be if you choose Sunday morning. I will then be able to talk until 1:30 pm, but you have church, so I don't really know how that will work. I guess if
none of those times work, we could talk Sunday night starting at 9:30 but that doesn't seem to be any better. (Right - this is in one of the apartments where the Elders live. Sisters used to live there, so they have funny things all over that you wouldn't expect in and Elders' apartment. This is one of them) If that doesn't work, let me know and I will see what I can work out. It is a good thing that I thought of this earlier so we could be sure about what is going to happen.
Anyway, other than that. . . Let's see. We had a nice change during our street contacting on Monday. I stopped one man and his wife, and the husband stopped to listen because of my accent. He immediately asked where I am from. But that gave my companion the opportunity to
start speaking, too and we ended up having a really good lesson about families and even about the start of the church. We gave him the proclamation on the family and a Joseph Smith testimony booklet and in the end he gave us his number. What a surprise! The hardest thing
about the work here is that no one trusts anyone else unless they know you and so we rarely are able to get information from them. If we don't get the information then they won't do anything even when we give them our number and the address where we meet. But, it was still nice to have one person out of a hundered give us their number. We are hoping that we will be able to start working with him and his wife. That would be really nice because now our Mission President wants us to set a goal of one baptism every week. It is very hard for me to believe that that is possible right now and I don't want to set goals that aren't realistic, but I am really trying to have the faith that if that is what he is asking us to do, then the Lord will provide
the way.
We started a new activity here that I really like. It is called Школа Миссионеров (shkola missionerov - Missionary school, or MTC). We have one hour every week where members can come and learn how to become a missionary. (Left - Just walking on the street, your shoes get very dirty. We always cleaned our shoes before leaving the apartment. This was after going to the branch apartment. Most of that is on public transportation, but still our shoes were very dirty. Here, we cleaned one shoe and left the other to show the difference. Sometimes my ankles would be black when I got home at night. It was very disgusting. Пенза is a pretty, but very dirty city, that is actual dirt-dirty. Dirt is always blowing around) We are using Preach My Gospel, and we have asked everyone to pray and set a date when they can have someone ready to meet with us, just like Elder Ballard said during conference. It was really good and I am hoping that this MTC will really get the members involved. That is the key to growth here. If they want a stake and a
temple here, they need to be willing to share the gospel with those around them. If they are not willing to do that, they will not get blessings from the Lord. I think it will work because we already had a few people say that they already have a person in mind. Then, every week after, we will talk about a different section from Preach My Gospel to give them a little more help in how to do missionary work and in how to use Preach My Gospel for themselves.
Well, I guess that is really all I can think to say. Let me know about the phone call and I will send my number next week.
Oh, this weekend we are going to Саратов (Saratov) for conference. First we will be having zone conference and then we will have district conference. We will be in Саратов for three days, that will be really fun. I am excited to see some of the missionaries there.

Love,
Сестра Атвуд