Letter #14 - with photos!

PREEVYET EVERYONE!!! 

TAYLOR PREISLER you better be reading this! YOU'RE GOING ON YOUR MISSION TO KOREA AHHHHH!!!!!!! I AM FREAKING OUT!!!!!!!  Say hi to bigbang for me. Give G-dragon a Book of Mormon. 

Okay so now that we've gotten over that PREEVYET everyone!  Hope you're all doing well!  I got more dearelders this week, they are SO fun to get! Keep em coming!  Thank you everyone!! Nicole, Corina and Ashlyn I really want to keep writing you so I need your addresses of wherever you'll be after winter semester ok?? It's crazy that semesters almost over...weird!  Bekah your letter made me laugh! Our branch president knows your dad!  Kate your letters are so much fun to read!! I wrote back, I hope it gets to you!! And Nana, NHD forever! Haha

So at the start of this week Sister Holmes and I got put to the test when Sister Houseman was gone for a couple days! We had to figure out all this stuff, and we totally survived!! We went to see a woman named Olga, who lived out in this little cottagey house thing, it was so adorable.  She was super nice, and even came out to find us when we got lost!  We met with a TON of people this week, it was really really fun!  

One shining moment of the week....turnip salad!!! YUM SOO DELICIOUS. Not.  We met with a man and his wife, and he had made us his special turnip, shrimp, cheese and don't forget MAYO salad!  Heavy on the mayo.  It was a struggle.  Luckily for me he dished out 5 plates and forgot to dish one for himself, so I very generously offered to split my portion with him.  Hehehe.  Я хитрая девушка. Another hilarious part of that was when we explained what "party pooper" meant.  Let me just say that the phrase "party pooper" is 4362 times more funny in a Russian accent!!!

Scary moment this week--we saw a lady laying on the ground who had been hit by a car.  So terrifying.  It made us super paranoid (like we weren't already paranoid) about crossing the street!  Even more terrifying may have been the speed the ambulance got to her :/  I don't think I've seen a seatbelt since I got here. Pray for me!

Fun moment this week..Sister Holmes's birthday!!!!!! While she was in the shower we decorated the whole apartment and put out her presents!  We got her a blini pan, some pasta sauce mix and a little matryoshka.  It was a super fun day, and the cake we made was очень вкусно!

A ton of this week was spent advertising the new English group--we seriously have so many people signed up, and we still have 3 weeks of advertizing!  At first we looked exactly like these window salesman people who are everywhere, because they have clipboards too, but we wrote "Free English!" on ours and we started having much more success!  Everyone's super suspicious about why it's free though..one guy was like, "Um if I go there am I going to get brainwashed?" Haha I was like...we just want to help people! And Sister Holmes was like, "We're normal".  I guess we were pretty convincing, because he signed up!  I'm really excited for English to start up.

Last night we went over to the Bozef family, and taught them how to play spoons.  It was so much fun!  Then they taught us how to play this game called "Pardon, valet".  It was hilarious.  We made them no-bake cookies, and I think they almost passed out from the sugar.  Then we did the object lesson where you light a tea bag on fire and it floats up, and it almost fell off Marina's hand onto my skirt.  Basically, my skirt almost caught on fire.  I had a mild heart attack.

Earlier this week our hot water went out for like 2 days.  It was rough.  We were greaseheads. Luckily Sister Holmes had some dry shampoo, but I now appreciate our hot water soooo much more, and am dreading the 2 weeks or so in the summer when they turn it off!!!  

Wait I just remembered something else cool.  We met these two ladies, Ludmila and someone, walking on the street.  They were older and we were advertizing English.  One started talking to Sister Houseman and Holmes, and the other kind of pulled me to the side.  They were super friendly, and the one talking to me was telling me crazy stuff like about teaching people to speak Russian and how she would teach them wrong or something, because she doesn't believe spelling or grammar matters? The other was quizzing Sister Houseman and Holmes on the questions that are printed on the back of our invitation thing we pass out.  I was trying to explain what we were doing here, and the Book of Mormon, and the lady I was talking to was listening.  When I stopped talking she was just like, "I am listening to you watching your mouth thinking how strange it is that you are from America and that I can understand you!"  Haha I hope that story made at least some sense, I'm realizing now its actually kind of hard to explain.

Some fun stuff is coming up this week!! We got a call from a girl today who wants to meet with us, so we're meeting her tomorrow!!! Plus we have a family who used to come who hasn't, who wants to meet with us Thursday.  And they have a 16 year old daughter!  I really love getting to work with all these awesome people!  Not to mention my companions who are just the GREATEST!  

Sorry this letter is crazy and scattered! I love hearing from everyone!  Thank you guys!!!!!!!

Here's the thought for the week~~

"Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day's work absorb all your interest, energy and enthusiasm.  The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today's work superbly well" --Sir William Osler 

SO true! Love you all!

Seestra Megee

PS: Taylor just a heads up I am going to be expecting some serious Korea souvenirs in 2 years!