YOU WILL NEVER BELIEVE THIS MIRACLE OF MIRACLES...get ready...transfer calls came....I'M IN KRASNODAR WITH SISTER HOUSEMAN!!!!!!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!
SOOO FUN!! Plus Sister Wheeler is coming down with Sister Kirkby and AHHHHH everyone is just so excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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| Sister Kirkby and Sister McGhie - Ready for the Sochi Olympics!! |
So crazy. Exactly ONE YEAR AGO I got to Volzhky with Sister Houseman...and this week we go back together. ROUND TWO!!!!!!!!!!!! I just want to say that Sister Houseman is one of my heroes--she has taught me so much, SO much and I can't wait to keep learning from her. The best part is that she teaches purely by example. She is exactly what a missionary should be.
SO, on top of THAT good news, this week was SO amazing. Seriously.
Okay here we go. I don't know where to start...hmmm okay, Ludmila. We got a referral from the elders, a woman named Ludmila. We call and she agrees to meet the next morning. Here is her story. She is from the Ekaterinburg mission, a city called 'cher-something'--it's where Sister Zaharova is from! She was an investigator there a long time ago, and she and her daughters would go to church. She came here 5 years ago, and since then has seen missionaries three different times--and all 3 times ignored them, didn't even take an invitation with the number or address. Not long ago, she decided to pray about something, to know what to do. And she got her answer! It was to find us! She said she knew since she didn't take the number, she just needed to go find our church in Krasnodar. She lives pretty far out of the city, but she came in (on the COLDEST day EVER by the way), and started walking. All she remembered was that one of the missionaries had said, "Dlinnaya street", which means "Long Street". Turns out it actually is REALLY long. So she started at one end, and walked all the way down and didn't see it. Keep in mind it is FREEZING. So she turns around and walks all the way up the other end until she found it! And the door was locked. BUT. The elders happened to be there because a huge tree fell down and they had to be there while these workers cut it down and took it away. So they gave her our number! She told us she knows the Book of Mormon is true, she prays, and the only thing stopping her from being baptized is that her husband won't allow it. So it is a work in progress--but WHAT a miracle, right?!? There are so many people who are being prepared. This experience also gave me so much hope for all the investigators I have taught who haven't chosen to be baptized yet--I had just been telling Sister K, "I think I'm destined to teach a million first lessons." I have felt a lot lately like we find people, we teach them, it goes GREAT, and then it is almost impossible to ever meet again! But if that is my role--to prepare people for when they are ready, I will do it. I think it's all about trusting that everyone plays a part in God's perfect plan. And why would we want to do more than to that we were called, right? Meeting Ludmila was a blessing. I'm not actually going to be teaching her really, because I'm switching areas here, but it was really an amazing lesson.
Another cool lesson this week was with a potential named Diana. We met her twice on the street--and she finally agreed to meet! We called that morning to confirm, and she said she was sick..but that we could still come! That is a miracle in itself by the way...I cannot tell you HOW many people are sick all the time! Ha. Or just don't want to see us...anyways. We go over, and her husband and son are sick too. Her husband was literally in the bathroom throwing up when we got there. We start teaching her, and we had the strongest feeling that we needed to invite the husband in. Which was scary honestly, because he looked a little..tough, plus he was throwing up, plus we have met a lot of husbands who don't like it when their wives meet with missionaries. But we invited him. AND IT WAS THE COOLEST THING EVER! His twin brother had died three years ago, and he hasn't been the same since..Diana actually told us she had us come over because she hoped it would help their marriage and family. We had planned to teach about plan of salvation, and the member who was with us had an experience of how the plan of salvation helped her cope with her mother's death, and how hard it was to recover from her father's death when she didn't know about the plan of salvation. The Lord really knows what He is doing. When we invited them to church, Diana goes, "well, we usually go to the country on Sundays..." and her husband says, "not EVERY sunday! We'll be there." They were actually too sick to come. But the point is, they wanted to! I'm actually not teaching them anymore either, but Sister Kirkby and Wheeler will do a GREAT job teaching them. Sister K is such a good teacher. She relates to people so well, and no matter what she says/thinks, her Russian is pretty dang good!!!! I think it's because she is fearless. I am going to miss her!!!! Luckily we won't be far! Thank GOODNESS!!
We taught another couple this week--Tanya and Igor, but it was a crazy lesson and I don't even really want to talk about it. So I won't. Haha.
My hero of the week is.....Svetlana Milovanova. She is an older lady in our branch, who is one of the most considerate people I have ever met. She watches out for everyone. She does it so quietly, you wouldn't even know--but I was able to see this week how she quietly found shoes and a shirt for Vadik, who moved to a new school and had his shoes stolen, and how she quietly makes sure someone is always translating for the senior couple, and so many other little things! We shared a thought with her this week, and did the most interesting service ever haha. Well not really. She had tried to make herself a facebook, and she couldn't get a profile picture...because when she tried, all that came up was a picture of a huge scary black dog!!! Hahaa. It was SO funny because she was so worried and needed it off!! So we helped her take a picture of herself, and her cross-stiching (spelling?) and put them up on her facebook. It was bizarre to see facebook again, not gonna lie.
One more fun experience of this week. So every week we pass around a calendar to work with us at night, and last week an older lady who is less active, Luba, signed up. We thought she must have misunderstood, and thought she was just signing up to meet with us...welll, she did understand, but she thought we would be going to a meeting and we needed someone to make sure we got there safely. Soooo when we told her we didn't actually have a meeting, but we would be out on the street (in the pitch black, raining, cold might I add) she looked a little thrown off..but she was like, "I will protect you." This is a 65 year old woman. But she is pretty tough. She basically just walked behind or in front of us the whole time--she didn't really want to be there for the teaching part. But, at the very end, we stopped two young girls and she decided to stay with us. We started teaching, asking questions..etc. and all of a sudden Luba just grabs on of their arms and whispers in this really loud whisper, "These girls are AMERICAN! They came here to tell you about God..listen to them!!!! Listen to them!!!" It was a littttle intense. And VERY unexpected. But hey, they listened!
Have a wonderful week everyone! My quote this week is something Svetlana Milovanova said in Relief Society when we were talking about why it is so easy to give in to temptations, but takes so much longer to develop good habits.
"It is always faster to fall down than to get back up"
LOOOOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Sister McGhie~
PS: So we are still in taxis, and when we order a taxi, somehow our name in the system is "Drugvei". It's SO weird. And all the drivers laugh and ask which one of us is named Drugvei!
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