03-05-12

March 5, 2012

"Liza!!!! Oh my gosh! Come on over and play Uno with us!"

Hey there family and friends!

So, gotta give the best news first! Last night we were over at [...] having a little lesson with [...] mom who is from out of town. We were singing our some of our favorite hymns (one of my favorites, especially in Russian is Abide with Me, Tis' Eventide) when [...] got a call from...Liza! If you remember, she's the girl I nearly baptized my second cycle, but some stuff happened and ever since partway through that cycle I never saw her again. Well, [...] sounded really sad and asked [...] is she could come over. Excited, [...] said the missionaries were home and asked if she wanted to talk to me! I was so happy I was bouncing around the room when I heard it was her and we invited her to come over and sing hymns and play Uno with us. Stuff in her family has made it so that she may be able to meet with us again like she used to, and our next appointment with her is on Tuesday! Good stuff :)

In other news, me and Elder Rekow will be staying here in Zavodskoi for another six weeks, which I'm pretty happy about!

There was a cool experience that happened the other day while me and Elder Rekow were contacting. We give out things called invitations, which is just a nice little handout to give people, and one day we were contacting outside for nearly 3 hours without much luck. I was down to my last invitation before going inside for dinner when I saw a 30 year old dad with a [...] stroller waiting outside a [...] resturant. I gave him the invitation and we started talking about our message. It's pretty dang spiffy when people stop to talk to us and even spiffier when they say they're religious and don't call you any colorful names. When the moment of truth came, rather awkwardly I said "Hey, would you be interested in learning more about our message?" Generally, people say "eh, not really" or something along those lines, but Andrei said "well, of course I do!" Woah snap! A family to teach, woo hoo! We prayed with him and set up a meeting to teach him soon. Good times :)

In other news, I was reminded of grandpa one morning as, groggily while eating cereal, I told me companion "Hm, I think I need to shave my whiskers". I was suprised, because I don't think I've ever said that in my life, but when I said it it made me think of Daddy Guy and how Mom said that he'd always say that (I hope I remember that right!) Just wanted to share that little experience :)

It's getting warmer here in Saratov, where 0 C is starting to becoming more of a habit rather than a far off dream! The snow is melting and soon the streets will be flooded with water and mud as Spring enters in! I'll be looking for a spring/fall coat soon, which I'm pretty excited for! Snazzy looking Elder Peterson soon to come to a Russia near you!

The triple combinations in Russian (with all new sparkly tranlation too!) has been made and they are coming to all of Russia! The missionaries had the opportunity to get a free, hardbound triple combo or get a fancy smancy black leartherbound, gold outlined spiffy triple combo for 20 bucks (give or take on the day). Needless to say, this missionary requested the fancy smancy edition and will send picture of him with it whenever he gets it (hopefully in this month!)

Speaking of pictures...I keep on forgetting to bring my camera. I'm always about 1/2 way through the bus ride when I remember "Aw dang, I forgot my camera" and my companion will say "shoot, me too!" so we're both gonna write down and remember to bring cameras this next week. thanks for the patience and sorry for the wait!

Members have been complementing my singing lately, which has given me the warm fuzzies. Mrs. Nichols teaching hasn't all been lost on my mission, for which I am quite grateful! :)

Well, that's about it for now, methinks! Ya'll are simply wondeful, and thank you so much :) Thank you Jennie for the awesome letter and pictures of Brett! I got that fresh from the office this past week, which was pretty dang cool!

Be good now, ya hear? :)

With love, as always

--

Elder Peterson