Hello everyone:)))
This week was a pretty good week but EVERYONE was busy:( School started last week and all of our friends are in school or university.. soooo Sister Bybee decided we need new "lady friends" aka friends who are NOt in school or university. This ended up working out fairly well for us. On Thursday, no one could/wanted to meet with us (which I don't understand, I personally think we're all that and a bag of chips but whatever). So, we went and walked around and talk to people for guess how long? 6 HOURS. And guess how many conversations we had, not PEOPLE, but conversations? 50. I think we set a record! We met a ton of interesting people.... There was a group of 18 year old boys (who I thought were 14 haha) that photobombed all of our pictures, although that was actually pretty funny. We also talked to a cute bab who didn't speak any English, but for some reason she randomly said "money money" in the middle of our conversation. I love babs. We also talked to another bab who was 80 years old and she was the cutest! Her and her husband were just sitting in a park and they talked to us for 15-20 minutes about life. There was another lady who congratulated us on being American's, lol. We made a few new friends that day, so overall it was pretty productive. I did learn a lot on Thursday. A lady told us that morning that we were lazy. She said "What are you even doing? You're here as volunteers, but you've been walking around all day. What have you got to show for it? You're doing nothing.". We ended that day in the home of a 9 year old recent convert and her grandmother. At the end of our lesson, the grandma turned to us and said "Sisters, you are doing a marvelous work here.". The contrast is really interesting. It reminded me of how the world sees us and how God sees us. The world sometimes tells us that we aren't worth much. There is always someone better than you, and you will never measure up. That real love isn't real. That people like you, and then don't like you. But God loves us. He knows what we do when no ones watching. He knew how many appointments Sister Bybee and I tried to set up on Thursday and how many places we went trying to do service. He knows that we are worth more than we could ever know. That is one thing that I've been trying to do since coming on my mission, trusting in the Lord and remembering that what He thinks is more important than what the world thinks.
Back to some fun stuff we did this week: we made brownies! Well, we tried to make brownies. We have a really cute friend named Dasha that we met with after school one day. She thinks we're super cool, and so we invited her to the church to make brownies. We put it in a pie tin and the depth combined with the fact that we were cooking it in a oven that doesn't cook that well made it kinda into a chocolate lava cake type thing. She loved it though! We got to show her pictures from home and talk about her family. It was a really good day. We love Dasha:)
Last but not least, we had District Conference this week! District Conference is just when the the branch here and the branch in a different city (Irkutsk) get together and have a big meeting. It was sooo gooooooodd!! President Lamb gave the best talk ever on families and why they are important. He talked about how to strengthen marriages and families, and how to build them on love, prayer, and trust. Some of the strongest members here bore their testimonies too, and it was really powerful. Everyone here was a convert and some point, and their faith is really amazing and special.
That was my week this week! Also it's already cold and I'm sad.
I love you all!
Sister Jones
Pictures:
-Sister Bybee's painting of Baikal
-A balalaika (Russian instrument
-Me bc I love Ulan Ude!!!
