Taco Fridayyy

Hey everyone!

We met again with Karill and his family (the family we met last week). Immediately at the beginning of our meeting, they wanted to set another meeting with us for next week. They really like us! I think they feel the spirit around us. It was so cool to see their enthusiasm! Then, we made tacos with them, which was the best thing ever)) It was so much fun! It was so funny to watch them eat tacos for the very first time. They thought it tasted really good, but Irina (the mom) took a bite from the top of just the tortilla and her cute son was trying to eat it, but literally everything was spilling out the back! They were like "the flavors are so interesting! I've never tasted anything like it!" which was so funny because we've literally grown up on tacos. We also had a really good conversation with them later on about the Word of Wisdom (our health code in our church). They believe a lot of the same things we do. They teach their kids that smoking is harmful (neither of them smoke) and they are wary around alcohol, although they do drink on holiday's and things like that. It was interesting to see how even though our lives are completely different, we can always find similarities.

Alina is doing well! She hasn't decided when she wants to get baptized yet, but she's moving forward and learning more and more that God loves her and hears and answers her prayers. 

We also met this week with a lady in our branch named Hatalia. She is so wonderful! She knows everything about how to do family history work in Russia. Because of some of the laws here, it is hard to find people's personal data, even those that are dead. As we were talking, I am so grateful for the way we can learn about our families at home. We have so much access to so many things, and most of us don't use 

it to the fullest extent! Take advantage of it! Families are important!

Hatalia also showed us a lot of paintings from her favorite artist, James Christensen. He was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and a lot of his paintings have spiritual meanings. I attached my favorite one to this email. I really like it because of how relatable it is! It's a little man holding on to a bunch of things. We all have responsibilities and tasks that come with day to day life. A lot of them are important too! Everyone is busy. To hold on to the iron rod (the word of God) and follow it to experience the fullest of God's blessings for us, we need to prioritize and let go of some things. It's hard, but if there was no sacrifice and doing the right thing was always easy, we wouldn't grow from it and we wouldn't learn.

I love you all and hope you all had a wonderful week!

Sister Jones

Pics
We got a lot of food from a grandma

we found a nativity!!

our tacos we made with Karill and his family