Russian to Serve: Things That Just Don't Happen, Happen in Russia

This week was a chuda (miracle).

I love Volgograd!

Sister Marquis was telling me earlier this week about how she only has done service twice on her mission...

We then did service twice this week.

The first time, we helped this babushka and her grandson clean out their apartment. It was fun. Elders Cox and Wilcox helped us. They're pretty great.

The second time, though, was an adventure. We visited an Armenian family to do a spiritual thought with them and practice teaching with them. But, they told us that they had all of this yard work to do in their backyard by tonight because their landlady said they would evict them if they did not complete it. So, we agreed to help them and called in Elders Cox and Wilcox for some extra man power. The mother of the family, Anaid, wouldn't let us work in our missionary clothes, so she lent us some of her nicest clothes to go out to do yard work in (I think she thought we couldn't wear pants; it's kind of unclear).

Imagine for me the following scene: Two sisters doing yard work in a pencil skirt and dress. I wish I had pictures of what we were wearing. The Elders arrived and were lent some shirts, but they too did the work in their dress slacks.

And then we hacked down weeds like crazy. Until Anaid's husband got home from work. He actually ripped a tree out of the ground. It was pretty intense.

We were going to go after that, to see if we could schedule a lesson with a potential investigator we met the other night, but this family would not let us leave without eating dinner. We tried to explain to them that it's against the rules to eat at members' homes, but they yelled at us about how it's rude to reject food in Armenia.

So, we had a dinner of pig intestines (not too shabby, but I wouldn't recommend it) and Armenian goodies. The father of the family kept telling me I needed to eat more and would put food on my plate. It was a lot of fun made better by the fact that I still don't really know a lot of Russian, so I had no idea most of the time what people were saying.

I love it here. There are so many kind people everywhere we go. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for allowing me to serve a mission. I'm not perfect, and I don't think He needs me to be, or anyone to be. He just needs us to try our hardest to love Him, ourselves, and each other.

I have a verse that I'm going to try to share with someone this week, on the street or otherwise, because it gives me hope to do what I need to while I'm here.

Mosiah 4:9-10

9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
10 And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.

I love you all! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sister Jarvis

From two weeks ago...Waiting in the JFK airport for our flight to Russia