HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! с новым годом January 2, 2011

Wow!  This was a GREAT fun week!!  We started out with a lesson with our Baptist investigator Dasha.  She has a lot of questions, but we realized that we just needed to try to teach her the lessons and tell her that as we went along that we hoped her questions would be answered.  She just gets so fixed on these little questions that she can never see the big picture.  Well, that didn't work.  She just isn't ready and argued with us about everything... o-well.  Right after we headed out to go meet Sasha Demchenko at the tramvai stop.  He had called us and asked us what he would have to do to get more of some cookies that I had made one time.  Well, I conversed with my companion and we decided that if he made us borsch (a traditional delicious soup with beets!) that we could make him more cookies.  So, this was the day when we would get borsch.  There was a TON of traffic, so it took us like an hour and a half to get out to his house, but he entertained us with a lot of stories about his mission in Moscow.  President and sister Cranny from our MTC branch presidency were his mission president and wife.  When we got there we didn't have a lot of time, but were able to talk with his mother who is not a member and eat borsch.  Sasha' mom had made it though, so he still owes us.  He took us back out then to catch our bus home and we taught him ninja destructjion while we waited.  I think we got some weird looks, but it was really fun!

We also used the money that you sent us this week to do a secret act of service for someone mom!  It was SO fun!!  We set aside an afternoon (which wasn't hard because no one wanted to meet with us this week anyway as it was New Year's) and took the girls from our neighbors, Margo and Marina, to go and buy a Christmas tree.  We got a tree and all the decorations and some mandarine oranges.  After decorating the tree we trooped out to go ding dong ditch it at this families house.  In Russia they have gates (they are tall..the height of a regular door) that you have to knock on.  So the lady kept looking out to see if someone was in front of her gate.  I had to knock SO many times and so hard but she still wouldn't come out.  Finally I just stood in front of the door in the gate and called her name. The door in the gate started to open so I booked it around the corner hoping that she hadn't seen me.  She followed me and I tried to hide behind this pole.. .ya... that didn't work.  So I just tried to hide my face and said that it was a surprise present for her and then I ran away.  The girls and Sister Tunney came out from their hiding place and we ran away. They loved it.  They said they'd read about doing things like that but they had never done it before!! Thanks mom!!

Roman told us last week that he had decided to come back and he wanted to meet with us again!!!  We asked him what had made him change his mind and want to come back.  He said that he just felt that there couldn't be anything bad here.  We talked about some of the changes that he will have to make in his life in order to join the church and that after baptism he will continually need to change and improve and develop.  We're excited to see what happens!  If  you could all pray for our investigator Lubov that would ROCK!  She can't come to all of church because of work and a controlling husband and she is really against telling her husband that she wants to be baptized, but she needs to do that before we can move any further!

This week we sang on the street several times with the elders.  This one time i was contacting while they sang and this lady started talking to me. She told me that I was way to pretty to be out here and that I should go home and hurry and get married and have LOTS of children.  I needed lots so that they all looked like me! haha  We came in early on Saturday night and then Sister Tunney and I got to have our own New Year's Celebration!! We watched several movies (including Rapunzel!! It's good!! Highly recommend it) and then made Pizza.  At midnight we went out to see the fireworks. They were going off everywhere next to all the apartments and  homes!!  Luckily there wasn't any fires that I saw!! It was WAY pretty and loud!  We headed to bed and a couple hours later I got woken up by a choir of drunk people walking down our street singing!! haha! Gotta love New Years!!

love
Cectpa Cunningham

Ninja Destructjion!