Spring is coming!! February 27, 2012

Hello my wonderful family and friends!

We had a good time this week!  Everything is melting and SO wet!!!  We got to see mamaev korgan.  It is the biggest statue in Russia and it's right here in Volgagrad!!  It is just a couple cm. taller than our own statue of liberty because of mother Russia's sword.  The biggest battle of the war happened in V-grad.  Hitler sent 500,000 soldiers here and after they all fought there were only 90,000 left.  She is AMAZING and SO big!  We also got to see the war museum panorama for a culture night.  It was really interesting and we saw the gun and picture of one of the most famous heroes.  The Russians hired a herdsman as one of their snipers for their army.  They say that without him they would not have been able to win the war.  He could kill about 30 officers in a day. 

We went knocking quite a bit this week and also had splits with the Elders!  Elder Jacobson, Hill, and I went knocking together.  It was SO funny!  A little old lady opened her door and Elder Hill said that he was here with his friend (he called me a boy! haha) and I like snuck my head around the door... ya... I'm kind of awkward.! :)  The poor old lady was SO cute and said that she would of course talk to us because it was the human thing to do, but she was so sick and little and even had a catheter hanging out of her robe... :)  Luckily Elder Hill didn't see that part!  Sister Whitaker and I also knocked into this one house where the man apparently holds his own church services at his house every Wednesday.  He invited us to come back and then he would teach us! :)  Well, we had had a lesson with a really neat lady in that same apartment building earlier that week, so we returned to meet with her.  Well, we accidentally knocked on his door again... He answered and we just were like hello... realizing who it was and awkwardly said that we had knocked on the wrong door...  So, we left and then this other younger guy opens the door as we're walking down the stairs and is all "pretty girls?"  He saw us and we said hi and then just kept walking away.  a little girl hungry I think... haha  Well, we think since we ended up accidentally knocking into them again that maybe we just need to give them a video or something.

Katya is a young mother that we met while knocking.  She said that we could come back and teach her, but i haven't been able to understand where they say she is when we call.  We've gone by and sometimes they don't answer.  Maybe she was just visiting, but I'm hoping that we can meet with her again.  It was a really neat experience!  We also were coming home this week on a marshrutka and I didn't realize that it went closer to house than the usual stop that we get off on.  I was sitting up in the front with the driver so I just called the stop and got off.  I realized that I had gotten off all by myself!  OH MY GOODNESS it was the WEIRDEST feeling to think that I would actually be ALONE!!  I kind of freaked out and started speaking English.  I was like, "wait, wait."  Luckily Sister LeBaron had saw me get off and frantically trying to open the cab door to the van.  she got off with me. It was SO funny!

In our area book we have a picture of this guy who has harassed missionaries in the past.  It started back in like 2004 and missionaries (elders and sisters) have all added entries when they have seen him!!  I would like to inform you that the latest siting happened to me and sister Whitaker!  we were going to knock a building we'd knocked earlier and I saw this BIG guy crossing the street.  nothing clicked.  He started talking to sister Whitaker, but our Marshrutka had just gotten there.  I'd heard him say something about English Club so I whipped out an invitation, gave it to him and then we got on our marshrutka.  as we sat down and started talking about him it clicked!!!  "Sister Whitaker, that was Ruslan! and we just gave him an invitation to English club!!"  well... hopefully he won't stalk us! :)

In the first week of our transfer we had gone to the hospital and met these ladies in the coat room.  So, this Saturday we went back.  They had read the Liahona we had given them and said that we have a lot of hard rules!  It was a General Conference edition! :)  Well, in short, we got to talk with them and give them a Book of Mormon that we had written our testimony in.  One of them isn't really that open, but the other lady Zina gave us free milky ways from her snack stand and said we could come back again next week to talk with her.  She also wanted to know if she could give the Book of Mormon to give to people who come to the  hospital, so we gave her an extra copy!  It was fun either way and we'll see what happens!  Well, Sister LeBaron and I are off to go and FINALLY get our real Russian hats!  I'm so glad she's here with me!  I love her!  It's fun having my MTC companion with me!!  I love you all and wish you a good week!!
Love,
cectpa Cunningham