Hello Family!!!
What an amazing week!!! We had such a great shashliek grill on Monday!!! And then got all sun tired and sick from being outside for too long, but it was ALL worth it!! We had wanted to meet with Vasya and his family this week, but the little 13 year old didn't want to come in from playing out side. We bet him that if I made a soccer goal on him that he'd have to come inside... well, I didn't make the goal... he scored on me. The moral of the story is... don't bet!!! :)
Raisa Einer, the branch president's wife, came to church for the first time in years! We've been working with her for a while and it was SO great to finally see her come to church! She said that she was going to come last week but then she never came. We had wanted to pick her up, but she said no. She said she didn't want us to come as early as we had planned to come that Sunday morning, so we made her a smoothie and brought it over on our way to church, hoping that that would insure that she would could. She was already all dressed and ready to go. She did come and when she walked into the chapel everyone was so happy and surprised to see her!! It was SUCH a miracle!! She wouldn't even let the sister meet with her very long ago and now she just came to church for the first time!!! It was such a blessing!
This week we had a meeting with Natalya and her family. We played a game where we would ask a question and whoever we threw the ball to had to answer it (sound kind of like our favorite game Corrie and Sterling?). Natalya told a story about dreaming to become a doctor. She went to the specialty school which was WAY far away, so she got home really late. Her mom said something really rude to her which implied she'd gotten home late because she was with a guy. She cried all night realizing she'd have no one to support her in her dream so she unenrolled from the school the next day. She also talked about the times in her life when they have had nothing to eat and just trying to survive, just trying to have enough money to buy some food. I had talked about my family and how important it was to spend time together and talk. After coming home I just cried. I have been so blessed with such a wonderful family to be around me and support me. The Russian people here have so little and sacrifice so much!!
On our way back from visiting Sister Zemsova on Sunday we were walking and ran into a man that Sister Whitaker and I had met a while ago. He came to English club once and then we hadn't seen him again. His name is Akhmed. He was with his son and told us that he had been thinking about us earlier and wanted to invite us over. He took us to his house that very moment and we met his wife and mother in law. I am always just so amazed at the Lord's timing. He set everything up so that we would run into him on that street. We went over again to his house on splits with the elders. He talked with us in English for a while and said that he likes everything about our church. His wife had company, so we didn't get long to talk with her, but they had made like 7 different types of salad and fed us!! Everyone gathered to eat and we all just talked and ate (the best part :) and Akhmed showed us pictures of Croatia, where he used to live. They are SUCH neat family and want us to come back!!! They are moving to America soon, but I hope to meet with them before they go. They already are so tight knit and just wonderful. they are super special! At the end of our meeting as we walked out I gave him a plan of salvation pamphlet and said that we'd like to meet and talk more about God's plan for his family. He said we'll have to talk to his wife about that as she thinks about that a lot! They always give us juice or something because he knows we don't drink tea! they are SO cool!!!!
We had SUCH an amazing p-day today too!!! We had our p-day today because it's VICTORY DAY!! We got to wear p-day clothes ALL DAY and the best part was that EMI WAS HERE FROM K-DAR!!! We went to the parade in the morning... we waited to get free hats, but there weren't any.. and there were so many people there that we couldn't see the parade, but Nikita just held my camera over the crowd and took pictures and then we could see what was going on!! I was on splits with EMI all day and it was THE BEST THING EVER!!! Oh how I love her! It was SO good to be with her again and see how well she is doing! We then all headed up to Mamaev Korgan which was PACKED with people! definitely got even more sunburned, but it is going as a perfect day! Being able to be with my favorite people ever! I'll try to send pictures next week!!
love you!
Sister Cunningham
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