This week was a surprisingly better week. I am learning to deal with lots of little things and working on loving and helping my companion. There are still challenging things of course but I learn to deal with it. Again, progress comes slowly but I am working on trying to understand her.
On Tuesday we had a Sister's Conference which was very nice. We studied women in the Bible and thought of their traits that we would like to emulate. The theme of the conference was Helman 5:12 and faith. The food was great but the best part was being able to talk to other sisters. I took the time to talk to Sister's Workman's former companion and gained some advice as well as talking to other sisters. We also got the new Relief Society books, "Daughters in my Kingdom" and were encouraged to read a little from it.
I'll admit we have not done as much contacting as we should have. Part of it was that we worked on the area book and I found out that Sister Workman likes to organize. We also had a good companionship inventory where I learned a lot about how my companion views her language which gave me more insight into her.
In terms of meeting we had a few! There were good but some of them had me walking away a little frustrated. We met with one inactive lady, who complimented me on my Russian, and she has a lot to overcome but she says that she wants to resolve her concerns. She likes the "mormon culture" but has some doctrinal problems with the Plan of Salvation. But to my surprise (oh, me of little faith) she has been reading the Book of Mormon and she called it "a pill for the soul". I was suprised and overjoyed and I hope that as she keeps reading it will help her resolve her concerns.
We also met with Izolda, an old lady who is inactive due to health problems. It was a good lesson but frustrating in the end. We talked about Heavenly Father and how much He loves her. We shared President Uchtdorf's talk from General Conference and she loved it. But when we asked her to pray and ask God to know how much He loves her she said that she wouldn't because she feels that God would tell her how bad she is.
Sunday was really good. A lady from Geneva came to church so I translated for her, mostly in English and then a little French. Her first language was French (mine is so rusty) but her English was fantastic. She asked questions about the church in Russia and we talked about the temple. She gave me her address and said to look her up whenever I go to Geneva. After church we read from the Book of Mormon with Valya, a member of our ward. She reads in English and we read in Russia. It was good training since reading outload is my weakest skill in Russia. Valya also corrected our pronunciation and helped us to say words that missionary say wrong. We then helped her to say the words "ten" and "tan", and "bed" "bad" and "bat"which are hard for people learning English.
Russian is coming along. Somedays it is hard and I get a mixture of feelings. The same day I received a compliment on my Russian from an inactive I talked to our relief society president. She was asking what we typically do and I explained contacting. Without thinking she made the comment that it must be hard when you don't know Russian and then asked my companion if she spoke better Russian than me. Sometimes it can get a little discouraging but I try not to let it bring me down and try to let it humble me instead.
Things are getting better and I am just trying my hardest to be diligent. It is colder now so I have my winter coat on. Let's see what this next week has in store for me!
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