Volunteer Life

Hello friends and family. This is volunteer Price at your service.

:)

At VTC

At VTC

Sister Price and Sister Lindquist

This week was great! many of you are probably wondering what in the world us volunteers are doing over here in Russia.                 SO ARE WE hahahahahaha:)

Pretty much this week has been crazy weird but nonetheless crazy good. So as volunteers we are now having a daily VTC.. Volunteer training center. It isn't anything big but we just get together as volunteers here in Volgograd and the areas surrounding and we do language study, Russian history, and a spiritual part as well. Pretty much I love VTC! It is great and we have that everyday. 3 hours. We also have studies... and then every companionship is assigned to stay at the branch for 3 hours everyday. So pretty much it feels super weird to be here at the branch or at home with nothing to do.. well of course there is always stuff to do and things to study.. but going from "if you aren't on the street 5 minutes after you finish studies then something isn't right" to "yes that is what we are saying. don't street contact and stay off the streets so if you don't have a meeting with a member.. you are staying home." definitely weird. Sister Lindquist bought a guitar last week and we were asked to turn in our white handbooks so I mean if that says anything hahaha (update: we used the guitar for a devotional and the white handbooks have been returned haha) but pretty much it is just really really weird and I can't really describe it.. HOWEVER these past two weeks have been some of the most spiritual of my mission. I literally have moments where I am overwhelmed with the spirit and I feel the confirmation that this is the Lord's plan. I honestly think that we will be seeing miracles here in Russia and honestly this is what the Russian people need- love and service. Not a snot nosed American telling them that everything they have believed for generations is whack. (maybe edit that sentence out hahahaha)

Our Bedroom  - Oh Utah!

Some Sister Left her cookbook

A room with a view in Volgograd

At VTC

At VTC

But yes lots of changes coming to the mission! As of right now, any person that we teach needs to be very advanced in the teaching process, sign a paper that says that they are "following" the church -(so pretty much with the intent to be baptized) and we can't teach without a member there. However we can still visit members and less actives at their homes or at the branch.. the only thing is that if they have a non member there we can not answer their questions.. but the member can. So yes lots of member focus now.

On the streets we can not stop and talk to people, but if we have a natural conversation we can give facts about the church- like where it is or what time is starts, but we can not invite and we can't testify. so yeah that one has been hard. The first couple of days after I remember just watching people pass with a knot in my stomach knowing that I can't share with people that God exists. But there will be times and I can do it in other ways:)

Our Fruit and Veggie Vendor

BUT ANYWAY YES THIS WEEK WAS GOOD

Tuesday we met with the branch president and his wife; Mxxxx and Pxxxxx!! they are awesome and these two young bucks. They both work at Teleperformance (ZACH SHOUT OUT) and love it! They gave us lots of good advice on things that we can do as volunteers to help the branch out. They are awesome!

Wednesday we met with Sxxxxxxx and he is just so awesome. I love teaching him! he has a lot of faith and a desire to know everything! During our lesson we did a how to begin teaching point that says, " Sxxxxxxx we don't know everything and we can't answer every question that you have.. but we want to help you understand everything a little bit better!" and right after that he said, "who told you?" hahahah it was so funny!

Thursday we had the best VTC ever. man I absolutely loved it. We talked about the scattering of the 12 tribes of Israel and what that means for us serving in Russia.. and then we had a huge spiritual discussion about the plan of salvation and wrote down every question or concern that we have had or that we have heard about the plan of salvation and sat down and tried to find answers to them in the scriptures. It was just a really really neat VTC and it really spoke to me for some reason.. As I sat there with all of these 18-20 year olds discussing the meaning of life I had the distinct thought, "we aren't like regular 18-20 year olds" hahaha

But I invite you to find a safe spiritual place- with friends or family or in your ward or even with your bishop and stake president and ask those questions that you have always wondered about and never asked for one reason or another.. AND THEN GO TO WORK. STUDY IT OUT WITH PRAYER. I can promise you that you can find your answer in the scriptures.

Friday we had an awesome spiritual thought with a member Katya!

Saturday the Volgograd branch had a baptism! Rxxxxxx! Rxxxxxx is awesome !We have lots of Africans here in our branch that are going to school andRxxxxxx  is one of them. he has an awesome testimony and a love for God. Great guy!

we also met with Jxxxxx that day who is a recent convert. She is a cutie! She was going on this super long story and just talking and talking and I was just loving it. Man she is a cute old lady!

Sunday was kind of crazy! We had church in center and then left to tracktorney-- and people came !we had three lovely ladies there:) I gave a talk as did elder Osborn and Sergei and it was a good little meeting! After we had banana bread and tea of course:) and then we came back home for a few minutes.. had a crazy panic attack about food for the devotional.. threw some beans in a pot and then headed out to the church! we had a great devotional put on by sister Lindquist and I! And afterwards we all ate this crazy dinner together that all the missionaries put together last minute... potato casserole.. veggies... bread... cheese... meat... and a fruit salad.. not too shabby for the day before pday!!!! haha

Monday we had zone training and learned some more of what we can and can't do. It was a good zone training with good pizza!!!

We are now looking at service opportunities.. like maybe teaching English at schools or other humanitarian projects.. working in libraries.. or maybe even helping in music schools. It is all up in the air but we are pretty much looking for service!!

Today we went to Mamaya Gorgon. She is amazing !It is also creepy because she is built on a giant grave.. of 34,500 people. So yeah for war towns! haha

VTC is driving us crazy so here are some VTC quotes that are probably only funny to me but that I hope you enjoy:

--while splitting up names on the ward list.. everyone is taking notes except for one companionship.. he asks who has who.. other elder-- "uh well.. well you gotta do it." hhaha

--"good observation, sister mustache"

-- "thank you all for making out tonight"

"do you want to rephrase that??"

"..........no" hahahahahahaahaha

man I love you all!!!

С большой любовью,сестра Price