Sergiev Posad

Last weekend we went to Sergiev Posad - it had a beautiful monastery that is still used today! It's beautiful to see the passion of people of their beliefs. We caught a train and it was jammed packed, so the only place I could find to sit was between these two Russians. I was like, "well, hope you two don't mind if I sit in between you two!" and I squished in and they just looked at me and tried scooting over a little, haha. Me and Melissa were talking to each other and this 20 year old boy across from me handed me a rose he made from a napkin. I started laughing and thanked him and I thought CRAP!!! hahahha, you are NOT supposed to smile to a male because that is considered flirting here in Russia and it just eggs them on!! But it was just so unexpected that I laughed (and ugh! You know how natural it is for me to smile!!!) and then took out a pen and starting writing notes to us asking for our skype and what our names were. We gave him Melissa friend's Aren Muse skype :D

He wrote on the napkin, "I'm a good boy"

and I was like, "Haha...umm...sorry I...have a boyfriend." 

and he wrote, "I like girls with boyfriends"

and I was like, "WHAT!!!! You aren't a good boy! You are BAD!"

He wrote, "I'm a very very (not just once, but twice hahaha) beautiful boy!"

This is one of my favorite things he wrote, "Barack O'bama"

and I said, "Yes....President of the U.S."

and he wrote back, "Black man"         - hahahhahah!!!

and then he tried giving me beer and I told him how beer was bad haha and he then was like, "Jack Daniels?" and I was like NOOOO hahahha. So he got up and grabbed a baby tomato and tried feeding it to me and I was like, "No no, thank you", he grabbed my hand and put the tomato in it. He wanted a picture with me and I was like, "Sorry, no. I have a boyfriend" - hahhahaha I was trying to be a good example to my girls that I'm a head teacher over because HHAHAHA the night before, I was talking to them and giving them advise to NOT flirt with the men and be smiling and laughing with them.. and here I was!!! (worst head teacher EVER! hahaha) and he just shrugged and sat right next to me and got super close and took a picture. He asked for my email and I just wrote down "www.mormon.org" and told him to go to it and before he got off, he grabbed my notebook and put, "I love you!" - hahahha I was SOOOO glad he got off at a different spot! He was nice though.

On Sunday, we went to church at the International Branch and I loved it! Around 20 of us made the congregation, haha and there were around...maybe 70 put total or so. They were from the U.S, Nigeria, Congo, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, etc. Our bishop is the coolest...I love him so much already! He's from Germany and HE KNOWS BROTHER WAHLQUIST!!! (one of my FAVORITE professors at BYU-Idaho) Everyone is so nice and it felt like home away from home. I think its amazing how the church is the same everywhere on this earth and the Spirit can be so strong with our brothers and sisters of different cultures and backgrounds....but EVERYTHING is in common when your foundation is on Jesus Christ :) We are hoping to be able to go three baptismal services tomorrow of converts from Africa! 

My Russian word count: 2

"Spa-cee-ba" = Thank you

"Paul-ja-sta" = You're welcome

...maybe I'll learn a 3rd word by next week (it looks like I learn 1 word a week??? hahahha RUSSIAN IS HARD!!!)