Happy Birthday to YOU!

Just kidding. I just had to say it for old time's sake.
I guess I'll tell you about my birthday then, if you'd like to know.
I woke up at the usual time, 6:30 and started my morning workout. Sister Pack came in and yelled at me for working on my birthday. But, I'm a missionary, so I continued to work-out. I then made some pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream for topping!
After we finished eating we went on to have our three hours of daily study. During study Sister Steinagel (the mission president's wife) called and wished me happy birthday. She also asked if Sister Pack knew if it was my birthday because she says a lot of the time when she calls, the missionaries companion never knows! After study we went to Forshet to talk to an investigator who works there. She was kind of cold to us when we got there, so we talked to her for a while and got her cheered up. Then we returned to our apartment and made some chicken stir-fry for lunch. After lunch we began weekly planning which we do every Friday for the next week. This weekly planning was super intense because Sister Pack is going to Bulgaria next week (to re-new her visa) and I am going to be the senior companion to a mini-missionary who is from Ukraine and might not speak that much English! I'm super nervous! Especially because we have lessons set up to teach investigators and I don't want to be lost in the dark and have really awkward conversations! At 5:00 we went to visit a member who invited us over. She fed us a fish salad. It was very tasty, but since we are not supposed to eat fish, for fear of contamination, I couldn't enjoy that salad as much as I would have liked to. But I didn't get sick from it, so I think I'm ok. On our way back home Masha, our investigator, called and wished me happy birthday. After Masha called Elder Beleshov called and sang happy birthday to me and asked me questions about what I had been doing that day. I felt bad because for the longest time I didn't recognize who it was that I was talking to! And Elder Beleshov was in the MTC with me! We then returned home and had cake and ice-cream, using a match for a candle. The cake was ok, it kind of tasted like a chocolate sponge. But it was cake nonetheless. I liked the ice-cream more though, it was cherry-vanilla!
After that little bit of celebration we finished our weekly planning and then started to clean our apartment. Sister Pack was vacuuming when all of the sudden the power went out. Then the power came back on. Then it went out again. We waited for a while for it to come back on again, but it did not. There was only one electrical outlet that was working in the house and it was in the kitchen. Unfortunately, it was across the room from the refrigerator. In order to save our food, we spent a while finding extension cords to reach the fridge. One of the extension cords was attached to the iron. And the cord was in there pretty tight. Sister Pack was convinced that the iron was warm, so she tried desperately to un-attach the iron. She succeeded. Sister Murphy called and she and her companion sang to me and asked me how my day went. Earlier in the day we had planned to put on some mud masks for fun, so even though our apartment was pitch-black dark we did anyway. Then it was time for bed. That was my birthday, I hope you enjoyed it.
Last week I went shopping and bought myself a blow-dryer and some earrings. The best birthday present though was a new washing mashing! Yes, for two months I have been washing my laundry by hand! Even though the land lady didn't purposefully get the washing mashing for my birthday, I accepted it as a birthday present anyway.

An up-date on the electricity. This morning, after three days with only one outlet working, it stopped, we were upset, because we didn't want the food in the fridge to go bad. So Sister Pack walked out into the hallway and twisted a knob. Just a little bit. And the entire apartment gained electricity again. This is very weird, because we started playing with those knobs the morning after my birthday and Brat Kikno came over and spent a good hour fiddling with the knobs and fuses. We were thinking that a lot of work would have to be done and it would cost a lot of money and the land lady would probably try to put the blame on us so she wouldn't have to pay for it. Power of prayer? It has to be.
-Meagen
9-7-09