Church!

It is true everywhere.

The first Sunday that we are here, I didn't end up going up to church.  Andrew and Ty went though.  It was a region wide conference that made St. Petersburg's first stake.  Elder Nelson came and was over it.  Then the next week, Andrew figured out where to go to church, and Courtney, Sydney, Ty, Andrew and I went to a different ward/branch.

We ended up getting there late.  We walked in, and they were passing the sacrament.  So was sat in the foyer, and waited for the sacrament to be over.  When it was over, we went in and tried to listen to the talks.   That didn't go over very well...  Andrew was the only one who could understand it.  Courtney and Sydney said that there weren't going to go back because we didn't understand it.

Andrew decided that we were going to go to the other ward/branch that is in St. Petersburg.  It was such a different experience.

This time it was Jessica and Megan who went with us.  We get there after walking for about 15 minutes in the rain.  We take off our coats, and leave our umbrella in the coat room to go to the chapel.  We realized that church started at 11 not 12.  Whoops.  So we walked in late, and we hear English being spoken.  That is the best feeling in a foreign speaking country.  Hearing English.  We stayed in the in the chapel after it had finish, to figure what to do, and we find out that the Mission President spoke with his wife.  They came up and talked to us along with Senior Companions, and other members in the ward that spoke English.  We stayed and talked to to Mission President until the next ward started.  They invited us to the 1 o'clock ward.  That ward is the biggest in St. Petersburg.  

There were several missionaries that talked to us, and really acted like they really wanted us there.  They were so nice.  There is also an English family in the ward whose dad is in the Consulate.  The dad teaches Sunday School in English.  So there is a whole lot more English in that wad than the one last time.  

I think that we will go to the 1 o'clock ward.  I had such a good experience there.  The member were super friendly, and it will make going to church so much easier.

Funny story, we see the Elder Missionaries, and talk to them.  One of them was from St. George, and I'm not sure where the other one was from.  I would say somewhere in Europe.  Anyway, We are talking to the one from St. George, and he asked us if any of our group was from the Southern part of Utah.  We say, yup there are two of them.  We continued to tell them Courtney's and Sydney's names.  At first he didn't recognize either of their names.  Then we showed a picture of all of us, and I point out which one was Courtney, and he freaked out.  It was pretty funny.  Apparently he lived two streets down from in St. George.  We told Courtney, and she wished she would have come to the ward with us.  He called Andrew the next day because Andrew had given them his number, and told him to make sure that we bring the other members of our group.  So hopefully she will see him next week!