"Thank you."

There is a very attractive woman at church who sits with her daughter and little granddaughters every week. She is quite outspoken and keeps things lively in Relief Society meetings (women's meeting). She has never spoken to me before. Today she said "good morning." Later she approached and using one of our sister missionaries to help her translate even though she does have some English), thanked Dave and I for our service as missionaries and wanted to know how long we are going to be there (8 more months).
I've stated before that we don't participate much in our ward because of the language barrier. David can sing many of the hymns in Russian now, but we have not been asked to give talks or asked our opinions in class which we could do with some translating help from our missionaries). However, we have established some friendships and feel welcomed and comfortable in our ward. We love our ward. We love the people.
Yesterday Tyeeceeah one of our 80-something babushkas saw me and stood and waited for me to come over and give her her hug. She doesn't call me Sister Sutton. She calles me Bar-Bar-ah and kisses me on the cheek. Luba, who's mother Maria is the 90 year old babushka that I love, and I have become friends FINALLY. Maria doesn't come anymore, due to health issues, but I am able to communicate with Luba through sign language and a few Russian words, and it works.
Many of the wonderful women I greet I still don't have names for, but as stated we both LOVE our ward. David has established relationships as well with a f ew of the fine men in the ward. We love our bishop, Bishop Mocholov. He is a fine man and we love that he speaks English!
But those words, Thank you, today, from a new friend, who is yet nameless, made my day.