Bednar, Clemes, and Sumo Wrestler!

I love you!!! I miss you!!!! I'm crying right now because grandma sent me a couple of pics and at this internet place I can get them!!! Ooorah!!! I’m totally crying. I'm trying not to start bawling. Compose. Cool. Calm. Collected. Good to go.

Elder Bednar spent all day with us today! Private sesh with some of us St. Pete’s missionaries! He's AWESOME! He ROCKED!!! I swear, the hours just flew by today and I didn't even notice, it was so cool. He just spoke and chatted and answered questions with us... so fun! He said a lot of stuff that I swear he knew was for me, because he kept on looking right at me and smiling. Everyone probably thinks that, but it was amazing. It was so insanely spiritual and he left us with a blessing that once again I feel was just for me. He just used the most perfect words. So I cried. (What's going on with me?) I loved it. I love him. I'm sooo thankful for the leaders in our church! Wow! And he told us all of the things that apostles do... dude, they are so cool. And I've been reading in the scriptures about them... they're like this amazing society of rockin' leaders that do all these things we don't even know about! I love them!

Omg, I have huge news! Remember I told you about Clemes, my black friend?... He's GETTING BAPTIZED!!!!! AHHHH! I screamed forever! Haha I'm so excited! And everyone is like "good work Greer" and of course it's like, why?, it totally wasn't me, Haha! But it's sooooo fun! And I wanted to cry when Elder S. said the other day "LOOK at you! You're making a difference!" That shot my heart in a good way, but I think my face dropped or something cuz he was like, "I mean it in a good way!" and I was like "I know!" but that's on my list of things to do before I die and just the fact that he said that, especially with me feeling like the hugest moron out here cuz I don't speak Russian well and I just get so frustrated and everything... basically it was really happy for me. I’m freaking out he's getting baptized! Yay!

The APs are my best friends they're so fun! The other day we were at a conference and some elders were all grouped together whispering and I went over and said I wanted in on what the convo was. One of the elders I don't know was like "um, no. This isn't girl talk. Only men can hear this." The AP's both automatically were like "woah woah woah, you do not talk to Greer like that," haha! H. was like "whatever she wants to know, tell her. She’s the coolest girl I know." I was stoked on that. So needless to say, at that moment I felt all-powerful. Haha!

So we run sometimes.... don't even get me started. I always am like "I refuse, you can just go without me. You look like an idiot," to my comp. But a couple of times she's gotten me to run across a crosswalk or something... let me just tell you, I feel like a fat kid in a snowsuit, it's horrible! My coat is HUGE and furry! Haha! I'm thankful cuz I’m freezing! But seriously, it's like a sumo wrestler running for a doughnut or something.

Last week English class was AWESOME! I took my iPod and had three versions of Winter Wonderland on it and I wrote out and cut up the lyrics for my class to put back together and sing... omg so much fun! We had teams and they loved it! There were two new guys in my class. They're in their twenties (and not gonna lie, total hotties). They were so stoked on the class and wanted homework for next time, which is today! We were standing after class talking and one of them was like "so, will you ever speak about your beliefs on God and everything?" ...It's times like that when I almost pass out, Haha. I was like, "um, yea. Actually the elders can meet with you on Sunday, how's that?" They were really excited and I guess it went AWESOME! They're officially new investigators! So I can't wait to see them again tonight!

All the water is frozen! It’s weird to see these huge rivers and bodies of water throughout the city with huge chunks of ice! It's freezing! I'm dying! And everyone just laughs and shakes their heads saying "you just wait" as I mouth it along with them cuz everyone says it to me.

Yes, they can't say "th". It's hilarious! None of them! I guess it's a really hard sound. But there's one three letter Russian word that I can't say, kind of sounds like dla, but your tongue has to be in a weird position and it's just horrible. I can't say it. So I can't really make fun of the Russians trying English. Out loud.

I miss you so freaking much! What in the world am I doing here without you!? How can I survive?! I might not! I'm going to have to live by you forever mom. No more of this long distance stuff without my mom. Sucks big time. I love you so much! Hug everyone for me! I love them all! I can't wait to see everyone again! :) (Written on Nov 15, 2007)