"Dyen Krasotky"

Yesterday was amazing! We had "dyen krasotky" which was BEAUTY DAY! haha it was so fun, my comp and I put it all together! First we started off by meeting at the branch. PS, I totally set off the alarm for the branch, which is never a big deal, because nobody ever comes. But of course, yesterday when I was there ALONE, the cops show up. Dirty Russian cops. But I convinced them I belonged there and that I really did know the code and everything. I don't know why it hadn't worked, but I fixed it.

THEN, a lady cruises in and reads some legal document to me and starts grilling me on what exactly we DID there. We were ONLY a religious organization? I was like, no, we sell Russian children through the black market too, is that bad? Gosh. And for some reason, it was like the FIRST time EVER our prez of the branch wasn't there in the morning.

So we met there, and we set out to go thrift store shopping! It was so fun! It was really funny, because two of our babooshky showed up, and they were SO into it! I found them a bunch of really cute clothes at the store and they were so funny calling me over to model their clothes for me. They bought some cute stuff. :) They were soooo cute being all girly and giggly, like they had never had a girl's day before!

We headed back to the branch where Barlow and I had prepared a bunch of food like pasta, pizza, desserts and stuff. There were some more people there, including a lady friend of one of the babushkas. She seemed kind of weird and mad about the whole thing at first. But before we ate, we gave a little lesson on modesty and how it's important to be beautiful. I have to say, it was a super good lesson! haha, no really, it went so good. Then we started piggin' out, I started cutting and dying hair and Barlow started doing people's makeup. We also had a little movie going on called Enchanted....LOVED it! (We had gotten permission from the prez). I swallowed it up like I was a 5-year-old princess!

All the girls and babs were soooo into the whole day, it was such a blast! The elders showed up and pulled up chairs to watch it all. It was super funny, they were fascinated, and wanted their makeup done, but we didn't get to it. Haha! So, all in all, we had an awesome turnout, this other lady who isn't a member fell in LOVE with us and wants to come again (Yay! New investigator!)And I cut and dyed all the babooshky for their temple trip this next week. It's the first time in their lives they're going! It'll be so fun!

So, despite all the war stuff and hostility that is HUGE right now, we've had a really good week! Barlow and I set amazing goals and we've already doubled our numbers this week! And we're only 3 days in! It's so fun! But let me go back to the war stuff...people HATE us here! It’s insane! We're dying to know if something huge happened, because we're getting stuff thrown at us, getting yelled at, thrown off of busses, and even Anya, our best investigator who LOVES us, yelled at me the other night about how horrible Americans are. I got assaulted by a military man on the bus the other day. But I just yelled at him and we got off. He followed us, but then we just ran into our apt building. There are so many more stories on that, but we'll just talk about it later.

I never told you about Zone conference. It was amazing! I loved having it all combined! It was just a huge, happenin', spiritual party! So fun! I hope they do it like that again for my last one.

So, earlier this week was really hard and sad, because of all the scary stuff going on. A bab told us Russia was going to war with Ukraine soon, I've been stressing out about America and having nightmares it's going to fall like so many power nations have in the scriptures and in history (stop laughing at me) and we were just really down. So I was kind of devastated and I was like, WHY am I still here?! I feel like I should be home helping MY country, which is falling fast in every other way because God is being forced out of every aspect and everything our country was founded on is being tainted...I'm being dramatic, I know, but my feelings were so much more extreme than I can explain on here. I think I'm just scared for America to become like Russia, when it's this haven I look forward to returning to. Like, I know there's something better in the world, so it makes it easier to be here. That's how it is for the people here. America is totally the hope of the world. But if America falls, what else is there left? I know there are good people still, but I don't know. There's so much I want to say right now but the clock is ticking and I'm making no sense. Anyways, I was just sad. And then I read Moroni 3:3 which says something like, Preach repentance and remission of sins through Jesus Christ, by the endurance of faith on his name to the end. For some reason that calmed me a lot. Like yea, I have a job here to do, ya know. And in chapter one it talks all about how Moroni was having to hide from the Lamanites so he doesn't get killed like all his other people, but Moroni is still keeping a record for the Lamanites. To benefit them. Even tho they seem like they're so far past fixing, I mean, they're killing anyone who won’t renounce Christ, he's keeping a record for when they...come around. :) Nobody is past saving. I hope. :) Okay, I am out of time already, even tho I have sooo much more to say. It would probably make just as much sense as all the stuff I wrote already, haha!

I love you and miss you madly! I can't wait to hug you!!! I'll leave you with the thought that we have an "ugly naked guy" that we always see through the kitchen window at the branch. Here's H commenting as he's making us lunch on a weekly basis: "Blah blah blah, yea, and there's ugly naked guy again, so blah blah blah..."

And yes, one time he did have a friend. haha (written aug 20, 2008)