Relief Society brawl!

Last week when I wrote to you, I was on my way to do Sister Sandberg's hair. Well guess what. She LOVED it! I was soooooo thankful. President loved it too. This week I started tallying up how many haircuts I do a week. I'm so happy I can do SOMETHING for the people here. It's such a blessing!
We had interviews with prez yesterday, and they went really well! I was on a major spiritual high a couple of weeks ago, which is sometimes scary, cuz usually with highs come lows. But every time I'm at a good point I think, no--there doesn't HAVE to be a low! So I was on a major extreme high, right. Couldn't stop reading, so happy all the time, so awake, so alive, more than I’ve ever felt in my whole life.

Guess what? For high highs, the lows are all the worse. So I plummeted. I know last week I didn't sound very happy, even though I tried to. So sorry. This week was even worse (but I happen to be happy right now cuz we just went to Ikea and I’m wearing jeans... I’ll tell you in a sec) so it hasn't been the happiest time in my life. Probably the opposite, but what can you do. It's bound to happen I guess. I'm alright. I'll get over it. I still love my mish and still know there's nothing better I could be doing right now. I just miss home.So I never told you about Cheyenne's mom! She is rad. She brought me Doritos and crunchy peanut butter from America....! OMG how amazing is she?! I almost cried when she gave them to me! I cut her hair the other night and it's way cute. We talked about all the people we're connected with like her son who is my age dating a girl I know from
school and her old boy friend who is the dad of a girl I know from school and stuff. They've had us over a couple of times for dinner.

Then a miracle happened the other day! Cheyenne's husband Haffa (Rafael) came to church! For the first time ever! It was so rad! It was a MIRACLE! Cheyenne was seriously in la-la land all day! It's hilarious because all the elders in my district are obsessed with Haffa, right. Like they all watched him and supported him when he played for BYU and the Jazz. They're like little groupie girls.

Anyways, at church, I walked out into the hall where the elders all stand to greet people and the elders were just staring UP at something with their mouths gaped open. I looked over and saw Haffa! I was soooo excited! I was like, “HAFFA!” And he was super happy and leaned down and hugged and kissed me. I was so happy he was there! I looked over at the guys and they were just like, WHAT!!!!?!?!?! Haha it was a funny moment. Not only because I'm not allowed to be hugged or kissed by any form of male, but also because it was from a guy that they literally idolize. It was hilarious.

I had to go into primary to translate for Cheyenne’s mom and daughter. Then in Relief Society I translated too. There was a HUGE, knock down drag out screaming fight in Relief Society. Sound scary? It was all in Russian, of COURSE it was scary! People were standing up and running around the room and getting in each other’s faces.... And I translated the whole thing! It was entertaining.

So yea, Kop and I went to Ikea today! We decided to last night and I couldn't sleep! I was soooo excited! And it was amazing! I loved it! And we ate at the food court, which was to DIE for! I wish we could go every day! But it took 2 and 1/2 hours to get there traveling by metro, tram, bus and foot. 2 and 1/2 hours that would have taken 10 minutes by car. So we're on our way home and it's 6:30 already. We spent all day there. It was divine!

Okay, I have to go write prez. But I love you and miss you more than you could EVER imagine. I just miss you and the fam and our home and our town and America and everything so much it hurts! But I love my mish! I just know it's made me love home that much more for the rest of my life. I didn’t know I COULD love it more. But I could. And I do. I love you. (written Mar 6, 2008)

John the Baptist rocks

I'm kind of crazy sad, but those times pass, ya know. Our baptism, Rita, yea, she called it off. I think she'll still be baptized. Soon I hope. I just want to see Rita again so I can talk to her. We had Zone Conference yesterday and it was really good.

Have I mentioned that I LOVE my district? 

Cuz I totally do. So, I know you won't believe this, but I’ve been super proud of myself because my whole mission I'm always ready to walk out the door on time. But my comp NEVER is. I'm not complaining, it doesn't bug me at all, I'm just being selfish and telling you that we were late to zone conference because of her. :)

So we walked in (we're supposed to be there reading 45 minutes before, so technically we were WAY late) and they were finishing singing the opening song. President stood up in front of everyone and was like "Sister G, would you please say the opening prayer?" .... Haha! So I ran up to the mic and gave the prayer--probably lots of mistakes cuz I didn't get to think it out in Russian, but cool. So it was a good time, good talks. We got to the end and we were already over time, but for some reason President stood up to close and decided he wanted some testimonies. Guess who the first one out of EVERYONE was that he called on? 

Yup. Me. I was super nervous, cuz once again, I couldn't think it out at all and I'm horrible under pressure. So I sounded like I had just run a marathon when I got up to the mic and all through my testimony, but it went well... I think. I don't remember what I said, my mind goes blank under pressure! Two other people gave theirs too and we ended. Prez thanked me and was super nice.

OH! They told us at zone conference that since we're getting rid of all American missionaries, we're having to change all records and area books and everything into Russian. Ours already is, but it just seems weird that it's all happening so fast. We know who our new Prez will be, and he's Ukrainian! I don't know much more about him at the moment. I'm cutting Sister S’s hair today.... I'm booked out 2 weeks for haircuts. hahaha! It’s true though! On Monday I did 5 cuts and I've done more every day this week. And literally, in my planner I have cuts every day for the next two weeks (except Sundays) :) What a blessing I went to hair school! It’s a good tool here!

My new favorite person is John the Baptist. I had no idea how amazing he was. But now, I have such a huge love for that man! His knowledge of his mission and his faith in Christ is just soooooo amazing!

I'm out of time already... what the heck. My heart hurts I miss our family so much. Hopefully I can get over it. But lets be honest, that won’t happen. :) I love you!

(written Feb 29, 2008)

Dodging trains

Where to begin? How about how I'm DEVASTATED Mitt Romney dropped out!!!! Thank you for sending me his speeches! I LOVE HIM! I want him to be my president! I've never even seen him before, but I could just feel how amazing he is from what he said! I've been sharing his speeches everywhere I can: in my spiritual thoughts, in my lessons, to the elders, at church... I'm a crazy psycho freak.

And I'm feeling the crazy political feelings all coming back. Like, screaming back. Last night in my English practice, it got a little intense, as it did on Saturday's too. Man, I'm crazy. And here I am screaming Revolution to the Russians (I’m sooo frustrated with their government! They’re so trapped and controlled~!) And they just don't understand why we all care so much as to who will be president. They said it wouldn't really change anything... oh man, you know me, don't even get me started on what I said after that. Anyways. I cried when I read his speeches. One day, Mitt will be my President.

Speaking of last night's English practice, my group is just full of men and I love them! I always get so tight with my groups and feel like fam. There's one man, in his late 60s, very normal, nice man, right. Well, last night before my other students arrived we were just sitting and chatting and he was telling me about his girlfriend. He was saying she costs him too much and he thinks they might split soon, but he'd like to marry her, blah blah blah. Then it came out. He couldn't marry her because he's married. Has been for 35 years. This girl is his lover. And she's 20 FREAKING YEARS OLD! He was talking like all this was normal! And I know it is in Russia, but it gets me every time!!!! Anyways, he wanted my advice cuz I was her age... I almost died. Then his son-in-law showed up (he's in my class too) so he couldn't talk about it anymore. Where am I?

On the tram last night, the conductor was talking to me and he SWORE I was Japanese.... Yay... you know I love that. He did NOT believe I was from America. But he was chatting casually about his lover too! What is wrong with these men!?

Transfers were this week. And prez made us wait an extra day too! Torture! I was all traumatized cuz I KNEW Kop had to be leaving, she's been in this area for 6 months! We cleaned the kitchen spotless, got all of our food out and just sat at the kitchen table eating and decorating our new planners, waiting for the call. Guess what! We're together still! I'm sooooo happy! I was in shock and I accidentally spoke in Russian to president on the phone. Sad thing is, I didn't realize until I hung up. Haha I was like "nee-chee-vo sebya! spa-see-ba bull-shoy president, eta chew-da" which means "wow! Thank you so much president it's a miracle!" I thought it was weird he was like "uuuuh- okay you have a good night." When I hung up we screamed and partied then I was like, wait, did I just speak to him in Russian? My comp said yea... I'm a moron.

We have two new elders in my district! They're way cool. G and E. I'm just so devastated cuz K went AP and we've only had him for one transfer. He freaking rocks. M left. I'm traumatized.

The other night we took a train a little ways out of the city to visit one of the members we love. After our meeting, we had to book it back to the platform before the last train into the city left. So imagine us, running down a dark, snowy, Russian, country lane and I rounded the bend ahead of my comp. I saw the train and was trying to decide if I could make it across the tracks to the platform in time, when my comp came stomping through the snow. I could see she didn't see the train, which I had decided by then was way too close for comfort and the conductor was blowing the horn really loud. But it all happened so fast! I decided no way could I make it, but saw that my comp didn't realize HOW close it was. So she goes running past me and all in slow mode I was like "NNNNN-YEEEE-TTTT!!!!" Which means NNOOO! And I grabbed her arm and THREW her back just as the train flew past us! Omg, you had to be there to see how freaking close it was. From then on we just always joke about it and scream “NYET” every time we can, but all that night and the next day she just kept on being like, thank you sister, thank you. Haha!

There is this new girl we're teaching named Karina.... most beautiful person I've ever seen in my whole life! Like, take your breath away beautiful. Elder K found her, or rather, she found him, on the metro. There's just too much to tell, and guess what, no time. But let me just tell you, this girl is a miracle, I love her. We talked for a couple of hours yesterday and we're meeting again tomorrow. I think she inspired me more than I did her. I'll tell you her story next time. Wow. I love her!

Rita is getting baptized as far as we know, on Saturday! Yay! Pray for it to go through!

All I do is eat! Everyone says it's cuz it's so cold, but I hate it! I don't like snow. But we have gotten some sun this week, which was super fun! What it comes down to is that I’m fat. I'm a fat Japanese missionary lost in Russia and dodging trains.

I'm getting pretty good at men's cuts, so tell the men in our fam they don't have to be scared anymore when I cut their hair. Well, maybe they do, but I AM improving. I get a LOT of practice. It's fun.

Love always and forever (is that cheesy?), me (written Feb 21, 2008)

Cochroach cake and Satan sucks.

Happy Valentine's Day! Yet another amazingly romantic one for me...

Can you believe that I’m on the downhill slope officially!? I'm halfway through my mish! Weird.

I had a high fever for 3 days in a row. All sorts of nightmares started happening and every single day I was dreaming super stressful and devastating stuff. I would just wake up in the middle of the night bawling. Luckily, my comp loves being the Mom and took good care of me. But then she got sick, so we were just pathetic and slept for a couple of days. The nightmares just stopped two nights ago. I'm soooo thankful.

One of the days we were laid up, we were both so sick but wanted something chocolate. So we went to this little grocery shop we didn't know existed that is super close to our apt that we always wanted to see if it was good. We cruised in and started ogling (as much as you can ogle with no energy) the cakes and treats in one of the glass display cases. Just then, from one of the cakes crawled a cockroach... Normally, I would have let out a high-pitched Portuguese screech, but being mostly dead I only pointed, then turned around sadly with my comp and walked out. Obviously we're never going back there again.

I looked in the cookbook you gave me and it has Indian fry bread! So on one of the days when we were wondering what the heck to eat, I made some with Mexican rice (thank you for the spices!) and eggs. Freaking killer, I'm not gonna lie. They were divine. But our super clean kitchen has been coated in oil ever since. Everything.

You know Rita, our girl getting baptized this week? Yea, well she's not... She WILL, but not this week. Want to know why? Her whole life she's obeyed the law of chastity, in fact we've taught her twice, really good lessons about it, and guess what. For the first time in her life, the week of her baptism, she had sex. WHAT THE CRAP!???!?!?! That's not all, that just started a huge chain of events that just goes to show how freaking horrible Satan is.

But something good did come from it, I guess. That night, we left Rita and talked it out, and I was just FUMING because I HATE how people just don't have BRAINS (and all of this took me back to other people in my life who just don't THINK! Or they know something is wrong and they just forget or something.) Anyways, we were talking one night and I just suddenly felt so thankful I never made that mistake. Rita's. And all these other people that do it and can't even see what's going on as their lives go down hill! I just felt so at peace all of the sudden, and I cried. I'm so thankful I grew up in the church and decided on my standards a long time ago. It just sucks to watch other people have to go through it, when you KNOW what will happen, and they don't want to listen.

Rita called us and told us she didn't feel sorry for what she did but still wanted to be baptized. Then she cancelled her next meeting with us. Just everything was falling apart. Finally, we saw her yesterday, and she was just pathetic. We were teaching about the Word of Wisdom and halfway through the lesson I just turned to her and asked why she was so unhappy. She started bawling and we had a really long, good conversation about repentance and how she felt completely wrong, but didn't know why. But luckily she was starting to see. I don't know, its horrible to say I was happy she was sad, but it was a good, super spiritual moment because I felt like her eyes (or soul) were finally opening for her to see what was really there, ya know. I just get so claustrophobic when people won’t LISTEN!

Anyway, there's much more to it and I feel like I can't write this kind of stuff in letters cuz I don't say it right and I sound completely corny. Anyways, I am thankful for my testimony. And speaking of the Word of Wisdom, I'm thankful that's never been a problem for me either. Thank you so much for raising me right! I just see people and literally thank God I don't have to be dealing with junk like that in my life. I'm so happy!

Satan is hard at work. I am so sorry right now for my comp, because things have started to happen with her family. They've been good members for more than 10 years, and suddenly her mom is drinking coffee, her bro went off the deep end and is drinking, smoking, getting tats and piercings and stuff, and it's all happened with in a week! GOSH! :) I feel super bad for Job... just a side note.

Today I cut H's hair, then we went to Carl's Jr. for M’s birthday party. He leaves this week, I'm devastated. I gave him my pink scarf and some other pink stuff for his bday cuz his favorite color is pink. Haha! He's the manliest guy I know who likes pink. He's rad. I will miss him terribly.

Anyways, sorry about all that, it's just been kind of a super hard week. Not the worst, but not the best by any stretch of the imagination. And Kop is going to get transferred this Saturday, we just know it, and I'm so sad! And scared of who I’ll be with... we'll see..

I love you more than you could possibly imagine! (written Feb 14, 2008)

Goodbye to a Prophet

I walked out of the banya less than an hour ago. hahaha don't worry, I only did the sauna and such, I didn't go in the hot tub or anything and all the girls thought I was super weird and wanny. But it was a WAAAAYYY better banya than last time, totally cleaner and like, Arabian or something. It was super fun and now I’m absolutely ravenous, cuz that's what happens when you go to the banya.

Yesterday, we went over to Cheyenne's (you remember her? Her man played basketball for the jazz and now plays here,) for lunch and her man Hoffa, (who is a HUGE, gorgeous Brazilian, by the way... good to know where I need to be looking for a man,) was like, "here, you can watch the debates! Or would you rather watch mtv?" haha of COURSE I said neither. Then he offered me internet access on his lap top. Totally tempting.

But we had a BLAST with them! Hoffa and Cheyenne freaking rock! Cheyenne made killer chicken and rice and then this REALLY good flan-type stuff, but it was way better. Hoffa offered us his driver any time we want. That was awkward, haha, but he MADE us use his driver yesterday instead of the metro to get back home to our area, which was far away. His driver loved us and is coming to church on Sunday and probably to English practice too. Anyways, I love them and am super stoked they're here for a while longer. Cheyenne wanted us to go snowboarding with her today.... but what can you do.

I went on a split this week with Sister M and I liked her a lot. And she’s American. I didn't think I wanted to serve with the American girls, but I think it would be a big help for me in different ways. So maybe one day we will serve together. We went tracting on Tuesday night together, and that was super interesting. We went to an address we had been given for a contact. We walked up to the gate and without even pausing, it opened automatically for us. Then we walked to the dom door and a person came out immediately so we walked right in. Weird. We both looked at each other and were like, hmm, think we're meant to be here. I love how God seriously just opens up the way.

Anyways, the contact woman was totally cracked out. Literally, on crack. But she said she would call us. We didn't want to leave, so Martineau was like, I've never tracted before, and I told her I love tracting. We only had two Books of Mormon, but we were like, hey it's enough right.

The first two people who opened their doors wanted the books and we talked forever and they were just so cool. So then we were out of books and went and got more at the building. We found another dom to tract and on one of the doors, we knocked and the babushka quickly said, "come in come in!" and we were like, COOL! The other lady was on the phone but got off to come and talk to us. Ended up the babushka didn't live there and just thought the other woman was expecting us, so it was a really funny awkward situation.

We watched the broadcast of President Hinckley’s funeral, which was really good. I was totally bummed to have to watch four hours of it in Russian, but at the last second, they got an English feed for us downstairs, so all the American missionaries went down and watched it there. I love him. It was a really good funeral and I hate funerals. I think it was just because the whole thing was so happy, you know, so I just was able to enjoy it and be happy too. He was an amazing prophet and I'm sad he's gone since he has been prophet for the majority of my life, and since I can remember. But I know Monson will be awesome! I haven't heard any news about it yet, but I'm sure he's the new prophet, right?

I love my district. I haven't told you much about Elder K. He's my newer zone leader. He's from Ohio, plays the guitar and writes music. Totally adorable, EVERY girl (investigators, members, babushkas, non-members) are all madly in love with him. Rita, my girl getting baptized is madly in love with him. It's hilarious. But he's way rad! So it makes sense.

Thank you so much for supporting me here! (written Feb 7, 2008)

It's Christian Bale's birthday!

I’ve been belting “Lady in Red” all day on the street cuz it was playing in McDonalds. We just ran into all the Elders on the street as they were going to get pizza. Bummer since I just scarfed a burger and 2 ice creams... hey now, don't judge me, it's Christian Bale's birthday today. I can eat all the morozhena (ice-cream) I want. And I will. We're partying hard after this.

Let me update you on Rita. We had our Plan of Salvation lesson with her the other night. I've been terrified and praying Satan wouldn't touch this girl, right. Well, when she walked in, I could see that her eyes were just different. I leaned over to my comp and mentioned it too. Then when we were teaching her, she was just so skeptical! And being so ornery. When we would testify she would laugh and she just kept asking STUPID questions over and over again.

I KNOW she's been talking to her Muslim boyfriend. He told her she HAS to be Muslim if she wants to be with him, so I'm sure he's just pulling out all kinds of crap on the church. Anyways, the saddest part was her eyes. This girl has had such a passion since we met her, and always has had such a depth and happiness in her eyes as we talk and teach. That day, it was just mocking. It was such a horrible feeling. But what can you do? We testified, and took her to FHE right after, where luckily she made friends and talked to other people about the church. And the lesson seemed to be made for her! It was about how Satan is so subtle but works his way into our lives confusing us. It was perfect. Well, needless to say, she realized she does have a testimony and has felt a change in her life already and doesn't want that to stop. I loved hearing that. So we're on the right track again.

Remember the girl we met, the one with the one freezing room that we sat on the dirty floor by candlelight. SHE has come a LONG way! She loves us now. Like, LOVES us, which is shocking cuz she's so sarcastic and bitter. But I love that. haha! Not the bitter part. Anyways, yea, we went one day and wallpapered the room. Totally hard, but way fun. Then we had the elders come and hook up the electricity so now there is light and heat. And a bed! Good times. And now her mom is open to us coming over and teaching any time. And we do. Every week! Service totally works, it's so fun. :) Her brother has been hanging out with the elders too! Shock. Love it!

Elder S. left. Sadness. It’s always an ongoing heartbreak seeing these amazing friends go home! And they just forget about you... hahaha. It sucks. But I know they just move on with their lives. So I gave him a haircut and said goodbye. He was way cool. Elders H and M are leaving in a couple of weeks. I'm being shredded. (written Jan 31, 2008)