Mormon Girl in Russia

Last zone conference

2008-09-28T17:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my last zone conference! Talk about sad! Up to this point it hasn't been real at all that I'm going home, and I've been just all HAPPY and excited about it. But for the first time yesterday, I felt kind of sad. It's almost over. Kind of devastating. But I'm excited I have so much to go home to and a whole new adventure to start! :) YAY baby I'm coming home!

I just love my mission experience so much! I was given my death papers yesterday, so I guess it's time to start packing. They were all about my luggage. Prez, who doesn't speak English, has learned two phrases in English. "You trunky" and "HUGE problem!" Haha and he uses them constantly on me. He says, "you trunky?" every five minutes, and every five minutes, I reassure him in Russian, "yes president, VERY!" Then he pops into rooms where I am and says, "HUGE problem?!" Or "Ah, huge problem." I wish you knew him, it would make this really boring story so much more funny for you. :)

I love being back in Shuvalovo! It's fun to be able to understand EVERYTHING this time around, and to be able to speak. It wasn't even that long ago, like four months ago, that I was here last. But I guess it makes a huge difference. It's fun, cuz now I'm getting to know all the faces for real. And they're all like, "wasn't your hair black before?" Haha, yes, I have gone through every hair color on my mish. :) Did I mention I tripped when I went to sit down after speaking? On the podium cord... almost took it all down with me. Yes, I am still the same girl.

A miracle that has happened since I left: remember my little Sveta? We wallpapered the dark room she and her family live in. And then she started meeting with us and ended up loving our guts even though she started out as such a snot nosed brat. Yea, well, new shocker. Her brother, Vlad, who was such a dark sullen guy who would never even respond to our hellos... yea, he's AMAZING! Complete turnaround! He was at sports night, and I was like, Vlad? The elders told me he's the teachers quorum priesthood leader now. He prepared the sacrament, was there an hour early, so bright and lively! WHAT THE HECK?! On Monday night my comp and I went to do FHE with Sveta, who isn't active at all, and vlad was there and was the life of the party. He testified tons of times, so naturally and was like, "I was reading in the book of Mormon this.... and another time this... and it said this..." OMg... Look what the gospel does to people!!!! It freaking ROCKS!!!!

Sports night was so fun! We played soccer first, and I scored! Yay! Then we played football and I scored again! I think the elders were impressed to the extreme. I didn't want to break it to them that all of that action was totally by accident, and probably wouldn't ever happen again. Haha!

L has been sick, sad. B, I love! He's so rad! C, I'm so happy to have around, he likes to talk a lot! And B, Kor's X-boyfriend is actually super nice! I love my district! We're going to do something fun today. We're all here together at internet right now. On Monday after District Meeting, we had district lunch and I psychoanalyzed them all. And I'm gooooood at it, Haha! Well, I've done it my whole mish, so I better be! Afterwards, we talked about dating, and hints girls give and what means what and stuff. Every one of them said I should right a book. Maybe I should. I need some form of income. Haha jk! It's just funny coming from a girl who has never had a serious relationship.

The other day, my comp dropped some invites in a parking lot behind a car that, as she was down on the ground picking them up, decided to back up. I was like "nnnnnnnooooooooooo! ostarozhna!!!(be careful!!!)" Instead of grabbing my comp or something, I jumped behind the car and started pushing it!!!! hahaha It was just a stupid little lada, so I guess I thought I could take it. I didn't really do anything to it, but the people got the idea to stop cuz some crazy girl was pushing their car. Afterwards, I was like, um.... did I just do that?

Yay! In exactly two weeks I'll be in Germany or something on my way home to you! AH! (written 9-25-08)

Shuvalavo revisited

2008-09-28T17:18:00.000-07:00

OMG, I'm coming home soon! YAY! It doesn't feel real...in the slightest. Home just really feels like this big dream to me.

Transfers were yesterday! I'm in Shuvalovo again!!!! So yea, I'm finishing off my mish with a whole 3 areas! :) But I love Shuvalovo, so no big. I'm in the same apt and everything. WHY did I lug so much junk out! Gosh...

My new comp’s name is Yemilionova...or something like that. And I love her! She's obviously Russian. :) My new district seems rad! Right now we're at internet with my new DL, B, who is way cool, and his comp L, who is very pretty. haha, jk. But so serious. ;) We're meeting up with our zone leaders later.

It was traumatizing splitting up from my other district, not really knowing if we'll ever see each other again. H went AP!!! With C! That should be a party. W got sent down to Pskov, haha, now that I’m not there. I saw S in the office, I miss him! He asked all about the fam, and he noticed my hair was different, he always does. So that was fun. B is senior comp in Avtovo with a mini missionary. She'll do awesome! W went home today! I will miss his guts. But hopefully he'll write or something.

Yea, I'm a little trunky, but I feel it’s totally not a bad thing. So what if I WANT to go home to my amazing family! I'm still working hard here. So all those negative things you hear about being trunky are totally lame.

We got kicked out of Pskov early, so B and I went to Ikea here in Peter. :) It’s my favorite. My district is going there today for lunch! It’s as American as you get....which is funny, cuz it's totally not American.. :) I love America. I can't wait to get home and be in on all the hubbub of the election! I love you madly and desperately! And I can't wait to hold you all in my arms! I don't know if I believe it's really going to happen...I'll read up on faith. :) (written 9-11-08)

Brush twice a day

2008-09-28T16:43:00.000-07:00

28 days! Or 4 weeks! Or 3 p-days! Till I come home to you!!!! EEK! I'm so so so excited! I looked up my travel plans, and I'm just freaking out! Do you realize I've been dreaming about this (while focusing major on the work here at the same time, Haha) for a year and a half!?!?!? I'm soooo happy! Haha! ...I'm trying NOT to think about it... can't you tell. ;)

Let me tell you, Russia has lost its mind. Is that harsh to say about a country... scratch that. Is that harsh to say about PEOPLE that I love here? There has been crazy junk going on. War related, obviously. And I HATE being cut off from the TRUTH! Ugh, I won't waste more letter time on this, but let me tell you, it's been so intense. I haven't even told you the half of everything going on.

The other night, there was kind of a creepy happening. We were standing waiting for a bus and these two middle eastern men were standing 3 feet away staring blatantly at us. I was going to talk to them, but something stopped me, twice. So I just stared blatantly back. The bus came and I looked back in time to see these two men motion at three others I HADNT noticed behind us, towards us. I was like, what the heck! So I warned B and we got in a position on the bus so we were standing and facing them, where they couldn’t surround us, cuz they were trying to. That bus ride was ridiculous. It wasn't just a hey, we're picking you up situation, it was creepy and planned out and they were being very bold and blatant about it. But they never said a word. So I plotted out our stop in such a way that we jumped off out of the other door and ran from these guys and mixed up in the crowds. It was beautiful the way we pulled it off.

We've had quite a few other things happen, but I'm pretty sure prez is pulling us out next week at transfer, so we're just biding our time.

My tennis shoes died finally. The sole fell off of one. I'm shocked they lasted me so long. So I bought a REALLY cheap (and way not comfy) Russian pair to finish off my mission with. My hair is falling out still. I tried to do braids the other day, but they were too frail and skinny! I'm bald! It's so sad! So I've started taking hair vitamins, hopefully they'll work. And I had a nightmare about my teeth the other night! Oozhous! (Terrible!) Oh, kind of funny, baba masha the other night was telling me my teeth were beautiful and she asked me what I brush them with. I told her just normal toothpaste twice a day. She was soooo taken aback... "EVERYDAY?!" hahaha then it was my turn to be taken aback. One word, and now it makes sense why people's teeth here suck.

Yesterday, a woman stopped us and two of our elders on the street. She was a little drunk, but she really wanted to talk to us. We talked for a while, cuz she wanted to know who we were and everything. She told us her life story, which was super sad and twisted. She told us she sees us all the time around town and that we are the most beautiful people she's ever seen. That we have something about us that nobody else has and she wants to look like that too. It was way cool, because we knew exactly what she was talking about, but she didn't know. I was so happy and just wanted to scream, "WE HAVE GOD!" Haha, it's so fun to share this with people living in sooo much darkness! Light will always shine through darkness, I love it. :) (written 9-11-08)

Stolen candy bar

2008-09-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

This week flew by, and it all feels so surreal that this is all coming to a close. I'm excited! Let me tell you, winter has hit already! Okay, no snow...But it's FREEZING! I feel bad for the people who will be staying this winter, it's bound to be KILLER!

The birds are acting insane this week. That's super random, but it's true. Everyday, there are just millions of birds flying together in patterns. I'm trying to figure out what they're trying to tell me, what message they're sending, but...haha, jk. But no, it's like out of a horror movie. I keep wishing they were bats...

This is the last week before transfer calls. We're so crazy about transfers, it's all so up in the air. But I’m pretty positive they're taking sisters completely out of Pskov (which is sad, cuz we've literally tripled our numbers these last few weeks) and if by some miracle they leave sisters, I'll for sure be going back to the city cuz I leave 3 weeks later. Who knows tho, prez is always pulling out crazy surprises. We'll see. TORTURE!

I bought a shapka!!!! FINALLY! And I LOVE her! I found the perfect one. I knew she was perfect the moment she settled on my head. The guy selling her to me was middle eastern (they love me for some reason, my comp is appalled at all of them being so forward with me, haha. I don't get it,) and he gave me a discount. Also, when I was deciding, he was like, "its real fur, its real leather!" I was just like, "uh huh, uh huh," trying to ignore that fact cuz I'm so disgusted by wearing real fur. THEN, he proceeded to pull out REAL fox pelts! I was like, dude... you are NOT helping your sale here. But I was madly in love with my shapka, and bought her! I can't stop trying her on! I woke up this morning, rolled out of bed, and put her on again in front of the mirror. So I'm happy. :)

You know my babushka that we washed and she has the crazy cats and HEINOUS apt? We went over again, I LOVE her! But the woman from the service company who took us there this time started on a rant about the cats while we were cleaning. She made us catch the cats and throw them outside with all the other cats! I mean, it's a good idea because it was just sooooo gross and unsanitary in the apt, but the babushka was so sad! I was traumatized! I fought the lady, but what can you do. The cats are all she had! Well, she has a grandson (who is going to HELL, by the way) but he's trying to poison her so she dies. I'm so sad.

Our branch got back from their week at the temple. THEY LOVED IT! So amazing! They all got back late late Saturday night, then were all at church the next day. Elijah, I've told you about him, he's like 20, was supposed to speak about it. During sacrament, he started BAWLING! All of us were like, what the heck. And he continued to bawl. So poor elder Henderson had to be like, can you still speak? Cuz we didn't know if something was horribly wrong. But he got up, and gave such a spiritual, touching talk about the temple. It was amazing. I can't wait to come home and go! He bawled the whole way thru, but he just talked about how he's been a member for a while now, but now he has so many different thoughts on our purpose in life and stuff. It was amazing.

THEN at FHE this week, he made a big announcement. We're always telling him, go on a mish, go on a mish. But his parents...ugh. They just don't approve, it would never fly. And he promised his mom back when he was baptized that he would finish university to the end, cuz if you leave to go on a mish or for anything, it's really hard to get back in and usually you have to start from scratch. Russian education system...don't get me started. I always got the feeling he didn't really WANT to go anyways.

Well, at the temple, Eli felt he HAD to go on a mission, and on Tuesday, he was fasting to know how to tell his mom. He came home from work, hadn't even said anything, no hints or anything, and his mom said, "Hey I want to talk to you. You have mentioned this mission stuff a while ago, I want to know more about it." Um! He said it was CRAZY! So he knew he just HAD to tell her. He did, and you know what she said? Simply, "Go." MIRACLE! I LOVE the gospel! Things just work out! The spirit is soooooo AMAZING! He just works his thang and gets it done, ya know! I love all these miracles I've seen here! So many happen that you would thing it would just become the norm, but it's still SO cool every time! So we're celebrating.

B stole a candy bar from a really big store, haha! She just walked out with it! The funny thing is, they have detectors you have to walk through AND the police door man is always so suspicious of us cuz we're American and we never want a cart.... The latter is a weird thing, I know, but they find that fishy. Yea, so she just walked right out with it! The scary thing, was trying to sneak it back in! We couldn't just go up and be like, "I didn't pay for this," cuz they would be so angry and we'd get in trouble, cuz we're American. But she accomplished it.

Russia hasn't changed since the day it was founded. Really, it hasn't. I've been studying up more on it. Yes, they are the same. Living in the dark ages, which they call 'not losing the Russian culture.' What can you do. I'm working on making a difference. I love you all so much! AHHHHHHH! Get ready, I'm coming home! (written 9/4/08)

"I will take you home"....NOT!

2008-08-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

It's super rainy here, as it has been of late. No fun, but today we're going to go hang out at the branch, so should be fun. I don't mind the rain, it's kind of cool.

Okay, what to tell you about this week? SOOOO many cool experiences! Yes, after the weekend from AD we're back safely in Pskov. We're back in business and the spirit has been so strong and amazing this week! It's been awesome! We had a meeting with our cute investigator Anya last night. I cut her hair SO hot, and then we watched the Testaments, which I love! And she loved it too! She cried! She loves reading the Book of Mormon, and she said she will come to church on Sunday! Yay! I love her.

A couple of days ago, we were riding on the bus to District Meeting, and this woman sitting across from us started asking about our tags. I told her who we are and about the gospel a little bit. She started going off on how she believes in God, but that's it, because nobody has the answers. Let me tell you, those words get you super excited when you KNOW you have the answers someone is looking for! So we were talking, and the spirit was just feeding the words B. and I needed to say. I love working with her because I've really had a whole knew world of understanding open up to me, and because we're both American and not so good at the language, we get to explain things simply, which I see is the best when talking to people on the streets.

But the cool part of this experience was that everyone on the bus seemed to be listening. The provaslovic women started getting into it with our woman and were DEFENDING us! That's huge, cuz first, we're American, and everyone hates us right now. Second, we're MORMON, so everyone hates us ALWAYS. It started a little tiff, but I loved it cuz the whole time I felt just so calm and happy, and so did B. There were some other people listening too, including some guys in their 20’s and the bus conductor. But the words just came so perfectly, and we testified, so real and so spiritual. We accidentally missed our stop because of it all.

When we got off, we were just like, that was AMAZING! SOOO RAD! And we just talked about the amazing spirit that was just so TANGIBLE there. I loved it. :)

That day we had district meeting and I made a KILLER scotch cake and sadly, ate a lot of it, but it was divine. I like our DM, because our district is so tight and we always get into really deep life and gospel discussions. It's so fun.

Oh, mafia man story: My comp and I had just gone through the most stressful weekend EVER, rushing up to St. Pete's and back. We had finally made it to the bus station to get tix back to Pskov. Long story, short, B needed an ATM, so she asked this really nicely dressed man. We're like, okay, he's for sure mafia. You can just spot them here so easily. We went back an hour later to wait the last couple hours before our bus arrived in a bistro right outside the station. We were starving. Well, that guy was in there, and suddenly, as we were looking at the things to choose from to eat, he ordered for us! And was PAYING for us! I was like, um, NO! So weird! We didn't know him, he was a man, we were missionaries, I was just like AHHH!

But it all happened so fast, and the cashiers wouldn't listen to us, they thought it was all very funny that the rich mafia man was going after the dumb California girls. So, I was like, what do we do?! And I just decided, fine, we'll talk about the gospel, duh! Haha, so we did, and found out he was Muslim, named Abu. It was all very awkward and such, but we finished eating and he was like, what bus are you taking? HE was going to Pskov TOO! Dangit! We made excuses to get away from him the last hour before the bus got there. He was very nice and dignified, but I just didn't like the situation.

On the bus he was super into us, it was more obvious. Gross. So then, because the buses weren't going to be running by the time we got in, he said, "I'll take you home." Blah blah blah. I frantically called our elders, told them to meet us at the station, and they said the word had to go up through zone leaders, APs, and prez, (HORRIFIC! I WAS MORTIFIED! But prez had just that day given us a lecture on safety issues, so it wasn't so bad).

I guess the elders RAN from their apt to meet us. I'm so glad they did, cuz when we got off the bus and the elders ran up, Abu who had been so gentlemanly and nice and was insisting we go with him, took off! Like a predator! We watched as he met ANOTHER big man, and they hopped in a car with ANOTHER man! Oh man, both B and I felt the spirit so strong like, AHHHH! That could have been horrible! We weren't planning on going with him no matter what, but I was just so thankful the elders came to our rescue, cuz afterwards, the spirit was just SINGING to us we did the right thing.

Okay, that wasn't all the details, but it was too long anyways. :) I love my family so much and miss you all DESPERATELY! I'm so happy I'm finishing up my rockin' mission so I can come home and attack you all, I miss you so much! I love the spirit, I LOVE the priesthood, I love the people here, I love my mission! And most of all, I love you!!!! (written Aug 28, 2008)

"Dyen Krasotky"

2008-08-29T16:39:00.000-07:00

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)

Stinging nettle and skeletons

2008-08-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

This week our branch had a little pioneer trek thing, which meant walking through the city of Pskov. What I didn’t 't know, and what nobody else knew, was that Elijah was going to take us through some super freaking Pskovian jungle I didn't even know existed! It's right down by the river. So it was all cool, fun, we talked about pioneers and made our own temple out of sand, rocks and I miraculously found seashells...on the shore of the fresh water (but extremely dirty) river. But it ended up super cute.

Then we were going to go a little further along the river and have a picnic. Little did I know that that was when the REAL pioneer trek would start! So let me tell you.....TRAUMATIZING!!! I can't even explain it! But I can tell you I was screaming and shrieking bloody murder the whole time! For a good reason too! Not only were we cruising through thick shrubs, swamps and trees, but this is obviously the land that nobody ever goes to...because apparently it's where the mafia kills everyone!!!! I stepped on so many shoes, ripped clothing, ropes, and...You won't believe me, I know you won't, but a SKELETON!!!! AHHHH! I was screaming bloody murder! First it was a femur bone, but then further on, a WHOLE body!!!!!!!!! OMG! IT was unreal!

It was a super crazy experience that I haven't even begun to paint the picture of for you. But lets just say that I DESPISE stinging nettle. Sadly, Barlow and I both wore shorts that day and we are still suffering from the effects of major stinging nettle. My legs are hideous! And they were already bloodied after the insane hike through heck. But it was fun afterwards. All very funny. I’m out of time. I love you madly and cant wait to see you!!!! (written Aug. 14, 2008)

Goodbye to Kor

2008-08-29T16:17:00.000-07:00

Transfers were yesterday! it was way fun to see everyone and we all went out to carl's jr for lunch. We're having a combined mission conference next week, so we'll be going back up again and seeing everyone! YAY! I got my new comp, the cali girl! I like her a lot! So yea, two California girls with identical personalities breakin it down in pskovland!

It was super devastating to say goodbye to kor yesterday. I know we're going to see each other again, and hopefully soon. But you know, there's always that , well what if I don't cuz we live halfway across the world from each other thing. But we will. People always told me it was hard to kill off missionaries, to be their comp when they 'die'. Didn't think that was true. super wrong. I've obviously been super trunky this transfer, which I HATE cuz If I'm here, I just want to do what I'm here for ya know. I'm so sorry this is the choppiest writing experience for me cuz of this dang keyboard and the space bar that sticks so i'm about to scream! So all this week I felt like I was going home too because kor was. But i wasn't. haha

But this transfer is going to rock, I can already feel it. I already feel better, so yea, this is such a lame letter, but i can't do this anymore, it's too hard to type. I love you all so much! (written aug. 8, 2008)

Alma 37:37

2008-08-29T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today is Harry Potter's Bday!!! We're probably going to do something to celebrate. I would love to read the book, but what can you do. I've waited this long, I can wait a little more. :) H, W, and I sit for hours and asked each other questions from the books trying to stump each other. Wow. I'm a major nerd. Still. :)

I taught relief society this week, and it actually wasn't that bad. Probably just because the woman are so cool and love me, for some super strange reason. Haha I made lunch for district meeting. Spaghetti, it went over well. Nothing like dad's tho. :)

This week we returned to the "Scary" babushka. I don't think I ever told you about her. She’s this crazy baba we go over and wash. She's super fat, and BUCK-naked! I guess she was in the war or something so she's crazy, but my opinion is, she's totally sane, just hilarious. She can walk, but likes to wheel herself (yes, naked, always) around in a wheelchair. So, if you could imagine the head of the cowardly lion with the naked body of a walrus, you know exactly what she looks like. And she likes to growl at us. She wants us to believe she's scary, but she loves us cuz we're just straight up with her and tell her not to fight us. It's funny. We give her dry baths...it's where she lays down and we scrub her with brushes...super weird.

This morning, I was freaking out cuz it was finally pday and I was like "WAKE UP! WE HAVE TO GET TO EMAIL!" jumping on kor's bed. Anyways, I was just running around all morning, but while she was getting ready, I just got the sudden urge to read the scriptures. So I flipped them open, not even to where my place is, and I just pointed to a verse and read it. It was Alma 37:37. The part that stood SCREAMING out to me was, in the morning, let thy heart be full of thanks to God. I hadn't said my morning prayers today cuz I was just running around...Well, it made me smile, and of course I got down and said my prayer and thanked God for my amazing life and this experience he's given me being able to serve him and his children here in Russia. I just love how Heavenly Father will help us out, even with little things like forgetting to pray in the morning. :) I love you all so much! I miss you like INSANELY much! And I'm loving my mish, so I know I always say this, but thank you so much for sending me! :) (written July 31, 2008)

Batman envy

2008-08-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

My comp goes home in less than 2 weeks...wow. Needless to say, she's super trunky. Let's be honest, it's passing onto me. Wow. I've let myself totally go this week. I'm living out of a sports bra, not doing my hair and not wearing makeup. I'm losing it! But I promise I'll pick back up. I can't waste these last moments here! I have less than 100 days! AHHHHH!

We went on splits this week, and by that I mean Sister Varygina and M came and partied with us in Pskov. Haha I was with M this time, and I love her! We talked a ton and laughed and I just loved it. It's sad we'll never serve together, I think we would have done well. The service we did while they were here tho....wow. I can't really explain or talk about it. But in the end the babushka we helped sang to us, and we sang "families can be together forever" in Russian. So it was so worth it. :)

So, it's bat week, huh...wow...struggle! Haha! Please, tell me how it is, but don't tell me anything about it. Batman!

Don’t forget me! Remember Jesus loves you! Oh, and the church is true! :) I love it so much! And I love you! Again. (written July 23, 2008)

Magical Prague!

2008-08-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

I'm back, and soooo dying! I don't know why losing time is so hard on the body, gaining time was amazing! So yes, I'll probably sound super delusional in this letter, but what can you do. I WENT TO PRAGUE!!! Where to even begin? I wish I had taken notes the whole time I was there. And so much happened before Prague, what with zone conference and all, so lots to tell.

Okay, so we made our way up to Peter again. A transporter (no joke, straight from the movie, in a nice car and everything, we didn't even have to pay him cuz it "was all handled" already), so yea, a transporter picked me up after the elders and got us to the airport. We took a SUPER small airplane, like totally intimate, and we flew to PRAGUE!

We first met up with a woman waiting for us with a sign, and she escorted us to our hotel with another group of missionaries we knew in the mtc who are all serving in Moscow. Our hotel was way nice, and I had my own room, of course. Well, we just dropped our stuff and ran, cuz, well, we were in PRAGUE! Haha

Let me tell you a few things about Prague....It's the most beautiful city I've ever seen, hands down. It was magic. Beautiful castles and cathedrals everywhere, ALL the streets are cobblestoned, it's just a fantasyland, I tell you! And it is soooooo CLEAN! There is ZERO garbage on the streets. People don't smoke there. Everyone is so polite and courteous! All the public transport is all done on the honor system, like nobody collects money for anything, and people still paid the machines. Everything was super high class and just all around amazing. Basically, you just have to go and experience it. I am being completely honest when I say, I really hope I can live there at some point in my life.

Everyone there knows at LEAST two languages, so chances are you can talk to anybody on the street. Everyone is so nice, so they all want to talk. (SO diff from Russia! I still love Russia tho.) It's a huge melting pot of every culture. The shopping is amazing, they had the greatest stores EVER, and I was stuck with a group of elders...hahaha! But we had a rad time together. They gave me two minutes in H&M, which I loved, but it was torture not buying anything! I did buy a cute shirt on the street that says 'Prague' and has the city, I love it. Yes, I am a tourist...haha. I also bought a RAD ring and a super cute scarf.

We went into one of the shops and the woman working there spotted me as American right away. So she said hello in English. but she asked me if I spoke Russian because she saw my tag. I launched into Russian, and we had a grand old time chatting it up. She sold me my shirt and scarf and gave me a major discount, cuz she loved me. It was just so weird, I was in a foreign country still, so I felt like I need to speak the foreign language I knew, it was just weird how I was more confident speaking Russian than English. haha crazy.

What else about this amazing city?...It's so safe! You just feel insanely secure at all times, I can't explain it. And I loved my mtc group I got to see, they were so fun, I just will love them all forever. Can I just say, McDonalds really does own the world. They were on every block there. They sell absinthe all over the city! CRAZY! But I guess it is Bohemia, so yea. And, Praguish men are GORGEOUS, just fyi. Not that I was looking.

There was a businessman I asked where a good place would be to eat and he sent us to this really fun pub, but he automatically asked me if I was from CA! I was like, how did you know?! He wasn't even from America! He told me it was just obvious, haha. Weird. PS, I read the newspaper on the airplane, the world hates America. No wonder, the things the paper had in it were ridiculous, and totally untrue! What can you do.

Zone conference was RAD! I love our prez and his fam, they're just amazing! It was the best zone conference I’ve ever had. It was the perfect combo of spirituality and humor! We all laughed so much! And yes, it was all in Russian, but I liked it. It's interesting, it's so easy to just be open and joke with President and his wife, but still have SUCH high respect for them. It's so cool. I mass produced no bake cookies for the conference and everyone loved them.

I guess all the missionaries who were coming here from America have been reassigned. Like NO more Americans! It’s so sad, but I feel sooo lucky I got in and had this experience! Oh, I broke my tooth. Ouch. Front and center, lower tho. It's not bad, just a chip, but it hurts, and I was DEVASTATED! Ah, I have no time, but remind me to tell you about the old, fat naked "scary" woman we washed. haha! I love you so much. (written July 18, 2008)

New/Old companion

2008-08-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

High drama AGAIN. Emergency transfer of my comp and now I'm with Kor back in Pskov. We are having a rad rocking time together! So many things have happened that just SCREAM this was meant to be. I know the situation and circumstances all sucked, but I'm fine now cuz it's totally soodba (destiny, haha!) We're working our rears off! It's Kor's last transfer and I only have two more after this so we're like... AHHHHHHHHH! Go GO GO! It's super fun!

Tomorrow everyone in our zone and prez and his fam will be arriving for zone conference. Ooooo. And we have to do a musical number. Is this a joke? Whatever. I'm excited for the zone conference spoken fully in Russian/Ukrainian. :)

We've got these miracle new investigators. I'm panicking cuz I'm trying to sort out our area book cuz I know I'm going to be here next transfer again. It's good knowing already, I like it. Not so tortuous. Yesterday, Kor and I ran 40 minutes in the morning to the elders' apt (cuz H is in Prague and so K was staying at the OTHER elders apt, so this one was empty for the time being) to take a real shower. With hot water! Oh, it was so nice. We were so happy! And clean. I hope they turn our hot water back on soon, I can't go another month without it!

K, this is short, I know. I'll be in Prague next week! Sadly, we're going for only 1 1/2 days, way less than any other group, but what can you do. I'M GOING TO PRAGUE! haha! I love you so much! Don't forget me. :) (written July 9, 2008)

Still in Pskov

2008-08-29T14:00:00.000-07:00

We had transfers...I'm still in Pskov..With GEGAULCHYI! You remember her? The "dreaded" comp. Wow. It's been interesting. Already. Yes, we have fought, but basically I'm just being her best friend and being super chill just cuz she loves me so much and has been waiting for this companionship since I got here. We were in Peter yesterday in the office, and let me tell you...I can’t even count how many condolences I got. haha! And hugs. Everyone was acting like I was going to my grave. Maybe I was. Maybe I am. Maybe SHE is..Um, anyways, nothing huge yet. She did catch the kitchen on fire last night. And when I say fire, I don't mean just a little flame. It was a freaking 5-foot tall raging oil fire, and super hot! I was like "WHAT THE HECK!!?!?!?! DO SOMETHING!" She just stood there, smirking. So I had to grab a huge metal bowl and throw it over the pan. It's lucky we happen to have a metal plate on the ceiling right there cuz our apt would have been GONE. Wow. Let the adventures begin. Just pray for me not to hit her and get sent home.

I met the new sister from CA yesterday! She's way rad and we had fun talking. Some of the elders wanted pics with the "CA girls" ahah. Um. I said goodbye to prez and sister S. yesterday. They were super nice and sister s. was just like, “I love you so much!” It was sweet.

After our Mummy adventure last week in the catacombs, we've been bombarded with phone calls and texts! Man, the girls are adorable, but wow. So I'm hoping to plan some kind of FHE and invite them and their fams. We'll see. Okay, I know this is super short, but I’ve got to go already. She made us late today....but you know what, this transfer is going to be all right. No biggie. I love you! More than all the American and Mexican food in the world! More than all the amazing movies I'm missing! More than my boyfriend Batman! Obviously. hahaha! (written June 26, 2008)

Detained

2008-08-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

Dearest Darlingest Momsy and Popsicle!...:) HELLO bce! That means everyone. haha

Can you believe that transfers are in two days?!?!?!?! And two new sisters are coming in. Dude, so much drama and new prez and stuff, it's TORTURE waiting to see what will happen! AH!

We just got back from a little excursion to a village called Pechory. SO RAD! We went to this monastery, and they made me and my comp put on skirts, and of course tried to push the head wrap thing on me again, but I was like, UM, the MEN don't have to wear them. All in all, I ended up putting my sweatshirt hood on my head so we could enter inconspicuously. Let me tell you our adventure. There are these tombs we wanted to get into. But you have to have a guide because they're just crazy tunnels underground. So we asked this fieldtrip group with a ton of little kids if we could go with them. The women were so cool about it and just told us not to talk with accents and just blend in with the kids...who were all up to my chest. hahaha

Anyway, we had to wait a while, don't know why, but I ended up talking to all the little girls around me. OMG, so funny! hahaha! I'm like, eh, I don't want to talk to them, and they're all speaking Russian. But they were FASCINATED by the Americans. (F clamed he was Chinese, and we went with it. He's sooooo Josh Hartnett!) So, it was super entertaining, I talked forever with this huge group of little girls about Britney Spears and Madonna and stuff, and they wanted to know everything about me.

When we got into the monastery, they gave us all these tiny candles and lit them for us and we followed a monk into the scary, dark, deep depths of the tombs. AH! So creepy! Dead bodies everywhere. All the little girls were clinging to me and it was just a total adventure. S kept checking on me to see if I was okay because he knows I hate graveyards. And this was the ULTIMATE graveyard.

It was freezing, and you could hear a heartbeat...talk about FREAKY! There were holes in the walls you could stick your candles into and see the coffins and bodies. OMG. I kept saying to the girls, one of these times a hand is just gonna grab you. haha I’m evil. But they were loving it. The older ones, like 12 and 13 years old, were totally LOVING on S and H, hahahaa! We came to a tall room, just lined with DEAD PEOPLE! And all we had were these dim little candles. Oh yea, I forgot to tell you, the monk crossed my forehead with liquid wax. So somehow I think I’ve been baptized into another church or something...um. All these little girls and I were showing off our shiny wax crosses to each other. Such an adventure.

Then....I was like, what do we do when our candle burns out? We were deep in the catacombs and I was getting a little worried. Well, guess what...they DID! All of ours went out at once. My girls and I started shrieking and running like crazy, trying to get through the suffocating darkness to the exit. We made it. ahhaha it was so fun! We said about 7 goodbyes, literally. I got a few presents from some of the girls, and also spent about 15 minutes signing their hands with my name and cell number, hahaha! I felt like such a celebrity! :) They're all from Pskov, so we're gonna get into the families thru their 10 year olds. haha We’ve gotten about 75 calls and texts already. They're so cute! We saw them pass by on their bus and they were all freaking out waving and screaming my name. I love them all!

Varigina thinks I’m boring. Everyone does. I've mellowed out so much here.

We had another lice scare this week. But we think we just have fleas. Yay. But now the elders (mainly S.) are FREAKING out about the lice thing! haha I wish I could tell you stories, but there is no time. But now they know that the girls in the branch have lice.

We got to go back to the blind cat lady again! I love her! We went buck wild on her apt, cuz it's just so dirty. She LOVES us! So cute! My comp and I are doing better right now. We've discovered we like each other a lot on Midol. Interesting. H is so rad, I love him! I hope my sons will grow up to be like him, he's just way cool. He and I talked about Harry Potter for more than an hour the other day at district lunch. Everyone else hates us, hahahaha OH! I didn't tell you. Today, when we got off the train in the village (it's on the BORDER of Estonia,) we wanted to just slip by the guards super fast and unnoticed. So S led the way...to a place off limits. Well, a bunch of military jumped on us and hauled us into a military building where they put a guard on us and took off with our passports for 45 minutes. It was super crazy, and funny that it happened like that, ahha! I have sooo much more to tell you, but zero time! I love you so much! (written June 19, 2008)

Midnight beating

2008-08-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited it's pday! I'm always bouncing around the apt in the morning and my comp hates me. haha she hates email tho...so sad. So I'm running to internet in the morning and she's like 30 feet behind me.

Today is a holiday...again. We're gonna go eat after this, then play tennis if we can (we're craving something american! ps, S. has introduced baseball here. People think it's the weirdest thing ever,) and then we have to be in by 5.

Right now I'm experiencing the most silent time of my life. Not necessarily a bad thing, but you know I hate silence. haha. Anyway, my comp just doesn't want to talk to me. It's sad, and I try, but what can you do. The other day I realized as we stopped to pray at the door before we left the apt and I said "my turn," that those were the first words uttered that morning. But at least I have the elders. And I'm working on Baikalova. Like I ask her stupid "would you rather" questions and whats your fave color type of things. Most of the time I'm answered with silence, but sometimes she responds. PROGRESS! I asked her straight up if she had a prob with me and she said no. So, nothing to do but the work. :)

I had some AMAZING contacting experiences this week! I think this is causing me to talk more to people on the streets (normally I can just add in things as my russian comps talk,) so it's probably totally meant to be. I'm teaching Spanish again. It's so interesting to teach it from Russian. hahaha! Most of my students are from my english class, and Spanish seems SO similar to english for me now that I've learned russian. So I'm kind of teaching spanish and english at the same time, if that makes sense. They think spanish and english are similar too, so it helps. I taught them ten little indians in spanish in my last class, so that was fun.

The other night, I was totally sleeping and all of the sudden we heard a man's blood curdling scream and glass breaking coming from outside. My comp and I immediately vaulted out of bed and ran to our big window. There was a man curled up in the fetal position on the sidewalk. An old man and a woman were circling him. I was like, why is nobody touching him or trying to help or something!? Tons of people walked by and finally a couple stopped and the new woman was like, what the heck? She went over to the man on the sidewalk (he was obviously drunk or something) and she started beating the CRAP out of the guy. In the face. For ten minutes straight. Then they started dragging the guy and wrestling him and beating him more. (He for sure had a black face in the morning, man, I've never seen beating like that before.) While he was lying on the ground again and being beaten by this woman, the first woman went over and was petting his back, then leaned down and whispered something to the guy. For the first time he showed sign of life. He hauled back and socked the girl in the face! Well, she took off. I was like "YEA! YOU GO GIRL! YOU WALK AWAY, YEAH!" Anyways, lots more happened, but i'm out of time.

I love you truly madly deeply do!! (written June 12, 2008)

Voldemort

2008-08-29T12:31:00.000-07:00

Yup, I'm going to PRAGUE on July 16th! It’s only for a couple of days, but UM!!! I'm terrified the plan is going to change or something, but that's the plan right now. Can you believe it!? It's like I'm in a movie! Sister G, we'd like you to accept a secret mission to Prague. Objective: obtain new visa and rendezvous back in St Petersburg as soon as possible. I'm so freaking stoked!

We got our phone stolen this week by totally normal people. I saw it and everything, just didn't realize it happened. So sad totally normal people will do that. Funny though cuz the elders got theirs stolen last week. So we had to buy a new one.

I've learned a handy trick. Vinegar is good for sucking poison out of bug bites so they don't itch. KILLS at first, but been super good revelation from my comp this week. I've been eaten alive.

Last week we went to the Kremlin in Pskov and into the cathedral there. They kicked my comp and me out because we didn't have scarves on our heads. I refused to use one of their dirty ones. After a while, the man that kicked us out came and DRAGGED me in even though I wouldn't wear one. Haha! Today in Ostrov we went into a church they were holding a service at and an old babushka almost chopped my head off for not having on a head thing, so she gave me one. Then I got reprimanded for videotaping, even though S had been doing it already right in front of her. So I got kicked out. Good day though.

I saw Voldemort on the street this week. Thought you ought to know.

Oh...so yea, he's done it...Paul has grown on me. That's all I'll say for now. :)

The work is going good here. My comp and I don't talk much, but I think she likes me a little bit so we're good. I love our elders! I learn SO much from S!

I had another break down doing service this week...It was a lady who we had helped when I served here before. It's so sad. You think the smell of cat urine is bad....oh no. Not once you hit the smell of human urine. I seriously was scared to death I would pass out in front of this poor woman. My comp went in to clean her dishes and I stayed out and talked to her while scrubbing the floors...mom, I can't even describe it. I don't think I can, I feel tears again. Lets just say it was so hard scraping poop up off the floor and the urine while trying to act like it was fine. This poor woman has a daughter who never comes to visit because she's an alcoholic and I think just doesn't want to have to deal with her handicapped mother. She can’t walk. She just lies in this dark, old, DIRTY place by herself, all day every day. It's devastating. I can't tell you all the details, but really, my heart broke and I fell apart after we left. But what can you do. I just hope we can go back to help her again. If my physical body can take it.

I'll just end on something else not sad. I was reading this week and something struck me that Jesus said. It was something like; a man would give his soul to gain the world. But what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For some reason that struck me and stuck with me all week. Of course, people give up their souls to get gain, we see it EVERYWHERE, EVERYDAY! But really, if you think about it, wouldn't everyone be willing to give up everything to have their soul?

Love, you! (written Jun 5, 2008)

Honeycomb, hand pumps, and holy waterfalls

2008-08-29T11:24:00.000-07:00

Big drama of the week:

Last week at English class the members were all talking about a nuclear explosion that happened at a plant just south of St. Petersberg. They said the cloud was heading straight for Pskov! Needless to say, I was a little scared. Only one of my all time worst nightmares. S was scared too, but we couldn't get ahold of prez. They said it was going to hit late that night or in the morning. Lovely.

We thought, well, for sure someone would have called us. The members and Russians all told us not to worry, that this happens sometimes....WHAT?! Ever heard of Chernoble... how do you even spell it? I don't know, I've only HEARD of it.

My comp told me this happened to her city and the government just shoots major weapons at the cloud to lift it over the cities in the way so it will rain down right PAST them. The members said even if it did rain down on us, the radiation shouldn't be too bad and to just drink milk with a little bit of iodine to help with it....what the...am I freaking living in a MOVIE or what?! So that night was kind of nervous...What can you do?

The next morning we woke up to what normally is a very sunny white-nights morning, but instead was a scary dirty black sky. My comp said we couldn't go running that morning, it was super scary. But it never rained, despite the fact that the sky was super dirty all day, clearing up though as it went on. I talked to prez about it and he said he heard about it too and made a call and was told it was a rumor. Bad thing is, I guess the Russian government doesn't always tell people until way later. And our members said it was for sure true...I don't know, the thing that confirmed it for me was the sky the next morning.

Anyways. Adventures. Things with my comp are getting better. We've said a few more words to each other. :) I cut and flat ironed her hair, and she was in shock. She acted like she hated it, but then the next day we HAD to go and find her a flat iron and she had me do it for Zone conference and stuff, so all is well. I think she likes me a little more now.

We had zone conference, which was totally good. We took our 4 hr bus ride and got interviews with prez that night in Novgorod. Then sister S took my comp and I to the Kremlin (it's called a kremell, or stronghold, or fortress, but for some reason I call it the Kremlin...) and the little city was so so pretty. Then, we went back to the hotel...uh huh, they got the sisters a hotel room this time! What the heck?! Nothing fabulous, but I felt so wrong being in a hotel when the elders didn't get to too. So we stayed up over hours and had dinner with the Prez and Sister S. They treated us, which was so nice and I felt insanely spoiled, but it was just really awkward and quiet, I'm not gonna lie. You know me, I hate silence, so I would just blurt out random things trying to start conversation, which would quickly die into utter silence again. And I felt sooo heavy afterwards cuz I had meat, chicken wrapped in bacon, and it was so good, I just haven't eaten meat in a while.

In the morning, our area Presidency got into Novgorod and we ate breakfast with them and the Prez. I love the P's, they are amazing! So natural and they LOVE the Russian people, I love it. Our conference went really well. It was the S's last, which means our last in English. :)

Let me tell you about visa issues. Prez talked to me about it cuz I'm going to Tallinn (Estonia) next month to get mine renewed. I guess they've passed new laws saying that we can't send our papers ahead anymore, so now we have to go and do our paperwork there, then return ten days later to pick up our visa. President told me that we are the only mission here doing it that way. All the other ones are flying their missionaries to Madrid or Prague to renew theirs, meaning they have to stay there for a week at a time....I told President, Um, are you SURE we shouldn't do that too?! haha he laughed, but I told him to seriously consider it. UM! HELLO! PRAGUE OR MADRID! I'll take a week vacation to one of those places! He said I should have one more time I need to renew my visa after this next month, and we're just trying out this two-trip thing to Tallinn to see how it works. But of course it'll change when I leave the mish....haha.

Last p-day my rad district took a little trip to an outside village named Izborsk. So beautiful and so fun! I pumped water our of real water pumps, we bought and ate honeycomb from a little lady on the street that she had harvested herself, we cruised the rolling fields and ran into a snake that the boys had fun playing with, we walked through a graveyard, played in the holy waterfalls, the wind was intense I loved it, then we ate at a little soup and blini restaurant. It was super fun. (written May 29, 2008)

A tender mercy: microwave popcorn!

2008-08-29T11:21:00.000-07:00

I just wrote you a really long email and i got cut off. i think i'm going to cry, i wrote a lot...and i can't get it back. i cant write it all again. basically, i love my district. this sucks. I'm sorry, i don't know what to do. i can't get more time, my comp said i could just have 5 more minutes. I'm so sorry. i'm so sad. I love you so much. (written May 24, 2008)

(On May 25, 2008 mishgirl hand wrote a letter home and sent it by snail mail):
I’m writing this because of the huge email disaster this week. I’ll try to remember everything, because I told you a lot.

Let me name my district to start with:
S—obviously I love him! He is such a fun district leader, such a rad missionary, all around amazing. PS: he’s got a bunch of hot brothers too! Haha!
M—Salisbury’s comp; from California; super nice, and really good at the language for being so new!
H—super funny! He’s like a hyperactive little boy bouncing off the walls. He’s a really good leader, which is good cuz he’s the new Branch prez. AMAZING at Russian, and he loves everyone—literally!
F—definitely on my list of faves! Hilarious; TOTALLY Josh Hartnett clone; really in touch with nature…haha! I love him!
Baikalova—my comp. She’s super nice, but we’ve said a total of 10 words to each other the whole transfer. She’s not shy, just uncommunicative….with me. I talk to myself a lot…I say “ok,” “just kidding…” and “never mind” a lot. But I don’t know, I LIKE her a lot! It’s just a really quiet relationship. I’m trying--I even attempted to talk about Sponge Bob…her favorite…whom I HATE. That got 3 words out of her, so, progress!

We got a new apartment and I am so happy! It’s an old commie one, but 50 thousand times better than our other one. Moving was a little bit devilish, but soooo worth it! On Monday, moving day, my comp and I took a load to our new apt then went and met the elders at S’s apt, cuz they were moving too. OMG, their new place is freaking RAD! I felt like I was in America! It was even cool for American standards! The shower is my fave, it’s like pimped out futuristic style and even has a built in radio and cool lights and faucets and stuff. Sooo jealous! And did I mention their dishwasher? Who knew THOSE could be imported?! I didn’t want to leave their place. We had District Meeting there and then made lunch together which was so good. I haven’t had meat in awhile. PS: remember my phobia of touching raw meat? I promised S to give him credit for having me do that for our lunch.

Then my comp and I went to move more stuff of ours. Sadly, I pulverized my suitcase! It’s only a mile or two from our old apt to the new one, but every trip I felt like I was literally dragging dead bodies. Well, I finally looked down at my wheels... and they were shredded! So all that time I basically WAS dragging my suitcase back and forth with loads of stuff…nice. Explained my blistered hands. I thought I was just a wanny. And it didn’t help that absolutely NOTHING in Russia is handicap accessible! So, lots of stairs, curbs, dirt, and potholed streets.

The next day M and S went and got our mattresses for us…OMG, S was super entertaining swinging the mattress around to carry it in every different way possible. He would balance it on his head and march down the street greeting people. Our elders are way cool for taking care of us here. We live a two-minute walk from the elders’ new place now, so that’s fun.

Have I mentioned that I love Pskov? I mean, I know it’s the pit of the mission and all, but I love being back. It’s nice having people who want our invitations we hand out and actually say ‘thank you.” Weird!! I like already knowing where to go and who people are. It’s nice. I know Russian a LITTLE better now, so I’ve gotten some nice comments about that too, haha!

We’re back to doing Pskov service, if you remember how that was. I remember how traumatizing it used to be, I do. But physically, the memories just don’t click till you’re in it again, ya know. It’s so sad and crazy how some people have to live. This week, we went to help a really cute, fun, blind and crippled babushka. The whole apartment smelled like cat urine cuz she has three cats that just do whatever, wherever. The smell was so bad we got dizzy. Gross. I’ll keep these details to a minimum.

During the first hour of cleaning, my comp was talking to the bab and I was in the hall when one of her nasty, mangy cats waddled in and collapsed. It proceeded to writhe and seize in a way I’ve NEVER seen or imagined a cat could do! The cat had a hairlip and it was suffocating or something and it peed all over. I didn’t know what to do! Um, excuse me, your cat is dying?

Would you believe it though, it’s still alive! It bit my comp twice after that. So then we gave this adorable babushka a shower, cuz she literally had not had one for SEVEN months! It was kind of an ordeal, but SO worth it! She loved it so much, she loves US so much! She insisted that we take her (spoiled) sausage meat to eat, which we fed to all the cats on the street. I hope we can go back and help her again!

I’m already booked up for the next week with haircuts. I’ve done a couple super cute ones, and I did Gala’s (a girl from our branch) hair (which is past her rear) for her sister’s wedding.

Did I mention something HUGE that came with our new apt.? Well, while negotiating with the owner and realtor (for some reason the decision to get it or not was left up to me), I said we would take the place if they hooked us up with a microwave. Total joke, but they did it! So for the first time in a year I got to eat popcorn! Oh the little things that make me happy! But at this point I’m so used to NOT having one, I’m at a loss of what to make! So today I purposely made soup to put in the fridge just so I could reheat it this evening! Fun!

OMG, the other day I witnessed the girl in front of me in line at the store have some kind of seizure and pass out, taking out the candy shelf (made of metal!) with her face, then hitting the ground with it too! Nobody did ANYTHING! I was like, “Um..HELP!” But after a second she got up, face bleeding and all, paid and got her stuff. And the weird thing was, nobody SAID anything! Nobody cared! Nobody was even fazed! What the heck!?!

I love you all madly and miss you like crazy and am dreaming of the day I will see you again!

PS: we have bedbugs!

2008-08-29T11:11:00.000-07:00

Can you believe I’m back in Pskov!? I LOVE IT! We got here late last night and the elders were waiting for us to help me with my killer bags. I was super thankful S and his comp were there to help. I'm so stoked I'm back with S, he's so freaking rad! I'm back in the lovely sites and smells of Pskov!

Yesterday was transfer day and I got to ride a train again. Should be fun being back to the long train and bus rides to anywhere we need to go. I'm serving with sister Baikalova, who REALLY doesn't want to serve with an American, but what can you do. She slept the whole train ride...which I considered a major miracle since I chomped on cashews (my fave, as of late) so loud the whole time.

Once again, I'll update you on how transfers went down. It was, of course, TOTRURE as always having to wait. But Saturday was a really good day. We had sports in the morning at Udelnaya Park near our home. Then we had our last English practice, which was super sad. (I also got in a huge fight with my Zone leader who is the biggest male-chevanistic and hypocritical gaylord EVER!) Then we took Sveta Zabrodina (you know the girl who didn't like us and we sat on the dirty floor in her apt by candlelight then wallpapered it and everything, she is soooo traumatized I left, I love her!) and our two black girls, masha and enessa to Yanna's baptism! From center! I can't believe she got baptized, I'm so happy! We found and taught her while I was there! B. baptized her. Then there was another baptism for a kid in our branch.

THEN we went home and waited for transfer calls, which means anything and everything that was possibly edible was sitting in front of me on the kitchen table. B. was 100% sure I was going to Petro. But when Prez called he told me I was going to Pskov...I couldn't breathe for a whole minute and a half! But once it sunk in I was super excited and happy! Then E, another fave called and said he was going to Petro! He thought I was too...sad. I miss my district! But I think my new one is going to be rad.

I totally feel like I'm home in Pskov. A couple of the members met us at the station and I love them. They said I was fat, but what can you do. Haha! Oh, ps, we have bed bugs. Yup. Uh huh. What else can I say? I'm back.

I forgot how cold our apt is too. S found us a new apt he says is waaaaay better, so we're trying to swing for moving in soon. The prob is that our contract doesn't wind up until next transfer...we'll see. I love you! (written May 14, 2008)

Families are forever...

2008-08-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

Lots of shocking and devastating stuff going on here. Last night we got a call in the middle of the night from Sister Grigorieva. Do you remember her? I LOVE her more than life itself. She's one of my comps from Center. Anyways, she just called to say a quick goodbye...her dad died! I am so traumatized for her. She's the only member in her family and it's really hard for them to understand why she's here. In fact, her dad didn't really know the real reason why she's here. He's had cancer and they've been begging her to go home. She has literally less than a week left...sad huh. He died the week she was going home. My heart hurts so bad for her. I'm so happy we know why we're here and that there is life after this one. She's so strong. I love her. We just sat in shock last night for I don't know how long. I'm so sad I didn't get to see her and say goodbye. But I'll see her again. Pray for her.

Funny things this week: I've mastered peeing while standing....horrible huh! But totally necessary, and I'm not bad.
We had cinco de mayo of course! And V and I celebrated! I made Taco salad and rice ole, and we just pigged out! It was the most expensive meal of my mish, and took hours to gather ingredients, but we did it eventually. Looooots of traveling for it. haha I can't wait to just go to one store down the road from home and have everything we need for good meals and not have it cost a FORTUNE! It'll be fun.

We have an amazing new investigator! His name is Zhenya and he's freaking GOLDEN! We taught our first lesson with him this week with Elders E. and S. It was soooo good! The spirit was amazing, and I just love our elders. The lesson flowed better than any that I've ever seen. He's coming to church on Sunday. And our other investigators are awesome. I really don't want to leave this area.

Tomorrow is Victory day here, so we can't wear nametags or missionary clothes, we have to be in by 5 and we get to watch the huge parade on Nevsky! Yay! They just said that we have to lay low cuz there's tons of anti American groups cuz of course, it's a war holiday, and everyone will be crazy drunk. Well, more crazy drunk than normal.

K, I have to go, but I love you TMD and I'm sooo thankful we get to be together FOREVER! :) (written May 7, 2008)

"Religion is opium for the world!"

2008-08-29T10:51:00.000-07:00

Today is a holiday in Russia. Shocked? I mean, there are holidays every other day. So we're in normal clothes. Luckily we don't have to stay in today, but we will in two weeks for the next holiday. It's some kind of communism holiday, so I'm looking forward to being on the streets. I hear there will be demonstrations and stuff. Should be super fun!
We went to Ikea last p-day after I wrote to you. Yes, I want to single-handedly introduce all the Mormon Russians to this amazing store out in the middle of nowhere. It was so fun of course, and we ate tons of good food.
Varygina and I REALLY want to stay together, but I think I'm for sure getting transferred. But it looks like my chances of ever serving in Kaliningrad are shot. I'm kind of devastated. The only other place for me to go is the one place I didn't want to serve... Petro, 8 hrs north of here.
I went on splits with Kor in Nevsky yesterday, and it was super fun. Their apt is amazing! I love the area, sad I can't serve there! Maybe by some miracle I’ll stay here in shuvaluva with Varygina! We’ve been working super hard and we have 4 new AMAZING investigators! That's a miracle for this area! I'm loving it! We've been doing a lot of service, moving people and cleaning parks and stuff, which has been sooo fun since it's warm! We’re loving it!
Sunday we had our area conference, so everyone met at our main building in center. So many people were there, it was awesome. RIGHT before the meeting started, president came up to me and asked me to translate....WHAT!? There are TONS of REALLY good people, not just missionaries, to translate! But oddly, I felt super calm about it. So I went and sat up front and just PRAYED for me to be able to do this. Guess what. Went AMAZING!!!!! It totally wasn't me of course! It was all the spirit! It was such an amazing experience being able to translate word for word.
This week I really had this amazing realization, that we all have an unspoken language... so hard to explain. But at this point on my mission, I can hear something, know exactly what it means, see it, feel it, understand it, but not in an English word. Does that make sense? Like before, I hear Russian and translate it in my head. But now, I feel it instead. Anyways, after the conference, sister Sandberg had me follow her around to translate back and forth with the members cuz it's their last conference. That was weird, going from English to Russian and Russian to English. But I’m telling you, wasn't me. It was all the spirit, SUPER amazing! I was EXHAUSTED afterwards.
I only have 6 months left! What is going on!? I'm dying to get home, but time is suddenly FLYING by! Oh, we're no longer peeing by candlelight. Thought you ought to know. But it was a major experience changing the light. Toilets here are super junky and the ceiling is super high, so I wish you could have seen me carefully balancing on the back of the toilet praying it wouldn’t tip over and explode. I know, I know. “How many sisters does it take to change a light bulb?”…
I read Our Heritage and LOVED it! I started Marvelous Work and a Wonder yesterday and hopefully will finish today, it's soooo freaking good! Can I tell you that I've been reading the bible more and Paul...yea, he's not my favorite person. Totally sexist. Maybe he will grow on me, we will see.
Sorry I sound scattered, I only have 3 minutes left! Did I tell you English practice is ending? I’m super sad. So is my class. Want to hear one of the funny things I got yelled at me on the street this week? “Religion is opium for the world!”...hahaha!
Do you know how much I love you? I have so much more to say, but time is up. I miss you! Pray for the people of Russia! It works. :) (written May 1, 2008)

I love Russians!

2008-08-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

HELLO AMERICA!

I hate Russian mail. Speaking of which, tell grandma I got her pkg! It was the HUGEST ordeal! But the pkg made up for it. The clothes were so bright and fun but what made my life was the picture album. Thank you thank you thank you so much! I've looked thru the pics 5000 times and my comp just laughs at me.

My comp and I are getting along amazingly. I love her. She's the best sister missionary I've ever known. I'm learning a lot from her. And we laugh sooo much! This week, I've been teaching her all the primary songs in English and the abc's and stuff. It's fun walking down the street singing them together. Haha we're such nerds! She taught me my fave Russian song, Katoosha, and I belt it all the time.

We did service a few times this week in JEANS.... oh my gosh... I love jeans. We did a lot of cleaning and stuff since the snow is gone. While cleaning up trash I found a dead rat and a dog jawbone...gross. SOOO much trash! Elders E. and W. keep me super entertained, they're like one huge stand up act, I love them! We ran into a man peeing on the street this week. Happens a lot. We talked to a drug addict who wants to get off drugs. He also just got out of prison and wanted me to go home with him. Um. Yesterday we taught an AMAZING nineteen yr old couple who are getting married next week. I love them, they're amazing! When we talked to the guy on the metro before, I was like, it's Anikan Skywalker! He even has the freaking braid! Katya, the girl, wants me to do her hair for the wedding...um.

Our apt is falling apart! Our water filter has been a little haywire for a couple of weeks and every time I try to get a DRINK of water, I get a major, high-pressure spray in the face. I'm always super ticked if its right after I flat ironed my hair and did my makeup, cuz it DESTROYS me. ahha! And our light in our toilet is out so we have candles. Romantic.

I love these people! I love the Russians! I feel so at home with them, it's weird! I love you all so much! I miss you so much it hurts, but I'll be home in FOUR transfers! AHHH! (written April 24, 2008)

Chooda! (Miracle!)

2008-08-05T17:43:00.000-07:00

Wow, I got some major mail today! And TONS of pics! Too bad I'm at an internet that I can't see them on! I'm super mad, but I have some major pic action to look forward to next week. :)

This week, my comp and I have been doing a TON of contacting! One day we tracted and contacted for 8 hrs straight and it was FREEZING, so total torture. But seriously, I'm loving it, being with Varygina because we both really push each other to work hard and we feel good with what we've done by the end of the day. Then we die on our beds. It feels super good. Sure, we don’t have any investigators and nobody wants to meet with us...haha, but it's not for lack of TRYING.

I'm loving Varygina...Chooda! (Miracle, haha) We were pretty open in the beginning about how terrified we were to serve with each other again. But very quickly, we just fell into an awesome relationship with each other. I love her. I think she's my favorite comp (besides my MTC comp) that I've had yet. I just respect her a lot, and I think she respects me. I think we both just changed a lot in the last 6 months, and it was enough to make us come together and love each other. I'm sooooooooo thankful.

She did the most fun stuff for me on my birthday! She woke me up in the morning with something SUPER bright in my face. I realized the lights weren't even on....it was a cake she made for me! And the 22 candles that lit up our whole apartment building. I'm sooooo freaking old! What the heck? When did this happen? On my birthday, I know. That was a stupid question. Anyways, she knows I'm not eating sugar or anything, so the cake was made solely of fruit. She's so cute. Then we went out to the kitchen and she had decorated it all really cute with balloons and "happy birthday" and stuff. It was so super sweet! I wanted to cry, cuz I really wasn't looking forward to my birthday, but she made it totally fun. Then she died on her bed, cuz she had been up in the middle of the night doing it all. She rocks me.

We have a lot of fun fantasizing about being Sister Darcy and Sister Knightly. We both love Jane Austin AND Harry Potter, and sometimes I stop us after hour long convos about us basically living these books and I'm just like, we're sooooo weird and CRAZY! ahahahha! It's so fun.

The FLDS issue on the news is huge here in Russia, and totally taking a toll on the streets. EVERYONE seems to have heard about it. And the thing is, none of the missionaries really know what was on the news and what the fact really are. But people are like, "MORMONS! NOOOO" and like all about Mormons being rapists and stuff. They don't get it that it is NOT our church!

One guy on the street the other day, tho, was way rad. I noticed him come up really close behind us, so I brought my purse to the front of me so he couldn't rob me, but then he stopped us and asked if I was from Samara or something weird. When I told him I was from America, he was super stoked and shook my hand. Then when I told him I was a Mormon, he freaked out again and shook my hand. He was super funny. He told my comp so many times that she was AMAZING at Russian, even tho we told him every time that she was BORN in Russia. He FINALLY got it, haha. At the beginning of the convo he asked my comp if I didn't understand Russian very well and was talking all about me, hahahahaha and I told him myself I understood EVERYTHING he was saying.

Conference was AWESOME! Loved it! I LOVE President Monson, he is sooooo rad! He was hilarious! Gabriel, (who is TOTALLY getting baptized by the way!) was like, "this is the prophet?" and then listened sooo intently. He was so excited. So yea, on Sunday after conference, he announced he wanted to be baptized! I was sooooooo excited and I couldn't contain myself, I wanted to jump on someone, but I couldn't hug any of the elders. They all thought that was hilarious, watching me freak out and struggle not to touch anyone. But finally I saw sister Martineau and jumped on her.

I cut a bunch of hair of course this week. I cut mine and my comps today actually. And I did a perm, which was super fun cuz I haven't done one since school. Turned out awesome.

So my package ROCKED! It took most of the day to get it, but soooo worth it! I loved everything! And the clothes are so cute! I wore the black and white plaid shirt yesterday and today I'm wearing the cute black tweed jacket. toooootally hot. Guigalchyi planned some birthday thing for me today, which is nice, but has caused major drama, cuz we're meeting at the Mexican restaurant Tres amigos, but it's a rule that not more than 6 missionaries can be in a public place at a time. So I got reamed by a bunch of people last night, and I didn't even WANT this thing to go down. I BEGGED guigaulchyi not to do it. But she is. Half way it's sweet. But I really didn't want it. But she's nice to do it.

The other night, Varygina and I were on our way home and we got onto the escalator. We decided to climb it, which is KILLER, but we wanted the exercise and needed to get home quickly. Tons of people on it. Well, on our way up, of COURSE I fell...it's me. And it was a huge fall! hahahahaha! My leg is super bruised and scraped up. I think we laughed for 3 hours straight after that. Varygina said it wouldn't have been so dramatic and bad, if I had just fallen instead of falling, screaming, laughing, and shrieking my apologies for taking her out with me. For some strange reason, I reacted when falling by grabbing her leg with an iron grip and not letting go!

I'm out of time already. But I love and miss you madly! Don't forget me. I love you!

I know I'm so cheesy for putting in scriptures, but I liked, and mostly FELT this one when I read it:

Ephesians 2:19

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God. (written April 17, 2008)

The trees are alive!

2008-07-17T17:23:00.000-07:00

I got no mail again! So, I'm super sad and traumatized... I’ve been waiting all week (and it's been a SUPER long wait) to come and check my email since I didn't get any last week cuz the stupid box was full, and now what?! It sucks. Anyway, Not a good way to start off my writing to you, I'm sorry, Haha. Let me start again... I LOVE YOU!
It's a little cold and rainy today. No complaining though cuz spring has totally sprung! Yay! Instead of fried and peeling skin from the arctic blizzards we have really dirty wind. But there's sun! Not today, but most of the week. :) Sooooo unlike me, but I actually noticed that on all the black gnarled trees are buds. They live! So it should be fun to see Peter when it's green.

Everyone here is on roller blades now that it's warm. hahahahahaha! Totally 90's or like Saved By the Bell. :) Too bad it's neelzya (not allowed) for us missionaries. We've been walking a lot lately, which I totally love. Instead of riding the metro, we've been walking from metro to metro, and it's interesting to see how everything is connected. And I'm getting a little well-needed exercise. And I die every night when I go home. We're working hard, and despite our MAJOR differences, Varygina (my comp) and I are getting along really well. There are little problems here and there, but I think she sees how badly I want to work, so she respects me a little more this time around and we're getting along really well through the gospel. That's the way it works. :) The gospel brings people together. It rocks.

The other day we were walking and we had to cross a really big busy street. At a break in the cars, I thought for sure we could make it across the first section of the street, but as I stepped off the curb I realized a car was coming way too fast for me to make it and my comp let out a blood curdling scream. It was funny, cuz even tho she screamed, she followed me off the curb into the street. I don't know, I think you had to be there for the full effect. It was super hilarious! We finally made it across safely, but I was DYING laughing cuz she thought I was gonna die, but followed me to death as well. Her scream still makes me laugh.

Did I tell you that Varygina got lice while she was in Pskov too?! hahaha she said that her comp did too, and when sister P. went down for an exchange for one day, she got it too! Nightmare. But I'm not alone. Haha

The other day at English practice, a black African guy cruised into my class. His name is Gabriel and he's from Nigeria. I freaking love black people. They're just so spiritual and ready for the gospel. We were wondering why the heck he was there cuz his native language is English. He later told us he was given one of our English invites on the street and felt he HAD to come. The next day after English (in English we had talked a lot about the church and gave the first lesson cuz a guy asked about it,) he came to church. It was fast and testimony meeting and at the end, he got up to bear his testimony! But the Branch Prez stood up and said we didn't have time. UM!>!?!?!>!>!>! I was so angry! How about we cut one verse out of the 4 verse song we sang! Frustrating.

But afterwards, Gabriel said that the night before he had thought about how we had talked about Joseph Smith in English class, and how Joseph had read James 1:5 and asked God. He said he wanted to do the same thing, cuz he felt something special. He asked God to wake him up the next day if he was meant to go to church. He didn't set his alarm, but said he woke up at 9 o'clock sharp, which was a miracle for him. He said that during testimony meeting, which was all in Russian by the way, he felt and KNEW that this church was true, and that he was meant to be there. .... omg. I love these miracles!

Yesterday was zone conference, and it was super good! It was all about testifying. I loved it. And we got to testify, of course. It was funny, President asked me to pray again unexpectedly, out of EVERYONE there! Haha, everyone kept asking me "don't you pray at every conference?" And it's always unplanned, which is weird, cuz they always assign things before the conference. Anyway, way funny. And it was a really good spiritual conference.

I love and miss you all so much! I love my mission and the work I'm able to do here! I seriously hope that I can do half as much for the people here as I am receiving from serving them. I love you!

PS--I liked this:
Proverbs 4:23 keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. (written April 10, 2008)

Cats in the Hermitage

2008-07-17T17:02:00.000-07:00

I am HOPING spring has sprung, but the weather already faked us out once before, so we'll see.

We had transfers. As you see, I’m not typing for joy or anything, but what can you do. I really want to go to k-grad, but I think because I want to so bad, I never will. But maybe next transfer. :) I'm still in shuvalovo, but this time with Varygina... Remember her? The comp I had in the threesome. We were both in shock. And pretty open with each other about how shocked and scared we were/are. But whatever. She's an AMAZING missionary, and if anyone can pick up this area, she can. We don't particularly like each other, but I watch her in awe cuz she's just fearless at contacting. I want to be like that. :) Sure, she's got the Russian thing down... cuz she was born here and all. But I still am like, wow. So we'll see how this turns out. I have a feeling its only for a transfer. This is my 4th transfer here, everyone keeps grimacing and giving me their apologies, haha! Shuvalovo isn't the popular place in the mish.

Kor got put with Sosyak. They were not a happy pair either, Haha but I think it'll be fine. It’s only for a transfer cuz Sosyak goes home after this one. Weird! She was my trainer! But anyways, yea, Kor is gone and last night I realized was the first night in a long time I slept without her noises. Haha! I told you about that right? EVERY night. Did I tell you about how I woke up in the middle of the night the other night and how we were in the middle of a conversation in Russian? hahahaha I think I ran into a word I didn't know so it startled me into awake mode and I realized we had been talking. I wonder how many convos we've had in our sleep.

Last week, we did a really weird service thing at the Hermitage. They were having this private showing of the underground halls there, for famous people, because there are hundreds of cats living there! In the hermitage! I guess a long time ago they had a rat problem so they just brought in a ton of cats and they live there still. In these underground nasty halls. Just running around and making it stink! It was sosoooooo weird! And they tried to make it all urban with videos of these cats and music and stuff... sooo not cool.

But I was up close and personal with a bunch of famous Russians. Too bad I had no clue who any of them were. My fave was this really Russian, fat dude who was dressed super nice with a long black palto and Russian mink shapka with medals and stuff on him. He was way funny and joked with me a few times. I guess he's on TV or something, don't know. I also met this way cool girl from Germany named Katrin. She was very interested in the church and we talked a bunch on the phone, but I think someone else talked to her cuz she doesn't want to talk religion anymore, which was a COMPLETE turnaround from what she was wanting before. Sad. But she called and invited me out to a nightclub with her and my zone leaders were there so I asked them (totally jokingly, haha) and they freaked. :)

I got no mail this week. Sad. I’m a little traumatized. I live for my mail. :( My stupid mailbox!

I love you so much. Write me lots, I’m clearing out my mailbox right now! Hug everyone for me. (written April 3, 2008)

Angels among us

2008-07-17T16:44:00.000-07:00

OMG, it was hilarious reading about the Russian salads you did. And yes, you NEED to add mayo, they put it on EVERYTHING here! Literally.

The blizzards have been adventurous! I'm finally seeing the Russia I THOUGHT existed!   I totally feel like I'm in a movie! It's freaking INSANE!!!!! The winds are CRAZY and its just whiteouts!   soooooo fun and crazy. But difficult too since we get around everywhere by foot. Even if we can take the metro, we still have to walk long distances to them. But this is my adventure. :) After I wrote to you last week, we actually had a couple days of amazing sun. I would literally sit in our kitchen windowsill in the morning, just soaking it in.

Elder W's bday was this week. I feel bad cuz birthdays suck for missionaries here, but there's not much to be done. We're all out of money cuz of mess ups in the office and it's not like we could party in any way. Haha so I just made cookies and stuff.

I've become a bread maker... who am i?! Yes, I literally knead it with my hands, let it rise and bake it. I feel so.... I don't even know. Domestic isn't even the word, I just feel weird. Haha. Maybe I could make wheat bread, but I don't know how. Anyways, hopefully we can buy some flour soon, so I can make some more.

Easter isn't happening this month, not sure when it will. But daylight savings will finally hit this Sunday.

The Bible is soooo X-rated. I just keep thinking as I'm reading, there is no WAY our world is worse off now than it was in old testament times. No way.

So do you remember Dima from my English class? The really sarcastic guy I love to death that doesn't believe in God. Yea, well I had a spiritual experience with him the other day. Every English class, I share a spiritual thought at the end and he expressed to me that he likes them a lot, which to me was a total miracle. But that wasn't the experience. We were talking about a bunch of junk, me and my class. And I was telling them how I wanted to go to University after my mish and all. Anyways, I don't remember exactly what I was saying at the moment, but he very seriously turned to me and told me to pray about my situation. Everyone went really quiet, cuz everyone knows Dima, and that's not something that would EVER come out of his mouth. STUPIDLY, I was like, WHAT are you talking about, this is coming from YOU? You don't even believe in God! (I know, I'm a moron, but I just said what everyone else was thinking.) He very seriously was like, "I know. But YOU do. And I know he will answer your prayers." .... I felt the spirit so strong, I don't know why, he was simply reminding me of something I testify about all the time. But I felt HIS testimony when he said that. It's like he was testifying he DOES know there's a God and that prayer does work. I don't know, maybe you had to be there. But everyone was dead silent and it was just a really good moment. I really do love Dima.

I had something else awesome happen this week. The other night my comp and I were on our way from the hospital from a meeting with a woman member not from this area. It was snowing and we were riding the tram, but decided to get off a few stops before ours to contact a little. We hit a few people with English invites and stuff a?? my comp finally tried to give the BOM to a babushka. She said no, but that wasn't the point. It all happened kind of quick, but as we were turning back to continue on our path, I glanced up at the snow as it fell over the street lights and I felt EXTREME happiness. I SPECIFICALLY felt the impression that an angel was with us. Maybe I'm being dramatic, but I can honestly say that at that moment, I felt peace that God is always with us, that he loves his missionaries, he loves us. It was a cool moment for me. I'm thankful for his love. How lucky am I to have this gospel in my life! How lucky are WE as a family! To know what's up. :) We are so blessed.

The work is really hard right now, our teaching pool has evaporated. This area is just really hard. So, the next day, our family home evening situation fell through, like it so often does. So we contacted and tracted instead. We gave a lady a BOM in the building that we tracted and she started BAWLING. She didn't talk to us for long, but looked like she had been waiting for us. We got her number and are calling her today. In that same stairwell, a young guy came up the stairs lugging a baby carrying case and a stroller and we asked him if he wanted a BOM. He SERIOUSLY looked like he wanted it, but his hands were full which is why he was hesitating and his wife walked up and was super rude and said they didn't need it. So sad, because he looked sorry. It's usually the men who deny, so I was sorry to see a potential priesthood holder walk away. It was a good night though. We left a handout in their box. :)

I do love my mission! I have absolutely no regrets coming on a mission. I'm definitely meant to be here. I just wish my fam could be with me. :) I miss you and love you so much!   (written March 27, 2008)

Vicka is baptized!

2008-07-17T16:14:00.000-07:00

K, you know how we talked about Esther and how I totally LOVED it?! Well, I’ve been using it as my spiritual thought for like, English class and stuff, and people love it! Like, how if we're doing what is right in our lives, God will put us in the right place at the right time. Just like he did for Esther. And look! She saved a whole race of people in a city! It’s awesome! You can do rockin things when you're righteous. :) ps. was the first chapter of Esther TOTALLY Taming of the Shrew to you?! I loved it.

I got super sick last night, but my companion totally took care of me. I have the flu, I think. It’s been going around, and it hit me hard and fast. So basically our plans for today are ruined because SOMETHING else went wrong with me. It sucks how our bodies just FALL apart constantly on the mish! My comp too. And all the elders say they feel like that too, so I guess I’m not alone. Lots of depression too, among all the missionaries, but I think that’s cuz of the long, dark winter. I just feel like a major moron always having something wrong. Get OVER it! I just keep telling myself that. :)

Cheyenne left! Her husband got cut from the team or something, so all of a sudden they were leaving! I don't want to write it all out. But I’m devastated. I will really miss them!

We’ve been told that by this time next year there will be HALF the number of missionaries here that there are now. When I go home there will only be a couple of sisters left.
K, huge news. Elder S. told me that my favorite girl, Vicka from Pskov got baptized! SUCH a HUGE miracle! She's 16 and has been investigating the church for a couple of years, waiting to turn 18 because her parents were against her getting baptized. We literally taught her every other day when I served there and she's just AMAZING! I love her! Well, right before I left, we had a huge breakthrough cuz her mom came to the branch building for me to cut her hair. Just her BEING there was huge. She wasn't happy to be there, and wasn't very nice. But after talking and me cutting her hair, she was just ALL about us! She wanted a picture with us and wanted to see us again. I think I told you all of this way back then. Well, then I got emergency transferred! And I hadn't heard anything since.... Vicka is baptized! She's a member of the church! I love it! It’s a miracle!

Did I tell you about the service we did at the elementary school? We went and did this big puppet show with the elders about not smoking. Kind of funny since the teachers kept going out for smoking breaks. Anyway, it was a horrible show. The puppets were cool and the message is good, but the puppets die at the end and have cancer and stuff, it's just horrible. But I wanted to tell you about the school. You know how I told you about the hospitals? Now imagine how schools could be. It was the darkest, coldest, dirtiest, creepiest place I’ve ever been! Besides the hospitals! It was HORRIBLE! A nightmare! And the kids go there every day! No wonder they automatically grow up so hard and angry in this country! I was in shock. And I had to go to the bathroom while I was there and of course, it was just a nasty hole, open to the world. OBVIOUSLY I held it. Not gonna do that. Anyway, I thought, maybe it's just THIS school. But my comp said all the schools are like that, hers was too. Sad.

I never told you about the knock down drag out fight we had with an eternal investigator girl a couple of weeks ago. Her name is Ira, she's crazy. Always wants to talk with me about sex and I’m always like, okay first off, no. Second, I’ve never HAD it! Ridiculous. Anyway, as always, Russians are really forward and my comp was just so sick and tired of all this girl's junk. So, in the street they had a screaming fight in which they pulled me into. The elders (B & W) were terrified and I had to yell at them to leave so I could handle my comp and this girl. Haha it was hilarious! And ridiculous. She’s stalking us now with hateful text messages and stuff. Crazy psycho girl.

My mish is so fun and interesting. I know that we have no investigators right now, so it's hard. But still interesting. I love contacting and tracting. It’s been fun. People are just so fun to watch and listen to their different lives and everything. I'm so thankful for this experience. It’s really helped me know how I need to live my life. THANK YOU so much for loving and supporting me while I’m here! I know I’m being so cheesy, but I’m sooo thankful you don't even know. So thankful I have YOU! How did I get so lucky?! And I’m so thankful I can be so proud to talk about you and our family and use your examples in what I teach all the time. I'm thankful for the strength I learned from you mom and for dad's integrity. I totally was giving a spiritual thought on integrity the other day and talking about Daniel and others from the scriptures, then it just came out ALL about Dad and how I'm thankful to have a father who people KNOW they can trust to be honest always and even with their lives. I love it. I'm so lucky. And yes, I brag all the time. Cuz I can. :) I love you so much!

Love, princess consuella banana hammock... (written March 20, 2008)

Dark pickled body parts?

2008-07-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

Remember Ira? MY Ira. She was my baptism girl. I LOVE HER! Anyways, her Mom got baptized on Saturday!!!! MIRACLE!!! We used to teach her! And her testimony is soooo amazing, but she works every sunday and had other issues to deal with in her life. She knows the church is true, so she was willing to do anything. Even if it means a new job and everything. That's HARD! Especially in Russia! I mean, it seemed a hopeless case, but she was just so amazing and willing to do what it took to be a member and follow her Savior. I love Sveta soooo much, their family is so amazing. I had to sing at her baptism (mortifying) and I made snickerdoodles. Way fun.

We had a holiday on Saturday. There are so many holidays in Russia, it's not even funny. No wonder they can't make a living. There's a holiday every other weekend. Of course the celebrating always starts the day before and goes till at least a day after. Then there are the recovery days from all the drinking... which, lets be honest, since they drink alcohol here literally like water, has to be a LOT of alcohol to get all these people drunk. Crazies. I got my butt grabbed on the metro that day. He was obviously VERY drunk, but that's not an uncommon occurrence here anyways, drunk or not.I never told you about my insomnia nights. My gosh, could anything else go wrong. My body and mind have just fallen apart on my mish, I feel like a hypocondriac... or however you say it. But yea. I couldn't sleep for like 5 days in a row and I was dying.

But guess what! You know how there are two secret creepy closets nailed shut in our apartment? Well, one opened up! ... Maybe I helped it along a little, but it opened. :) Anyways, there are TONS of books! I am so sad I don't read russian, cuz they're all so pretty, and you know I love pretty books. I FEEL like I should be able to read them... sadly i can't. But I have learned all kinds of things from what I could read, like all the words for birds and sea creatures. I read some fairytales in russian. Whoever lived there before us was obviously studying to be a doctor or something because I found so many medical books and an arm pump and stuff. Dude, I totally scored, and it kept me entertained for the sleepless nights. I even found two puzzles and did them both. Should I have spent my time studying the scriptures? Probably...

OH! There are also HUGE jars filled with dark pickled body parts. Or at least that's what it looks like. Creepy.

We had sun on monday and I LOVED it! My comp and district leader are both in major depressions. Lots of missionaries are, I hear. Tends to happen to everyone. But it's baaaad.

The other day we had a fun metro experience that made me think of you mom. We had to switch metros and so were cruising through the corridors from one to the other. But we came around a corner and came to a wall of people dead stopped. And we were still FAR from the escalators... Imagine being in a concrete hall and having no way to go back or forward and you know it will go on forever. haha, it wasn't bad for me, but i thought of you. :) YOu would have FREAKED and screamed bloody murder! It took us a while, we don't know what was wrong, but we were eventually freed.

Wednesday we were on the train all day to a city called Vweeborg... i'm trying to spell it in english for you. :) I'm still shocked at how people live. Yea, there are stories with that, but they're all the same and boring.

So, I've been studying all the parables Christ taught in the New Testament. For the first time, I'm REALLY understanding everything I'm reading! I love it! I was reading The Parable of the Sower and it was weird. As I read and thought, I could totally see everyone we're working with here fall into one of the categories of people Christ spoke about. wow...

Something else hit me this week. It's super obvious, but I just really THOUGHT about it this week. You know how satan doesn't get people all at once. Like he doesn't coax someone off a cliff right away, he does things little by little. Always. Well, It's so interesting to me that here, the little things are mostly the biggest problems for people. People hear what we teach them, they believe, they know it's true! They're willing to give up huge things in their lives, alcohol, porn, even living with someone. But the little thing that gets people.... tea. They don't get it. Why can't we drink tea, it's so not harmful... It's so weird that BECAUSE it's so little, it's what drags people down! It drives me nuts.

Also, since I think about you guys ALL the time, (and seriously, the more I experience, the more I know I SOOO lucked out getting parents and a family like mine! SOOO thankful! I love you!) and I know families are SUPPOSED to be a huge tool to bring people to the gospel... but here... I'll teach people about how the church loves families and how we know we can be with our families forever... but it's so hard when they respond with things like "I hate my parents" or "I don't like my family, I don't want to be with them forever" and they're DEAD serious... sooooo sad! Anyway, I'm so thankful I can be with mine forever. What can I say. My family freaking ROCKS DEATH! written March 13, 2008

Relief Society brawl!

2008-06-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-06-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

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)

"Things that just don't happen, happen in Russia"

2008-06-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

Sister Sandberg told me this week at district meeting that she's never seen all the sisters and girls in the branches have better hair and she asked me if I’d cut hers in 2 weeks...OH!

Let me tell you about Rita, our miracle. Remember how I told you about going tracting last Tuesday and how it was such an amazing day? Well the last girl I gave and English invite to, Rita, is our new investigator. Here I am, serving in a "dead" area, and guess what? WE HAVE A BAPTISM!!!!! AHHH! I'm scared to get too excited, cuz I know things fall through, but she wants to get baptized! Feb 16th! She's so amazing! We met with her this week. We got to Fantanka, our building in the city and Kop and I ran to the bathroom. When we came back she told us that she said a prayer in her heart while we were gone and that she opened the BOM that was sitting on the table, and she read 2 Nephi 27:6-9.....Talk about Holy Ghost working miracles! Could that BE more perfect!?!?!?! She told us that she's studied every religion for a long time and that her parents told her never to study Mormonism cuz of what they've read about it...but she knew right when she met us. And she wants to be baptized!!!! She's amazing!
My heart feels so happy every time I talk or think about it. It's just amazing! I love her and pray for everything to turn out please, cuz I know Satan is going to be working hard on this girl.

I'll leave you with a little quote. I might have given it to you last week. It's by Tolstoy, the dude that wrote War and Peace. "Things that just don't happen, happen in Russia." Oh how true that is.

I love you more that life itself. I can't wait to see you and hug you! (written on Jan 24, 2008)

Tracting at last

2008-06-09T19:13:00.000-07:00

So much to tell and so little time! I dyed my hair dark again...it wasn't supposed to go dark, but for some reason, it took super dark. But everyone LOVES it! The elders all freaked out! I LOVE it with my new cut and everything, so fun.

I'm super excited at the moment because I can converse soooo much better now in Russian. I know it’s totally the spirit, but I hope it keeps coming and stays with me after the mish, cuz it's so fun. I even duked it out with a babushka about the Davinci Code, Christ being married and having kids concept. I love being able to just talk about anything like normal, you know!

I was running super fast up the metro stairs the other day and started losing my footing and thought I could totally save myself, which of course made the fall so much bigger and extreme. Oh, and I screamed just to bring a little more attention to the really non-embarrassing situation. :[ So I fully fell in rush hour metro time and took a babushka down with me. Nice. I know Karma was just biting me finally for laughing so hard for days after Sister N. fell at the MTC...I've been waiting for my day. My debt is paid.

Then, as I stumbled laughing and apologizing onto the escalator, two men followed us on TOTALLY drunk and one fell on Kop (my comp, I call her Cor, which is Kop in Russian.) The other one was standing right behind me and had puke all down him. So I was praying, please let us make it to the top before he hurls again, cuz he wasn't looking too good and there was nowhere I could go. Well, about 1/3 of the way up the really long escalator, the other guy that fell on Kop fell back....there happened to be NOBODY on the stairs behind him and I watched as he somersaulted all the way down to the bottom! I thought he was dead for sure! But he got up and, yes, puked everywhere.

Tuesday was the most amazing day of my mission. There is no way that I can describe it the way that I would like on here. But I'll just tell you a little bit about it. Within two hours, I felt like we did more for this area than we have done my whole time here. No, I don't feel it, I KNOW it. The night before, I was really thinking a lot about why I've never gone tracting. I always hear it's dangerous for sisters and I’m not going to lie, it scares the heck out of me to go knock on Russian’s doors and TRY to speak the language in order to share the most important message these people will hear in their whole lives. But every time the elders mention tracting, I feel a little pang of something.

So Monday night before bed, I just felt the spirit so strong that we really needed to do it. To go and contact and tract for REAL. We always talk about being better and how we need new ideas and plans but we don't really do anything. Kop said she and Gegaulchi contacted a ton but nothing ever came of it. But I really felt in my heart that we needed to do it.

That morning was very peaceful and spiritual. I fasted and read the BOM and then in the PoGP about the murder of Joseph Smith...I love him so much. So we left and went contacting on the street and in the park. We gave away 7...yes, SEVEN Books of Mormon with lessons. That's a MIRACLE! Then we tracted an apt building and gave out more along with Liahonas and some church DVDs.

We passed out a ton of English practices and the last one I gave to a girl, and she just wanted to know more and more about the church. She’s 18 and really adorable and wants to come to church on Sunday. It was just a day of miracles! I felt very calm and at peace after it all.

That night we had a lesson with a former investigator (another miracle, seriously.) She's Ukrainian, Tatyana...HILAREOUS! Big, funny woman all about drinking and smoking and sex, but sooooo funny! And guess who she's MADLY obsessed with?... CHRISTIAN BALE!!!! hahahahha! I loved her instantly. But I didn't understand 98% of everything she said. The only times were when I was alone with her, like when my comp went to the toilet and stuff. And when I testified. I love how it just flows and how I feel as it’s happening! :) I love how God and the spirit work things out.

So much more to tell and only 10 minutes. We had zone conference on Wednesday and it went super well! Sister Sandberg LOVED my new hair. I gave 4 elders haircuts this week and they ended up really well and I did them fast.

I’m living off of beets. I found them canned! They're so divine, I just eat them straight out of the can...I have lost my mind. Who am I?

I just love my mtc group! Every time we all see each other we just immediately want to hug (which we can't) and just catch up on our lives. I will forever have a family bond with them.

So I went to Finland today! Kind of a whole gyp situation. It’s on p-day, temple is closed (saddest most tragic part, I cried,) I went with 2 non-English speaking Ukrainians and Gegaulchi...my favorite person. But she's Ukrainian so they all just talked the whole time. One of them is my new DL. He’s like a tiny gorgeous wind up toy.

But I bought Dr. Pepper and my favorite Finnish chocolate and was living large (literally, I’m huge). The best part was going through the 50 checkpoints. It’s super hard to get into Finland, but going back to Russia, it was a free pass, haha! I loved the guys at the borders tho. Every check point, it took the natives 2 seconds, and me 5 minutes cuz the guys would all want to see my passport and speak to me in English and stuff. It was super fun and I feel tight now with the Finnish border patrol. I love you! (written on Jan 17, 2008)

Transfers are torture

2008-06-09T19:00:00.000-07:00

HEEELLLOOOO!!! :) I love p-day and coming to hear from you and write to you, it's so fun!

Transfers came and once again...TORTURE! Seriously, being emergency transferred is the only way to do it. Sure, you might shed a few tears out of mere shock (I know from experience) but then you move on and into a new apt. But waiting for the call...Pure AD! I just eat and eat and eat and run around like a crazy person. Every time this happens.

This time, I was like, no big deal, I totally know I'm staying. But 9:30 hit and I knew prez was making the calls, and it was to the kitchen for me. On transfer week I always run out of food really fast....cuz I eat it all on one night! But all is well. I stayed in Shivalova with my girl (I love her.) Ganiev my DL got transferred and we got ANOTHER Ukrainian one, but this one speaks 100% zero English...scary. But my comp doesn't either, so hopefully it won't be too bad for me. Then we lost Elder J...oh so sad. He got transferred to the toolies and is TRAINING a Ukrainian! Look out. I'm so proud of him, he's so awesome. He works so hard here.

But to ease the sadness, guess who we got in his place? Elder W!!! Yah! So we're stoked to be together again. Elder S. got made DL down in Pskov!!!! ahhhh! He’s sooooo rad! He seriously works harder than any missionary here, which is so funny because everyone knows he is just a crazy fun goofball that everyone loves madly. But he's sooooo hard core dedicated. He's like the perfect missionary.

I got my hair cut today for the very first time since I left home!!! I love having form! And I went to a cute salon here in center. It felt soooooo good to have my hair done by someone again! I loved it. And my hair is cute. Nothing special, cuz I’m keeping it simple, but cute.

Do you even know how cold it got here last week? -17C...don't know what that is in F but I’m not kidding you, I thought I was going to die. I actually was wishing for death. I actually thought to myself, why could I have not died that day on the elevator? That's how cold it got. My normal room temp water bottle half froze on my 15-minute walk from my apt to the metro. That's...sick. And wrong. It's super awkward when your breath freezes to your face. Especially if you're breathing through your nose.

Finally it snowed, and although snow is super uncomfortable in every way for me, it's soooo much warmer now!!! Yay. And also, little side note. It’s so funny how now I know that scarves and beanies and such aren't just accessories. They do serve purposes. Big purposes. I mean, we HAVE to wear them everyday here. Weird.

So let me tell what the new law has done to us. They are no longer going to call American missionaries here. Yes, we are some of the last ones here, at least until something else is figured out. They are only going to call natives. Scary huh! I'm so lucky I made it in before!!! They said it's just too expensive and too much visa, traveling, and other work to do for Americans to be here. So that's the shtooz on that.

Remember I told you about the babushka who fed me fish the first night I was in this area, and my comp told her I can't eat fish cuz it makes me sick? Well, we went back and guess what she fed us? Have you ever heard of holidee-ets? I've only heard horror stories from the mtc, on. It's cold, frozen, gelled meat. Well, she gave us FISH holidee-ets...can it GET worse? I don't think so. And she did it on purpose. After my first bite, she was like, it's fish and had been watching me. I said, yea, I KNOW. So I scarfed it and downed my potatoes trying to drown the horrible taste. Ugh.

I miss you like crazy! Don’t forget me. :) I love you! (written on Jan 10, 2008)

Terror in an elevator!

2008-06-09T18:44:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year! It's freaking 2008! What the heck, weird.

I survived all the guns going off all New Year's eve! New Year's Eve was an interesting day for me here in Mother Russia. We kicked it off with a really good district meeting. I've really grown to love my district and I'm so sad it's being ripped apart by transfer calls in a couple of days. This transfer FLEW by! Scary.

After DM my comp and I accompanied Elder Ganiev and Uldaltsov to a member's apt for a spiritual thought and New Year's snack. We picked up a guy from the branch, Roma, on the way and started our very long journey to the farthest northwest corner of St. Petes. After asking a LOT of people for directions and consulting a few maps, we made our way into a neighborhood that reminded me a lot of Pskov. We found the apt building and with much rejoicing, called the man to buzz us in.

He lived on the fifth floor, so with much reluctance, as always, I stepped into the scary 1 1/2 by 3 feet steel rickety elevator and was followed by everyone. Uldaltsov didn't make it in before the doors shut so we opened the doors again to retrieve him. At that moment, I felt a huge urge to push my way past everyone and just take the stairs. But Uldaltsov was busy trying to squish in and I quickly convinced myself that I always have these thoughts in Russian lifts, and it always ends up ok. In a few short seconds we would be stepping out onto the fifth floor. We squeezed together as tight as we could and for the second time, the doors smashed shut...the freaking doors of doom...The lift didn't move. Someone suggested that maybe we were stuck. I laughed nervously along with the others. Roma tried pressing all the buttons, then tried the door opening once again. Nothing.

Now, until this moment in my life, I had never experienced, and can hardly explain, the sheer panic that took over my brain. I have always mocked mom's claustrophobic tendencies, insisting that they were all in her head. I urgently started telling myself that same thing, because I realized how quickly I was losing it..ahha! I don’t know how, being so tightly encased with four other people there, but almost immediately I ripped off my coat and purse. I begged Roma to try again. Nothing. I suggested we all jump, but immediately they all screamed no. The lifts are old I guess and can fall...lovely. But that didn't sound too bad to me at the moment. I think I scared the crud out of everyone, cuz I didn't start crying loudly or anything, my face just became very stony and white and tears just started falling from my eyes without me moving or anything. (I was told this afterwards...) I was trying to be very calm, but at the same time I was terrified.

Nobody's phones were working because we were in a freaking STEEL box with no vents or anything. I pushed on the ceiling maybe 5 in. above my head. It was steel too. It was official. I was stuck in an old, rusty, communist, steel casket with ALL Russian speakers, and was running out of air... I was stuck in my own personal hell. I prayed sooooo hard! They were all like, "this is totally normalna! Maybe we'll ring in the new year here..." It was two in the afternoon. I turned to Elder Ganiev and pleaded VERY seriously for him to hit me in the face. None of them would do it. I just wanted to be knocked cold, instead of stuck with these thoughts of being buried alive running through my head. I was super embarrassed at the same time because I never let the elders see me cry and I HATE drama and THOUGHT I was a strong person.

I turned to the dirty Russian germ and feces covered wall closed my eyes and laid my face against it. I was trying to find a happy place. I forced a laugh and said how this was such a fun adventure...no one bought my act. haha :) Ganiev suggested we sing and faster than I can possibly explain I bellowed "NO!" I didn't want to use up the little air we had. A few times we could hear people walking by the elevator and the elders would politely murmur, "excuse me, um, excuse me" and the people would just keep walking. Russians can be evil. On about the third time this happened, I SCREAMED "HEEEELP!" In English. Yes, I know I’m in Russia but I could NOT think of any Russian words.

Anyways, it felt like days to me and then the elders pried open the doors a crack and propped it open with a Book of Mormon so we could have a little air. They wouldn't open it further cuz they said they would break the doors then we would never get out. That shut up my cheering them on really quickly. Finally there was clanking from above. After ONLY 45 long and traumatizing minutes, the doors slid open and I dove out, not believing my freedom! Needless to say, I wanted to bawl. I thought I would die there. Goes to show how completely sad and pathetic I am. I couldn't thank God enough for rescuing us.

The man we had gone to visit was just like, "Yea, I wondered where you had gone," when we showed up at his door... ps the sign outside the lift said 4 people max...I was mortified I was such a crazy wanny in front of the elders. They were super nice about it and said they could see my fear and were shocked I stayed so calm. They swore they would take this secret of me losing it to their grave... or at least the next steel coffin they step into. I will never ride an elevator again.

Just fyi, the weather has suddenly turned and I’m terrified! Two days ago plus 5 degrees C. Yesterday minus five. Today, minus 13. Man, it doesn't mess around. When it drops, it plummets really fast!!! They said tomorrow will be colder! AHHHH! Way to ease me in! I guess I spoke to fast when I told you at Christmas, yea, not too bad of a winter...

I’ve got to go, but I love you so so much and I loved talking to you the other day!!!! I’ll write more about my new year later. (written on Jan 3, 2008)

Mangled limbs & high tech toys

2008-06-09T18:38:00.000-07:00

I can't wait to talk to you on Christmas!

We spent our WHOLE p-day at the hermitage taking a tour of basically ONE room with the Sandbergs and missionaries, and it might have been fun, had it not taken 15 hrs when we have soooo much to day today! They had us looking at old snuff boxes the whole time! Of ALL the things to see in the Hermitage, we looked at snuff boxes!

So it's 4:30 in the afternoon right now and I haven't eaten a thing all day and I have to go to the office which is forever away then go pick up my pkgs! That'll be my highlight if we can make it on time!

So you know how I wanted to do a district party on Christmas? Well my elders really wanted to as well but Elder N. is like, suuuuper strict and was like, no we can't cuz we can't be in each other's apts. So I said, no prob, I’ll just run it by Prez. But they were all scared said no we'll do it officially, we need to plan it, blah blah. As of this morning, nothing had been done. So we were cruising through the hermitage and I was walking by president and I just asked him. He was really cool about it! Said it's all good! I'm excited, the elders were shocked, but they're really stoked. I'm making Hawaiian haystacks and some other treats I think. It should be fun, I hope!

The only person we've really visited the last couple days is this old babushka, Ryeesa. She's an invalid which there are a LOT of here in Russia. Have I mentioned there are also tons of young men missing hands, arms, feet, or legs? They’re ex-soldiers. It’s sad, but you see them everywhere. My hand does not stand out at all, cuz missing and mangled limbs are very common here.

But yea, Ryeesa can't get around very well at all, she's just this cute little crippled lady that needs someone to talk to. So we were there and she had one of those little rubber toys that you bounce and a light goes off inside, you know. They’re so cheap and basic, but I'm telling you, my comp and her sat there for forty minutes FASCINATED by the thing and kept holding it out to me like it was some new amazing techno gadget or something. It was so weird. But it made me ONCE again realize all the things I take for granted in my life. I need to DO SOMETHING FOR THESE PEOPLE! I just don't know how or what!!!!! The Gospel of course, I know, but HOW!!!!!????? I don't speak the language well enough!!! Anyways, I'm working on it.

We're going to talk on the phone in like 4 days!!! I’m so excited! I miss you like INSANELY crazy! Have fun with all the Christmas festivities and all! I love you! (written on Dec 20, 2007)

Babushka on the lam

2008-06-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

OMG, so today is so hectic! My computer here wouldn't work, I couldn't get into my email so I waited for an hour while my comp did her stuff and now my email works again and I can't copy and paste letters so I'm frantic to write so I can go and read the letters before I leave here because they make my life and I’m so totally losing my freaking mind. Did that sentence make sense? AH!

Guess what, I fell again today, hahahaha! Hard. But what can you do. And guess what else... I'm wearing a jumper! hahahahahahhahaha! I thought the girls in the fam would get a kick out of that. Some sisters have left clothes in our apt and today I jokingly tried some on. I understand why the girls left them. So I kept out two floor length skirts and one black jumper, which is adorning me today.

Yesterday was zone conference and I wore all black, which Sister Sandberg LOVED. All the elders loved it too because they knew why I did it and I got nun comments all day. :) I love our elders. But ZC was awesome as always! It was our Christmas one, so after the combined conference (north-my zone, and central-my old one) we had a freaking huge party! It was so fun! We did a gift exchange and W. from my last district gave me a Batman wallet! He’s so sweet! I loved it.

Tell Dad that I've been meaning to tell him, for some reason EVERYONE in Russia is obsessed with Hotel CA, the song. It's playing everywhere on the streets, in stores, in apts... weird.

I never see the sun. My first day in this area I saw the sun, but it was weird cuz it rose, but chilled at the horizon for a couple hrs before it set again. Sooooooo strange! We are CRAVING the sun! I miss it! Elder J. from Pskov is in my new district and the kid is so cool. He brought me two Dr. Peppers from Finland cuz he knew I loved them, then the other day gave me this magic chocolate bar from Finland (these things are sacred on the mish)! His comp is native and is Jim Carey to a T from Dumb and Dumber! He looks just like him in that movie! He's virtually silent but from time to time will suddenly bust out some amazing slang phrase without a Russian accent, or start singing Coldplay or something. He's really funny!

We had some mad drama with our district last week because all the elders are sister haters.... I thought we were lucky in this mission to not have any, but that wasn't true. President just put them ALL in one area... mine. But they talked to the APs about me and so I had a straight up convo and they like me now.

I bore my testimony in my new branch on Sunday. I was super nervous, I don't know why, it's just so intimidating in RUSSIAN! STILL! And I was telling about my fam and I said "strashny brot"... which means "scary brother" hahahahaha but I caught it as I was saying it and corrected myself with "starshy brot" and everyone was laughing. But it was fun and people are really nice and tell me I'm not as bad as I think I am at Russian... which is a lie.

I sat by a 5 year old kid that Sunday who drew page after page of aliens... and they were GOOD... I think he was seriously taken or something, cuz it was amazing. I felt like I was in the Ring or something.

The other night we stood outside a metro stop and handed out English invites...not much luck until I started saying, "Free English" in English. Then they went like wild fire. But while we were there a babushka who was selling things near us, which is totally normal, was for some reason taken by the police. Suddenly there were tons of policemen and cars and we were like, uhhhh, should we be here in the middle of this? The funny thing was, I watched while the bab yelled and yelled then right when the officers turned their back to talk she took off running so fast it wasn't even funny. I watched her book it all the way to a church and hide inside. It was entertaining and they didn't catch her.

let me tell you what I heard: Missionaries who serve English speaking go home knowing the gospel amazingly. Spanish speaking missionaries go home knowing the language perfectly. Russian speakers.... they go home way more humble.....haha! Somehow that doesn't feel fair.... :)

I love you all so much! (written on Dec 13, 2007)

Finland = Heaven

2008-06-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

I am not in the best mood right now cuz it took us like 5 hours of our p-day to find this internet place and for some reason I have no money on my msf card so today isn't the greatest that it could be. But what can you do? Move on. :)

I'm loving my new comp! She's from Siberia, her name is Olga Koribrenikova and she's 24. I love her! She speaks zero English, but shockingly (maybe not to you) that hasn't stopped me from talking nonstop. :) We seriously have never had a silent moment, we just talk and talk and talk. The gift of tongues has kicked in at this time, and in that I mean that she understands me somehow and I have no clue how it's working. :) We seriously stay up late talking every night and just talk all day to each other on the street. I've never talked so much to a companion, and all the other ones spoke ENGLISH! Haha! When she prays she always thanks God for making her beautiful, which I love, haha. So anyways, we're having fun!

This area was dead, zero investigators and now, in one week we got one amazing one and a few more good potentials. I've cut a few people's hair and all is going swimmingly. For some reason, this transfer, I’m not scared at all to talk. Like, in Russian. I don't know ANYTHING, but I’ve somehow lost the fear. I LOVE it! I'll just be chillin in a discussion and the person will start yelling or crying and chatting 50 thousand miles a minute, and I have no prob just jumping in and saying something about what I THINK they're talking about, just whatever I feel. Somehow it works out. It's so fun!!!!

So my hair isn't bad at all to me anymore, I love it cuz everyone else loves it. Nobody believes that I’m not Russian, even after I talk to them, they're still like, "really? You’re so Russian."

I like my new branch. It’s actually near where I used to live and we were there all the time. My new area is called Shivalova, and it's north of center. It takes like 20 minutes on the metro to get back to center, so not far. Our place is about a 15-minute walk to the metro, and I like our apt. We had to live without a shower all week cuz the landlord was fixing SOMETHING on it, but what can you do. It took me back a little bit to Pskov, but at least I didn't have to BOIL water.

We have this mysterious closet in our apt that's nailed shut. I think there is a dead body or something, maybe preserved cuz I don't smell anything, but something is fishy there. :)

Elder J from my first district in Pskov is in my district here and he went to Finland to the temple the other day and brought me back dr. pepper.... aw! I love him! How sweet was that! He said he knew I loved it, so he bought me some. :) Finland has everything that’s the best. Like if it's from Finland in a store here, it's the most expensive and for sure the best and safest. I swear, Finland must be like heaven. Everyone talks like it is. And like I said before, I know we will speak Finnish in heaven, it's GORGEOUS!

We went to FHE where I used to when I was in center this week and guess who came! The boys from my English class! They miss me! hahaha! I was SOOOO excited! I don't know why none of the elders are working with them, they're AWESOME! We played games and they said they're coming next week too, so I was stoked.

The other night we were out on the street forEVER and my feet were on FIRE! I felt like I was walking on ice and it was just burning my feet! My boots are horrible for such cold weather, so I got some REALLY good ones yesterday. They're just plain black, very simple, but I think they're classy. I'm sooooo thankful, I’ve been dying.

I met a girl at my new branch named Shayanne, TOTALLY from San Diego!!! We freaked out and are attached at the hip now at church. I love her! I guess her man is from Brazil, he used to play for the Utah Jazz b-ball team but now he plays for the St. Pete's team here. They're in Greece right now for a game. She's the coolest chick ever and I knew immediately she was from sd cuz of the way she talked. So we love each other and I’m her new translator at church cuz she speaks zero Russian.

The other day we taught a teenage girl in one of these communal living places, which are so common here, it's weird. But we had to teach on an icy floor by candle light because they have a 10 x 10 room (no joke), no lights, no furniture, nothing. It’s weird cuz I keep on meeting people and being like, they're totally normal, but then when I see how they live, it's crazy to me. She lives there with her mom and bro.

Okay, I love you with every fiber of my being! Even more! (written on Dec 6, 2007)

Mission prep: Hair School, Snowboarding & Mosh Pits

2008-06-09T17:33:00.000-07:00

I'm so tired right now cuz it's been kind of a big day and now it's the evening and we're finally hitting the internet cafe... forgive me!

Welp, I'm here with my new comp! Her name is sister Korobrinekova... try saying that five times fast. Or even once, cuz I can't. I'm always like, "Sestra K!" I love her! Every elder has been like, GOOD LUCK! But I think she's rad. My brain is super tired because we've been speaking nothing but Roosky... AH! She speaks ZERO English. It's good for me tho! I need to (*&^*&%&(% learn some RUSSIAN! Gosh DANGIT!

So I love my new apt! We're about an hour north of center, and it's shocking how much snow is there compared to here. I'm in center right now writing to you, so there is more snow where I live up north. Last night I called around to some elders and my sisters from center and was like "Carls Jr tomorrow baby, one o’clock" and guess what. EVERYONE came! It was one huge bash and it was ROCKIN! All my faves were there.

And this morning I actually got up and exercised, which was a first here. I love my new apt! I thought I couldn't have it better than the one in center because that was SUCH a jump from Pskov, but guess what. This one is WAY cooler! So I’m happy and speaking Russian, shocking.

This morning I fell HARD on my popa (rear) right after we left our place. Embarrassing.

Okay, can I tell you something HUGE that happened this week? Highlight of my life! So I was having a super horrible day, probably ovulating or something and I just felt so ugly and had dyed my hair cuz I needed something different and it turned our REALLY red (brown red but EVERYONE LOVED it today, so it's okay) and I was on the verge of tears all day because of a bunch of stuff, and nothing was going right. Anyways, I was sad and haven't felt sad like that in a while. Well we happened to be home, (thank goodness because of what happened,) and my sisters and I were cleaning and the cell phone kept on going off and so finally the fourth time and went and looked at it and it was the APs. I was mad at the elders at the moment so I almost didn't answer it. But I did and was like "WHAT?!"

It was Elder H. and this is how the convo went:
H- "Sister G?"
G- "Yea."
H- "OMG! I have something freaking huge to tell you! I- oh wait, hold up. Hey talk to my friend, I'll be right back.".....
Girls voice who I recognize- "Sister G?"
G, heart pounding- "who is this?"
Girl- "it's Sister N!" (Sister N was mishGirl's companion at the MTC--they are BFF!)
OMG... I LOST it! I didn't know what to do, I was in shock! And I started bawling! hashahaha! She probably thinks I'm horribly depressed and suicidal or something cuz I just bawled and all I could say was that I loved her. She sounds AMAZING! I miss her so much! AHHHHHHH!!! Sometimes I'm still like, AH! I can't believe I talked to her on the phone! H. was in Estonia for visa or something and N. was getting transferred and she asked him if he knew me. I love her!

H. got back on the phone after we talked and I was just like "I hate you!" I don't know why but I was fragile at the moment. He knows that I love him tho. And speaking of ovulating (way the heck up there,) did I ever tell you how my comps think that because I always need to pee, I have frozen kidneys.... they're serious. It's like a real thing I guess... IN RUSSIA! haha And they're always telling me I have to be careful not to freeze my ovaries... Sosyak and babushkas have told me that too...psycho. I think all their brains have frozen.

Thanksgiving was a bust even tho we did get to eat real pizza. We went to some museums with a couple of our elders and Elder S. kept us thoroughly entertained the whole time. :) I love my mission. You want to know a couple of things that prepared me for this mish? Okay:

1. Hair school - obvious one. It's amazing how everyone and their mom totally trust me to do their hair! Even ones who aren't members or investigators or anything! ... Well, they're not YET... :)

2. Snowboarding - I slipped on ice the other day and thought for sure that I was going down. But when I opened my eyes I was fully standing in snowboarding stance and had dug in like on a board. ... Too bad I didn't react like that this morning...

3. Mosh pits - Metro crowds and lines and squeezing in and out of the metro can get SUPER intense and scary. But if I just close my eyes and start humming some Rage Against the Machine, I just move to the flow and I’m totally comfortable with the frantic trampling mobs.

I told my comp we're definitely getting a yolka (Christmas tree)! Ugh, I have to go... not again! But I love you more than anything in all of existence! I love my mission! Thank you for like, the billionth time for sending and supporting me! I love you and dad so much! Please tell the fam I love them all!

P.S. the book of Revelation is blowing my mind! :) (written on Nov 29, 2007)

"Happy freaking American Thanksgiving!"

2008-06-09T17:24:00.000-07:00

Did you know that today is Thanksgiving? Cuz I didn't....OMG! How OUT of it am i???? And guess what we're doing... NOTHING! I refused to do nothing so we are actually going buck freaking wild and hitting up Papa Johns for lunch. woopie. Elder Y. told me to just wait, cuz Christmas is even more off the hook than thanksgiving... oorah.

Last night we went to a concert that a couple of elders put on, which was way fun! But something really sad and traumatizing happened then. We walked outside to leave and right out on the street a car had just hit two people.... a young guy and a woman. They were both dead. It was horrible. I don't want to go on about it. I'm just thankful to be alive, just a general statement.

I'm getting transferred to serve in another area in the city with Sister K. I call her sister K cuz I can NOT pronounce her name. My whole mission I've tried. And guess what. She speaks absolutely zero english... hmmm. Maybe I'll finally learn russian. :) haha it'll be good for me. She's really sweet but the most that we've ever communicated was a smile and a hug. I cut her hair tho. This morning she called and I didn't understand one word she said... so she handed it over to Gegaulchi, haha! I knew I would be with her tho, I guessed it before they even called.

Elder J's fam came to pick him up on saturday and they're still here. All his bros came too, so it's just a big party! Sports night on saturday was so fun! It snowed a bunch and we met at the field and were all bundled and FREEZING and I was like, no way can we stay out here for 2 1\2 hrs! But we started a snowball fight and played soccer in the snow and it was so fun! Everything is SO frozen over! No need for iceskating rinks, the sidewalks work just fine.

I tried to highlight my hair and it went terribly wrong...again. So I went and bought a chocolate brown last night and we were all excited my hair was going to be dark.... washed it out and dried it... totally my natural color... didn't do anything! what the heck>!>?!?! So i'll have to try again I guess. I'm gonna just leave it for a couple of days tho. Random lessons this week: 1. Never light a gas oven then reach over the burner for something unless you purposely want to rid that appendage of any hair. 2.Walking on ice is an AWESOME workout.

I need to write to Prez, cuz I haven't the last couple of weeks...oops. :) I love you so much! Tell the family I MISS them! I can't wait to see everyone again! ahhh! Do they know that I think about every single one of them all the time?! I'm so thankful for my freaking family!!!! I'm so thankful for America! I'm so thankful for my mission and that you and dad support me here! I'm so thankful for colorful clothing! I'm thankful for russian chocolate! I'm thankful for english. I'm thankful for the scriptures! Ps, I'm totally into the dead sea scroll thing! soooo cool! I can't wait to study up on them when I come home. I'm so thankful for the gospel and for the Holy Ghost and that he makes it so I can communicate with the Russian people. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior. I love that they love me. :) Again, I love YOU! I'm so thankful that my best friend is my mom! haha! I LOVE you gosh dangit!!! ;) Hug everyone for me! And Happy freaking AMERICAN Thanksgiving! :) (written on Nov 22, 2007)

Handwritten letters

2008-06-09T17:07:00.000-07:00

Note from Mishmom: Another missionary completed his mission and returned home from MishGirl's mission, bearing pictures and letters from her!! Woohoo! Following are snippets from those letters, which had been written over the course of many weeks.

So, I'm in Russia! Weird huh!? I can't get used to it! I still am so fascinated by all the architecture and art. I am always staring up at everything...probably why I have such a problem with tripping! The horrible roads and sidewalks don't help much either, but what can you do?!

I met a woman the other night who called and asked to meet with us. We met with her in one of the church buildings in the city. She was psycho; I mean, she was pretty smart, but she kept trying to trip us up and make us say something wrong, and it really bugged me that she was playing with us. But I still think she's a little crazy. Anyway, she told us that the man she is marrying is ex-KGB and that we better not offend her in any way. She looked at me and asked if I was scared, because she had told me there were a couple men circling our building. She stared me down, and said this, and I couldn't help it, I laughed and said no. She said it was a good thing she loved me, but that I better not offend her. Then she just kept saying, "What are we going to do with you?" My comps told me afterward that her fiance probably IS KGB and that it's not uncommon to have them check up on the church every once in awhile. WHAT??? I guess we're just very compliant and they say that there are cameras in all of our buildings, which I've heard from other people but I've never believed. Crazy KGB stuff!

It's dark by 4:30 and I feel like it's bedtime but then we go out to other appointments.

Have I told you that one of my comps got her patriarchal blessing and she's from the tribe of Zebulun? How cool is that!

I made peanut butter chews for the first time ever tonight. They're NOTHING compared to mom's but I've been having fun learning how to bake. FINE place to learn too! NOTHING makes sense here. All the spices are different, it's next to impossible to find things like powdered sugar (peanut butter is SUPER expensive!), and the ovens don't make sense or have degrees on them, measuring is all different....so basically what it comes down to is that I'm super proud of myself and SHOCKED it's all turning out so well!

I was just thinking this morning as I was looking thru my family pictures (as I so often do!) about how, yes, I'm loving my mish, but how you can go to the greatest place on earth, but without your family there with you, well basically it can be really sad. Now, I know this situation I'm in is only temporary, and it's an amazing opportunity to be able to serve the Lord and then return to my family. But it just made me think about how thankful I am for the Atonement and Christ's gospel and that our family is in the church, and eternal families. Because if I went to heaven and the rest of my fam didn't...well, it would be totally worthless. To me. Lucky for me, you guys raised us in the gospel! Thank you!

How cool is it that I met an apostle! He was so down to earth and personal. For some reason I was really nervous! It was like he ws some huge rock star or something, who I really wanted to run to, madly jumping up and down, and get his autograph! Haha! He shook all of our hands. His wife was awesome too, her testimony blew me away. She touched on a little bit how when she was a chld, Russia and America were bitter enemies. My companions and I discussed this CAREFULLY, before bed a couple of weeks ago. I'm not gonna lie, I always thought of Russia as America's enemy, probably accentuated by the fact that Russians are always the bad guys on movies and tv shows. They told me straight up they've always though the same. Just like everyone else I've met (the majority), they hate America, but want to live there.

It's so cool that the gospel is here now though. To think of all the stuff this country has gone through to get to this point where the church can be taught here is extraordinary! You should hear some of the things my comps' parents went through when they were growing up....wow!Anyway, once again, I loved Elder Bednar! I love hearing a prophet testify because you know that their testimony, their WITNESS,...it's amazing! He left us with a blessing and it was so powerful and so meant for me! I don't really remember the words he said in this blessing...but I remember the feelings it gave me. He gave us a promise that made me KNOW that if I continue to work hard and be patient, this language will come for me. I just know it. He promised it. Well, he didn't promise THAT, but in the words he said, that's what I felt from the Holy Ghost. I just need to be patient and keep trying. Even though it feels impossible, I feel like I can do it.

Can you believe how cold it is??? And how cold it's gonna be??!! After I emailed you guys, we were walking to an appointment and of course it was dark, like it was midnight. I'm thankful I live in the city where there are plenty of lights and I feel safe! You know how the whole city is on water, like Venice? Well, ALL the rivers were COMPLETELY frozen over. Just two days ago we watched a crazy man jump in and swim across one of them! Now it's rock solid! We might go ice skating next P-day! The WIND is what gets you! Man, it wouldn't be bad if there wasn't a constant arctic wind blowing 50 MPH off the ice caps!

But I never thought I'd say this: it's beautiful! I wonder when it will get old to me. The snowflakes are huge and fluffy. I have a lot of fun walking at night through the city with the pretty snow slowly falling. It's so fun! Like a movie! So yea, I've folded-- snow can be beautiful!

I haven't been mugged yet...but I got robbed! Well, almost! :) I'm always SO careful about my bag, but one day I wore my comp's backpack cuz we went shopping I had to carry it around all day. Well, we got out of a taxi van and I swear to you, ONE minute later a girl started yelling "Devooshka!" at me, which means "girl!" She saved me! A man had unzipped all of my back pack pockets! He was almost to my passport and money pouch! It was the first and LAST time I wore a backpack.

I got a really sweet email from an American girl I met a couple of weeks ago! They were an awesome group from the Moscow English teaching program. This is what she wrote:

"Hello! This is Tiffani, you met me one fine sunday in St. Petes. I really would love to keep in touch with you. You've inspired me in so many ways. The lot of us couldn't stop talking about how rad we think you are. You put the thought into my head to serve a mission. I look up to you tremendously. You're the cutest sister missionary I've ever met! You definitely draw people in and that is a quality that need to be apparent whith missionary work I think. Enough with the mushy stuff--I've added you on myspace as well. You are rad! TifK"

Do you know how much I needed that? Isn't she so sweet and awesome!? I loved those girls! I hope we DO keep in touch! I felt so connected to them!

We had a district lunch the other day here at our apartment and we made blini and palmini (both basic Russian food I totally have to make for you when I get home). The next morning, or more like middle of the night, I got food poisoining. I thought it was the palmini, but nobody else got sick. So stupidly, I ate the leftovers last night. Moron. had food poisoning all this morning again! I'm so dumb! So I thnk I'm over palmini for life. I've made taco soup today though, despite my nasty tummy feelings, and I'm planning on eating it for dinner! :)

You've asked about the people I serve with, so here are some descriptions:

Sister G.--my senior comp. She's 28, from Siberia, and I LOVE her! She's really good at English, kinda quiet, really sweet and sincere. She's a total stick and she's desperate to gain weight...so it's probably not the best thing that we eat together! :)

Sister V.--my other comp. 21 years old, from Siberia too. Always insists on doing opposite of what I want. Luckily I know how to work it now. :) Tells me how prego I look all the time.

Elder K.--Reminds me so much of Nicholas Cage, but is virtually SILENT. The most humble guy. From Finland and speaks English better than most AMericans, with zero accent. I've decided Finnish might be what we speak in heaven, it sounds so Elvish. :) I asked him all about himself and he sounds completely boring, just like my comps told me, but for some reason I thought he was awesome anyway. Well, come to find out from all the Elders, K is #1 in the WORLD in WarCraft, he's famous in Finland for his guitar skills and band, he's a famous football (soccer) player on the Finland pro team...Just all these AMAZING things he FORGOT to tell me about! I asked him about it and he silently walked away. I feel bad...he's so humble about everything. Oh, and he served in the military. He loves his country. I love him! (Written on Nov 18, 2007)

Bednar, Clemes, and Sumo Wrestler!

2008-06-09T16:57:00.000-07:00

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)

It's called "SOUP!"

2008-05-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

It's snowing!!!! It started last Sunday and omg did I speak way too soon when I said it was cold... yes folks, hell has frozen over. jk, I love it here! But wow, I might not last the winter... I'm serious. Haha I just walk silently and brainlessly, moving as little as possible bundled in my animal Sasha (oh yea, did I ever tell you that's her name? I didn't want it to be, but it's been the only name that has been in my head since I first tried her on. So Sasha she is!) I'm so thankful for fur... words I never thought I would utter. That happens a lot here. :)

We've all been sick... and it's freezing in our apartment... so all in all moods aren't running the highest that they could be. :) Funny story--I make soup all the time and just throw in all the veggies and stuff that I can, season it up and eat. Every single time my comps ask, "What's it called?" And EVERY time I say "...soup..." "Yes, but what's it called?" And EVERY time I have to explain, "listen, in America this is soup. It's just SOUP!" See, they have borsht and shee, (which p.s. are totally like a simple soup but with beets... not a huge deal.) Oh, and tomato soup is just as weird to them as it was to Sosyak. They just don't get the concept of grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Haha! And that can of tuna you sent, mom, caused a riot. I made tuna sandwiches for us and they were so in awe about it and they LOVED them... what the heck? I was like, it's tuna. But it was soooo good having it cuz I miss EVERYTHING I used to eat.

You know how I've been LIVING on bread and chocolate and I have to have chocolate every night or else I'll die? Well, Friday night I went home and miraculously didn't want chocolate... I was DYING for eggs and cheese! DYING! So the next day we loaded up and I have been eating them with everything. I figure my body FINALLY got fed up with never having protein or
something, cuz it's all I crave now.

My shots: I've gotten like 7. They totally don't hurt, they're in the arm and I only have one left at the end of December. I keep thinking, I bet they're just shooting me up with water or something cuz they thought it was soooo dumb I was getting the shots. Haha. But the place is nice so hopefully not. :)

You sent me an article about Christmas in Russia, but my comps don't celebrate it. They said that for so long the country didn't that only some people do now. And it's not even in December, it's in January. They told me that Dec 25 will just be a normal day for us... I of course said no freaking way, I'm talking to my fam all day!

p.s. I have to go get winter boots... yup, already. I love the boots I got, but yea, they're not for snow. My feet are going to fall off....

Did I tell you that elder B told everyone about my lice.... moron.

Let me tell you about this creeper man that's been stalking our investigators. Sveta is 17 and super cute, small and just an innocent beautiful girl and her best friend Youla is beautiful too. We're teaching them both. Well, the APs had an investigator a while ago whose like, in his late 30s and he's been following them everywhere. Real creeper, right. Well, he attacked Sveta the other night while she was alone walking home. Luckily a guy saved her, but I wanted to KILL this guy! And all the words I wanted to say to him I don't know in Russian and I shouldn't really say... But I swore if he showed up again I would freak out. "I'm gonna lose my freaking mind!" (kicks a trash can.) ;) Anyway, I taught my girls how to "grab, twist and pull," and I told them my mommy taught me that. Well, guess what. Last night he showed up at English. He doesn't ever talk to anyone, he just lingers and follows the girls. I got sooooo mad and was going to go tell him off, but Elder H stopped me and asked what was wrong and I told him. Well, he and Elder Y were having none of that so they told us to just go and I guess THEY went in and told him to hit the road and never come back or else they would kick his ace. He finally agreed, so I'm hoping it's all over.

We've got this inactive girl we teach, Lena. She's got a huge dent in her head because her boyfriend beat her and kicked her skull in when he was drunk and now he's in jail. I guess he killed a man before so it's his second time in prison. She's really hard to get to commit to things. She won't stop smoking and she's still in love with this moron who almost killed her. She always just listens to our lessons we spend time preparing, like no big deal. Well, the other day we didn't know what to teach, we don't know what else to say! So we read her the poem 'God Said No.' I forget what it's called in English, but I love it. It's where someone is praying to God for life to be easier and he keeps on answering no, but with good reasons. Anyways, she sat there and cried. It was the first time she cried with us, or had any kind of spiritual emotion. So I hope the spirit has made a breakthrough in her life and we can help her.

I'm still cutting hair. ALL the elders want their hair done but I don't have clippers! A girl came running into English last night and was like "I NEED YOUR HELP!" She's gorgeous and had long beautiful hair... HAD. She had to chop it really quickly before she came because she fell asleep and got gum all in it! So I sat her down and gave her the short Jennifer Anniston haircut and she looked awesome! She loved it! :) (written on Nov 8, 2007)

Slammed by an elf

2008-05-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

It's not cold today, but it has been FREEZING! Even all the Russians have their furs on! I bought boots today, FINALLY! They're super comfy, but it took so long cuz EVERYTHING has heels here, and then I couldn't decide if I should get winter or fall/spring because the winter boots get hot soooo fast and everyone had different opinions on what I should do. Most said to just get fall/spring boots and layer if necessary... anyways, so stressful. But I got some good, comfy, conservative fall/spring boots just before I came here, so I'm happy. They were cheaper than I thought I would spend too, so I'm happy. 3000 rubes baby.

So, you wanna hear how my pumpkin pie went?... it was freaking amazing! The best pumpkin pie I've ever had! I know it sounds like I'm bragging, and I totally am, because it's totally brag worthy. I'm making it again today and I've been teaching babushkas on the street how to do it. They don't know what pumpkin pie is here... weird.

They don't celebrate Halloween here, so yesterday was a bust. I'm teaching my English class tonight all about it. They don't have thanksgiving here (obviously) and Christmas isn't a big deal at all!!!!! How sad is that gonna be?! I'm already playing Christmas music in our apartment!

At sports night on Saturday, a man who was passing by stopped to play soccer with us. He was like a psycho, drunk elf bouncing around and was really intense. I was chillin' in the middle of the field chattin' it up, and the ball came to me so I kicked it, no big deal. But a split second later I got full on BODY SLAMMED by the psycho drunk elf and I hit the ground and rolled like 5 times. hahaha the elders all thought I died and all ran over and I was just laughing and got up. You should see the huge bruise I got from it on my leg... wow. But all is well!

Two days ago we were with an investigator at McDonalds and I went with one of my comps to the bathroom upstairs, but I biffed it HARD on the way up and fell down completely. Everyone just stared. Sadly, McDonalds is always off the hook, so I had quite an audience. I don't think I ever told you about the time I rolled down the hill when I served in Pskov! hahaha my hands were in my pockets so I couldn't stop rolling! So I'm a total klutz. AND I have narcolepsy. I'm so freaking tired sometimes and I just conk out. Not like dozing... I'm GONE! haha

The other day I was on the bus, standing separate from my comps. There was a teenage boy by me and I wanted to give him an English invite, but I always get nervous cuz I CANT SPEAK RUSSIAN and so I thought, I'll give it to him in a minute. Well, a few minutes later a black man got on the bus, and of course I noticed him because there are no black people here. I felt so strongly that I needed to talk to him! But for some reason right then I felt like, it's time! Give the invite to the teenage boy! So I turned right then and asked in English if he spoke English, then went on in Russian and gave him the invite and he thanked me.

The black man, Clemes, heard me speak English and he automatically started speaking to me, which I was ready for. We talked forEVER, cuz our bus was stopped by the cops so we had to wait forever. He's from Africa and he was just too perfect. He said he's been looking for a place to worship, and can I just tell you, the things that came out of this guy's mouth were amazing! African blacks are the most spiritual happy people EVER! And he's having a horrible time here in Russia, like people beat him up and everything all the time cuz there is MAJOR racism here, but he was just so positive. I told him I was going to die when the REAL cold hit and he told me no, that I was a messenger of god and he would protect me. Just tons of stuff like that. Anyway, we exchanged numbers, he came to church the next day, and he loves it! He is AMAZING! He'll be baptized within the month, I know it. So it's times like this that I love. Even when everyday we get denied forty thousand times, it's these little miracles that Elder Eyring spoke about it conference, that can end up being a HUGE amazing thing. I love it!

We had zone conference this week and it was awesome. I'm having so much fun with the Book of Mormon! It's seriously so important to read over and over. The other day I started reading and got halfway through the chapter before I realized that I had read that already the night before. But the cool thing was that I had marked different things. So one day made the diff in what I got out of it. I know that book is true. With all my heart. I love it so much. I think we totally take for granted the power it has. It can convert all by itself, even without me teaching. That comforts me because sometimes I don't really know if what I'm saying is what the Russian people are hearing because of my language issues. haha But I'm so thankful for it. It makes missionary work so much easier. :)

I love you so so much! Oh, ps. mom and dad, I will NEVER leave you two alone. Totally sounds cheesy, I'm sure, but since the first week I got to my mish I see these old people with no family around to help and take care of them and it breaks my heart. So I promise you. hahaha you have got forever, but just FYI. :) (written on Nov 1, 2007)

Pumpkin pie

2008-05-26T20:05:00.000-07:00

IRA got BAPTIZED! It was so fun! We had to arrange the whole thing, and she loved it! She came out of the water and I didn't even care, I jumped on her and got completely wet, but it was amazing! Elder J. baptized her. It was so RAD! Her mom wants to get baptized too! I LOVE her mom! The lessons we give at their apartment always have the most amazing spirit ever, and for some reason, I can speak Russian with them. It's really weird, but the words just come. I STRUGGLE really badly everywhere else. But there, it just flows and I feel the spirit so strong. It's the most amazing thing ever!

Today I'm making pumpkin pie... yes, you read right. I didn't even know you had to make it, I just thought it came like that from Costco... ;) But a babushka had pumpkin quarters yesterday by the metro and my companions were so excited because one of them has tried pumpkin pie and LOVES it. They were like, "you ameerican. You ceen maeek eet! narmalna. You ameerikin!" I was like, really I don't know how to cook, much less make a pie, but they wanted me to try. So I'll tell you how it turns out. I have to make the crust and everything! GOSH things are easier in America! :)

Satan freaking sucks, can I just tell you that? On Monday I woke up and was just so happy and thought to myself, "why am I ever sad on my mission? It's such a rad experience." Well, Satan decided to hit me that day, hard. I was horrible at the language all day and just couldn't do anything right and everything was going wrong and I was just really negative for the whole day and the next. I knew too. I didn't contact anyone because I couldn't communicate and didn't feel like it anyways. Well, I discovered, as I always do time and time again, that when I FINALLY bucked up and contacted someone (I felt so strongly that God was telling me to just do it and everything would be fine, so I did.) I was immediately happy again. It's so strange how it all works out. :) I have so much more to say, but I only have 2 minutes left and I need to write prez. I love you sooooo soooo much! (written on Oct 25, 2007)

Conference inspiration

2008-03-29T21:09:00.000-07:00

Last week when i said it was cold... i lied. it's FREEZING! Sure it was 3 degrees C, but i didn't take wind chill into factor. I don't know how much of a diff it makes, but later last Thursday we were outside the Hermitage and I had my puny little CA jacket on, zipped all the way up so it covered half of my face. Yea, my lips stuck to the zipper, it was so cold. And the whole city is on water (like Venice, i love it!) so it's freaking arctic.

The Hermitage...LOVED it! I only got to see part of one floor cuz we had an investigator to teach, but i LOVED it! For some reason I turned into a psycho tour guide and started telling my comps about the artists and the topics of the paintings like i was some old pro or something. Something happens to me when i hit art museums, i get so passionate and crazy. I give you full permission to make fun of me right now. I shrieked when i was cruising through one of the rooms and saw a DaVinci I recognized immediately. Then I almost died when I saw a statue by Michelangelo... oh man, so fun! I took a couple of pics. But i didn't see my fave piece by Rafael, so I'll have to go back.

Transfers were this week and so it was a crazy fest as usual. my comps and i stayed, so I'm happy. My AP Silver (short for his crazy Russian name) is down in Pskov now, but i still have Y and i love his new comp. Last night they asked so many questions about what they should do with their hair, what kind of products they should use, and stuff. They're so fun, I love them! And I think I told you about my phone call from Elder silver about not being allowed to do the elders' hair. Well, i guess that was HIS rule! haha! The office told me that now that he's gone, it's fine. (he's the one who yelled at me about the porn pics way back when, remember?) We were hanging with the APs on Monday and on the way home on the bus that night, a drunk guy came and sat by me, right before they were getting off at their stop. Silver told the sisters to "Watch her" in Russian, indicating me. I was like "I'm not a child, i can understand you!" haha I've never done anything wrong and silver acts like I'm some kind of problem sister or something. Anyways, the drunk guy confessed his love for me after a really funny convo as he was hopping off the bus and i was like "hmm... thanks." We'll see if he shows up to English or something, i gave him invites.

I finally experienced a BANYA! EVERYONE talks about them because everyone here thinks that banyas are a normal past time and the elders have funny stories about going to them. They're like public bath houses. My comps grew up going to them. Well, on Tuesday, I experienced one for the first time ever. What a psycho experience that was! We went with Ira, (our investigator who i love and is getting baptized on Sat.) to this ghetto alley and had the option of going in one of two doors. We walked into one and found ourselves in the middle of 150 Russian soldiers... Um! So we went to the other door... GHETTO! I was like, what have i gotten myself into?!?!?!?!

We paid and then climbed 9 flights of stairs to the top floor. We had our own banya to ourselves instead of going to the public one. We walked into the most scary, ghetto room I've ever seen and i just started laughing. It was unfathomable. There was a black, dirty Jacuzzi type thing, two showers, leather seats, a bathroom, a sauna, etc. So yea, we went into the sauna and put honey on our whole bods, which was actually pretty cool, cuz it just melted off and wasn't sticky at all. We did face and body muds and then beat each other with branches of hot leaves....don't ask me why...they say it's healthy for you... All in all, it was so weird. But I'm not gonna lie, KINDA fun! hahaha i was like "my mom is going to get on a plane to come and get me when she hears about this."

So, how awesome was conference!? It was weird that we got it a week later, and the audio and visual kept going out, so it took a bit longer than usual and we would just end up listening to the audio of each session. But i loved it! Okay, first off, it was a total party with like, 50 missionaries! So fun! Second, I don't think I've ever loved and appreciated conference so much! I needed it. isn't it funny how it always seems to be specifically for you... but everyone thinks the same thing too! haha! Well, it was for me. :) I thought the Sat. session was rad and really emphasized letting the world know who we are! I loved how the speakers totally hit on all the hard questions people have about our church and they just answered them all so matter-of-factly and confidently, i loved it! The gospel is simple, we can just be confident and comfortable in telling it how it is.

I LOVED Elder Holland's SMACKDOWN talk! He's such a freaking stud. I felt the spirit so strong during it. He was just so forward and honest.

I loved loved LOVED Sunday's session! Elder Eyring talked about how "quickly people are lifted up in the pride of their hearts and forget their God." It's so easy to do, to think that I'm responsible for my accomplishments instead of Heavenly Father. I've been reading about it time and time again in the Book of Mormon! I've been thinking about this lately as I've been reading and seeing how the Book of Mormon is for our benefit and for us to learn for our time.. Over and over again, nations were established on righteousness and in the ways of God. Then they become prideful and wealthy and everything and forget about God. It just sounds awfully familiar. America was established on God and he's been worked out of everything! It just scared me, because these nations were destroyed no matter how powerful they were. I don't know. I just don't want to see my rad country that I love so much go down in flames, you know.

I loved Elder Cook's (new Apostle!) talk! Live by faith and not fear. Well, you know I swallowed that right up because I'm all about Batman and facing fears. ;) A lot of the talks hit on this, how we need to not be scared, and how we should be comfortable bearing witness of our Savior. I loved it, because you KNOW I'm not scared to share the gospel, but sharing it in Russian terrifies me! This conference showed me that i need to get over that. As long as I'm confident in what i say, instead of stuttering and wincing as i try to remember the right words, people respond way more positively.

On Monday, I don't know what was going on, but i was on a major happy high and I just started going up to people and saying "hey, do you speak English?" in English, then chatting it up in Russian and inviting them to English practice. This is exciting because I've had a hard time contacting people in the city. But I just did it thinking, "hello! This church is TRUE! I know it. God knows it. There's no reason to hesitate!" I can honestly tell you that Monday might have been one of the most fun days I've had since I've been here. The more people i talked to, the happier i became, ESPECIALLY if they responded well. Which shockingly, MOST of them did!

My mission is so fun! Elder Eyring also talked about how the Holy Ghost will bring things to our remembrance if we keep his spirit with us. It was in a different context than this, but i took it for myself that I will remember the things i study in Russian. it's a promise we have, so I'm taking full advantage! :)

One of the times i was at Medem for a shot, I picked up a Time magazine and started reading an article about moms that i thought looked good... well it wasn't. it started off by asking where all the working women in the world had gone then disgustedly stated that they were all at home taking care of children. it said that children were being too pampered and that it's good for children to have things like daycare and such... basically the article blew me away and said everything opposite to what was said about women in conference. so now i get to one of my fave talks, by sister Julie Beck! "mothers who know," all about wanting to be a mom and how mothers are influence. Mothers are power. They are truly the leaders of the world, they affect it all! The spirit was SO SO crazy during her talk! I loved everything she said about how to raise kids in the home (the pre-missionary training center.) :) AH, I'm going off, sorry.

Anyways, i just loved conference. i loved hearing the voice of the prophet of the Lord. I love him. My heart jumped when President HInckley mentioned the gospel being in Russia. And how we're the 4th largest church , but he said "This is only the beginning." After hearing this conference i just want to invite EVERYONE we know to watch conference every year, because the messages are always amazing.

Thank you so much mom and dad for raising me with good standards and expecting good things out of me! I feel so lucky to already know what the heck I'm doing here, what need to be done and what i have to look forward to! I'm so thankful for our family! Its my fave topic to talk about in Russian. :) When sister cook said that "brothers and sisters can be best friends," i was like, duh. Mine ARE! I'm just so thankful our family will be together forEVER! I'm not ashamed to say, we're pretty rock death, our fam. ;)

I pray for you all, ALL the time and i miss you so much! i love how Elder Uchtdorf said how Jesus Christ wants us to succeed. He gave his life just for this purpose. And we need to endure JOYFULLY to the end! Well, I plan to, on my mission and in this life. :) Please tell Dad that I'm striving to represent his name as best as i can, and I'm proud i can wear it everyday next to that of my Saviors. I love you so much! (written on Oct 18, 2007)

Winter skirts and leeches

2008-03-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

It's FREEZING! Today it's 3 degrees C... whatever that converts to. But 3 degrees in general just sounds absolutely revolting to me. Everyone keeps on saying "oh, you just wait..." like it's my death sentence or something. I'm excited to have the new experience of cold beyond my mortal comprehension, but I'm sure that curiosity and excitement will wear off the first minute and a half i have to walk in it. I guess we'll see. But for now I'm completely bundled and the girls keep saying i need to buy winter skirts... who knew there WAS such a thing? I thought a skirt was a skirt. But now i see that at night when we're walking home, i feel completely naked from the waist down. wow.

Elder Eyring and the new apostle were fun to watch. We are having conference this weekend, so I'm excited. They're going to have it in English and Russian, so yay, I'll know what's going on! :) Should be fun, we're watching it both days at the branch. PS, have i told you about the branch here? It's HUGE! Well, for Russia. I walked in and I was like, WHOA! Am I in America? Then they started speaking and i was like, nope. The building is 3 stories and it's the NICEST church I've ever been in ANYWHERE. It's so fun, I'm so thankful to be here!

OMG, the hospitals here are a nightmare, just like in Pskov! The one i go to is really nice because it's for Americans, but wow. We went to visit one of our investigators in a hospital and it was so scary... we walked in, it's all concrete, dark, rusty, no elevators, smells like human pee and puke, everything is moldy, our investigator was in a 10 by 12 ft room with 4 other patients... wow. I tell you, you can't even know until you experience it. The girls told me that it was normal and it's not as bad as some of the hospitals they've been to... i told them i would be dead by now, because there is no way i would go to a place like that. death vs. scary psycho hospital where you probably come out with more problems and diseases than you had when you went in? I'll take death thank you.

You want to hear something gross and funny? we went into the normal aptyeka or pharmacy the other day and they had a HUGE jar of 4 inch long leeches swimming around. I was repulsed, i started dry heaving, but i couldn't take my eyes off the jar the whole time we were there. I eventually asked the clerk how much they cost and they were only like $1.50 in American money. I actually considered getting just one to take home and name. you don't need to feed them or anything! But then my logic kicked back in and i remembered how grody they were.

A few tiny little facts or stories: The elevators here are sooooo scary mom! you would die! they're 3 by 3 feet and so rickety and we ride them all the time! AH! I always expect to plummet to my death! I usually have to just say to myself, "it's okay, if the cables break, it'll be like tower of terror at CA adventure and you love that ride. just chill."

I buy spices now from an Indian man at a bazaar near our house. I buy stuff like curry and this really good spice, i have no idea what it is, but he gives me everything for half price because I'm a missionary! I still need American spices tho, if you consider sending them! PS, thank you again for the pkg! :) The tuna was a big hit in our apt.... they had never had it like we make it.... weird.

Yesterday, we went to get on the metro and there was a HUGE crowd outside the station. I was like, no way we're getting in that line just to get IN to the station. Oh, but we did. Can I just tell you it was like the craziest mosh pit I've ever been in! haha! I thought i was going to die! And i got separated from my comps and i kept yelling, "DON'T LEAVE ME! DON'T LEAVE ME!" But it was sooo fun! I LOVE the city! Then the metro was packed, man, it's shocking how many people you can fit into one when you stack them. Hilarious experiences and i can't wait for you guys to come and experience it all too!

I love teaching with my new companions because i feel like I'm really a part of the lessons! I get to talk about principles and stuff instead of just testify, and i feel like my language is improving a lot... but i am just SO far behind that it's hard not to get frustrated. I feel like the biggest moron most of the time, but what can ya do. I just SO badly want to speak! It's hard to contact at all because nobody wants to listen and i have such a limited vocabulary that it's next to impossible for me to really talk to anyone. So I just hand out English invites. I really started wondering the other day if these people who say rude things or straight up ignore us will cruise to judgement after they die and watch their life back and see that moment when we tried to talk to them about the gospel and they dissed us hard and just be like, "....crap."

My favorite girl here, Era, is getting baptized in a week! i love her so much! And her mom Svyeta, is so amazing! I feel the spirit so strong when we go and teach them! Her mom wants to get baptized, but she works every Sunday so she's looking for a new job! WOW! I'm so happy!

Oh, guess what! Prez Putin was here the other night, at the opera as we were passing and we asked what was going on. Yea, he was there. And as we were walking by the side of the nice opera building, we looked up and it was night so the windows that were lit were in plain illumination for us and WOOOH, naked concert men just getting ready in these rooms, like, no big deal. The girls were scandalized and i was laughing hysterically. :)

I met a man named Max and he's HILARIOUS! He loves Elvis, but he talks like he's a southern black man and refuses to speak English. he hits on me all the time and everyone has to be like "STOP touching her!" It's only cuz I'm American tho. You should hear the things he says. And i just sit there and laugh! haha

Can I just tell you how thankful i am for things like girls camp and mutual, and things that i never really thought about growing up, but were there because of the church. I'm sooo thankful! They don't even know WHAT girls camp IS here! So i just sit and tell stories at night all about mutual activities and fun times at camp and stuff that i didn't even know i remembered. I feel so lucky for growing up in America. I miss everyone sooo much! I love you more than anything! (written on Oct 11, 2007)

This city at night!

2008-03-29T12:29:00.000-07:00

Okay, first off.... I'M IN THE MOST AMAZING PLACE ON EARTH! Well, at least that I'VE seen. :) AH! This city is so freaking beautiful! I'm madly in love with it and never want to be transferred again! I am having the time of my life! All the buildings and architecture and culture... it's INSANE! And I haven't even been to any of the palaces or hermitage or anything yet.

But I've got to tell you, this city at night... wow. it's a freaking FANTASY! I'm hoping the weather stays like it is now tho, because it's supposed to just plummet soon. When it's cold.... no fun. Just death. hahahaha! But the other night we were having sports night and it was just amazing, i can't explain it fully, but we were playing in the middle of a square with old buildings and palaces and the ice cream cathedral all around us and then it was getting dark and fireworks started going off right by us and when we were walking home there was a man playing acoustic guitar echoing on the cobble stoned street and the lights and wow.... man i am living a movie. Last night there were classical music students playing down in the metro for money, and it sounded AWESOME because it's all concrete down there and they were plugged in. I LOVE everything about this place! I can't explain it, you have to experience it.

I have to dress really professional being in center. Yay for collared shirts and jackets. But it's worth it. :) We see Prez and his wife all the time, so of course we're always with the office elders and APs and everything. I feel so IN on it all. hahaha

My companions names are Grigorieva and Varygina... I never remember, I'm always like "hey sister..." But they're cool. I feel like I'm learning the language a lot more with them. They MAKE me speak to people, so it's good. It's kind of funny, when i was with sosyak, I felt like i could understand EVERYTHING she said, and always laughed when she would speak to the elders in English and they didn't understand anything she said and i would have to translate. But now i think it's a blessing of companionships or something. Because we talked on the phone the other night... I did not understand one word she said. Not one. It was kind of sad. So I just told her i loved her in Russian and hung up. I did love her, but i am so thankful to be with these girls now, I'm not going to lie. And now i understand everything they say and nobody else does. The elders the other day were like "THEY SPEAK ENGLISH?!" hahaha

i like my apartment a lot. It's very clean, wood floors, nice shower, i love it. :)

So there is a group of Mormon American girls here that teach English and they're a lot of fun! One of them was like "do you know Brian W., he taught at the MTC" and i was like "know him? I'm dating him" ... hahahaha (that was with a Joe Jr. voice). No, but he was my teacher obviously and then she dropped the atomic bomb on me... he's engaged! WHAT THE HECK!?!?!?! That's traumatizing for the woman population. There goes the perfect man off to be married. hahahaha jk, his girl is totally cute... I just hope she deserves him. ;)

So last night was kind of fun because we were at English class and the American girls were there and they asked me what was being said and I translated for them without really thinking about it... then i was like UM!? I understand this stuff enough to translate... FREAKING RAD! Just a little pathetic fact about my life at the moment. :)

So I got myself some vitamins and I'm eating normal food so i feel a lot more healthy and better this week. Stores here are pretty normal, but not completely. No American cheese or anything. One thing I could do with if you WANT to send it are REAL spices! Like spices that i know. Like steak and chicken seasoning and TACO seasoning. They have nothing Mexican here. I'm still keeping an eye out for limes, I'm sure they HAVE to have them somewhere!

I got my pkg! Yay! I had to take the metro, two buses and walk a mile and a half in the pouring rain to get it, but it's here! Oorah! Thank you so much! They have post offices everywhere here but they send it to the most inaccessible one for some reason. THANK YOU I LOVE YOU!

I got another shot today, right before i came here to write. The hospital is so nice and I'm so thankful I'm not going to the one in Pskov for my shots! Sosyak told me she could EASILY give me the shots.... i told her i would rather die and she told me i was a stupid idiotic American who didn't know anything because buying needles at the normal pharmacy is totally normal. ....

I had some AMAZING spiritual experiences i wanted to share with you, but i guess I'll have to write them in a letter. i love you all so freaking much! (written on Oct 4, 2007)

Emergency transfer

2008-03-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

Talk about huge drama and MAJOR action! So... i got emergency transferred out of Pskov... Just when i was thinking that the adventure HAD to slow down at some point. :)

So anyways, after a huge fight with S the night before, we seemed to be having a fine morning on Wednesday and i remembered that P had told me to call sister S about my cat bite, and if i didn't (cuz i didn't want to, it was dumb) then he would. So i casually called sister S thinking no big deal, The bite is almost all the way gone, it was just a courtesy call.

Well, she sounded like yes, no big deal. Told me she would call back... When she did, wasn't easy or nice about it, just straight up said "pack all your things, you're getting transferred TODAY on the next train or bus available.".... It was so shocking that i started bawling on the phone like a moron.

It was shocking because, not only was it so sudden and blunt and I'm sad because I'm missing my investigator's baptisms this week and next, but the night before, i had been praying and had gotten the distinct impression to call P and tell him i needed to be transferred. I thought that was dumb because i loved where i was and any probs i had been having with S and all, could totally be dealt with. so i said no to myself. And i cried. I'm a huge bawl baby lately. I even told K on the phone that i was getting transferred... jokingly, but oddly it felt like it wasn't a joke to me.

So that thought stuck with me in bed that night. The next morning when i prayed, I got the same impression. I said no again, thinking i was just being dumb and praying i wasn't turning into a dramatic psycho sister missionary and not realizing it. When sister S called with my transfer, it finally and distinctly hit me that when i was saying no, i was saying it to my Heavenly Father. I felt like he was saying that if I wouldn't follow his promptings as a missionary, he would find another way. Even if it was through something as stupid as a cat bite. I know that the transfer was right, whether it was cuz i needed to be here or sister Kirina who took my place, needed to be in Pskov, it was definitely meant to be.

So I packed up, but the next train was at 3am so we went to the branch and it was a total scandal. So it was a sad sad goodbye. We were all pretty devastated, but i know that it's right and I'm so happy to be here in CENTER!!!! YAY! Where I wanted to serve!

Another roller coaster i was stuck on yesterday was i got taken to Medem Medical by sister S and she left sosyak and me there so i could start on my first rabies shots. Well, they laughed at me and told me bites are normal here blah blah blah, as if i didn't feel stupid enough for being there, it wasn't by choice. They sent us away and then there were a couple hours of phone tag with sis S and specialist doctors and America and stuff until i got called for the millionth time and told that i HAD to get the shots they didn't care how much it cost. What a huge embarrassing ordeal.

So we trekked back to the clinic and while i was waiting, sosyak tried talking to a woman who was also waiting with her little boy, but she was American. So her and i chatted it up and i got her phone # and she told me several times to PLEASE call her about ANYTHING! I was like, No problem... hehehe she totally knew i was a missionary and everything. :) It's a whole family that just moved here from Illinois. wow. Definitely meant to be there at that exact time. So then i got my huge shots and left.

i love it here! it's so rad! i love the members and investigators i met last night and i like my companions. They're both native and very serious, but what can you do. This is exactly what I've been needing. hopefully i will learn Russian with these two! I've already learned a ton today!

So i don't know if i told you about meeting sasha's sister by cutting her hair, then going over to their apt to do her friend vika's hair. I love them, they're so fun! Well, this week we went over to meet sasha's mom, but sasha had to leave. Tamara, her sister, was still there tho and told us that sasha smokes again... horrible, so we obviously had to cancel her baptism. Not forever tho. :) Her mom was amazing tho! They're just so accepting and loving (which isn't common) and we found out why that night.

Her mom told us that she prayed to God because she's been struggling in life and is so poor and she didn't know how she was going to be able to take care of her two girls. She said God CLEARLY answered her. He said, "I am sending you two angels, messengers, who will teach you everything you need to know. And i will send them soon." Wow. She said that a couple of days later, sasha came home and said she had met with us and i guess all of them (including the grandma, which explains why she insisted sasha quickly go to us and take us flowers to thank us that one day) knew we were the ones. We were the messengers she was waiting for. I bawled... of course. It's a miracle. A Christmas miracle. :)

I know miracles like this happen, because God takes care of his children and he does send missionaries where they need to go... i just never thought i would be part of such an amazing miracle. it's real. It happens. So despite the fact that sasha's mother smokes and drinks a LOT, she accepted us in immediately, was so loving, was SO thankful for the BOM we gave her (she threw herself around our necks thanking and thanking us) and begged to know when we could come back to tell her everything. :) wow. my mission is amazing.

I have so much more to tell! But i don't have time!

I'll try to fit in another story... this one is stupid, but what can you do. I totally had a Dumb and Dumber bathroom experience the other night. We went and had dinner at Mama maria's house and she gave us REAL apple juice, which ps is my fave and we need an apple tree. I downed two tall glasses there and she gave me a big bottle of it to bring home. Well, an hour later i cruised into the bathroom like normal (thank goodness we were at home) and suddenly a weird rumble moved all the way up my bod like in a movie and HELLO! You can figure out the rest. wow. Why do we spend $ on laxatives that take 6+ hrs to kick in then make you sick for the rest of the day?! It was AMAZING! hahahahaha! This stuff is like gold! and all i could think about was how maria and my comp must have been laughing hysterically inside their heads as they watched me down all the juice. "stupid Americans"... ;)

On a more annoying note, i got another condescending talk about how I'm here on my mission to lose my rose-colored glasses and my fantasy world and to join the real world like S, because i sound like she did in 7th grade... wow. Coming from HER??? but i love her. don't forget that. :) But i was sick of it! I rather nicely (honestly) told her i didn't want to lose it! I'm growing here, but THAT isn't the kind of change i need. I told her it's not growth to become cynical! God gave me the gift of being happy and optimistic! SUE me! I HATE when she says, "you will see, you will see."... Yea, i will see your hair catch on fire as i throw you out our rose-colored window. She acts like a child and then gets all high and mighty on me because I'm happy?! I don't understand! Except that i do get we're from different cultures and obviously appreciate our own. Which is fine. We both think we're right. What can you do? Except i try to tell her, yea, it's cool, i love this culture (and i do it so sincerely) then it gets turned and she's like well yours is the worst! These people don't get America. They all want to go there, but then they bash it. They don't get how amazing it is. They don't understand how life could be. Whatever.

hahahaha sorry i am finishing off on this note! I just love my life, i love my "glass" world, and i love my family. :) What can i do? :) omg, i love and miss you so so much!

tune in for more drama next week! (written Sep 28, 2007)

Homesickness, haircuts & rabies

2008-03-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

Hello family! I love you oh so very much and miss you more than you will ever know! This week has been kind of hard home-sickness and family-sickness-wise, but what can you expect when you leave the most hilarious, loving, crazy, fun family in the whole world back in the best bomb diggety dom country in the whole world... what can you do? Enjoy the adventure in front of you, I suppose. So I am. :)

After I wrote to you last week, we had a really fun p-day seeing some sights in Pskov. We also scoped the Mafia housing which is really nice even for American. We got interviewed by a news camera crew when we were exploring a ruin of a castle watch tower in the rain. I of course just stood stupidly staring at the camera with Elder K while my comp talked to the interviewer. I had no clue what was going on, but that's not a new feeling at all. You want to know why that's so crazy, tho?! Today we went to an old city outside of Pskov to explore all of the old ruins and churches and at one of the stands in the bazaar a woman said she recognized all of us from TV and wanted to know about our church and took a book of Mormon! Yay! :)

I bought my new pet finally! She's BEAUTIFUL! hahaha And so soft and fluffy and I love to pet her. Of course I'm talking about my coat. She doesn't have a name yet, but when I finally wear her for real, I'm sure one will come to me. The crazy lady who sold her to me didn't know what kind of animal she is... which I wasn't down with. She and i fought. "It's natural, girl, it's natural." "Okay, but what kind of animal is it?" "It's natural, it's natur-" "What kind of NATURAL freaking ANIMAL is it lady?!" My comp wouldn't even TRY to work a deal for me even tho I begged her to because you can work everything you buy in these Renix (bazaars) everywhere. The lady said i was too fat too. Yea yea, i know I'm tolsty (fat) but everyone doesn't need to tell me. HAHA they're very open here in Russia. So yea, now all I need to buy is my seal skin hat and I'm all set.

Sosyak taught my how to pee in a hole this week... it's info i needed because we're going to zone conference again this weekend and you know what that means. So we'll see if i can do what we practiced. :)

Totally random, but I'm convinced everyone has a twin in Russia. Everyone. I've seen IDENTICAL people to movie stars or random people i know, and I kid you not, Uncle Joe was standing by me on the bus today. Sometimes i think people are playing tricks on me, it's so weird!

Okay, here i was thinking that my whole schooling for hair was going to go to waste because I just left and went on a mission, but mom, you have no clue what a blessing it has been! YES! At least there is SOMETHING I can do to help in a big way, because i for sure can't speak the language! haha! But seriously, I cut 2 or 3 people's hair a day now! And it's such a blessing! This girl who I LOVE has been coming to church forever i guess and has been waiting to turn 18 to get baptized. But her mom saw the haircut i gave her and wanted me to cut hers too. It was such an amazing experience! She warmed up so much and wants to meet with us again!

We're baptizing a girl next Sunday who we started teaching just a couple of weeks ago and whose hair i cut. Yesterday she brought her sister to get her hair cut and it she wants to come to church too! There are two twin girls who I cut too and one of them screamed when she saw herself, she loved it so so much! There's a babushka (the one who always feeds us scary things) who has a daughter but none of the missionaries had ever seen her. She was always hiding when we went over, but a couple weeks ago, sosyak snagged her when she was making a dart for the bathroom and for some reason immediately told her that i do hair and school started that week and she asked if we would do HER daughters hair. it turned out really good, a totally Hollywood princess updo, because that's what she wanted. Ever since then, every time we go over she (daughter of the bab and mother of the little girl) tries to impress us and has nice tea and treats and stuff. And she hugs us and kisses us and sits and talks... it's an AMAZING turn around! These are just a few of the incidences, i don't have time right now to write the rest, but they're all amazing and I'm so happy I have this skill I can use! So random! So weird! SUCH a blessing! :)

Saturday was an amazingly spiritual day for us. We had the most amazing lessons, and got a baptism. The girl we were teaching (Sasha, whose hair i cut and who has the sister) said after the discussion that yea, she wanted to be baptized, and i just started crying! There was such a strong spirit and i just lost it! I of course tried to play it off all cool, but really i just fell apart. I learned that day not to judge people, because i didn't think she was serious about us teaching her at all, but the spirit was so strong and the thought just came so clear to me that it's not my choice who is ready for the gospel or not. It was amazing. I'm sorry, I hate giving you short versions of all these experiences.

I was asked to go up and give my testimony on Sunday, and it was really fun. Russian is coming a TINY bit easier and I'm suddenly understanding a LOT more, which doesn't mean too much but I'm ECSTATIC about it! :)

Then my life here in Russian went right down hill. This week has been pretty horrible in a lot of ways, but I know it's only because Satan is working on me so hard right now. I had a day or two of absolute high flying happiness and Satan decided to try to make me crash and burn... hard. But at least I know his game and I'm sooooo on it! :)

But luckily, we have two MORE baptisms the week after next, so we're going strong! President called last night and wanted to know details on our investigators to see for himself if sosyak and i really have so many! :) haha i laughed at that! But obviously it's not us, we're just here at the right time learning the right lessons and talking to the right people. I love the way missionary work WORKS! :)

OMG! I have so much more to tell you but absolutely no time! Oh, but maybe I should tell you that I got attacked by a psycho cat yesterday. hahahahahhahahaha! This cat was WEIRD! We were in a ghetto produce market near our apartment and this random cat was cruising through and i was like, "that cat has psycho eyes" because they were florescent glowing green like I've never seen before. I kid you not, the cat didn't jump... it teleported from five feet away to a lock-jawed position on my right hand. I didn't even react, I was like "ow" and shook it off, and by the time i REALLY realized what had happened the cat was gone. So i was bleeding everywhere and the dumb cat slobbered all over me and i was like "sosyak, um..." hahaha she was like "normalna" when i told her what happened. So now... i have to get rabies shots... lovely. What next? We'll see. (written Sep 20, 2007)

I'm no rock star

2008-03-29T09:07:00.000-07:00

I just spent a bunch of time trying to upload pics and it worked but now i don't know how to find them to send them because everything is in RUSSIAN! :) We're short on time today, we're going to some ancient ruins or something.

So, our little problem, I think, is gone for good. Well, let's hope it's for good! You can imagine how freaking paranoid i am now! Every girl at church loves to snuggle me and I've just been cringing and looking at their hair every chance i get! And I did two haircuts yesterday and the whole time I was waiting for a lice to show up!

You know how my scissors are Washi brand? Well that means "lice" in Russian.... a boy pointed that out to me yesterday and I found that insanely ironic. We of COURSE have kept the whole things under wraps, and the Elders have been having a hey day guessing and thinking something is TOTALLY and HORRIBLY wrong (which believe me, I've let them know it isn't because I refuse to be a dramatic and high mantainance sister) and they have been bringing us blankets and icecream and stuff. hahaha

I love our elders, we have so much fun together! I'm SOOOO thankful they gave us blankets, because that night after I wrote to you, it was so freaking cold and all of our stuff was still wet (because nothing dries in this cold and humidity) so I spent the whole night awake in front of an open gas oven on full blast... it was totally torture. You know being cold is the WORST feeling in the world for me! Well, being cold AND tired reeeeeally sucks. But I had time between the hours of 3 and 4 to make thank you cookies for the elders, so ya know. Something good came out of it i guess. I look ridiculous though. I think we're going to go one more night tonight on the floor again. We have washed with lice shampoo 5 times since i wrote you last, so we think they're dead.

I happened to hear an amazing song by Yellowcard yesterday! One of the boys played it while I was cutting hair. By the way, my cutting hair has been SUCH a blessing on my mission! We've gotten so many contacts and lessons out of it! I do like one a day! But anyways, it's way funny how everyone here has TONS of American music, and they don't understand any of it! NONE! The girls in the ward have me sing songs to them all the time that they love (which ps is totally mortifying because, let's be honest, I'm no rockstar... sadly) and they just stare at me and then beg me to sing them again and again... it's hilarious. And all the brands and logos and words on clothes here are totally American, and they have no clue what they say. I know because i asked a man on the bus if he knew what his shirt said. Not so good. But no, he didn't know.

I love you oh so much! Truly madly deeply! Be safe and love the gospel because it freaking ROCKS!!!! :) (written Sep 12, 2007)

"Oh...and I have lice"

2008-03-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

I have lice.

There's no good or easy way to say that. hahahahahahhahahahaha OMG! WHERE AM I!?!?!?!

So let me tell you the story. I know that it's Monday, but it's been a funny day from heck and we needed to email our families, so hey, maybe it was worth the lice.... ;)

So last night, Sosyak told me that her head was on fire and would I check her for bugs... So I sat her down in the kitchen, totally not thinking I would find anything, because lice is such a foreign thought to me (i should have realized i am in Russia and you don't get much more foreign than that,) and it's always been just a nightmare, not so much a reality for me that people actually CAN get lice. I parted her hair and AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Totally saw lice!!! EEEEEEEE!!!!! I immediately started crying, knowing full well that if she had it, I did because we not only live together and are with each other 24/7, but we always have our heads together sleeping near each other and stuff. She was like "Normalna!" and didn't get why I was crying. (I only cried a little bit, I'm not a freaking wanny!) :) She checked me and I had some too... Oh. My. Gosh.

I called Sister S right away, and was in a little bit of shock at what I had just seen, so when Prez S answered I couldn't even remember my own name. hahaha While Sister S was on the phone with me and I had told her our problem and all, I accidentally without thinking yelled "SOSYAK! Stop scratching your FREAKING head and sit down!" really loud and angrily. She was scratching and flinging her head everywhere and running around the house laughing. During this lice issue I was slightly unhinged, and yes, I yelled FREAKING into the Mission Prez's wife's ear... I started apologizing, but she just told me she would be the same way. Anyways, we ended up having to go find a 24 hr pharmacy in the middle of the night and oddly there was a really long line (outside in the freaking 20 degree weather) at the one we found. Meanwhile, our district leader wanted to know what was happening and I of course refused to tell him and tried to play it off like it was no big deal.

Then there were two guy's behind us in line that were fascinated that i was American and they were being all perverted in Russian, to see if i could understand and react, which of course i didn't because they were so lame. When we got up to the window the woman was all loud about us having lice and the guys, in ALL seriousness were like, "you want to share your bugs with us?" and other stuff in Russian. Man, what a screwed up county... But guys here are like, "oo American? let's get it on" all the time. And lice is like, no big deal here. Like sosyak said, "Normalna."

So sosyak and I stripped and did the process we needed to with the hair rinse and everything and we immediately started washing ALL of our clothes, sheets, blankets all in the hottest water possible. It was the worst and FUNNIEST situation EVER!

Finally, after talking to my DL and Sis S. again a bunch of times, we sat huddled in our undies in front of a heater that we found (that sparks and ended up melting our plug socket last night) because we had wet hair, no towels, no blankets, no clothes and it was 20 degrees like i told you before. We couldn't touch the couches or anything until we could go buy stuff to spray it all down with today. So we pulled an all nighter just doing load after load of laundry and talking about the lice orgies (sosyak called them "orggies" so i had to tell you :) ) going on on our heads and laughing hysterically.

In the morning, after flat ironing each other's hair, we checked each other's hair for more lice about every hour, still just chillin in our undies because we don't have a dryer and all our clothes were/are wet. Guess what. Sosyak still had some bugs in her hair. So we went and got a spray for our bodies, a spray for the house, and more hair stuff.

District meeting was done over the phone and all the elders were still like, WHAT IS GOING ON?! Which who can blame them? I just kept on telling them it was something so gay and to forget about it. Come to find out earlier on tho, as P was guessing things that it could be, and asked "do you happen to have little friends?" and i so casually was like "yes, we have lice. NO you moron." hahahaha! Then he told me that This week and last week the other two elders who have BEEN to my apt had a "bug" prob that they kept really quiet and it was top secret. So we think it was either them or some of the girls in the branch that gave it to us because some of them... well... they would have it.

Anyways, the boys brought us over chicken fettuccine alfredo and ice cream and an air mattress because they found out we didn't sleep last night and now think something is wrong with our beds. I love them! Our district is freaking RAD! We got a BRAND new kid who totally knew who i was because i guess we were in the MTC together and it took me a while to figure that out and i then had to apologize for not knowing him. The other one is RAD and he came with us on the bus from St. Petes. We're totally best friends already (he gave me a Dr. pepper he smuggled in from Finland, how could I NOT immediately love him?!)

We were going to go stay at their place tonight and they were gonna go to the other elder's apt, but then i was like, if THEY get lice (if we still have it even after all the stuff we've done to get rid of it), they'll never forgive us. So i refused. They kept on asking what was wrong and I just told them we killed a man and to forget about it. Anyways, that's my adventure! I have lice. hahhaahaha we say that after everything now. "I'm going to the bathroom really quick, k... and i have lice."

I'm really sad you haven't written on here yet, because sosyak says this counts as our p-day and i was like, UM! My fam writes on Wednesday so that's not gonna fly. so hopefully and MOST LIKELY you'll still hear from me on Thursday. I'll definitely be checking my mail. Please write me a lot, I miss you so much! I LOVE the pics you sent! I wrote you some letters and put them in pouch so look for them. I love you oh so sososososososoosososososoooooooooooo much! :)

And I have lice. (written Sep 10, 2007)

Fairy tales and the Holy Ghost

2008-03-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

Okay, big thing this week... TRANSFERS!!! AH! It was one of the most torturous things I've ever gone through. I think it's really mean for us to know when transfers are. They should just spring them on us randomly from time to time, because for 3 days it's all everyone could think about. Let me just tell you that Sosyak and I SHOCKINGLY were left together in Pskov and we were THRILLED. Everyone, including me, was sure I was going to be transferred. But I wasn't so it's all good in the hood.

Guess who WAS transferred though.... J and.... D! So freaking sad! I was devastated. Everyone went to the bus station to see them off yesterday and it was a sad farewell.

Even bigger than transfers... Sosyak and I have 4 baptisms!!!! YAY! MIRACLE! I'm so excited! They're not FINALIZED, and I know that's a death statement, but I just had to tell you that we committed four people. :)

Yesterday was sosyak's birthday. I didn't know what to do, so i plastered our apartment with hearts before she woke up with messages on all of them. Then I made her hard boiled eggs, tea and toast (cuz it's all i know how to make) and made it into a smiley face with mayo because she's obsessed with smiley faces. and with mayo... :) Oh, and she likes twix, so i got her some HUGE ones and put them out for breakfast too. Last night we had a weird photo sesh and so i have some fun pics to send you, if ever i can! ERGH!

I told sosyak about the Little Mermaid yesterday and she told me the Russian version.... not so happy-go-lucky, believe me. She's like "yea the mermaid gets legs from the sea witch, but every step she takes it's like knives stabbing her feet." Then she goes on to tell me how a bad princess says that SHE saved the prince, Eric, and he believes her but then Eric got in a duel and was dying and so Ariel went back to the sea witch and traded her life for Eric's.... so she DIES at the end! WHAT THE CRAP!?!?!?! THIS isn't a happy fairytale! Sosyak said she loved this story and movie when she was little. She said most of the fairy tales end sad... No WONDER all these kids grow up to be alcoholics!

Oh, ps, after we emailed last week, us six missionaries went and had a bbq/picnic in an old war ruin on a provaslovic church grounds in the rain.

Kind of random, I see that Sawyer from LOST is modeling now. haha I walked into the store and saw a HUGE sawyer and I was like, THAT'S SAWYER!!!!! I get overly excited about anything familiar.

The other day, we were riding on the bus enjoying an old drunk man making a scene and fighting with everyone when suddenly we stopped at a bus stop and on walks Christian Bale's twin. Hello Russian batman! HELLOOO new boyfriend!... ;) I know I know, I'm a total missionary, it can wait.

I have discovered something, though, and you're going to think i'm ridiculous for JUST figuring this out, but for some reason yesterday it occurred to me that every time I'm on the bus I notice someONE. Like, you get on, and zone out, but usually one person stands out to me for one reason or another. For something stupid like a ladies nails are weird, or I like a guy's shoes, or for some reason I'm just aware of someone for no reason at all. I haven't noticed it before, but it's true. And if I don't contact THAT person, usually Sister Sosyak will. So yesterday we walked up to a bus stop with about 25 people waiting and I happened to notice, and looked a few times at a boy sitting on a bench off to the side. I don't know why, but I did keep on looking. Finally sosyak said let's go sit down and we did, right by him. I still kept on looking at him and finally sosyak started talking to him, first about English practice and then about the church. It's so cool to see people process the information and somehow RECOGNIZE it and like it in their hearts. That's what he did. It got him thinking, our bus came, we gave him an English slip and we left. That's when all of this occurred to me. The Lord truly is putting people RIGHT in my path and telling me who to contact by bringing my attention to them. If I don't act on the spirits promptings, he tells sosyak to do it. It's amazing how it works! I love it!

Sosyak gets to go to the temple tomorrow and I'm so jealous. I didn't realize just how much I missed it until I was testifying about it yesterday to one of our girls in the branch. I miss KNOWING we have the temple close by and can go at any time. The temple is just a dream to these people. A VERY distant and far away dream. I'm so thankful to live in America. (written Sep 6, 2007)

Words I never thought I would utter

2008-03-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

I'm so frustrated, don't even get me started, about the mail system here! I'm just trying to send you a disk of my pics and a TINY b-day present for H, and it's the biggest ordeal of my life. I'm like, "I'll pay whatever" and i still can't get them sent. it's ridiculous, but hopefully i can figure it out by the end of this week and have them on the way.

Transfers are this week and I'm sooooo nervous! i don't want to get transferred yet! everything is JUST starting to work perfectly, but i hear a lot of missionaries, ESPECIALLY newbies, get transferred in one transfer. so we find out on Saturday. AH!

So, I'm vegatarian now.... words i never thought i would utter. I can't even spell it. but i think it's for the best. all the meat has made me sick and it's just gross anyways, so i made this decision. And guess what. The German elder, P, told me he didn't want to tell me before, but that the meat situation here.... lets just say it's totally The Jungle all over again, but nobody cares and there are no health laws... so good spiritual decision on my part... :)

I think I've told you about Agbaar, the Muslim man we are teaching. He's freaking GOLDEN and we love him! And he is always giving all of us and the branch amazing things to eat and stuff.

Last Thursday we went home and called the mission office to tell them about our flooding incident, because we had to. Before Sosyak could say anything, our AP started SCOLDING her so bad. Why? Do you remember the guy I told you about on the train? Meesha. Well we sent the pics we took of him and us with a book of Mormon and our testimonies with his address to the Elders in Petersburg to go and give to Meesha in person because he loved everything we told him about the gospel....didn't go over too well. They DIDN'T go and contact him because of the pictures... They said, "it's PORNOGRAPHY!" We were like HUH?! He didn't have a shirt on in the pics. We didn't even THINK about that, which maybe we should have, but NO man in that train had on a shirt because of the temp and because it's just the culture here! Anyways, our AP went off like we had some kind of orgy with the guy! we didn't even shake his hand! It was retarded! Then he said, "We don't teach prostitutes." and I said "Well neither do we, but I WOULD if one wanted to sincerely know about the gospel." He didn't like that very much, so I didn't mention the fact that Christ taught prostitutes. So lame. So before first transfers I already made a notorious name for myself as the Porno pic sister... Why can't i just ONCE stay under the radar? haha

The story goes on tho. So i guess they pawned Meesha's address off on some other elders who tried to go and contact him but it just wasn't working out. First, they couldn't get the door buzzer to work (you know in all the apt buildings you buzz the number at the door and then they let you up.) Well i guess they finally got in, but meesha wasn't home and he has big dogs who barked and the neighbors got mad and told them Meesha was NEVER home. I guess this happened a couple of times, so they gave up.

Then, one day they were cruising on the street and passed a man... who looked like meesha! And they called out his name... It was HIM! He was so excited they found him and has asked them back to teach him and his wife and gave them a couple ways to contact him and took a BOM and everything. Well, needless to say, the OTHER AP called back BEGGING for our forgiveness and thanking us a thousand times over. :) Had it not been for the pics, they never would have recognized him. Its a Christmas miracle! haha!

Hey, can you tell me what vitamins i need to be taking here? cuz I'm so unhealthy and i hurt. ouch. And I've stopped wearing eye makeup and i don't have any nail or toenail polish on... What have i become!?!??! (written Aug 30, 2007)

Peanut Butter!

2008-03-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm here finally! Yay! Seriously, I can't tell you how excited I get for Thursdays! On Wednesday, it's like the next day is Christmas... EVERY WEEK! Hahaha! I couldn't sleep at all last night! I don't know why I get so excited, I just do. :) To hear from you! AHHH!!!!

We have hot water! YPA!!!!! (Ooorah!) We cleaned our apartment and I love it now. The landlady put lights in so we can see now. My comp and i are getting along really well suddenly... YAY! We just started laughing together and stuff and we just talk forever at night and we're really good friends suddenly. I think.. scratch that--I KNOW it's because of prayer! If you happened to help praying for that, thank you so much! :) I've got her hooked on Wicked and we just belt it out all day long. She has no idea what she's saying, but she loves it. hahaha. Have you ever tried to explain the story of the Wizard of Oz?... Very odd and awkward story to try to tell. hahaha but i had to tell her it to then tell her the story of wicked! :)

Yesterday, D, S, and I started teaching Espanol class! It was basically the most spastic situation ever. You know how precise and anal D is about everything? Well come to find out, S is too.... Oh wow. I basically just tried to stay out of the way while the both of them ran maniacally around the room, scribbling frantically on the board and correcting each other. D told me earlier that he was going to recommend to prez that he and S get put together when transfers come around. Despite the fact that D's fantasy of being

put with a German companion was fulfilled (because he totally loves German and wants to learn) him and F just aren't working out.

Last night we went home and there were people waiting outside our door. Our bathroom had flooded and ruined their wallpaper downstairs. It was our stupid washing machine. It was totally my fault, shhh... After my bath (my WARM bath! :) ) the night before, I forgot to put the hose for the machine back into the tub. But come ON! Who needs to do that anyways!? It's ridiculous! So we're just going to pay them.

I FOUND PEANUT BUTTER!!!! Yes, we went into a store and i ran into peanut butter, which is impossible to find in Russia i hear. And it's good. I eat it every morning. God knew i needed something to lift me, even if just a little bit. :)

My comp drinks this stuff called Kvas. It tastes like dark, starchy bread.
So, I mass produce cookies here. hahaha! no cake mixes to work with tho! And they don't have ingredients like vanilla and brown sugar and normal measurements of things, even butter. So I make them up and they're a huge hit! Everyone at church is obsessed! They really are deprived. ;) They always freak out over the chocolate chunks i put in them, because chocolate chips don't exist here... weird. Where am i? ;)

Oh my gosh, so I'm really excited for

winter coat season to hit the shops here! Sosyak busted her coats out the other day because i wanted to see what i needed to be looking for. Well, you know how anti fur i am.. She was like "this is horse" and i almost threw up. But she wanted me to try it on so i reluctantly got up and acted like i was being forced to put poop on my body. But then... I stood in front of the mirror... It was totally the Phoebe moment from friends. I was like, "oh.... I make this horse look good!" It was the cutest coat EVER!!!! And i can't wait to get one! Who am i?! Seriously!? I've lost it! But seriously, you don't even know... SO hot! :) Now i just need to find my seal skin shapka and I'll be set. ;)
So we're not allowed to talk about politics while we're missionaries and now i totally see why... The other day, Anastasia and i started talking and she was all bashing Bush. All the really knew was that we went to war with little countries and we're a huge country and we're picking on them... dumb. i was like, "i love him." K, he may not be perfect and maybe i don't agree with some things that have gone down, but don't bash my president. ESPECIALLY if then you're going to turn around and start praising yours when the world knows he's corrupt and he kills off reporters and people who talk out against him. She thinks Putin is perfect. Whatever. So I had to suck it up, set aside the fact that I'm insanely patriotic and the fact that she had no real facts because the media here is governed and twisted by it's leaders, ... it was hard. But i survived. :)

I'm reading the New Testament and I LOVE it! haha! I knew it was my fave in seminary, but i forgot why. It's just straight up, ALL about Christ. I love it! :) the scriptures are so fun! :)

Babushka Nadyeshda ALWAYS feeds us. She's the one with the rat poo and blood tea and stuff.

Oh my gosh.... this week.... experiencing her food seemed to be the turning point for my companion and i. So at least it did something good. But

wow. We were eating blini she had made and both of us on our first bites bit into hair. But both happily kept on eating. and they are

straight oil. and... i can't even go into what happened. you just can't know unless you are there. one day I'll explain things to you. when we're in

person. hahahaha
My favorite Muslim girl Lootfia is moving home to Tajikistan or whatever this week. we're sad, but I'm happy for her, she has wanted to go home

for so long. She's like a freaking prisoner here! But we have a new Muslim investigator and he's AWESOME! I'm going to be sad when we have to hand him off to the elders. he's so amazing and loves the church already, it's so cool! He gives us gifts like melons and nuts from his country, and he's cooking for us on Tuesday, which i trust, because they seem to be a really clean culture. Have i told you i LOVE melon!?!?1 I have always hated melon! You know that! Watermelon, ew! But the melons here are like candy! Wow! (written Aug 23, 2007)

McFlurry heaven

2008-03-08T14:18:00.000-08:00

On Monday, my companion and I left at 2 in the morning on a train bound for PETERSBURG!!!! I LOVE that city! OMG, I LOVE IT! We had all these fun plans for when we got there, but what did I get to do the whole time?... chill in the office while my comp ran around dealing with visa issues... Luckily we are going back in 3 weeks and I get to be in a threesome while Sosyak goes to Finland for a day or two, so I can really get out into the city maybe then. :) And luckily there were elders cruising in and out of the office that day, because I made a bunch of friends and we had so much fun!

Two of the elders took Sosyak and I to a MALL!!!!! A freaking mall!!! I feel like such a stupid girl, but when we walked in, and I realized where we were, I almost cried. It was beautiful. hahahaha ANY form of normal life is kind of a dream to me at this point, so it was fun. AND I bought a mcflurry at McDonald's! It tasted like all the other dairy tastes here, but it was cold and had oreos or something in it so I was in heaven. :) And I got Subway. Wow. Real food. :)

On the train ride home, ALL the men were naked. It's just what they do here. When it's hot, they just cruise around in short shorts, and that's IT. No matter where they are. Hm. But we met this 21 year old guy who was way cool and he talked with us the whole time! We basically gave him a 4 hour lesson, and he believed ALL of it, which was AWESOME!

But any self esteem I had left flew right out the train window when he said that I looked older than 21 because I wear too much makeup and then went on to tell me that I wasn't skinny.... but then tried to justify both comments by telling me I was naturally beautiful and didn't need makeup and he didn't like how skinny all the Russian girls are. Somehow, that didn't really boost me. haha He's full on married tho, which means nothing here. He explained it to me as, "Would you want to eat eggs, all day every day for the rest of your life?" And I said, "Not eggs. But if I choose MY favorite food, then yea." But then I told him the real reasons for why being faithful to your wife is important. He says he wants to come to America and have 10 children with me... I don't think I got through to him. :) But everyone on the train ended up calling me the CA Princess because that's what he called me, and everyone knew who we were by the end of the trip, because you had to walk by us to buy beer and go to the bathroom. This guy, his name was Meesha, looked at my family pics and loved them. He just stared amazed at you guys' pics, like it was so foreign to be happy.

Did i ever tell you about my first time on the metro? Yea, it started going and I fell.... taking 20 people with me. hahaha. at least I learned my lesson. :)

So you know how I teach the advanced English class on Thursdays? Well, I guess they want me to teach Spanish now! WHAT THE HECK!? Having to translate and teach from Russian to Spanish.... probably not gonna work out for me.

I love the Russian people. they're so beautiful! Well, a lot of them... the rest... um. ;) But you can totally tell who Russians are.

The work is going amazing here! I love my mission! We have some new investigators and it's so fun! We're getting a lot from me cutting hair. :) Can i just tell you how much prayer works? Because it totally does. I prayed to learn to language and I think it's coming along this week. Little by little, it's coming. :) Maybe i should pray to improve my sports skills because this last week was horrible in soccer. haha! I think it's mostly because I was tired, but I would just stand there, and if the ball came at me and I would duck and shriek.... like a stupid girl. wow. it'll go better next week. :)
My companion always ALWAYS says "a dime a dozen," like every other sentence... "I do not think that word means what you think it means." :) just an odd little tidbit about her. (written Aug 15, 2007)

FAQ #2: Mish Girl "isms"

2008-03-08T13:53:00.000-08:00

To clarify some of Mish Girl's "isms" and general missionary lingo:

Ad = "hell," in Russian

comp = companion, or in other words, the other half of the missionary duo

p-day = Preparation Day; the one day a week when missionaries can write home, do laundry, sightsee, etc...

bab = babushka

District = the combined missionaries in any given area, usually about 6 or more

Zone = the combined districts in any given area, usually 3 or more

Cectpa = "Sister" in Russian, as in "Cectpa Sosyak"

Sister & Elder = What missionaries are known by during their missions. First names are not used, just Sister or Elder and their last names

AP = Assistant to the President; there are usually two of these, a companionship, who assist the mission president, helping oversee the spiritual and physical workings and needs of the missionaries and the mission itself

basic mission hierarchy: missionary - district leader - zone leader - AP - Mission President