Families are forever...

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!"

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)

Relief Society brawl!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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