PS: we have bedbugs!

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)

"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)

Dark pickled body parts?

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!

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)