Week 9: August 26, 2013

Heyooo!

So this has been the most insane week of my life. Seriously, I don't even know what to do with myself. The flight over here was really good! Ask me when I get home about placing a Book of Mormon in the DC airport because it's a funny story but it can wait. We almost missed our flight to Riga from Frankfurt because they printed the wrong gate on our ticket and we literally sprinted for twenty minutes to the other side of the airport and barely made it on time. That flight was the worst because I was feeling super nervous and barfy. Haha the Riga airport is pretty ghetto too, so that was fun.
We got into Riga center, which is where the mission home is. There's a new youth center that we put all of our luggage in and did orientation in. The first thing we did was go get our citizenship or whatever for Latvia and then we went contacting. Which was just--no words. Haha people in Riga center are in a hurry and not the friendliest but it's okay because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't want to talk to someone who looks like a grease ball either. And that's how I looked, btw.. So gross from the flight.

I went contacting with a Latvian speaking sister so it was rougher than usual.

We spent a few nights in a hotel there doing orientation and getting to know Pres. Boswell, which was awesome. He and S. Boswell are the bomb. We had interviews and talked about how not to get fleas and it was good stuff. I'm officially paranoid. Latvian food was AMAZING though. Like, better than American. And if you know me, that's really saying something.

So they gave me my companion on the third day and her name is S. Weaver. She's from Spanish Fork and she's the best. I don't know how I got so lucky but we get along super well and she's great at making me participate. I made a deal with her that I would make the first initial approach with every contact and say as much as I could and then she'd bail me out. It's brutal but I'm learning a lot. 

We're in Vilnius, Lithuania! The bus ride from Riga is about four hours but for some reason it took five. As we drove into Vilnius, my thoughts were like, "I thought this was a lot prettier on Pinterest." Hahaha it's sooo soviet here. The buildings are all ugly, grey, dirty, and graffiti'd. And there are huge apartment buildings for milessss. But it's cool because there are random patches of forest so that's pretty. And S. Weaver tells me that Vilnius is gorgeous, it's just our area that's ugly. Today we're gonna explore old town, which is the pretty part, apparently. I'll just have to take her word for it.

It rains a lot here, and it's super bipolar. One minute it'll be pouring and the next it's really sunny. But the past two days have been nice because the sun is out and the humidity isn't too bad.

I got over jet lag really fast, so that's good news. My apartment is super ghetto from the outside and I only recognize it from the graffiti but the inside is pretty nice! I really can't complain because we don't have cockroaches. And that's all I ask. 

So we've had a lesson every day since I've been here, which apparently doesn't usually happen. Our first lesson that we had was with Galena and Margarita, a mother and daughter who are really devout Catholics. On the way to the lesson, we took a bus and I was talking to this lady. She asked me how old I was and I told her eleven. Haha such a confidence booster right before my first lesson. But they are so cool! Obvoiusly I didn't understand everything (maybe one word for every thirty or so) but it was cool that I was still able to feel the Spirit when I testified. They had tons of hard questions that we didn't really know how to answer and we actually have to pass them to the Lithuanian elders because they speak better Lithuanian than Russian, but it was a great experience!

We had lunch one day with a member couple, the Haas family. The wife is from Lithuania and the husband is American. They made us German food and I realized that I absolutely despise dill, which is bad news because they use it in all of their bread. Pretty sure I'll get used to it. But the wife was suuuper nice. She told me her conversion story and it cracks me up how animated these people are when they talk. How loud they are, really. 

Our other lesson that we had was actually a miracle. So there's this member Yanina who has a friend named Yakov. He is blind and the missionaries have tried to talk to him before but he was really against it. Anyway, a few weeks ago he was super drunk and he fell in his apartment and cut himself really badly on his neck and bled all over his apartment. The missionaries helped Yanina clean it up so his heart was softened by that a lot. Yanina was supposed to come to our lesson with Galena and Margarita yesterday but when we knocked,  they weren't home. So Yanina is a champion of the sun and suggested that we stop by Yakov's. We went and taught him an impromptu lesson on prayer. He's really hard to understand and he yells a lot but it was so cool that we finally established a relationship with him.

Another great lesson was with Eddy and Nowi. They're from India and we taught them with Elder Packham and Elder Hall, two Lithuanian elders. We didn't expect much from that lesson because we mostly felt like they were just meeting with us because they wanted friends but we got there and  taught them the entire first lesson. They are awesome people and Eddy was super interested. Sort of funny thing that happened: they offered us Coke and I don't really like it but they brought me a mug of it anyway. I took a few sips and then set it on the table next to Elder Packham, hoping that they wouldn't be able to tell that I didn't drink all of it until I left. Haha but Elder Packham is the bomb and when we were about to leave, he saw my cup and just downed it because he didn't want them to be offended. Then we all cram into this tiny, nasty elevator and E. Packem burped right in my face. It was the worst because he ate curry earlier and oh my gosh, just so gross. He was laughing so hard. Har har.

Church on Sunday was great. Probably the most overwhelming experience of my life as of yet, but super funny. Everyone is so nice! I sat by this guy whose name I have no idea how to spell (Alvidas) but he was really nice to me and was helping me with Russian. Church is so different here. There were about forty-five people who came and apparently that's more than usual. I tried to introduce myself to every person but only ended up getting like twenty-five. They all think my Russian is cute, which is better than annoying, I guess. Haha I've set a goal not to talk about how crappy it is, so we'll leave it at that. 

I've already had a lovely amount of embarrassing moments. Haha first of all, I can't tell when people are drunk unless they're swaying or their eyes are all squinty and they smell like pee. Good thing Sister Weaver knows the smell and all that because she's had to pull me out of a few conversations. There are benches right outside our apartment that are always occupied by a group of drunk guys having the time of their lives. And by that I mean they're yelling. Haha it's entertaining. There's also a lady that feeds the birds every day right by our apartment. I don't know how she doesn't pee her pants when she sees a hundred of those things flocking towards her.

Birds, cats, and dogs are now the enemies of my soul, by the way. And speaking of dogs, we asked this guy if we could talk to him for a minute about our message and he was walking his dog. Apparently his response was, "You can talk to my dog," all sassy-like and, me, not knowing Russian, thought he said, "My dog likes you!" So I start cooing at the dog and waving at it and then as we walked away I realized how stupid that looked. Hahaha sometimes it's a good thing that I don't know what is going on.

So everything is really good with me. It's definitely an eye opener that I don't even know how to start natural conversations but I'm learning a lot really fast. Pres. Boswell gave us this really good talk called "The Fourth Missionary" and it talks about giving your whole heart, might, mind, and strength to the Lord. I never really understood what that meant until I read the talk because it seems like a super vague thing to me. But something the guy said was, "There isn't anything we can give the Lord that he doesn't already have except for our will." I never realized that. The Lord has given us free agency and we are in charge of our desires and all that, but He asks us to give that to Him. I guess that's the difference between the people who live the law of consecration and those who don't. I'm trying my best to give up thinking about the future/home as much and to completely give my will to Him. Good things are coming my way; I can feel it.

I can't wait to see pics of Jared's wedding! I wish I could have heard from you guys this week but I hope everything is going well. LOVE YOU ALL!

Love,

Cectpa Gooch

Week 7: August 7, 2013

Hey family!

I feel like I say this every time, but it was the best week so far. Definitely harder than the ones before--more on that later, but I have learned a ton and almost died from lack of oxygen (from da laughz). So, to start off, I think I forgot to tell you that last week or something like that, we met a bunch of Baltic missionaries who came to the main campus for P-day. They are staying on the west campus. There were the Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuanian speakers that we met and it was awesome because we all seem to get along really well. It made me even more pumped to fly to Riga with them.

Sort of sad, but Brat Williams left this week. We really sent him off with a bang though because it was потом day! Remember how I said that our district motto is "потом, потом"? That means, "later, later". We say it all the time because we'll ask Brat Williams a question and his answer will be потом, потом. He promised us that his last day here, he would talk about all of the потом's. So E. Graf has been keeping record of all the stories that he hasn't told us and he brought 'em out and Brat Williams told us a bunch of them. He brought artifacts from his mission and he showed us his planners, PMG, pictures, and a bunch of other stuff. It was the best. He's seriously been such an awesome teacher and we're all really close to him so it was sad to see him go, but the whole thing just made me so excited. He told us this story of an investigator he had who had schizophrenia (sp?) and one time it was fast Sunday. So the guy got up to bear his testimony but he just tells a few really sad stories from his life and then walks off. Then he runs back to the pulpit and starts looking through his bag, saying that he forgot something. He pulls out a bottle of prescription meds and holds them up, asking if anybody wants them because he doesn't want to take them anymore. Haha so insane, but a member in the back just raises his hand and walks up to the pulpit and takes the pills. Haha I guess the missionaries were laughing so hard. Only in Eastern Europe would the members not even blink an eye.

You will never guess what I did this week. Or maybe you will, since I wasn't totally surprised. But I'll preface the story: I was having a hard day. I hadn't gotten any mail for like three days (which shouldn't matter but it does), I was having a hard time with patience, and also I ate some chicken fried misteak. It was rough. So my companion and I were walking back to class from our residence hall and those blasted stairs got me again. I fell so hard on my butt and slid down a few steps. I don't even know how this happens. I black out or something. Haha so I have a gigantic bruise on my butt. It's funny because I still can't kneel and I can't really sit down. I know that sounds awful and it sort of is but it has also been a great source of joy in my district.

Since Brat Williams left, that means that we're done teaching Vechaslav. And Nadyezhda. We got a new investigator, Yana. She was baptized a year ago but stopped going to church as soon as her sister missionaries left. We've only had one lesson with her and S. Wrigley warned us that she wouldn't be friendly at all. I wasn't super concerned because I figure that I'm a reasonably charming person and my testimony is reasonably touching and then I realized that none of that mattered. Haha seriously, it was sad. I even did what S. Kuznetsova suggested and picked her a flower--totally against the rules, btw. Thank heavens the Spirit told me not to say the line, "Anya, I don't like singing but for you, I will," and then follow through with the plan to sing a hymn. Pretty sure that S. Coombs and I would have driven away the Spirit if we sang because neither of us can carry a tune. The whole lesson I was trying really hard to make sure she knew that she was loved, though. I may be absolutely awful at Russian, but I think that I'm pretty alright at focusing on people's needs just because it's a weakness that I've had to rely on the Lord for ever since I've been here. She refused to pray and I was even trying to be bold with her, trying to figure out why. She wouldn't answer our questions or if she did, they were only a few syllables. It was a little frustrating just because all she needs is to understand how to communicate with Heavenly Father and how to build a relationship with him and the Savior.

Since Brat Williams left, we have another teacher. His name is Brat Bush but we haven't met him yet. He'll be our other investigator. Brat Williams kept telling us that we won't even miss him because Brat Bush is so amazing. We're excited to meet him tomorrow.

So, quote of the week that just killed me: We were eating breakfast and E. Graf was talking about how sick he is with the cold and how he has a bunch of nasty stuff in his throat. I was already getting angry because, I mean, we were eating. And then he said this gem: "I literally gave birth out of my throat this morning." I vomited right then and there. Haha seriously though, so gross. He was saying how he was hacking up a bunch of mucus and likening it to a live birth. He's the worst and also he's the best.

Companionship highlight: Sister Roy and Sister McDiarmid are the bomb. They really struggled at the beginning of the MTC because S. McD is super open and proactive in communicating what she wants and S. Roy is the total opposite. S. Roy is the nicest person I've ever met, and I mean that. She does anything for anyone but she never really thinks about herself. As a result, she wasn't communicating with S. McD what she was thinking or feeling, so they struggled to be on the same page. They're a miracle companionship, though. They've worked through a lot of things and are so solid now. S. Roy is hilarious because she's a huge gamer--she loves Assassin's Creed or whatever that game is. And a bunch of other video games. Haha she listens to great music, too. She's the blonde one with super long hair. She's from West Jordan, UT recently but she was born in Illinois.

S. McD is way fun, too. She's a lot like me in the fact that we joke around a lot but she's also great at being focused when she needs to be. She does the best E. Pyne impression. She's from California and she's the oldest. It'll be her 22nd birthday on the flight over to Latvia.

Today we cleaned the temple for service, which was a really cool experience. The sisters get to clean the crystal chandeliers while the elders do the vacuuming and washing windows and all that. We spent our time in a sealing room cleaning the chandelier, and the whole time we were talking to two of the temple custodians. One of them is a descendent of the Reynolds and Dixons in Ashton, if Grams and Gramps know them. We talked all about Ashton and she actually knew exactly where G&G live and I could figure out where her parents live now. It sounds like they're in G&G's ward. It was sort of a tender mercy to have her there because it made me feel like I was at home.

After we finished taking off all the crystals, cleaning them and then putting them back on, we were able to go on a tour. We walked into the celestial room with the lights off and it was awesome to see it light up. I can't wait for it to open next week! I have a feeling it's gonna be a good one.

My favorite part of every day is at night when I herd all of the new sisters into one of the rooms and we go around and share our miracles for the day. After, I tell them something that was on my mind during the day and usually challenge them to do something. I didn't think that it was that big of a deal--I actually thought it might be annoying to them because it takes away from their time to get ready for bed. But today was really cool because one of the sisters, S. Johnson (going to Russia) gave me a card. She said some really nice things but the part that really got me was, "You have made the difference to me." If that is just a glimpse of the difference that I am capable of making when I am being led by the Spirit, then I can't wait to be able to serve the people in the Baltics. Nothing has ever meant more to me than to know that my efforts aren't unnoticed and that it actually does help other people when I take the time to do what the Spirit tells me to. I love all of the new sisters--they are super funny and I think they're all doing pretty well.

Have I mentioned that Sister Wrigley is like my soul sister? She's the type of person who makes you feel like a million bucks whenever she's in the room. And she's hilarious. You should add her on Facebook for me so I don't forget her. Amanda Wrigley. Please and thank you.

I said goodbye to Ashlyn this week too! She's going to be awesome. It's weird that both her and Becca have come and gone while I've stayed here. It finally hit me this week that I'm leaving so soon. We get our flight plans on Thursday, apparently. Jared, you might understand how behind in Russian if I tell you that I literally do not know cases (except for how to decline masculine nouns), I don't know to-shto (I don't have time to spell that in Russian), kotorie, or verbs of motion. I'm dying here. Haha but honestly, I'm not feeling too panicked. It's not like people join the church because of excellent Russian speaking missionaries; they join it because of the way that they feel. I'm focusing on being able to bring the Spirit in lessons and I figure that the Lord will make up the difference.

I've had a lot of cool experiences this week that you'll get letters about. I hope that you are all doing great and OH MY GOSH ASHTON IS CRAWLING? I don't know whether I want to cry about that or not. Give him a hug and kiss for me and squeeze his chubby lil legs. And also, I'm super sorry for forgetting Cal's birthday. I hope it was real fun, my friend. And Jared's wedding is so soon! And Nicole's baby after that?! I better be receiving pics up the wazoo.

I love you all!

Love,

Cecpta Gooch

 

P.S. Please send me McCall's, Lindsi's, Uncle Mike's, and Sadie's address. And yes, an address book would be GREAT. Love you!

Week 6: July 31, 2013

Hey y'all!

 

I'm just gonna start by saying that I'm not trying to be dramatic or anything, but my life changed this week. I guess it's accurate to say that it's changed every week since I've been here, but what I mean is that I learned something that will change how I live the rest of my life. I've heard stories of people talking to God--not face to face or anything but it's like they could hear a voice revealing something to them. Usually it was their own thought but they knew that it came from revelation. And I've always thought that those experiences were really cool and that those people were gifted or something for being able to have a conversation with God.

This week Sister Wrigley started telling us a story about her life in the past few years and it is basically all about how she has followed the Spirit through a really tough trial and there were tons of miracles along the way. I don't have time to write details, but she told us about a time that she was sitting in her car outside the temple (because the temple was closed) and she told Heavenly Father, "I have a pen in my hand and I've written down my questions and I'm not going to leave this car until I have answers." Sort of sassy, right? I thought so, too. But she said she sat there and read off her questions and prayed for a long time, and eventually thoughts came into her mind and she wrote them down, and they were her answers. So then she asked more questions and there were more answers and it filled pages and pages. So then I got to thinking, why can't I do that? Sister Wrigley kept saying that God wants to talk to us and he wants to answer our questions, no matter how insignificant we think they may be to Him. As long as it's important to us, it's important to Him.

On Monday, I decided that I'd ask my questions that I hadn't ever thought to ask: things that have always bothered me or concerns that I didn't think could be resolved. I spent two hours in the morning (during language study, oops. Part of the reason that my Russian is coming along at a snail's pace) and prayed with all the energy of my heart. I know that sounds cheesy but I really mean it. I've never focused so much on a prayer in my life. I asked Heavenly Father to help me know the right questions to ask and to recognize the answers that He gives me. And here comes the boom: it worked! It took a long time and just as I was about to give up (two hours is a long time, if you know what I'm sayin'), a thought came into my mind that I know didn't come from me. It was an answer to a question that I hadn't known I'd been asking and it was advice that I never could have imagined for myself. The next day, I asked Heavenly Father if there was more and if He could teach me how to listen more carefully, and I honestly have pages of personal revelation about tons of different things: my mission, my investigators, what I'll do after my mission, what is to come in my life, and how to obtain the blessings of my patriarchal blessing. It just blows my mind how much Heavenly Father is willing to give us if we keep asking and if we trust and have total faith that He'll answer.

The reason I write this is because I don't want anyone to go another second in life without knowing that Heavenly Father will literally speak with you. I want you to know that you can lead a life guided by the Spirit and that Heavenly Father always meant for it to be like that. He always wants to talk to us and resolve our concerns--we just have to put faith in Him and have a strong desire to listen. Maybe I've been told this all of my life, but it's never really meant something to me until I knew that it could happen for anyone. And it can! So if there's something that's you've been feeling uneasy or concerned about, please pray tonight for answers. You'll get them if you have the faith, I promise.

Sorry to preach, I just feel like that's the most important thing I've ever learned. This week was great, although I don't really know why. Haha lots of things have hit me at once: I got super sick with a cold and just felt like death in general, still chugging along with Russian, and...I know there were more difficult things, I just can't remember them. Anyway, it doesn't make sense for me to not have had a bad day, but it's true. Every day is good here. That's probably because my district is so hilarious and also I'm being lulled into a false sense of security with my Russian.

On Sunday, Sister Coombs and I were called as Sister Training Leaders and later today, we have four new sisters coming into our zone. We'll be in charge of getting them trained and settled tonight, so that should be fun. IYou always hear the advice, "Just make it to Sunday and it'll all be good!" but I think that's stupid. Haha why should you wait until Sunday to have a good day? I've found that it's hard to be discouraged when you're praying to recognize the significance of each day and to recognize Heavenly Father's hand. The calling is going really well--the thought that keeps coming to mind is that the Lord shapes our backs to bear our burdens. I can feel that a lot every day. Like I said, things that shoud be hard or discouraging for me just aren't anymore. It's a huge blessing and I know that it comes from exact obedience. Aaaand my ability to crack myself up.

Speaking of which, Elder Graf and I pulled a fast one on our teachers this week. We've been perfecting the fake slap for a few days--Elder Graf puts his hand in front of his face and I slap his hand and he turns his head so it looks like I slapped him for real if you're stanfding from behind. So we were outside doing a contact activity with Brat Williams and Elder Graf was like, "Sister Gooch, you're an annoying little mama rabbit," which was just stupid, but I pretended to be reeeeal angry and we did the fake slap thing. You should have seen Brat Williams' face! It was priceless. O.O <---that was it. And then the next day we did it to Sister Wrigley and that was even better. She practically fell over. Brat Williams was so pumped to be a part of it though. And yeah, I know this doesn't sound that funny but rest assured that we were laughing for dayzzz.

So for the companionship spotlight: Sister Haroldsen & Sister Bonazelli. Sister Haroldsen is from Idaho Falls and she's super sweet. She loves to tell stories and she's really talented at the violin. A few days ago after dinner, she was playing and all of the elders were clogging to it. Killed me dead. Anyways, she and Sister Bonazelli are headed to Samara, Russia with the rest of the elders in our district. Sister Bonazelli was baptized around two years ago and she is just awesome. Her mom passed away in January from cancer, her dad's an alcoholic, and she isn't close to any of her siblings. It's insane how much people give up to be here, but it's also been cool to hear her say how much peace she has and how confident she is about her future.

It's been great having Ashlyn Clark here, too. We see each other almost every meal and I think it's been a huge blessing for both of us to be able to talk to each other. She's doing great and her teacher is actually a guy who was in one of my classes last semester. I also got to say goodbye to Becca Evans, which was just the best. She left today for Oakland.

So Brat Williams always gets mad when the elders waste their p-days playing floppy golf (you're still supposed to study and prepare for lessons, regardless of the fact that it's p-day) and we were talking about it last week. Brat Williams told them that if they could relate floppy golf to our purpose as missionaries, then it's okay if they play. And since Elder Wixom is a champion of the sun, he likened it to the Plan of Salvation. Haha there are three kingdoms (three rungs on the floppy golf pipe thing) and you're aiming for the celestial. Haha it was great. He's a fast thinker.

And OH MY GOSH I almost forgot to tell you about the funniest part of my week! So we were sitting at breakfast one day and I was telling everyone about the time that Julissa, Mattie and I were walking outside at Eagle High and there was a bunch of bird poop on the ground. And Julissa said something like, "There's so much fetus on the ground," when I thiiink she meant to say "feces". Haha so we were all having a good laugh about that and then Elder Graf asked us if he'd ever mentioned fetus face before. The answer was no. So he proceeds to tell us that there is a certain face that we all have when we wake up in the morning, and this is called fetus face. It's when your eyes are all crusty and gross and he said the only way to avoid it is to shower ASAP and eat breakfast. Hahaha so sick, but I really appreciated his imagery.

Anyways, I hope that everything is going great for you guys. It sounds like lots of good things are happening and I'm pumped to hear how the wedding of the year (not counting Beau and Brynn's, obvi) is pulled off. Beary J. Blige and his Feyonce. Haha I love that. And I love all of you!

 

-Sister Gooch

 

P.S. Thank you for Katzner, Beary! And the clothes are good, I just don't need anymore polka dots :) And are you sending me an address book? And thank you for the contacts! I LOVE YOU ALL.