Week 25: December 16, 2013

Hey there!

I have a lot to tell you this week, so I hope you're ready to have your minds blown.

Starting with Pärnu. I guess it's like the tourist capital of Estonia, and it's about two hours out of Tallinn, which means six hours from Narva. Anywho, I had to stay there with two other Estonian sisters while our companions (all sister training leaders) went to a leadership council in Riga. That was super interesting because, first of all, there are hardly any Russian speakers there. All I heard was "Tere!", which means hello. Also pretty sure I heard some Estonian curse words when I tried to speak to people in Russian, haha. But yeah, it's pretty much the cutest town I've ever seen. Apparently it's right next to the best beach in the Baltics; I just didn't get to see it. I was introduced to this Estonian mustard, which is essentially like wasabi mustard. I've never really tried wasabi and I wasn't expecting the effect it had on me: I spread some on a piece of bread like I saw a branch member doing it and took a bite and it just hit me. My immediate thought was, "What's happening to my face?" as tears started to pour. My sinuses went something like WA-BAM! It was really good though so we bought some in the store today.

That night I rode back into Tallinn with Sister Benson and we started our exchange with the sisters there, Sister Carr and Sister Dalley. Tallinn reminds me a lot of Vilnius, except the challenges are a little different because their Russian branch is combined with the Estonian branch. I guess that half of the services on Sunday are in Estonian and half are in Russian. It makes it difficult to have branch unity, and the thing that's a bummer for the Russians is that anywhere they are in the Baltics, they're the minority. So their voice tends to get drowned out and it's harder to get them to feel like they belong at church. But it was cool because I was on the exchange with Sister Dalley (she came out the same time as me) and we had a lesson with a member, Mark. He brought his blind friend that he's been helping out for a really long time. It was actually really sweet because he's somewhat mentally handicapped but he is so pumped about the gospel and his testimony. He said the opening prayer and he literally blessed each of us individually in the like manner: "Please bless Sister Dalley. Give her hope, strength, love, peace, and health. Please bless her family. Bless them to be safe, happy; give them hope, strength, peace, and love. Please bless Sister Gooch...etc." It was kind of adorable. He also bore his testimony twice in the middle of the prayer. Mark is awesome. He said he's getting me a New Year's present because I'm his best friend, but honestly, that's how he feels about everyone. It's great.

Sister Dalley and I get along really well though. We had a ton of fun and she's just about the nicest, most chill person ever. We taught a really powerful lesson on the street in English since the girl didn't speak Russian, but it reminded me of how much I love what I'm doing right now. Sister Dalley asked me what my favorite part of missionary work is and I think it's those moments when you say exactly what the Spirit prompted you to, or you do exactly what you've been guided to do, and you can tell that it strengthens or effects somebody else in a positive way. Being an instrument in the hands of the Lord is just about the best thing I can do for my own self-esteem.

So lots of bus rides this week, which is not fun, but I realize that complaining about having to travel to three different cities in Estonia isn't very grateful. Do you realize how cool my life is right now? I've been especially lucky to have gone to all of the open cities in Estonia except for Tartu. Pretty rad, huh?

Oh, and we found out this week that this transfer ends on the 26th, so I'll be in Narva for sure on Christmas. Which makes me really, really happy. I was going to be so bummed if I didn't get to be here for that.

This week Sister Janis was talking to us after church to set up a meeting for tonight, and she busts out this salmon-brown colored block of something with the consistency of cream cheese and starts spreading it on bread. I sensed that something was wrong when Sister Benson immediately was like, "Actually, we have to get going right now so we'll call you later and be in touch." Sister Janis wanted us to eat this bread with browny stuff on it and thankfully we didn't because I found out later that it was spreadable liver. Did that sink in? Spreadable liver. I am 100% that meat is not supposed to be spreadable, ever. So thank heavens for Sister Benson's wisdom and urgency.

Wanna know what the highlight of my week was, though? For the spiritual portion of our English class, we taught about repentance. This guy named Vladimir came and I'm not sure if he's completely sane or not but he was loving everything that we said. At one point, I said, "To me, repentance means change." (Roughly translated; pretty sure there's not an English equivalent to the beginning of my sentence) But get this: Vladimir whips out a pen and writes down what I said. I don't know if you can totally comprehend how rad this is: I was quoted by a Russian, in Russian. What the?! Granted, it is probably the easiest sentence ever to say, but I was feeling pretty good about myself right about then.

Later in the week we taught Zhenja, who's wife is less-active. I told Ash last week but her name is Masha and she was baptized by Calvin's brother-in-law, which is cool. Anyway, we have been trying to meet with him foreverrrr and it finally worked! We brought Brat Kaben (technically President Kaben as of this week) and had a great lesson. We started it out like this: "Zhenja, we're here to tell you why your attempts at quitting smoking have never worked." We're working on being bold, obviously. Essentially it boiled down to the fact that he, as a son of God, was given the divine power to make decisions for himself. And secondly, that he must have a greater and more perfect trust in God to deliver him from temptation and give him strength. It was a great lesson though. He's going to start the program to quit this week. We are hoping with all of our hearts that he and Masha start coming to church and become the first full-fledged family in the branch. He wants to get baptized in the spring because he has lots of stuff that he wants to fix about his life before then, but we're working with him on that. He's a fun person.

I've been thinking a lot about my area and about the needs of the Narva branch in general, and something that I've been impressed over and over about is that I need to be helping somebody in every interaction I have with them to become fully converted to the Lord. The members here are really awesome and I'm making it sound like they aren't converted, but here's what I mean: there are tons of people in the world who have testimonies that the gospel is true and who come to church every Sunday and are honestly active members, but they aren't fully converted. Full and true conversion is actually something I don't feel like I really had until I came on my mission. It's something that Elder Bednar talks about a lot. (Here's the hint that you should look it up) But yeah, I was thinking this morning about why I'm converted unto the Lord and what has made the difference for me.

Here's what I got:

-I have had daily interaction with either the scriptures or the Lord consistently in my life.

-Heavenly Father always, always, always answers my prayers.

-I guess that you love what you sacrifice for, and my mission so far has been the greatest blessing for my relationship with the Lord.

-I have been deeply impressed with His love and loyalty for me, and I'd like to return the same to Him.

-The way that He works with each of His children is incomprehensible to me, but I have been given a glimpse and I want to be a part of it--I want to be His hands.

-I have tried out His promises and invitations and found more blessings there than I ever could have expected.

-He keeps working with and through me even though I make mistakes and am not always the perfect or ideal vessel for His purposes.

-His understanding of my potential is deeper than mine and I know that if I stick with Him, I can reach it.

-He so perfectly supports me.

-I ask Him for a change of heart and he gives it to me.

-I have made covenants and I seek to understand and honor them.

To sum it all up, I feel like the things that have made the biggest difference for me in truly being converted is daily scripture study and prayer, an understanding and remembrance of covenants, and a study of true and simple doctrine. 

I know that I talked a few weeks about the "art of prayer", and it's been bugging me ever since because I think back on it and think of how snooty that sounds. My thoughts have changed a little bit since then because I think I made it sound like prayer must be this eloquent plea before the Lord, but that's not what I meant. I don't take back what I said about remembering the Savior as your Advocate when you pray, but I think that James E. Talmage says what I am trying to say better than I can: "It is well to know that prayer is not compounded of words, words that may fail to express what one desires to say, words that so often cloak inconsistencies, words that may have no deeper source than the physical organs of speech, words that may be spoken to impress mortal ears. The dumb may pray, and that too with the eloquence that prevails in heaven. Prayer is made up of heart throbs and the righteous yearnings of the soul, of supplication based on the realization of need, of contrition and pure desire. If there lives a man who has never really prayed, that man is a being apart from the order of the divine in human nature, a stranger in the family of God's children. Prayer is for the uplifting of the suppliant. God without our prayers would be God; but we without prayer cannot be admitted to the kingdom of God."

I thought that was pretty.

Anyways, I hope that you all have a great week. The house looks so good! Kind of crazy to see pictures because it looks way different. Good luck with selling it!

Love you all to the moon and back.

-Sister Gooch

P.S. Can you send me the recipe for caramel popcorn and caramel apples? And Sarah Whittier's email address, along with Sadie's? And Leah Derrington's? Aaaand Rachel Alderman's? Thank you!

Also, I haven't received my package yet--don't know if I will before Christmas. It might be in Riga sitting in the mission office, but seeing as Narva is kind of an isolated part of the mission, we don't get mail, like, ever. But I will tell you when I do!

Week 24: December 9, 2013

Hey there!

So I've been on my mission for what, seven months(ish) now? And I had been wondering when I would encounter some food that was just ridiculous and nightmarish, like the stuff you always hear returned missionaries talking about. Well, dear friends, it happened at a birthday party. Kasenja turned 19 and invited us to eat dinner with her at the church last Monday. Her mom had prepared this thing--I don't know what they call it. I'll just tell you the ingredients: mayonnaise, sardines (or some kind of fish with eyeballs. Let me emphasize that again lest you missed it: eyeballs!), onions, beets, and pretty much everything about Russian food that I'm still not (probs won't ever be) used to. I persevered and ate that sucker like it was nothin'. 

Anywho, it's snowed everyday here last week, which is actually kind of nice because that means that every day the ice gets covered so it's not so slippery. Anya (14 year old in the branch) makes fun of me for walking like a babushka but whatevs! Babushki know how to hustle safely, which is what I like to call my method. The bab-hustle.

Ever since I got here, I wondered how people use strollers here because it's freezing and there is a ton of snow, but I get it now! I've seen more people pulling their kids in sleds than strollers lately, so that's fun. I would have loved that when I was little!

As for the weekly Sister Janis story, I actually had a really sweet experience with her. From our last lesson, she had told us that she doesn't quite have a testimony of Joseph Smith and in the lesson, I had told her that we'd print of a talk by Jeffery R. Holland for her. The one I had in mind was "Safety for the Soul", where he bears a face-melting testimony of the Book of Mormon. Even though it has more to do with the Book of Mormon than with Joseph Smith's history and all that, I still felt pretty strongly that she needed to read it. We finally got to meet with her again on Saturday night and basically read through the whole talk with her because she loves to read out loud. And here's the thing about Sister Janis: she is ridiculously faithful and believing. As she was reading, she stopped towards the end and said, with hand over heart, "Sister Gooch, God put it in your heart to give me this talk. I just received a testimony that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Glory to God! Halellujah!" It was so much more hilarious/endearing in Russian and if you could just see the way her eyebrows go up and down and she bobs her head when she talks. Every time we've seen her since then, she gives me a huge hug and says, "My dear, my beautiful, my little Sister Goochka! God told you to give me that talk, didn't he?" She's the highlight of my day, almost every day.

This week was full of really, really cool experiences, actually. We had an awesome lesson with Sasha. Sister Valling helped us, and I can't remember if I ever told you about her but she is what keeps this branch running. She's the most solid member and she is about 50. Anyway, we talked with Sasha about fasting and we decided to fast with him to receive an answer about whether or not he should be baptized on December 25th. Best present I could think of to give Christ, personally. But anyway, it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life. Before I fast, I like to write down in my journal exactly what I'm fasting for or any questions I have. Then I pray with my eyes open to begin my fast and read down the list slowly, writing down impressions and thoughts that come to my mind as I go. Heavenly Father always gives me more than I ever expect from Him. I have wondered since I was in the MTC why I was learning Russian. Hopefully my head doesn't seem too big when I say that I can express myself pretty well in English, and I'm used to saying things in a way that makes me feel like I can get my point across in a pretty way. Obviously I can't do that in Russian. I had actually expressed this frustration to Sister Wrigley, my MTC teacher (sorry I talk about her all the time, it's just that she's the best and she taught me some of the most valuable things I've learned on my mission) and she told me to ask Heavenly Father what Russian has to teach me in life. Because obviously everything Heavenly Father puts in our lives has the intention of building us up; we just have to figure out how it's supposed to do that. So I did ask Him but never felt like I received an answer.

Fast forward six or so months, and I just get it now. Heavenly Father wants me to learn Russian so that I can learn to rely on Him and the Atonement completely. I had thought that I knew how to do that--I've always had the testimony that He can make our weaknesses become strong, but I hadn't recognized that He knows how to make full use of me--infirmities and all. That means that He can change every detail about me and make me into something glorious. Every part of me. My time here is teaching me to have a more complete faith in the cleansing and enabling power of the Atonement. And I know I talk about this almost every week, how we can change our weaknesses and become better, but I guess it's the message that Heavenly Father's especially searing into my heart since I've been on my mission. I figure He wants you to know it, too.

Sasha didn't necessarily receive any answers about his baptismal date, but that fast was mission-changing, I think. So I'm incredibly grateful nonetheless.

Had another powerful lesson with a former investigator of the elders (before sisters came to Narva) named Ludmila. If you haven't clued in yet, Russians pretty much have a variety of ten different names, haha. Anyway, we had taught an English class and at the end, for our spiritual thought, we gave everyone a piece of paper and told them to write down the name and contact information of someone they know who wants to change their lives and become better or who would be interested in the gospel. Ludmila referred herself, which was pretty awesome because apparently the whole time that Sister Benson has been here, she's been trying to meet with her. We taught her about repentance using Alma the Younger's conversion story in Alma 36. We explained what was happening as we went and focused on showing her how Alma went through the process of repentance. It was really cool because I've made a goal to memorize a bunch of things from Preach My Gospel in Russian and there was this perfect moment that it came to memory and I said it very slowly; sentence by sentence, and suddenly it just clicked for Ludmila. She said, "I've read this story with the missionaries before but I never understood it!" The Spirit really helped her see how Jesus Christ is connected to the process of repentance, and why we need Him as a Mediator with Heavenly Father. That was pretty awesome. 

Another sweet thing about this week was our other lesson with Sasha, where we talked about the Word of Wisdom. Thankfully, Sasha doesn't smoke or drink, so the only thing he really had to give up was green tea. We asked him what he thought about the whole commandment (not the best question, haha) and he said, "It's like people in the army, right? They have to be physically prepared for battle and they have to condition their bodies to perform well. In the same way, God gave us the Word of Wisdom to keep the condition of our spirits healthy and ready to deal with any of the trials that we have in life."

Here's where one of those movie moments is supposed to happen where I'm in the middle of drinking a glass of water and I spray it everywhere. Future gospel doctrine teacher, right there.

Remember how I told you about President and Sister Dolgovi? Well, he was released as branch president and transferred to Latvia, so now we don't have a branch president. I'm really pumped to see who the new branch president is going to be. I mean, there's not much imagination to use since we only have one priesthood holder, Brat Kaben, but I'm still excited. 

Anyways, I hope that y'all have a lovely week. Crazy that I get to talk to you in like two weeks, right? LOVE YOU.

-Sister Gooch

Week 23: December 2, 2013

Hey friends!

I guess I haven't told you much about Narva. I've mentioned that it's tiny--we seem the same people often and people pretty much know who we are. People call us девченки here, which is pronounced dyevchonkee. But it sounds like dyev-chunky to me, and it means gals or chicks or something. It's slang for girls, so I'm not sure how that translates. Anywho, it makes me feel like a fat little five-year old with lopsided pigtails and chocolate on the corner of my mouth that's just baaarely too far for my tongue to reach. 

Obviously I've thought about this a lot.

I guess it doesn't help that I cut four inches off my hair and now look like an eight-year old. Life is good; hair is healthy. I can't complain.

As you probably know, it's cold here. I had thought that it wouldn't really surprise me because it's not like I'm from Hawaii--but I didn't realize that it would be so painful. Haha it feels exactly like being on a sled pulled by a snow mobile and the snow is just flying in your face and you're not really sure how you're going to live. And there's literally two inches of ice everywhere--I'm terrified that I'm going to fall and break my leg since it hasn't healed from the first day in the MTC. I may or may not be a drama queen, but I'm tellin' ya, it's nothing like I've ever experienced before. And everyone keeps saying that it's normal weather! Apparently it gets to be -27 in January. Happy birthday to me! Also, I don't think I mentioned that I'm serving in the coldest city in my mission. So there's that.

But yeah, this week has been lovely. You know how I'm somewhat fanatical about Christmas? It's like my winter wonderland dream come true here. I bought a Christmas tree and some holly and I'm pretty sure it's going to be the cutest thing ever. I'm also spearheading this Christmas activity in the branch that I'm pumped about. There are going to be three separate parts of the Savior's life that we'll have presentations on: His miraculous birth, His ministry, and His Atonement/Resurrection. 

I love Christmas so hard.

I've come to realize that I will probably have a hilarious story about Sister Janis to tell you every week. This week, we were moving this huge table in the church kitchen to the sacrament hall. Sister Janis came in the door just as we were trying to squeeze it through the doorway of the sacrament hall and immediately she throws her purse down and her hat off her head and starts yelling, "Oh Lord, help us!" as she took part of the table and just ended up making it a lot more difficult. I was laughing so hard. The funny thing is that she doesn't even take the Lord's name in vain: she's literally always addressing Him in prayer. She's the most faithful person ever and it makes me so sad that y'all don't know her.

Another shining Sister Janis moment was on Sunday, when she told me that I look like a beautiful Egyptian. I just--I don't even know where she's coming from. Haha she's so funny.

The branch had an activity where we went to an art museum. It was a Christmas exhibit, apparently, but it had lots of Bulgarian artists. So Mike, that's cool. I also read Bulgarian all the time on the products here and it makes me excited for the fact that we might be able to kind of understand each other when I get home.

And oh my gosh, Ashton is one! So crazy. Nobody sent me pics of him, so let's jump on that next week, shall we? And Thanksgiving! It sounds like it was fun. Mine was pretty great.

As predicted, Sister Benson and I ended up doing the gravy, apple tarts, rolls, stuffing, cranberry cake, and squash. The elders brought chicken and coleslaw, haha. It was super good though--the whole church smelled like America. Which I'm now realizing just smells like food that's going to make you feel like a big fat lard, haha.

Forgot to tell you that Elder Rawlings is from Fruitland, Idaho and everyone gets a kick out of how hick he is. He was super impressed that I know Josh Foster (shout out to Josh!) because he has a huge farm...or something like that. So good job, Josh.

Our trip to Riga was fast--we were literally there for two hours. We had the time to eat at this Latvian cuisine place that was tasty but mostly just tasted like Lithuanian food to me. It was good though. 

It's kind of cool that I can tell that my Russian is a lot better here than it was in my first two transfers. I'm thinking it's due to the fact that Sister Benson and I only speak Russian outside and I'm suddenly able to memorize things really quickly. The gift of tongues is real, my friends. I know it's also due to the fact that I am working harder than I've ever worked and Narva is teaching me some really valuable lessons. I asked Heavenly Father why he sent me here, because I felt like Narva needed at least five Sister Bensons and none of me. We're pretty much young women's leaders here, so it's a heavier work load than any other areas have for sister missionaries. Working with teenage girls who have it really rough in life is difficult in a way that I never expected it to be, but I have never loved people more or felt more like the Lord has expanded my ability to look beyond myself. Essentially, the Lord wants me to learn how to be selfless here. I've thought about the difference between the Savior and me, and in most situations that I would turn inwards, He always turns outwards. I really like who I'm becoming and the missionary that I'm learning to be. It's sad that it's taken me over six months to finally have this realization, but I thought for the first time this week about how honestly and completely blessed I am to be here of all places, doing what I'm doing. I've probably written that before but I've never felt it as deeply as I do now. Sister Benson and I have been focusing on teaching in every situation that we're in and instead of going "contacting", we go "teaching". It's made the biggest difference for me to focus on my purpose as a missionary to teach. It's made me more consecrated, happier, and in general I'm a lot less critical of myself.

I've thought a lot about the art of prayer this week. Sasha told us that praying is really hard for him because he doesn't want to ask Heavenly Father for blessings that he shouldn't. Honestly, I had the same problem before my mission, but it has been one of the most valuable things I've learned on my mission: how to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. I never really thought about it before but when we learn to pray in the name of Christ--to actively think of Him as our Advocate with the Father--our relationship with God and our Savior becomes a lot more than just a list of things that you're grateful for and things that you need. At least, mine did. Praying to know what to say in my prayers has made all the difference. Praying for the Spirit to guide you in your supplications and questions; praying for the humility to be open and willing to receive whatever answers or instruction that Heavenly Father has to give. Imagining the Savior beside you as you speak with the Father is something that's kind of hard to describe, but I just know that if you do it, your life will be more specifically blessed in the places that you need it to be than before. 

I hope that made sense and didn't just sound like me rambling. But I love you all and I'm so grateful whenever I hear from you.

Love,

Sister Gooch

Week 22: November 25, 2013

Hey there!

Can I just say how much I love Narva? Seriously, this place is magical. Not in the sense that it's pretty (there's a ton of construction and it's actually the grayest place I've ever seen--haven't seen the sun since I got here) but I have never been somewhere like it. The people are awesome and I think they love the sisters especially hard because we're the first ones to come for mannny many years. Sister Janis invited us over this week and we reviewed the Restoration with her because she's a little shaky in her doctrine but she loves to share the gospel. It went really great! The only problem with her out-of-this-world generosity and general vivaciousness is that she does not take no for an answer when it comes to food. I still haven't brought myself to liking dill, and she had prepared dill bread with an uncomfortable amount of margarine on it. Sister Benson ate four so I didn't have to eat any, bless her heart.

This week was busy and kind of crazy. I can't remember if I mentioned the fact that Sister Benson is a sister training leader, but she is. We had to go to Riga because there was a mission leader conference there. I wasn't originally supposed to go all the way to Riga; I was supposed to stay in Tallinn (it's on the way) with the Russian speaking sisters there while Sister Benson traveled with a bunch of elders the rest of the way to Riga, but she forgot her passport so we had to stay overnight in Tallinn. I had happened to pack my passport and so I went with her to Riga the next day since the elders left her and she needed a travel companion, but I was secretly thrilled about that. E. Cook sent up her passport on a bus from Narva to Tallinn and we picked it up and left early the next morning to Riga. I was so pumped because Sister McDiarmid (remember, she was in my MTC district?) and Sister Coombs (my MTC companion) are serving in Riga center and I was able to do exchanges with them. It was extra awesome because Sister Roy was there, too. It's crazy that we were all back together again! So happy. They all seem to be doing really well. I forgot how much fun we have together. Even crazier was the fact that Sister Coombs and I went to teach a less-active, Yana, who is the exact same person that we had role-played teaching in the MTC! Sister Wrigley had known her and to meet her after pretending to teach her a few times was kind of surreal. Especially since it was with Sister Coombs. The lesson went well, considering. We hadn't planned at all before. But Yana is awesome--I got to know her and she's super nice and it made me want to serve in Riga so that I could get to know her and her family more.

The bus rides that we have to take lately are killllller though. We're going to stay in Tallinn tonight and then head to Riga tomorrow because Sister Benson has a visa renewal appointment or something there. It's eight hours to Riga and it just barely works out with our schedule that we can't make it in one day's travel. So that's a bummer. But I love hanging out with Sister Carr and Sister Dalley (the sisters in Tallinn that we stay with). They're a hoot.

Church this week was pretty awesome. We had Sasha, our investigator that I hadn't met until then, show up. Sister Benson had told me that he's probably the coolest person she's ever met, and I didn't really believe her until I met him. But honestly, he's just cool. I don't know how else to describe him. He's 23, really relaxed, smart and super talented at videography and photography. He also has a beard and long, curly brown hair, so that's something. He could only stay for sacrament meeting but he met with us at 4 for a lesson. He's a deep thinker and he's the most sincere person I've met on my mission--he really wants to do what's right and he wants to be close to God. During the lesson he was telling us how he doesn't think he's a very good person basically because he's not perfect. Haha he's not very patient with himself. It was cool because I had read the perfect chapter for him in my personal study that morning--2 Nephi 4. It's where Nephi seems kind of discouraged because of all his weaknesses and the temptations he has that so easily keep him from progressing. I had Sasha read verses 17-19, I think. What really hit me was the line in verse 19, where he's talking about how weak he is and he says, "nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted," or something along those lines. Isn't that what makes the difference in everything that we struggle with? I've studied 1 Nephi a lot for the past couple of months, and I feel like it all boils down to the fact that Nephi knew God's character and his brothers didn't. That's really all that was different about them. Knowing who God is and His attributes is essential to having any kind of hope or faith that we can change and become better.

Here's what I would have told Sasha if my Russian was out of this world:

-He has a much better opinion of you than you have of yourself, and He is not frustrated or impatient with your flaws. He already knows how to fix them, and exactly how long it'll take. He's a lot more realistic than us in that way: we always want our weaknesses to vanish as soon as we start working on them, or in a week, tops. But God isn't interested in temporary fixes--He's setting up your life in such a way that it's going to change your very character through trials and experiences. That takes time, so be patient with yourself.

-Although He is merciful, He will always, always expect you to do what is right over what is easy or even understandable. He knows your potential to be extraordinary (He didn't create you to be anything else) and He knows that you won't get there by being less than what you're capable of. He knows that we can be caught in the deception that we can excuse ourselves of excellence because life is hard and busy, but He has given us more than enough sources to look to (scriptures, General Conference, prayer, church, other awesome people) for us to overcome it. 

But alas, my Russian only allowed for me to say, "I can see that you're a really good person. God knows you perfectly and He will help you become better every day." 

Bummer, huh?

Anywho, it's Thanksgiving this week! Sister Benson and I have delegated responsibilities to the rest of our district (we only have elders, so I'm guessing that we'll end up doing the bulk of the work) and we're going to eat as a district in the church. Sister Benson is teaching me how to cook and I've already mentioned this but she's the greatest. We have a lot of fun together and we teach together pretty well.

I'm getting pumped for Christmas--there are decorations in the Rimi that we get groceries at. I may or may not buy a mini Christmas tree next week. And by that, I mean that I will absolutely be buying it. It's started snowing for the past two days, so that's great.

Narva is a very challenging area (I guess it's mostly because we're dealing with teenagers and essentially zero priesthood) but I haven't ever felt more at home anywhere else. It's the most unique city in the mission because its challenges are unlike any other, but I love it with my whole heart. Life is good. Thank you so much for those of you who have been praying for me, writing me, or any other form or support. I love you all and hope you have a lovely week!

Love,

Sister Gooch

P.S. Thank you so much for sending the package!