Week 28: January 6, 2014

Well, I have never laughed at myself as much as I have this past week. I guess that happens when you and your companion have roughly the same language capabilities and are more prone to laughing than crying. This week we taught Anja, (the 14 year old that y'all met!) and we based the whole lesson on writing in your journal. We brought ours (neither of us have missed a day in at least a year) and bought her one of her own. She was so pumped about it. Sister Dalley is really awesome with youth so suddenly Anja wants to meet with us every day, haha. But she's doing a lot better--we made a deal with her where she has to complete a Personal Progress experience before we can have another lesson with her. But the reason that I'm telling you this is because I wanted to tell you another greeeeat Russian mistake that I made. Inside of Anja's journal, we wrote notes and there was a sentence that I wrote that said, "I promise that if you write in your journal every day, you will be able to see the blessings that God has given you." Here's what I actually wrote: "I promise that if you pee in your journal every day..." 

Sad, huh? Anja got a real kick out of that.

Sister Dalley and I have been doing great in a bunch of other aspects, as well. She taught me the proper way to eat kiwis, which is weird. Apparently you're supposed to scrub the hair off and then cut off the ends and eat the skin and all! It's a whole new world.

We've actually had a lot of miracles though. First of all, I realized that I haven't really updated you on how our investigators are doing.

Starting with Sasha: he's so, so, so good. I love his guts. We've only met with him once since Sister Dalley has been here but it's been awesome to see how Heavenly Father is making me a lot more capable than I thought I would be. It was a really powerful lesson with Sister Valling helping (every lesson that she helps on is powerful, basically) and he brought a friend, too! The whole time I was sitting there thinking about how crazy it is that I can now understand what's going on without asking my companion what happened later. Anyway, he actually wasn't in Narva this weekend, but he was in Tallinn visiting a friend. And here's how rad he is: he went to the Tallinn branch! It was the perfect Sunday for that to happen because Elder Bennett of the Seventy spoke and President Boswell was there, too! He met both of them and I could just die I'm so happy. I talked to him last night on the phone and he said it was an awesome experience. So, so, good.

Sadly, we haven't been able to teach Zhenja since Sister Dalley has been here, but we have a lesson with him tomorrow so I'll give you an update next week!

Yesterday, at the end of church, an 18ish year old girl walked in and turns out that she's an internet referral! I don't think you realize how insaaaane that is. We pretty much never get internet referrals here! Anyway, her name is Diana and she's from Riga, but has lived in Narva for the past two years. We had a lesson with her right after church and she's the most prepared person I've ever met, I swear. We'll meet with her again on Saturday. She's so rad.

Yesterday night, we also had a lesson with Nina, an investigator that the elders are passing to us. She is the sweetest, and every time we come to a lesson with her she has a list of questions that she wants us to answer. We've started a system where we take her list of questions home and study them, then give her scripture verses to answer them. It's pretty difficult because it's not like either of us are scriptorians, but it's been cool. We're trying to get her to think about it and study it out by herself instead of a couple of 19 year olds answering her questions in broken Russian.

Another great thing! I bore my testimony during sacrament meeting and it was a really cool moment for me because I remember exactly what I said in my first testimony when I got to Narva, and my Russian has improved a toooooon. I can express more complex ideas than, "God loves you...I love you...I know the Book of Mormon is true...etc", so that was a lovely realization.

It's also been awesome to feel the support of the members. They realize that we need a lot of help on lessons so they've been more willing than usual to help us out. 

Sadly, Sister Janis has been sick for a week. We've called her a few times to see if she needs anything and we dropped by with some chocolates and every time she blesses me in the name of Иисус that I will marry a righteous man and have lots of babies. So...the future's looking pretty bright.

New Years was insane. Seriously, I've never seen more fireworks in my life. Sister Dalley and I took a video of the sky outside our apartment window--we did a panoramic view and it shows like fifteen gigantic fireworks going off at different locations all around us. And it was only 10:00! 

I laid in bed for a while thinking about how, last year on New Years, the last thing I thought I'd be doing is going to sleep at 10:30 on the bottom bunk of an apartment room in Narva, Estonia. I really love it, though. Best New Years yet. The next day, pretty much every man we talked to was still terribly drunk. Lots of entertaining conversations, that's for sure.

I feel like this transfer is going to be one of my happiest to look back on purely because of our situation. We're doing things we never thought we'd do--I figured out my first apartment contract in Russian! That was funny and painful all at once.

Honestly though, I've been praying a lot that I'll be able to grow through stretching. It's overwhelming and I've never felt more...I don't know, like my age before. I'm definitely realizing a lot of my inadequacies, but I feel like Heavenly Father is also giving me little glimpses of the person that I was designed to be.

So yeah, it's all good in the hood. Sorry my letters keep getting shorter--I don't know what's wrong with me. Haha I love you all and hope you have a lovely week.

Love,

Sister Goochka

Week 27: December 30, 2013

Heyo!

Let's start with the fact that I absolutely loved getting to talk to y'all. I'm sad for you/grateful that hardly any of you had Christmas together, haha. That means next year we'll all be together! I'm pretty pumped about that.

Also, I wear the footy pajamas every night and they're kind of the best thing that's happened to me in a while--especially since I just got sick. 

I'm getting excited for New Years though. We have to be inside at 6:00 p.m. and we don't have any fun plans, but I'm planning on buying some Ruschian Shweppes and watching fireworks out our window/doing area book work.

So yeah, remember how I was talking to you when we got transfer calls? And how I went into shock? Haha Sister Benson leaving Narva was sort of the most horrifying thing I've experienced so far because she is just always on top of things and, well, her Russian always made up for mine. But here's a cool thing: I figured out that I'm on top of things, too! Haha it's been intimidating and a little overwhelming being kind of in charge of the area and making all the phone calls, setting up the appointments, etc. but I had this lovely realization that I'm totally capable of it. Obviously I miss Sister Benson's guts but things are still so good.

It's great, too, because Sister Dalley is so much fun. We just laugh and have a great time in pretty much every situation we're put in. For those of you who don't know, Sister Dalley came to the Baltics at the same time as me. We actually sat together on the plane ride over. She's from Alpine, Utah and she's essentially walking sunshine.

A bunch of stuff has happened since I last talked to you. Sister  Benson's last couple of days were ridiculously busy because it just so happened that a bunch of people that she had worked with but I hadn't met yet just happened to be able to meet. So we met with this single mom, Albina, and her four kids. In the past, they have mostly been interested in English but we had a really good lesson on feasting on the words of Christ and we have another meeting set up with them on Wednesday. 

Also met Pavel, a less-active member who is newly married to a nonmember, Natalia. Pavel is so rad though. He has such a solid understanding of the gospel--we just need to get him to church. He was super nice and he speaks English (kind of) pretty well, so that's a relief.

Vladimir, the fun guy from English, called us yesterday and said he could meet on Thursday. Every time he talks to me, he tells me how much he loves my name...and then proceeds to repeat it under his breath for a while. Haha he's great.

We went caroling the night before transfers to a bunch of members. That was kind of bitter-sweet because the members get super attached to the missionaries here (we work with them a lot more closely than most areas) and they were all sad to see them leave. We sang to Sister Janis and it was so cute/made it really hard not to laugh because we were singing and she was just sobbing. Her heart is pure gold, I swear.

Transfers were kind of crazy because four of the missionaries out of our six in Narva left. That means only Elder Allred and I stayed. Have I mentioned how much I love that guy in a totally appropriate way? He's such a chill person. Super funny too. Last night we went to a lesson with them because they're passing us their investigator, Nina. We were supposed to be there at 8:30 but got there around 8:55 because Elder Allred led us around this complex with absolutely no idea where he was. It was great. His new companion is Elder Bell, who I served my first transfer with in Vilnius. It's fun to have him here because he saw me at the very beginning and he's seen my progress. He told me my Russian is awesome, or at least a lot better than before...which, like, it better be. Haha you'd hope that three transfers would do something for me.

So I had a realization (actually I've been very aware as the process has been happening) that my letters home are turning into the typical missionary sermons with repentance being called every so often. And I remember how cheesy I thought that was, and how it was really hard to relate with missionaries who were like that...and how I always thought they would be weird when they came home. But here's the thing: I felt like that because I didn't understand the concept of repentance. I felt like anytime that people talked about repentance, it meant that I should feel guilty or it meant that I was doing something wrong. And that's not it at all.

Repentance is one of the happiest things about this gospel! When I say repent, I mean that you should stop carrying around a bunch of useless burdens and decide to be happy again; decide to change and be better. It means that every day, you let go of the mistakes that were made and try anew the next day. I don't know why I didn't get that before the mish, but there you have it.

But yeah, the spiritual thoughts I have are just gonna keep comin'. Haha sorry/not sorry.

Oh! Almost forgot about zone conference. It was kind of face-melting good. President Boswell talked about the Savior feeding the 5,000 and broke it down into really cool steps. He pointed out that first, the Savior asked the Apostles to bring all the food that they had (they found a kid who had some loaves of bread and fish) and then he blessed and brake it. He then instructed them to give it to the other people, and by the end, they had more than enough food to feed that many people. 

He related it to the fact that the Savior asks us to bring everything that we have to the table; all that we are and all that we have to give. Then he blesses our efforts and he gives us trials or experiences that break us up and expand our capabilities so that we can be a blessing to others. Lastly, we are able to minister to others and our sacrifices that we thought wouldn't be enough in the beginning turn out to be more than enough. That struck me because, often, I feel like I'm not doing enough or being enough. President Boswell said, "Each of you has already brought everything you have. Your sacrifice is already more than enough. Now you just have to lean on the Lord and ask Him to bless and multiply your efforts." I thought that was pretty rad.

I hope that you all have a great week. Love you to the moon and back a few times.

Love,

Sister Gooch

Week 26: December 23, 2013

C Рождеством!

You know what's weird? I think it's colder where you are than it is where I am. At least, for the past week it seems like that. There hasn't been much snow and I haven't had to wear a hat for most days, so that's kind of a miracle. That also means that there won't be a white Christmas here in Narnia (Narva), but that's whatevs. I figure I'll have enough snow to last me a lifetime in the coming months. Apparently January and February are the coldest months of the year.

But good news! I got my package. Well, not yet. Tomorrow I will. But I know it's in Tallinn and I'm going to Tallinn for Christmas Eve because it's zone conference. We'll come back to Narva that night but everyone was telling me how gigantic it is--I'm so excited! I figure it makes up for me not receiving any mail since I've been here :)

I can't believe that the house is already up for sale! And Taylor Bluth is home from his mission? What the?! I need y'all to tell him hello for me. And Mom, you said that Morgan Holt and Melinda Coates said hi, so give them a big hug for me! And tell them to update me on their lives, sheesh.

Anyways, it's been a lovely week. We went to Tallinn to get a temporary Estonian residence permit for myself and took the Tallinn sisters with us on the way back to Narva to do an exchange. This time I went with Sister Carr and it was a day filled with Heavyweights quotes and teaching by the Spirit, which is the best kind of day, in my book. "Let's do it to it, Lars."

We taught Anya and attended choir, which was a hoot. Sister Janis sat next to me and, my heavens, does that woman have a pair of lungs on her. She loves to sing. She also loves to speak English, even though she only knows how to say, "good job". In Russian, they say моло дец, which means "good jobber", and it's kind of a noun rather than telling someone that they did a good job. She says it a lot. 

Elder Hampton usually directs the choir (and when I say choir, I hope you can imagine the four women from the branch who come and then the elders...sometimes their investigator Sasha, too). Anyway, he directs it and Sister Janis just eats it up when he tells us to straighten our backs and fix our posture. She turned to me and was like, "Sister Goochka, how do you say beautiful man in English?" I told her and she just whispered it over and over to Elder Hampton. I died. Dead. 

And oh! Another wonderful Sister Janis story happened last Monday. We started a family history account for her on familysearch because she has the potential to do a lot of good with the energy and enthusiasm that she has for the gospel. In our first few minutes of the lesson, when we were telling her what we were planning on teaching, her face was really serious. And if you know Sister Janis like I do, it's really weird to see her serious. She got all quiet and we asked her what she was thinking. In her own words: "How did you know? How could you have known?" Haha she had apparently been praying for someone to help her figure out how to do family history work. The whole process of showing her was probably the funniest thing I've ever experienced. I was typing everything in Russian and it was taking a while because I'm not used to the Russian keyboard. Anyway, at one point, I hit the wrong button and it erased this whole entry that I had made for her deceased son. Sister Janis immediately began to pray, "Oh Lord, please help Sister Goochka. Please bless her hands to move swiftly and--" and then the problem was fixed. We were also trying to load a video and it kept pausing. She would hold her hand up and shake it at the screen, saying, "Get out of the computer, Satan!" Again, dead. She's too funny. She also thinks it's hilarious that I have a habit of saying, "Но вот," as a sentence filler because it's apparently really Russian. So that's a good thing, right?

This Sunday was so good. I know I've said it before, but it's really sad to me that you don't know the members and can't experience what I'm experiencing. Svyeta Nikolaeva, a really awesome returned missionary who's like 28 and the best person ever gave me two warm skirts that actually work! See my problem is the fact that I have a bigger behind than most Russians, so it's been kind of a nightmare to find a warm skirt. Haha it was so nice of her though! Every Sunday since I got here, the members have brought me skirts and made me try them on in the bathroom after sacrament meeting. When I walked out with one of the skirts that Svyeta brought me yesterday, Sister Janis, Sister Valling, Svyeta, and Sister Ermohhina (sorry if you don't recognize all those names) were standing together and cheering. Sister Janis said, "Glory to God!" Haha they're really amazing people. 

Sister Ivanova, a 45ish yr old woman who lives in Kohtle Jarve (an hour from Narva, in the direction of Tallinn) brought us these cute little chocolate bars with Christmas ornaments on them. We had stopped in Kohtle Jarve on our way to Tallinn to teach her last week. She has the cutest apartment ever. It's not your average dark, old, Russian apartment. She remodeled the whole thing and it's like the most peaceful place I've ever been. But that's how Sister Ivanova is--peaceful and soft and everything lovely in the world. She is such a strong member and an example to everyone. I know her daughter because she's serving Estonian speaking in Parnu. 

Sister Benson and I have started a "Lost Sheep" program, where we make Christmas packages for a bunch of less actives and deliver them. We were inspired by a really cool promise that Sister Benson heard in the MTC: The harder you work to bring lost sheep to the Lord, the more miracles will happen to bring back your own lost sheep to His fold. I thought that was pretty awesome. I am working my hardest to bring them back not only because I want them as individuals to find the peace and salvation that our covenants bring, but I know that I have a whole bunch of family who needs to come back. There is so much, so much peace and happiness to be found in remembering your covenants.

I've never felt more strongly or been able to speak more boldly about the gospel as I have this week. I guess I had a realization that there is no need to do a disservice to yourself and others by minimizing the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are all here on this earth to follow the example set by Christ: to have faith in Him, to repent daily, to be baptized, to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to endure to the end. That includes going to church every Sunday and renewing your covenants, whether they be of baptism or your temple covenants. There is no other way--no shortcuts or different roads. Only through repeating that process can we be truly and fully happy. I wish I could put into words how perfectly I know this and how badly I want for each, individual person that I love to come back to that God who gave them breath and repent. Decide to change today and come back, because there is room for you in His fold. I promise that blessings of forgiveness and rest is to be found in the Savior Jesus Christ, because He loves and understands you more perfectly than you understand or love yourself. 

I was thinking last night about what I was doing at this time last year. It was easily the happiest time of my life--seriously, I was so blessed in every way. I had incredible friends and roommates, I was with my family who I love to the moon and back, and I was going to school studying things that I love. But I had a pretty surprising realization last night: I have so much more now. I may have had to give up schooling for now and seeing all of the people I love, but I have an absolute knowledge of the true and living God. I know that I can speak with Him and that He can guide me. I have a much better grasp of what my spiritual gifts and talents are and I am finally learning how to use them. I know Jesus Christ--I know who He is, what He has done for me, and what I can do with Him if I continue to live my life according to His gospel. I have a lot more love for the people around me and for myself. My happiness is not derived from my circumstances anymore, but from my relationship that I have with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

I love you all so much, and I hope that you have a lovely Christmas. Can't wait to talk to you!

Love, 

Sister Gooch