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
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