Narva looks good in white. It's been snowing for the past couple of days and I'm feeling like I'm living in a snow globe that just got shaken up a bit. It's actually really beautiful. And cold. I pulled out the boxer mittens that I got from my apartment in Vilnius. They're heavy duty.
I feel like I haven't given you many details on what my day-to-day life is like here, so here's a more detailed look on a few things from the past week:
-We make lemon ginger tea every day, all day. Haha it's what a few babushki told us to make when I was sick and it's magic in a cup.
-Sister Dalley showed me this book that she has on the Baltics, and it's part of the Lonely Planet series. Family, if you want to get a really accurate idea of what the Baltics are like, buy it! It will also be awesome for when we come back next summer. There's tons of incredible history in there that made me a little more aware of how lucky I am to be living here.
-We were reading the Book of Mormon in Russian during district language study (always on Fridays at 1:30) when we came across Christ's thoughts on the saying "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth". In Russian, "tooth for a tooth" sounds like "zoob za zoob", which sounds like an indie band or something. Elder Allred and I got a kick out of that.
-We taught Sasha with his friend Olga, who I think I failed to mention before. She's this super cute Russian girl who's read the whole BOM and doesn't really take us seriously. Anyway, we brought the hammer down on our last lesson. I had the idea to grab the white handbook (missionary rule book) as we were walking out the door, because we wanted to basically tell Sasha that he's got to get serious if he wants an answer about whether the church is true or not. We've taught him all of the lessons and he's soaked it all in--he just won't set a baptismal date because he doesn't think he's received an answer. Essentially, he doesn't know how to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost. But anyway, I took out the white handbook and was like, "Sasha, this book contains all of the missionary rules. And let's be real: following all of them is really hard. But inside there's a promise from God that the understanding of those we teach is influenced by our personal worthiness. We want you to know that we are going to follow this perfectly so that you can receive a witness for yourself. We are doing everything we can--now it's your turn." We invited him to fast with us the next day and to be baptized on the 25th of this month. He didn't say no but he didn't say yes! I can't even tell you how huge that is for Sasha. He was telling us that he wants to be baptized in the Baltic Sea. That would be freeeeezing, but I would settle for a tub at this point.
We have another meeting with him in an hour or so and I'm really excited to see how his fasting went. He's an awesome person because when he fasts, he does it seriously. He ponders and reads the scriptures throughout the day, just because he's Sasha and he's the world's greatest.
-Sister Janis has a nephew who is the most adorable kid ever. He has glasses that make his eyes look huge and a little mullet in the back. Did you know that most little boys have mullets here? It's a beautiful thing.
-We finally got to teach Zhenja and Masha again! They are so rad. They got along really well with Sister Dalley, too. We were able to teach them about sealing their family together and temple marriage, which is one of the happiest topics ever. It's cool to tell someone that they can be with their family after this life when it's something they've never thought of before.
-I ordered fresh hamburger meat at a deli today, all in Russian. I just wanted to write that because what? What? Last year at this time, I never would have thought that I'd be doing that.
-The amount of fur that people wear here is insaaane. So Russian. I love the babushki wearing total fur coats with fur shopkas. It's amazing/makes me want one.
-We are getting ready for our English cooking course that starts up again this week. It's every Wednesday and Saturday. We had to buy extra food for that this week so our bags were so heavy on the way home that we had to set them on the snow and drag them like sleds. We might as well buy one of those babushki carts with wheels. (Jared, Mike...tell me you know what I'm talking about.)
-Today was the second time we've gone to a Turkish restaurant with elders Bell and Allred. It's not my favorite--can't get over the combination of pickles and yogurt. But it's always a good time with them.
-I led choir on Saturday because all of the musically talented missionaries in Narva left last transfer. It was incredible because Sister Janis keeps eye contact with me the whole time and sings with her eyebrows going up and down and all around.
-Almost daily, Sister Dalley and I look at each other and say, "We're nineteen," quickly followed by, "We're living in Estonia, speaking Russian. We're teaching lessons by ourselves and we're negotiating rent contracts and walking through mazes of домs (haha don't know the plural of that--домы doesn't sound right) and eating way too many cucumbers." So maybe not always in that order, but seriously, it's hitting me over and over how surreal it is that I'm doing what I'm doing.
I love it more than I've loved anything else.
-We've done so many drop-by's to members and less-actives alike because our apartment had a disgusting amount of chocolate in it. For the holidays, we received sooo many boxes of chocolates. That's a big thing here. Little candies in general are huge. People always have candy to give; especially during the holiday season.
-Estonian is whack. I let a little giggle out sometimes when I pass the "Alkoholipood" (pood is the word for store). We rarely hear it but some of the signs here are in Estonian. And today when we were buying groceries this babushka randomly turned to me and started speaking Estonian. It was funny to me that my first reaction was to say, "I only speak Russian."
-I did an exchange with Sister Patino on Thursday. Every missionary who comes to Narva for the first time is always floored by how tiny and gray it is. She wasn't an exception, but Sister Patino is super fun and loves everything about life so it was great!
-Sister Dalley and I have a wonderfully balanced companionship. I tend to err on the side of too straightforward and upfront (let's be real--my Russian vocabulary is limited so I don't attempt to beat around the bush), but Sister Dalley is like the sunshine that the people in the Baltics have been missing. She's a human vitamin D3.
-Ksenja is serving a mini-mission in Vilnius with Sister Weaver, my trainer! I'm so jealous. It sounds like they're having a blast and it sounds like my old babushka friend Maria is doing great.
-I've thought a lot about the concept of perfect faith this transfer, and actually about the concept of the word "perfect" in general. It's sad that I never understood how inaccurate my definition of perfect was before my mission. I had thought that it meant flawless, but it really means whole. The idea of having perfect faith sounded like something that wasn't realistic or possible, but then I had a kind of realization: Satan's individual attempts to keep me from reaching my potential are focused a lot on rationalization. He gets me to rationalize that the people here are really hard to change and that this mission that I'm in specifically is a low-baptizing one; that their hearts are particularly hard here so it's okay if I don't have very high expectations. But, like, what? Why would I have greater trust in the being who doesn't want me to succeed than I would in the One who suffered everything so that I could do anything? Super twisted logic. I'm learning to stop rationalizing and just believe and hope with a perfect faith that I can change and so can the people here. Heavenly Father uses the smallest and simplest to bring about the greatest and most magnificent. Perfect faith is not only possible, but it's something we need if we want miracles in our lives.
-For some reason, I have this unspoken fear that if I write down details about who I'm teaching, then they'll suddenly vanish. Haha so going along with this perfect faith thing, I wanted to tell you how many miracles Sister Dalley and I have experienced together. We have six investigators right now--that's a really high number for this mission. Every day I see a little more how Heavenly Father can work miracles through us when we're humble and teachable. That kind of attitude is definitely not something that we have a problem with as two missionaries in our 4th transfer together.
But yeah, life is really great. It's about to get real cold, apparently. I can't believe I've made it through winter this far without any appalling stories where my eyelashes freeze or something. I'll keep you updated on that.
Love you all tons and I absolutely love hearing from you. Thanks for all of the support and prayers. Have a great week!
-Sister Gooch
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