Hey folks!
Sister Dalley and I are in Narva for round two, which I could not be more pleased about. This is the first place I've stayed for three transfers in a row!
Last week we had a really cool district meeting. It turned into a brainstorming session, which I loved because I had a few ideas that I've been wanting to make happen since my first transfer. One of which was to really use family history work as a finding tool. I started drawing up a flyer for it and then quickly realized that I am not as talented as Sister Dalley in that respect so she took that over. Anyways, it's kind of cool that we were thinking about revamping family history work here and when we were throwing out ideas in district meeting, Elder Skinner talked about an idea that requires a little backstory.
So Narva sits on the border of Russia and is something like two hours away from St. Petersburg, where the majority of family history records are kept by the Russian Orthodox church. They're on things called microfilms, and they pretty much contain all of the family history work for the people here. As of right now, those microfilms are being shipped all the way to Tallinn by the boxes and being copied there, then sent back to Russia because it's illegal to copy them in Russia.
It doesn't make a lot of sense for Tallinn to be the center for family history work in the Baltics when there's a closer city (Narva), but Narva didn't have a microfilm reader, which is the huge machine that copies the microfilms. In order to get a microfilm reader, you have to have someone in the branch with the calling of Family History Coordinator. Since we literally have less than ten active members right now, nobody was available to fulfill the calling.
Until now! Ksenja came home from her mini-mission and when she was there, she got the impression several times that when she returns home, she needs to start her family history work. She said that she thought after making that decision, the nudging feeling would go away, but it didn't until she decided that she needed to help other people with their family history work. She accepted the calling the day after she got home and so now it's finally possible for us to get one of those microfilm readers! I don't know if you realize this, but it's kind of huge for the Church in general. So many more names will be able to come through Estonia and it will draw so many more people to do their family history work. And we get to be the ones to make it happen!
Elder Skinner's idea was to get that microfilm reader here and plan a huge family history activity for the city. It's going to require a lot of foresight and planning if we actually want a turn-out, but I already know exactly how it's going to look and what I'm going to use for decorations. Haha that was the first thing I thought of. I've been wanting to decorate for so many events but I think I'll finally get the chance to with this one!
We're also going to start a drawing class, because Sister Dalley is the bomb and I can teach the design part. We're both really excited about that.
The elders wanted to start a chess club because Russians just eat that stuff up. They say that chess was one of the three "sports" that were allowed during the Soviet times, so people love it.
I've been really blessed this week to be able to look back at all of the progress made here in Narva since I got here. I'm so lucky to have seen it grow. President Boswell wrote to me last week and said that Sister Dalley and I have accomplished more here in six weeks than the missionaries before did in six months. That doesn't actually have much to do with us but I'm so grateful that I've been able to see the change. When I got here, the branch president wasn't a Narva native, the girls were only coming to church for the elders, there weren't any prospective priesthood holders, and hardly any members had callings. Now President Kabin is president of the branch, the girls don't talk to the elders at all and they're starting to build their own testimonies and making better decisions, we have Sasha and Zhenja that we're working with as future priesthood holders, we have the respect and trust of the members and almost all of them have callings, and we're going to be the future center of family history work in the Baltics!
That's pretty rad, huh?
Anyways, transfers changed our district drastically. Elder Long and Elder Allred were transferred to Vilnius and Elder Skinner and Elder Bell are staying here for their last transfer. E. Bell's new companion is E. Goodrich from SLC. E. Skinner's new companions are E. Hanson and E. Anderson. I don't really know any of them yet but it's great to have musical talent back in Narva!
One of the funny moments of my week was when we taught Katia. The hilarious thing about Katia is that she is a teenage girl through and through, so we have a kind of mother-daughter relationship. She's sassy and makes excuses but we have the mutual understanding that I will call her out on it because I love her. Anyways, we pulled out For the Strength of Youth because she was telling us how she's having a hard time. I flipped through each of the subjects and asked if she was following all of them like she should, and she got this pouty face on and was like, "Sister Gooch, I've already tried all of those and they don't work."
I don't know why, but I just died laughing. Like...what? Living in a way that you respect yourself and others and the Lord isn't conducive to happiness? I died. Dead.
Katia realized how ridiculous she sounded and we all had a good laugh. But can I just say that I am such an advocate of For the Strength of Youth? Seriously so grateful that I grew up with it. I'm working with teenage girls almost every day who never had the guidance that I did and, therefore, have made decisions that give them a bunch of unnecessary heartache. I just wanna gather all the teenage girls here in my arms like a mother hen and tell them that they're worth a lot more than they know.
Zhenja and Sasha weren't able to meet this week, but we're meeting with Sasha tonight. They're both doing pretty well. Zhenja is tired and got sick after he quit smoking, and he's still trying to quit for good, but he's such a fun guy. He works a ton so meeting with him is hard.
On the way to his place, we said hi in passing to this babushka and she stopped and talked to us for like fifteen minutes. I heard before my mission that Russians are the most closed off people ever, but I highly disagree. I knew this lady's life story in ten minutes: how many kids she had, what annoys her about her husband, what early marriage was like, what her hair used to look like, a good place to buy pastries, where she grew up, etc. Haha it was comical. She said, "I'm so sorry, I have my own faith and I can't change that but I want you to come to me as guests and we'll drink tea and have cake. I love spending my time with beautiful people." She was a hoot, that's for sure.
In other news, we went to Kohtla Järve to meet with Sister Ivanova. We talked with her about an aspect of the Holy Ghost that not a lot of people think of: the Holy Spirit of Promise. I didn't know about it before my mission, either. We talked about covenants and it is really cool to see someone who lives in a place where the church doesn't seem to have near as much hope as in America or other places where it's exploding, and how much more her covenants mean to her. She goes to the temple maybe twice a year and she works for a long time in advance to find names of her family to take with her. It's one of the most important things to her, and I know that a lot of members here feel the same way.
Sister Dalley and I made a goal to read the New Testament, and today I finished Acts. And can I just tell you how much I love Paul? For real, he blows my mind with how bold and humble he was at the same time. I decided that I'm just going to start acting like him and fake it 'til I make it.
Oh! And I forgot to tell you that I got new quadruple combinations! One mini and one normal. Why, you ask? Because there's this really awesome book cover thing that a lady does in Riga and I wanted it on two sets of scriptures. I'm pumped about it. New translation and all!
Anyways, I gotta go but I love you all. How about ya write me next week? :)
Love,
Sister Gooch
P.S. I'm pretty sure my package is in Tallinn. We're going there this week for exchanges so yaaayy!
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