Week 39: March 24, 2014

Hey folks!

So transfer calls were this past week and I'm now in Daugavpils, Latvia! Dad, I feel like the only reason I made the Baltic tour so fast is because you've been praying for it or something. Haha I'm grateful, nonetheless. Daugavpils, though! Yet another small, fairly Russian town. Sister Dalley and I woke up at 1:45 a.m. on Thursday and took a straight shot bus to Riga, got there at 9:00, then took a four-hour bus to Daugavpils with Sister Roy, my new companion. Remember her? She was in my MTC district and we have a ton of fun together so I was pretty pumped when I learned that I'd be with her.

Ahh, so much to tell you about. Let's start with leaving Narva.

We got the transfer calls when we were teaching Katja and we all freaked out together. Good bonding moment. I was actually really sad about leaving Narva but I've only heard good things about Daugavpils so I was excited. We had English later that day and it was one of the funnest things ever. I'm so glad I got to say goodbye to our class because they are some of my favorite people in Narva. I got a picture with Dimitri (Dima), Sasha (our investigator that I've talked about a lot), Diana (new Estonian woman who's ridiculously smart and kind), and Sister Gerohova (member that's not in my area but she's fun). They're a really smart group of people. We talked about the theory that the universe is expanding and how incredible it is that God made the cosmos and the stars and all of these incredible creations, but He also made us. That's pretty mind-blowing to me. Even more mind-blowing that they could carry on that kind of conversation in a foreign language.

We took pictures afterwards and this really sketchy guy offered to take them, so they're all blurry but near to my heart nonetheless.

After that we taught Anja one last time about the Atonement. I'm going to miss her and the girls there in general a lot.

President Kaben gave me a gift bag with Narva souvenirs, so that was super nice. I still want a cup that says, "I left my <3 in Narva". I'm sending home a box with some of them in there and a lot of winter clothes that I didn't have room for. I got a bunch of Estonian/Baltic candy for y'all so get pumped. Not sure when it's going to be sent because I left it with Sister Dalley in Narva but I trust her to send it somewhat soon because I trust her with everything else.

That's one of the saddest things about leaving Narva: Sister Dalley has become one of my best friends. Sister Coombs, my MTC companion, is taking my place and I know they're gonna work wonders together. It was fun seeing S.Coombs at the bus station before we left. I made her sit down on her suitcase while I gave her a talking to about Narva and how it's the most important/incredible place in the world and how she has to love it as much as I do. 

The bus ride from Riga to Daugavpils is pretty cute. Can a drive be cute? It was. Mom, you'd love all of the different color houses and doors and gardens. It's obviously not spring yet but I can't wait to see it when everything is green and the flowers are blossoming. The most common color for a house is a mustard yellow and it's adorable, in my opinion. Latvia is a little more colorful than Estonia, from what I've seen.

Also, Daugavpils is much more colorful than I expected it to be. For some reason I always expected it to be gray and depressing (its name isn't the prettiest, right? Pronounced dog-of-pills) but it's not! Well, mostly. Haha it's more colorful than Narva, at least. Although Sister Roy and I agree that there are certain parts of Daugavpils that would be perfect for a zombie apocalypse to happen. Tons of abandoned soviet factories with shattered windows, concrete, and graffiti.

The branch here is bigger than I'm used to, too. This Sunday there were like 25 or 30 people at church, but Sister Roy told me that's not normal because President Guido Senkans came (I can't remember if he's in the Area 70 or if he is in the District Presidency. He's the guy who translated the Latvian Book of Mormon and he's suuuper rich and nice). It was awesome because we had our investigator Zita there. She is a pretty, shy woman in her early 30's who has been investigating the church for a year and a half. She's Latvian so the lessons we do are in Russian but we give her Latvian reading materials. She's awesome and I love her already. 

Also, we have a member here who's President Spalvens' (branch president) daughter, Lidija. She got back from a mission in Brooklyn, New York almost a year about and she is the bomb. Seriously, she is what makes the missionary work go round here in Daugavpils. Apparently it's super rare that Zita actually comes to all 3 hours of church but Lidija convinced her to come by consistently texting her. I want to be that kind of returned missionary when I come home.

President Spalvens himself is awesome. He's really loving and happy to support the missionaries. I didn't get to talk to him or many of the members as much as I would have liked to because there were more than I'm used to, but this branch is so good. I can already tell that I'm going to love it.

Sister Roy and I have already had a lot of fun together. I'm used to being the sassy one in the companionship but she's got me beat. She's super sarcastic, so it's great. 

You know what realization I had this week? That I can read a Liahona in Russian and understand pretty much everything. That simple thing makes me so happy. I remember my trainer, Sister Weaver, reading from it and thinking that it was insane that she could understand more than ten words. Look at me, all grown up and not wearing a hypothetical Russian training diaper.

Something that I've been learning lately is that it's a priceless capability to be happy in any situation you're in. It's something that the mission teaches everyone of necessity since there are transfer calls and you have to leave places and companions that you love a lot. I know that the more that I learn to lean on Christ and make Him my anchor, the less my circumstances matter. I feel like I can be happy anywhere just because my main source of peace and comfort is my Savior. 

I remember thinking that people who said that Christ is their best friend before the mission were cheese balls and that you can't become best friends with someone if they're not physically there to tell you that your skirt is tucked into your underwear or whatever. I think that's been one of the most valuable things that I've come to understand since I've been here: being best friends with Christ is completely and absolutely possible/necessary for true and lasting happiness. He has shown me my weaknesses and has built me up better than anyone else could have. He's helped me humble myself and he understands exactly how I feel at all times. He proved his loyalty on the cross and in the garden and every second in between because He orchestrates our lives along with our Father to be as extraordinary as possible. Extraordinary in this context doesn't refer to material possessions in any way. Extraordinary means that he gives us as many opportunities as possible to progress and change our hearts, whether we recognize them as opportunities or not. 

I feel blessed because I've been able to recognize the tiniest fraction of those opportunities enough to bring me here, to where and who I am. 

So when I say that Jesus Christ is my best friend, I hope you can push aside the cheesy meaning at first glance and really understand that He is my support, confidant, and anchor.

Love you all to the moon.

Love,

Sister Goochka

Week 38: March 17, 2014

Hey there!

So, sorry this letter is coming so late. We had to split our email time in order to eat with the elders one last time before Elder Bell and Elder Skinner head home.

That means that I have had plenty of time to think about what I am going to write this week. Every time that I try to compose something it doesn't come out how I want it to, so I'm not going to try to water it down.

This week I've found out just a little bit more of the person that Heavenly Father wants me to be. I feel like every week for the past two transfers, I have had the thought, "This has been the hardest week on my mission." Or actually, my life, because I don't remember having this much heartache before I came here. 

And, as the pattern goes, this past week was the most difficult thing that I have gone through. When I say difficult, I don't mean that there has been an absence of miracles or hope, but I mean that Satan has doubled his efforts and that Heavenly Father has seen it fit to break me down in order to build me back up.

I always imagined that the difficulties of a mission lie within having to talk to people that you don't know and having to deal with peoples' rejection. But you know what? That all seems like white noise to me. It's there but it doesn't affect my attitude and it doesn't ruin my day.

What I find to be difficult and, frankly, my crucible, is the fact that Heavenly Father isn't going to settle on making me a good person. He will not settle on me being easy to get along with or simply the fact that I can laugh at myself. All of those things are part of me but they are not the ultimate goal that He has in mind.

The fact is that in order to become the person that Heavenly Father created me to be, He has to show me my weaknesses so that I can have the choice to change. That's what's so ridiculously uncomfortable about a mission--you are put into situations that you've never been in and, therefore, you learn things about yourself that you never knew. You figure out where you need patience, where you could use charity, how you could better learn to comfort someone else. 

I don't mean to sound like I'm complaining because the truth of it is that the reason my heart is so heavy is the same reason that I am so ridiculously happy. I know for a fact that Heavenly Father has a much more daunting and excellent purpose for us than we can recognize in ourselves. I've seen what He has been able to do with someone like me and I have seen how ready He is to show His children their potential as soon as they ask Him. 

Also, it makes no sense that Sister Dalley and I still have as much fun as we do because we are bone tired and a lot of rough things have happened this week. Heavenly Father definitely shapes our backs to bear the burdens that we have.

With the little bit of time left, I'll tell you real quick about the Spring Carnival. Sister Dalley and I spent a good 8 hours making the puppets for the puppet show and I was working with an infuriatingly dull pair of scissors to cut the yarn for the hair but it was all worth it! We were getting things ready down to the minute that it started but everything worked out. Ironically, it was the only day for the past month that it dumped snow, so it wasn't very springy. But it was definitely one of the funnest nights of my mission. We did relay races, played games, provided dinner, had a talent show, and the elders did the same puppet show that they do in Belarus. It was on eating healthy and the kids loved it. It was so fun though--the members here love a good party. We had the elders shove their faces in whipped cream in order to find a hidden word as one of the games and poor Elder Goodrich hates whipped cream. The image of him miserably moving his nose around the plate will forever be engraved into my mind.

But yeah, sorry it's so short. I love you all a lot. Have a good week!

-Sister Gooch

P.S. We find out transfers tomorrow. I'll let you know!

P.S.S. Halfway mark in two days! What?

Week 37: March 10, 2014

Loved ones!

Did you know that they celebrate Women's Day here on March 8th? It was beautiful. Flowers were in just about everyone's hands and everywhere we walked, people were like, "Hey, thanks for being a woman!" Not in so many words, but I could see appreciation and gratitude gleaming in their eyes. 

They did say, "With the holiday!" which essentially means the mentioned above. And if you're reading this to yourself and wondering if anybody else on earth gets my sense of humor, the answer is no.

Anyways, this week was so good! Minus the bus rides. We went to Tallinn twice: first for Zone Conference and the second time was Estonian District Conference. I met people from the branches in Parnu, Tartu, Tallinn, and a good amount of our branch came, too. It was quite the difference from my first experience at a District Conference (I was in Lithuania last time) and I didn't really need to use the little translator things, so that was fun! Apparently my Russian has improved leaps and bounds. And when I say leaps and bounds, you need to remember how small my footsteps are due to the short nature of my legs.

What's cool about the Estonian branch is that almost all of them speak English, so I was able to get to know some of them. People here are the best. I know I've mentioned that once or twice, but I figure that if I repeat it enough then it'll actually mean something to you. People here are the best.

We took this tiny marshruta bus (I think that's Lithuanian and I never learned the English word for it) down there with our branch and that was hilarious. I convinced Gelia (10 year old birthday buddy that I mentioned in January) to braid Sister Dalley's hair into pigtails that made her look like her name should be Jessie and she should be from Squirrel, Idaho or something. The best part about that is that she felt obligated to keep her hair that way because Gelia was so proud of it. I don't know if I'm too easily entertained anymore or not but I got a real kick out of it.

It's always fun to watch President Boswell speak at conferences. During Zone Conference, he told us that we need to be meeting with every single member and reteaching them all of the PMG lessons. During the Estonian District Conference, he told the members that we, as missionaries, would be coming over and to prepare themselves to hear the PMG lessons all over again. He's just one of those people that leaves no stone unturned in making sure that something gets done--so he keeps the members and missionaries accountable by setting expectations for us. Haha he's the bomb.

The best part of Sunday was the fact that Pavel Ivanov came with his wife! I was so pumped about it. Scratch that--still pumped over here. I realize that it's not very descriptive to simply say that someone is "the best", "the bomb", or "the coolest", but you have to keep in mind the fact that my grasp on the English language is slipping through my grasp at an alarming rate. I literally say things like, "I want so that..." instead of "I want to..." I figure that's the price I have to pay in order to get my mind thinking like a Russian.

Anyways, we did the quit smoking program with Zhenja! He hasn't smoked for five days AHHHH! I'm like a proud mother over here. He was excited about it and it sounds like he's doing really well.

WE FINALLY MET WITH SASHA THIS PAST WEEK! Does the caps lock do my excitement justice? Not really. He hasn't answered our texts or phone calls for the past month(ish) and we've been pretty bummed about it. But he showed up and it was one of the best lessons we've had with him. We did this diagram (is it called a Venn Diagram when there's a subject in the middle and then you draw a branch to a subtopic and then you can draw another branch from the subtopic and make it into a sub-subtopic?) with Trust in the middle, because we've had a hard time getting him to understand that trust in God is essential to most things. I drew branches to repentance, the Atonement, God, the prophet, and receiving answers to your prayers. That sounds like chaos but it was all methodical genius, alright? His main concern has been really hard to pinpoint, but we knew that it was hidden somewhere in the monsterous topic of trust. So we went through point by point and asked some inspired questions that led to the heart of the heart of the heart of the concern! He doesn't understand the difference between being "worthy" and being "perfect". That's why he doesn't trust that a prophet wouldn't fall away and that's why he doesn't feel like he can make a covenant with God. I was telling him that it's really discouraging sometimes for me because I make a lot of the same mistakes every day, and every day I repent of the same things, but that I know repentance is a gradual process that enables us to change if we are continually, sincerely, and truly repentant. Then he said something along the lines of, "Yeah, that's good for you, but that doesn't really apply to what I'm saying. For me, it's the fact that I have a choice in front of me. I know that this choice is wrong and that it's bad, but I choose it anyways. Repentance can't do anything for me because I knew before I chose it that I'd be sinning but I did it all the same." 

I can't imagine how hopeless I'd feel if that were true. Sasha has been paralyzed by all of his wrong decisions and can't imagine feeling guiltless before God until he has perfected himself.

It's actually a pretty logical train of thought if you don't understand how loving our Heavenly Father truly is. If you think about a god that only really executes justice and casts people out of his presence because they aren't worthy, then that's totally omitting the mercy side of the balance. God's mercy and justice work perfectly in balance with one another and there is no way that one can outweigh the other, otherwise God would cease to be God. He wouldn't be the perfect, loving, and just Father that we know from scripture study and experience. Sasha's right in the sense that God doesn't look upon sin with any degree of tolerance, but He does look upon us with eyes that see us as we are, or as we can become. He gave us the Atonement and the ability to repent as the way to reach that potential. The mercy that we receive from the Atonement obviously didn't come for free--the Father had to send His only perfect Son to pay the price for our sins.

So the price is paid: completely, fully, absolutely paid. That means that if we rely wholly upon the merits of Christ, we do not have to worry about making up the change. He didn't just pay 98% and then leave the rest up to us. He paid it all. What's left up to us is to make sure that we are using His priceless gift--that we're actually repenting daily and trying our best to change into who the Father knows that we can become. It has nothing to do with our personal worthiness of this gift. We so often think that mercy is the absence of God's justice, but that's not so. Mercy is the presence of God's power. Receiving it just requires a humble heart and willing (moldable, flexible, not-set-in-your-ways) mind with a determination to serve Him to the end. 

If we use the Atonement daily in our lives, it will be impossible for us to look back on lifetimes of falling short and not quite reaching the mark. We will look back at lives that were lifted, strengthened, and supported by the perfecting Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.

I love you all to the moon!

Sister Gooch

Week 36: March 3, 2014

Hey campers!

Sorry, I've got Heavyweights on the brain. Elder Bell was just talking to me about his friend named Pat, Taco Bell, and twinkies all in one conversation, so I can't really be blamed.

I keep thinking each week here that the amount of miracles that we experience are so surprising but I guess it's getting to the point where I should just expect them. I mean, we're doing the Lord's work and we're being as obedient and consecrated as we can, so we're entitled to them. Allowing room for the will of the Lord to play a part, of course :)

So this last Thursday, we did that same thing where we plan to find a really specific person; name and all. We planned to find a woman named Irina for this coming Saturday. Last night, we had a while to teach and it randomly started blizzarding, but we decided that we needed to go to Tiimanni again. So we walked all the way there, all the way down that road, and then had to turn around because nobody was outside. Then on our way back, we stopped this lady who was walking her beagle and she was super nice. We ended up walking with her and teaching her a full first lesson. She said that she could meet on Saturday, and when we asked for her name, she told us it was Irina. 

My first thought was, "Now this is just getting ridiculous." It's pretty rad to be able to receive such specific revelation. So maybe we got the day wrong that we would find her, but we did get it right in the sense that we'd be teaching her this upcoming Saturday!

And hey, you remember Daniel who we found last week? Well, he actually showed up to our meeting! That's only the second time on my mission that somebody has showed up to the meeting we've arranged after teaching them outside. Ahhh! The lesson itself was good because Ksenja helped us. He's a shy kid (19-yrs old) and it was a little awkward at first but then I accidentally said that we are God's parents. He just laughed and shook his head. Look at me, breakin' ice left and right with false doctrine and atrocious grammar.

And the cherry on top? He said he could meet tomorrow.

Yet another miracle was that Pavel Ivanov (the one that said we could meet) wasn't home when he said he could meet last Saturday. Well, that's not the miracle part, but I'm getting there. We decided this past Saturday night to drop by and invite him to church and check if his phone is actually working because it would never ring when we dialed it. (Quick side-note of no importance: people don't have voice mail here. Isn't that weird? It just rings and rings and rings and the only way you can leave a message is if you text them.) When we rang up to his apartment, he said that he didn't have a phone anymore but promised that he would come to church. 

Now, I've heard this quite a few times from a lot of people and the follow through doesn't generally happen. So when he said it, it was hard not to be like, "Uh huh. Riiiiight." But I've been working on not having that attitude--I actually don't have any reason to think that way becausehave you read my letters lately? Full of miracles and blessings beyond the average--so I decided to believe him.

When we walked into church on Sunday and I saw the back of his head sitting next to Sister Ivanova, I just about cried. Haha there have been more times on my mission where my face feels like it's going to break from smiling so big than I've ever had in my life. He's the coolest. We were here at the church waiting for the elders to finish emailing today and Pavel came here for an interview with President Kaben. When I was talking with him, he was like, "Sister Gooch, I'm here to stay. It was really hard for me to come to church on Sunday but I know that this is where I'm supposed to be. I'm here for good and I'm going to start serving in the Church." 

Ahh, so many good feelings in my heart right now.

Another best part of my week was English on Saturday. As you would probably guess, I love teaching an English class. I mostly love it because we teach the third level, which is just a conversational course. It's so fun to talk to Dmitri, who says things like, "Superhero movies is naive and only for the children." Picture that in a thick Russian accent and you've got yourself a knee-slapper. He often tries to make jokes in English but they never make any sense. Such a funny guy.

And actually, we had a new guy named Yevgeni come. That's another miraculous part of this week. We met Yevgeni that night that we had an hour to find three new investigators when he was walking his pug and we invited him to English. I'm naming really specific types of dogs today, aren't I? It makes me sound like I actually like them. Anyways, we just ended up inviting him to English and walking away. Then the next day we saw him at night with his wife and they were the cuuuutest couple ever. We walked away from that encounter like robots repeating, "Must. Be. Sealed. In. Temple." Does that make me sound weird? Probably. They're just the brightest people I've met here. And then two days after that, we saw him walking his dog with his sister! He saw us from like twenty feet away and we just hear his big, booming laugh. He always speaks with us in English, too, so he yelled, "Hello there!" 

You just gotta picture this guy, too. He's tall with a super burly build. He's from Russia and he has dark hair and skin with really light blue eyes. His smile is huge, too. So he walked into English with his sweater and collared shirt and raised one hand, saying, "Hello, my name is John." I wish you could hear his accent and how funny it was.

He's quite the conversationalist, too. As soon as he sat down, he was like, "I have so many questions for you. First, what on earth brings you to Estonia?" That's like the golden question that every missionary wants to be asked. After we answered that, he said, "My other question is where to you get all of this--all of this color and bright? This energy?" When we asked him if he meant "light", he was like, "Yes! Where do you get your light? It just radiates from you. After you talked to me for the first time, I walked away and felt so pleasant. Then when my wife and I saw you, she had just finished with work and was tired but after talking with you, she smiled the whole way home. Every time that I see you it is so refreshing!" And if his first question wasn't golden enough, then his second takes the cake. We told him that, first of all, we're both naturally really happy people, but most of it has to do with the fact that we know who Jesus Christ is and who God is.

So yeah, he's going to be the next branch president. I'm callin' it.

Later that same night we decided to bring cookies to Zhenja but for some reason Sister Dalley prepared two bags. On the way there, we just started cracking up as soon as we made eye contact with Yevgeni. He was walking his dog again. We gave him one of the bags of cookies and told him we'd see him tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that. The funny thing is that we've seen him in totally different parts of town every time.

Life is really good, as you can tell. The sun is finally shining for longer than 5 hours a day and it's warming up for sure. I love you all to the moon and back a few times.

Love,

Sister Gooch

Week 35: February 24, 2014

Hey everyone!

Lots and lots of really great and hilarious things happened this past week. Hopefully I can remember it all:

-Two weeks ago, during weekly planning, we decided that we should plan very specifically who we were going to find when we went teaching. (When I say teaching, you know that it holds the same meaning as contacting, right?) I for some reason kept thinking that we should plan to find someone named Daniel even though that's not a super common Russian name (I'd never met one), so we wrote it down. We didn't find him that week, but then last week we were walking and stopped this kid who was about 18 because we're trying to find priesthood for the branch. Anyway, he agrees to meet with us for a lesson and then when I asked for his name, he was like, "Daniel."

Whaaaaaat?

-The next one happened about fifteen minutes after we found Daniel. We continued on our way to a street called Tiimanni because we had planned to find a man named Sergei there. So we turn onto Tiimanni and the first person we talk to? Sergei.

-We had planned to find a guy named Aleksander on Kangelaste, specifically near a store called Prisma. I had the feeling that I was going to like his coat, so we were also looking for a young man whose coat I liked. Haha I realize that this sounds weird, but it was so rad because we went down this random street by Prisma and found Aleksander! And yeah, I liked his coat. He was such a cool kid and we're prayin' real hard that he'll give us a call.

-Two nights ago, we only had an hour of teaching time and in order to meet our weekly goals, we had to find 3 new investigators and teach 9 lessons in that block of time. I don't know about other missions, but that was kiiiind of daunting for us because we have a hard time finding 1 new investigator a week. And 6 lessons a day deserves a major pat on the back, in my mind, because hardly anyone stops to talk to us, let alone gives us the time to tell them about the restoration before telling us that they're Russian Orthodox and then not letting us get in another word. So pretty much, we had no idea how we were going to do it. We started walking along the same place that we found Aleksander and happened to find Yevgeni, a nice guy who was walking his dog. He became a new investigator because he agreed to meet on Sunday at 6. 1/3 with only twenty minutes to go. We walked for a little bit and ended up right outside our apartment and pretty much abandoned the idea that we would get 7 more lessons in the 15 minutes that we had left. We decided to cross the street and walk a little ways, then we would turn back and go inside. So right after we crossed the street, we stopped these two guys who seemed to be around our same age and immediately they were like, "We're not believing people." One of them was super sassy and the other was totally willing to meet and talk more about the Plan of Salvation, but the other was like, "You believe in the kingdom with the sun and the moon and the stars." I was about to respond without really processing that but then I paused and was like, "Wait, how do you know that?" He said that his aunt is Mormon, and proceeded to tell us that her name is Maarika Valling. 

Again, whaaaaaat? Pretty sure I've raved about how solid Maarika is before, but we were so surprised. He agreed to come to the meeting with his friend on Saturday.

So we met our goal of three investigators! 3/3!

-The branch has a monthly activity where Sister Ermohhena makes soup with the Relief Society (her, Maarika, Ksenja, and occasionally Sister Ivanova) on Saturday and then we eat it after church on Sunday. So this last Saturday we helped her make borsht. As I sat in the kitchen chopping up the beets and potatoes, I was listening to Sister Ermohhena sing old Russian lullabyes while she shredded cabbage and stirred the soup. Life is unreal sometimes.

-We ate that soup yesterday after church. The whole branch fit into the kitchen (there were 12 of us) and we all ate together. There were two really hilarious things that happened from that. First, Elder Hansen is probably one of the most dramatic people I've met. He paid for most of his mission from his money earned playing professional Pokemon and he's a national champion for clogging. He's hilarious, pretty much. Anywho, Sister Valling wanted us to sing a classic American song, so Elder Hansen closes his eyes and just serenades us for four minutes straight. I died. He was so serious about it and I loved every second of it.

Second thing was that Sister Dalley grabbed the last sweet roll and even though I didn't want any, I ripped a piece off because I love doing stuff like that to her. She's impossible to annoy. I try so hard, haha. What I didn't realize is that everyone watched me as I did it slowly and then stuffed it in my mouth all cross-eyed and idiotic looking. Everyone was so suprised that I would take her food--I don't think it's polite to do here. Haha they all laughed really hard though. Slightly embarrassing.

So yeah, I'm still me! Doin' my me thang, speaking Russian and stuff. I'm actually doing a lot better this week than I've been doing for the past two months because I started taking vitamin D3 again. I thought that it wouldn't really matter if I took it or not because I'm a positive and happy person in general, but my goodness there is a difference when I don't! It literally felt like a fog lifted from my brain, haha. 

Sister Dalley and I are doing really well. I've had the chance to get to know her a lot better this transfer and I am so lucky to be serving with her. She's taught me a lot lately about serving others,especially when it's inconvenient. I have always tried to be service-minded, but she takes it above and beyond. She told me an experience from her life that has really changed my mindset. When she was younger, her family didn't have a lot of money. She remembers one time a family in the ward didn't have enough food, so her mom prepared a huge lasagna and took it over to them. When she got home, she went into the pantry and pulled out their food storage of rice and beans, then made that for her family. I don't know about you, but it would not have been my first inclination to do the same thing. Sister Dalley is just like that, too. She is always asking if she can serve other people and it's a really cool reminder to me that when we say that we should serve in the church, we are not just talking about serving when it's convenient. We aren't just talking about the people who have in abundance. We're talking about each individual, because we all have something to give. You know, the Widow's Mite and all. 

I hope that you all have a really great week. Send me more pictures, because I need to assemble a photo album at the urgent request of many members :) LOVE YOU!

-Sister Gooch

Week 34: February 17, 2014

Hey everyone!

Well, I´m still kickin'. This week has been quiiiite the week.

First of all, thank you so much for the package! Seriously, I was so happy. You really took it seriously when I said that I was almost out of the crushed red pepper flakes! Bags and bags. I couldn't be happier. 

We didn't end up going to Tallinn last week like we had planned. Instead, the Tallinn missionaries all came up to Narva and had an impromptu meeting. Nobody actually knew why we were meeting but our zone leader, Elder McCaffery, said that he felt really strongly that we should. And so we did, and it was amazing and weirdly something that everyone needed but didn't realize that they needed it. 

They brought up the very last chapter in John, where Peter has the awkward encounter with the Savior. Christ asks him three times in a row if Peter loves him, and Peter (slightly more exhasperated each time) tells him yes. After each time, the Savior says, "Then feed my sheep."

Jeffrey R. Holland has a talk called The First Great Commandment from October 2012 General Conference and he talks about this exchange between Peter and the Savior. After Peter says yes for the third time, then I love what Elder Holland says.
In his words: "To which Jesus responded (and here again I acknowledge my nonscripturalelaboration), perhaps saying something like: “Then Peter, why are you here? Why are we back onthis same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then andisn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I needthem forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preachmy gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loveswhat our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not afleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap ofhistory. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world. So, Peter, for the second andpresumably the last time, I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor andserve loyally until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.”

Whew, right? 

We all had this moment where we realized that we're some of the luckiest people in the world. We get to serve somewhere that most people count as hopeless, and we get to teach people who have the mindset that life is to just be lived and that's it. We get to be the ones to care after these down-trodden sheep and we get to be the ones to scoop them up and bring them back to the Savior.

We were all pumped, so all of our zone went out for a quick twenty minute blitz. We ran to catch people on the streets and we taught with pounding hearts (admittedly, that was slightly from the running and lacking litheliness, but mostly from the burning desire to let these people know that more joy than they can comprehend is contained in the book in our hands). It was great. We were more persistent than usual and we all had really miraculous encounters to tell when we returned to the church. As for Sister Patino and I (we went on an exchange of sorts), we didn't find any new investigators or anything but we both were able to teach with more of the Spirit on the street than I've ever taught. So that was cool.

We've been on fire ever since. What I mean by that is that we've taught by the Spirit and given every single interaction that we have with other people our best shot. For example, a lot of people here like to say, "I've read the Bible and I know everything." I realized that it is totally acceptable to say, "No you don't. Did you know that God has a living prophet on the earth today? Did you know that you don't have to settle on being the person that you are right now--that you can decide to change if you aren't happy? We have exactly what you need to get started." 

It's been cool and a lot more people have actually stuck around to talk to us because of it. 

We have also been experiencing more opposition than ever. I honestly have felt Satan's pressure on me every day in a way that I've never known I could, but I guess that's how I know that we're doing something right. 

We had a sort of miracle last night when we had a long block of time to be teaching outside. We had left and locked our apartment, and I watched Sister Dalley step into the elevator to go downstairs but I didn't get in with her. I just felt like we were forgetting something. So I told her to come back out and we went back into our apartment. When I saw a little notebook sitting by the door, I grabbed it on a whim and figured that it would have to be the thing that we were forgetting. So we took the notebook, which happened to be a less-active member's, and decided to drop it off. His name is Pavel and we have tried countless times since I got to Narva to meet regularly with him, and for the past two transfers he hasn't answered his phone or been home when we stopped by. So we stopped by his apartment and he said that we couldn't come in because he was sick, but I told him to let us in real quick just so we could give him his notebook. He let us in and he actually was sick (usually people lie to us about that, so we were pleasantly surprised, haha) and told us that we can come by on Saturday at 4.
Wooohooooo! Pavel is one of the coolest guys ever so I am really hoping that we can start meeting more regularly with him.

Another cool thing that happened last week was when Sister Dalley and I were walking around and teaching people. We passed this guy who looked a nice grandpa and we said hello in Russian, and he responded, "Hello" in English. We stopped in our tracks, turned around, and ended up talking to him for about twenty minutes. His name is Roman and he's from Italy but he's working here in Narva for two years. He doesn't speak a lick of Russian but his English was really great. He's an engineer, so he's smart. Anyway, he was super nice and we ended up walking him to our church and agreeing that we would meet again. He's not the most interested in the gospel (he mostly goes to church because it's nostalgic for him) but boy was it refreshing to have a conversation where I could say exactly what I meant. That doesn't happen too often for me with Russian. 

Anyways, things are going really well. I'm slightly heart-broken about the fact that I missed the Ashton dog races and all, but I'm glad that you all had fun. Figures that Cal would be a crazy driver on the snowmachine. 

I love you all! Especially Riv, Yvey, and Ashton. Give those lil' buttons a kiss and a hug for me.

Love,

Sister Gooch