It seems like time is just flying by. The other night it started thundering and raining harder than I even knew it was possible. We were walking home from the church and Sister Clark and I looked at each other and were like, "Eh, let's embrace this." We folded up our umbrellas and skipped home through the torrential storm. It was one of the funniest memories on my mission so far because Sister Kuznetsova was trying to keep up behind us while screaming, "You're acting so American right now!" It literally felt like I was swimming through the air, the rain was so thick. I'm glad we took advantage of it. The picture attached is what the street looked like afterwards. I took a video but you'll have to wait a few more months to see that.
We had exchanges here in Daugavpils with Sister Ixtlahuac and Sister Scheiss from Riga. I went with Sister Ixt for the day and man, I just want to be friends with her for the rest of my life. She is an all-star and one of the most poised people I've met. What I really like about exchanges with her is that she is not only a good listener, but she asks the right questions to help me realize what I can work on without her even suggesting it. It's magic. I've been blessed to have the best sister training leaders that this mission (world) has to offer.
It's also been cool to see how much she's grown since her first transfer. She's a lot better at spotting drunk people :)
Sister Scheiss is from Las Vegas and came to the Baltics at the same time as Sister Ixtlahuac. She's the happiest person I've met. I know I've always said that babushki are the sunshine of the Baltics, but Sister Scheiss gives them a run for their money. She also went to BYU before the mission and when I told her where I was from, she started naming off the people she knows from Eagle. We both screamed and fan girled over Jacob Alderman and how much we both love him. (Where is that kid nowadays, anyway? If your last name ends with Alderman and you're reading this, then UPDATE ME ON YOUR LIFE!!!) So that was a fun bonding experience.
Something awesome about this week was going to the orphanage just outside of Dpils to do a Pinewood Derby. It was madness, as you can imagine. So much fun and really hilarious because the kids were essentially impossible to control enough to actually do races. They didn't get to carve their cars but they just drew on blocks of wood with markers and then we put wheels on them. They all called us their aunts and uncles. So cute.
We focused a lot on getting in contact with less-actives this week, too. Huge miracle was that on Sunday, there were four of them at church! And most importantly, that one of them was Zhana, a less-active member that I've been trying to meet with ever since March. She is super nice but I didn't know much about her so I haven't know what we can do to help her. When she came to church on Sunday, she agreed to meet regularly to get ready to receive her patriarchal blessing and go to the temple and all that good stuff! It was so nice to finally get to know her and what she needs.
Sitting in church on Sunday, I just got this overwhelming feeling of how love for everything that surrounds me right now. I so often forget that I'm not going to be here for very much longer and it kind of hit me how lovely these people are and how lucky I am to know them.
We taught Inna a few times this week and when Sister Ixt was here, we taught her about tithing. That was a really difficult lesson. I've never felt the Spirit so strongly and consistently on a lesson before because tithing is something that both Sister Ixtlahuac and I have really powerful experiences with. Unfortunately, Inna's heart wasn't ready to accept it. She viewed it like it's a gym membership or something, where you only get the blessings if you pay for them. That's obviously not what it is.
I've reflected on the lessons that I've learned from while I've served here for the past five months, and especially what I've learned from the process of teaching Inna. From the beginning, she's told me that the Atonement sounds so abstract and she can't understand how something that somebody did thousands of years ago could have any impact on her life today. Then after talking about this subject a little more with Elder Hampton, I've gained the most valuable insight about the Atonement. I've always imagined it as the power that we can access after we've decided to repent and felt true sorrow. Like the Atonement is the last stop in the whole process. After reading D&C 88 (especially verses 6-13 and 40-50) it was like my mind was opened up and I realized that the power of Jesus Christ's Atonement is everywhere. It's in the works long before we even realize that we need to start the process of changing because its power influences every single aspect of life. I can't explain it in the way that I understand it, but I really want you to read those verses and ponder why the power of the Atonement isn't abstract. I'd loooove to hear your insights. Hopefully I can write my thoughts down and share them with you more concretely next week. But I know that the more we use the Atonement in our lives, the more we realize that it's in the details of everything that surrounds us.
I love you all so much. Have fun hanging out with my best friends and OH MY GOSH MATTIE DON'T FORGET TO WRITE ME.
Have a good week!
С любовью,
Сестра Гуч
p.s. I think one of the pics is of me holding a cup saying "I left my <3 in Narva". I forgot to tell you that S. Dalley made me one and sent it to me when she was still in Narva! Priceless. I adore it.
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