A 'Lil Email for the Blog

I found a second to write. I only have ten minutes so I am just going to share what i learned this week. 

Christ's atonement is real. Christ is our savior. He knows us deeper than we know ourselves. When trials come into our lives, I know that we can always turn to the savior for comfort. I know that after this life we will have the amazing opportunity to still have the opportunity to rely on christs atonement. I bare to you all my witness that God hears every one of our prayers. He knows you. He loves you. When times of hurt and sorrow come our way, turn to the Lord. When life is going well and everything is happy, turn to the Lord. I hope that we may all remember this week to hug tightly those that we love. To tell them our love for them. And at the end of the day, express our love to heavenly father. "pray he is there, speak he is listening."

I also hope that we all may remember to turn our weaknesses over to the Lord. just like ether 12:27. when we are humble and confess our weaknesses to god, he will make those weaknesses become strong unto us. I know this is true. 

I love you all! I am so grateful to call you my family, my friends, my loved ones. I love each of you so much and pray for your safety and well being every day. 

Again, I challenge you to pray, to pour out your heart to God, to thank him for all you have and i promise you that you will receieve blessings from doing so.

You are all so beautiful to me. 

Love you

love sissy hayster

Hailey's companion Cectpa Coleman had this to say about Hailey to her family back home:

I just realized that I haven't told you much about Sister Twede, so that's what I'll be doing today. She is so incredible and I guarantee that she would have your heart if you met her. 

Okay, so Sister Twede in a nutshell:

• Born and raised in good ol' Sandy Utah and has four siblings and a wonderful family.
• She is 5'8 and her teeth are perfect and she's just gorgeous.
• How are her teeth so perfect you might wonder? Because she flosses every night, more thoroughly than anyone I know. Her dentist at home told her that she has one of the healthiest mouths he has ever seen... she said that it was one of her proudest moments. 
• Favorite food? Costco hot dogs... hahaha, she told me to say that. While she does love a good hot dog, her favorite food is actually her Grandma Jane's clam chowder.
• She is obsessed with Russian candy, just like me.
• She has a plethora of allergies--cats, hazelnut, apples, dust... you name it and she is probably allergic to it. 
• Sister Twede-isms: "The cutes!!"... "I could squeeze 'em!"... "
• She is ridiculously artistic and FABULOUS. She can paint and draw and do anything cute and artsy. She is way too creative for her own good. 
• She is the most patient of patient. 
• She is the funniest. No joke. We have wayyy too much fun together (looking for clues...)
• She is willing to work... and work hard! 
• She has a beautiful voice. 
• Her favorite band is Radiohead and she is just way too hip for me.
• She is honest and encouraging.
• She is loyal and always ready to listen.
• She is a fantastic teacher and comes up with the best analogies.
• She is a humbbbble one. She is super willing to learn and be taught.
• She is a spiritual giant and she doesn't even know it.
• She is a big ball of love and everyoneee loves her and just thinks she is the best... because she is.

Overall, I just love Sister Twede. Her love for life is infectious. She is one of the best people I know, with just the warmest, most genuine heart. When I am around her, I am myself because she is herself. God was soo nice by letting us serve together, and the fact that we get to keep serving together makes me the happiest.

While in Samara for Zone Conference, Hailey went out tracting with Cectpa Hancock. Here is what she had to report about the two of them:

hi, this is sister hancock! I'm here in the russia samara mision with your daughters and they just wanted me to tell you that they have their P-day pushed back again until tomorrow because they're still in samara and will be on a train tonight. and they love you! that's what they wanted you to know.

And i'd like to just briefly take advantage of this chance to say that sisters twede and coleman are literally the coolest sisters in the whole mission and some of the most admirable young women i have ever met in my life. I cannot believe how incredibly talented sister twede can draw and walks up to people with no fear, using all the russian she knows. I was with her last night contacting, and people tended to think she knew russian way better than she does because she just walked up, confidently and perfectly saying what she knew how to say. They were all confused when they'd go off a million miles an hour and she didn't understand every word of their story. haha but the thing is, she already does have such good understanding for having been here such a short time. You truly have a bold daughter, who knows who she is and walks with the support of angels! It's an inspiration for the sister to be around her and so easy to be with her too.

yeah, let's talk about how artistically uninclined i remember i am around them because while sister twede can draw up anything, we have sister coleman,who should make her own album of church music! Sister coleman is so good at helping people really become better. Her future profession fit her well, because she can make you think you're the most beautiful person in the world when really i think it's just her own amazingness rubbing off on us all.She has such a love for people and that same boldness as she talks to people, just giving them everything she has to offer out of love. 

their companionship is on fire and i think everyone wants them to stay together til the end just because they're so funny and wonderful together. They uplift the sisters and everyone around them. A conversation never ends without a smile on the street as they courageously take me out to sing to people in parks and truly just let these people know why they here. it's incredible, like i said, and i think all of the russia samara mission has you- the colemans and twedes to thank. So thank you for amazing daughters, and know that they are well and warm here and will be writing you tomorrow.

with love, 

sister kasey hancock

Cats, cats, and more cats

Seriously you guys. I have seen more cats than i ever have this week and they are the cutest! and i can't touch them because SOMEBODY JUST HAS TO BE ALLERGIC TO THEM! lame.

Apologies in advance. this letter will be so short because i have to go buy new clothes because theres a THRIFT SHOP HERE AND I AM SO EXCITED!!! It'll be interesting... russian thrift shop.

Besides the cats... what a rough week. We got transfer calls and found out that sister coleman and i are parting ways. PSYCHE!!! good joke right? haha my humor has really hit the fan since I've been in russia. But WOOOO great news huh?!? we get to serve together another cycle and we are soooo stoked to just go go go go go go go hard hard hard and introduce people to christ!

Now it's time for story time. 

With the small family that we met. Things were really great at the beginning of the week! We taught the restoration to the 7 year old daughter (who will be 8 in a couple weeks) and then the next day, taught that same little girl and her mom the plan of salvation. At the end of the lesson the time was right and the spirit told us to invite them to be baptized! We did so and confirmed the date august 23rd and they said yes without hesitation. It was a miracle! Then we had our branch picnic on saturday. They were so excited to come! We met up with everyone at the bus stop, and were surprised to see that the small family we have been teaching brought 4 of their friends! We were more surprised to see them all drinking and smoking, but not really too surprised seeing as this is Russia and people don't know the word of wisdom. 

One of the members told them that they had to go drink and smoke elsewhere so that their little kids didn't have to be around it and they gladly did so. When we got to the picnic, everything was great. The members who befriended "L" the mom and her daughter "k" were all so warm and it was a great time. We missionaries gathered our things and left the picnic and "L" told us that she was having a great time! (even though she and her friends had to leave the members of the branch for short periods of time to drink and to smoke.) side note-i am SO grateful to live free of addictions. It's such a testimony to me that the word of wisdom REALLY is from God! He wants us all to be free from being slaves to addiction. Anway, we left the picnic and got a phonecall an hour later from "L". She told us that this man named "U", of the members from our branch who is handicapped started telling her and her husband and their friends and in front of their daughter TERRIBLE lies about our church. He told them that we are a sect, and that [explicit things] go on inside the temple. side note: (He has never been inside the temple.) 

INTERRUPTION: I'M SORRY but i started to cry when i heard the things he said. I never ever thought that I would be so emotional about the temple but oh i just love it sooooo much and you REALLY gain an appreciation of it's beauty and light when you don't get to go to it when you want to.

On the phone "L" said she didn't want to believe him because she sees our light and thinks that we are angels from God. We tried to tell her that everything he said was all a lie, and asked if we could go over later that evening with "U"'s brother "A" and have "A"explain how his brother is, and just testify about our gospel. She agreed to meet at 7 that night. We went to their home at 7, rang the doorbell, called and each time we called they number busied us (weird because she ALWAYS answers our phonecalls.)

 I poured my heart out to heavenly father and just pleaded him to have somebody answer the phone. "M", "L"'s husband answered, clearly drunk, and told us that "L" was asleep and to come back another time. We invited them to church again and he said they would be there. It was SO sad. SO incredibly heart breaking to think that satan would be pushing THIS hard on a family who needs the gospel. The next day was sunday and we went to church, waited, waited, waited, and "L" never came. We called her and she said that she felt sick so we told her to get better and that we would talk later. An hour or so later, "M", "L"'s husband called and told us that "L" was in the hospital and that he needed money to feed his daughters. We told him we can't do that and so he said "thanks for your time." then hung up the phone. 

"A"was the one who talked on the phone to "M" because we couldn't understand a drunk russian man. "A" told us that they have only been meeting with us to get money. It's interesting because sister coleman felt from the very beginning a weird suspicion that they needed or wanted money from us. But they never asked us when we would teach them lessons and we also know that they felt the spirit during our lessons so we didn't want to even think that they would only meet with us in hopes to get money.  Sister coleman and I felt so deceived. "L" went from calling us at least four times a day to not calling us at all. 

We bawlllllled our little eyes out at church because we are just really confused and feel really deceived and just frustrated because we don't know what their intentions are and we just want them SO badly to have a better life, to just come unto Jesus Christ who makes all things better. I now know what people say when they say missions are hard: because all the emotional spiritual heartache that we go through is SOOOO taxing but so beautiful and so worth it too. You really come to know the savior on such a personal level and it's so beautiful. I promise you all that he has felt all that you feel, felt and ever will feel. RELY ON HIM!!!

Anyway, we received blessings from our elders and felt better and were given counsel and comfort from our heavenly father. We have a lot of praying to do to understand what Heavenly Father needs us to do. In a really round about LONG  way of answering the first question you ask us missionaries, we are casting out doubts and fears about this family and focusing on What the Lord would have us do. It requires a lot of faith because it would just be so easy to drop them, assuming that they just need money from us. We will still meet with them soon hopefully and establish what it is they really are looking for. 

my people.. NEVER ever give up. I promise you that as you counsel with the lord he WILL help you! It's hard to understand at first because answers don't come immediately. We still don't have an answer as to what course of action to take with "L", but we know that as we are patience and have faith, we will receive answers.

ANWAY, Sister Coleman and I are SO happy to be together for another cycle! Heavenly Father really has blessed us. We are best friends doing the best work in the best mission. We are so pumped to work our hardest and to consecrate all our thoughts, actions, and time to the Lord this next cycle. IT'S GON BE GOOOOOOOOOOD!

Funny story. sister training leaders came to work with us last week. I worked with sister erickson she's a gem! and also guess who slipped in the shower? THIS GAL and sister coleman AND the sister training leaders heard it HAHAHAHA SO FUNNY also bad news is that they turned off our hot water. Cold head showers and a pot of boiling water to make the medicine go down.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! I am so grateful for all your prayers and love you send my way. keep em comin, i sure appreciate em. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! never believe otherwise. I pray for you all often and just imagine me hugging you right now!

OKAY BYE! ttyl next weeeeeeek. 

HAHA FUNNIEST OLDEST CAT NAMED MARSHA

 yes that's a real cat 

 and a funny cat too i tell you russia has so many cats

 almost twede?

 our district for the last time!

 sunny sunshine

 little boy in our branch got baptised!!

our investigator "L" pray for her please!

Now for THE MIRACLES!

Hello all my people!! 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE BEST PARENTS IN THIS GALAXY! 36 years goin strong. Thank you my sibs for spoiling them as they deserve! I will pay you back with russian dolls in.... several months haha. Also congrats to my marebare on getting engaged! I love you and nate. In the words of classy people, "handsome couple right there."

Guess what? Maria and Brenton get married in 12 days! so stoked for you guys. RIA SEND ME PHOTO OF YOUR DRESS OR ELSE! And hayley and braden get married on august ninth dang. My babies are all just growing up! leaving the nest.

RUBY AND JON! you are going to italy!?!? when!? are you going to pick up hayley there or something? So stoked you guys are living the dream!!!

already so where to begin.... OKAY In two weeks we go to tolyatti which is where they build cars!!! we are going there for zone conference. I am excited to see a different city than penza. I love penza though soooo much! it's such a wonderland magic.

 This last week was a tough one. I have a lot of anxiety with learning Russian and with believing that I am a good missionary. But i think that is normal! I just hope that I am trying hard enough! I feel that I am but there is always room for improvement. We had the RADDEST things happen last week though! 

Now for THE MIRACLES! I REALLY don't know why, but both sister Coleman and I felt really off this past week. I don't really know exactly why. We both just felt emotionally, spiritually, and physically drained. Regardless of these feelings, we got to work. We contacted SO hard! It really was such a cool thing to see how contacting as hard as we could resulted in getting 10+ people's numbers who really are interested in our message! SO amazing. One night that we received blessings and witnessed miracles was one of the roughest days i have had on the mission. i think it was the first rough day actually, because i just love it here too much. anway, Following dinner, we went and contacted a richer part of the city in our area. We had a goal to sing to three people and to give out two books of mormon. We accomplished these goals and were satisfied. As the night was coming to a close, we found ourselves walking back to our apartment. We were contacting along this road, and this man and his wife come walking along the path. We said hello and told them who we were, and the woman was SO curious and interested. She told us all about how she went to a church years ago and how they read things during the service (didn't sound like our church) and we exchanged numbers with her and both she and her husband agreed to meet with us. NOT only this but she said, "my friend would LOVE to meet with you!" So we went and met her friend who was a small 48 year old man who just had a soul looking for light. THEN she told us about ANOTHER friend who has a sick baby who would love to talk to us. This lady is already a missionary and she doesn't even know it! They agreed to meet us the next night (friday.) Saturday evening came around. We met "L" (that's the womans name) and her husband M, where we had met them the night before. They brought with them their little 2 year old baby who is just the cutest thing ever.

 They had SO many questions about our church. They asked us about infant baptism and we told them that babies aren't held accountable because they cannot sin. She seemed very relieved to hear this. Sister coleman and I felt impressed to give them books of mormon and we did so. We testified and they promised they would read. We ended that meeting with singing them a hymn. As we both began to sing, the setting sun hit our faces, and the spirit just FILLED our souls and theirs as well. They told us that they would come to church. Before bed that night, "L" texted us and told us that she read the introduction to the Book of mormon and LOVED it! We were excited to see them at church. Well, they didn't end up coming because she had to go to the dentist to get her teeth pulled out, but told us to go over to her house to talk about the gospel that night. We did EXACTLY that and she had so many questions. We taught the restoration. A member came with us and helped SO much. Her testimony is beautiful. I felt prompted to tell "L" that just like joseph smith was seeking truth, as she was (and she nodded and said YES i am looking for the truth) she could find the truth from reading the book of mormon and from praying to know it is true. It was just so powerful and she AND her husband agreed to meet with us again! We KNOW they will be baptized, and we are doing everything in our power to be worthy of heavenly fathers trust with this precious family. Please pray for them! They need every prayer. They have the richest hearts.

I know that as we do ALL that we can as missionaries and as people in general to have faith in christ and know that miracles can and will happen, they will! This family is the family we prayed for and i know god hears our prayers! this letter is short because i am low on time but know i love you all and pray for you all always!

love hayster

Baby kitty!!!

Reading to some cool graffity dude

He has my mole! the AUDACITY!

Everyone gets around in marshrootkas here.

They are little vans and are usually FILLED with people. And so sweaty.

This was after a new member lesson with our FAVORITE member help named "J". He served in St. Petersburg 

CUTEEST PUP! he walked in circles because he has mental problems haha

HAHA THIS GUY BOUGHT US DOLLS SO AWKWARD!

His mom and gma we met and they are hilarious but we ended up giving them books of mormon and they agreed to read and meet with us again!

this doesn't look like me at ALL haha weird day.

Pretty flowers huh?

TASTIEST CABBAGE RICE MEAT SOUP!!!

Sissy and Me!

A Week of Meals!

Hey all my people. 

I still LOOOOVE russia and I am just loving penza more and more everyday. Russian people are hilarious, especially when they squat. If you don't know what I'm referring to, google it right now. EVERYONE does it! Guess who'se back broke out? MINE. Booooo.Like... my back looks like a painting.... OF ZITS! hahahaha it's true. All this humidity+more humidity= the recipe of zits. Also something hilarious that happened this week. We were teaching our investigator "N". She is friends with one of our members named "S". Anyway that is how we met her. During our lesson with her the other night, "S" said to me "Your face has filled out nicely!" SCUUUUUSE ME!?!??!?! haha i was like "OH NO YOU DIDN'T!" but then he went on to tell me how i look healthy. Super funny. That missionary life though! back zits and chubby face. gotta love it. Not my fault the food is UNREAL here! I can't resist it. 

SUPER COOL because "N" is getting baptized on august 2nd! We have a lot of work to do with her before she can be baptized though. We gave her the Book of mormon before she left for a vacation tha twas SUPER LONG and...she hasn't been reading it. She told us that she doesn't feel ready for baptism and i grabbed her hand and i looked her in her tear filled eyes, and i started to cry when I told her "N", I KNOW you are ready. You know that this is the step that you need to take in order to follow christ and heavenly father." it was so spiritual and amazing and it was so amazing to see the spirit work through me. I really was an instrument for the things which god needed her to hear. Anyway, OORAH! (thats what russians say when they are excited.) it's gonna be a beautiful baptism! 

Russian. Have. NO. SHAME!!!! For example: today i saw this couple at the bus stop popping each others zits in public. hahaha and then i ALWAYS see people getting their makeout on. It's so funny. 

This week was.... the week of meals. Yesterday our Branch president had us over for dinner. It was super awesome because apparently he never has people over and it was so fun to just be there and build a relationship with him and his wife. His cute wife made us an american (russian) meal! We had hotdogs (sooo good) and then we had bleen! which are these yummy thin pancakes. I can't wait fr you to try them! Then we had chili and icecream and oh my heck i'm still full. I have never eaten so much in my life! You'll love them when you meet them one day. Some of the nicest people I have EVER met. They told me that they're my russian parents and I believe it! They're so cute and hilarious.They're about 5 feet tall and they look like koalas. their kids live in Utah so I KNOW that I will see them again there someday. They want to move to utah in a few years so hopefully that happens! 

Today I fell in LOVE with the book of mormon!. This is now my second time reading it all the way through. I started re-reading it when I got to Penza.Today I was reading Lehi's prophecies and his last words to his family before he bit the dust. (2nd nephi chapters 3 and 4) I still can't believe that WE have his words written in the Book of Mormon! It's such a miracle to me. Anyway, prior to reading today, I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to guide me; to fill me with knowledge of things that I need to know at this very moment in time. Then i started to read about how there is opposition in all things (super evident in missionary work.. peoples agency). I read of the evidence of God's existance. If you have a hard time believing that God exhists, READ THOSE CHAPTERS. I PROMISE you that you will gain a testimony that he lives and if you don't then you rely on my testimony. I KNOW HE LIVES. Anyway, Lehi's testimony really struck me. From his prophecies/testimony I was able to come to the understanding that we absolutely have NO need to doubt or fear. My soul caught on fire as I read Lehi's prophecies, and as I went on to read about Jospeh of Egypt. It is really hard to explain this experience over email so I will have to tell you in real life when I get home! All I can say is that from reading those chapters, my soul literally caught on fire and I am SO pumped to go and testify and work hard this week- with all doubts and fears out the window. All of God's children NEED the Book Of Mormon and I am so happy that I finally have an appreciation for the truth that is within its pages. I challenge you all to read chapters 3 and 4 of 2nd nephi tonight. I KNOW that you will feel the spirit because those writings are ancient and written specifically for us. Please don't take the scriptures for granted. They are especially for us! 

Another story. One of our potentials named "KC" had us over for lunch last week. IT WAS THE MOST DELICIOUS FOOD I HAVE EVER EATEN IN MY LIFEEEEEEE. Not kidding. I wanted to just pause time and eat it forever. My letter last week I told you about a woman and her drunk daughter and how they fed us soup and we gave them the BOM? Well "KC" is the drunk daughter and she had us over at HER house for lunch. She's such a character. She is a designer and travels the world and she's so rich and her apartment is sooo luxurious! I was in heaven.  Anyway, we sang for her and she felt the spirit but she thinks it's weird that we have a prophet on the earth today so.. we will have to keep meeting with her and explain that having a prophet is NOT weird, it's a blessing! 

Anyway I have to go. I feel bad this letter is all over the place. I will just leave you with this thought: the churhc is true. The book of mormon is filled with light! I know that Heavenly Father hears our prayers and wants each of us SOOOO badly to come unto him. I know that when we do we receive blessings! I love you all. I am soooo happy to be here. You're all so great and I'm so happy that you all still write me. I love you my family!!! i love you my pals. 

I love you all. 

xoxo cectpa TWEDE

 "KC" cooking for us

 the best food i have ever tasted

 us with "KC" she's the COOOOLEST!n look at her divine apartment!! she's an artist too. She painted all those paintings behind us.

 Selfies with "KC"

 lunch at a babushkas home

 scary picture hahaha

 Tracting

 rap zone on the 4th of july

 love my sissy

 pretty sky

 ice cream! to answer you dad all they have is vanilla and chocolate and you would LOVEEEEE THE CHOCOLATE!!!

 THAT LOGO THOUGH!! THE CUTES! when I went to the dentist. Russian dentists have the nicest equipment but it still freaks me out. My tooth is healthy and well though but I need to go back for another look because my other tooh hurts now. eeeek

 creepin

 crazy man on the roof

 cool old school USSR truck

 cool music hall by our house

this is how we are