Hailey in Russia: 21 in Russia

Thanks for all the bday wishes. It was a treat to read emails from all my best family and best friends and to just feel your LOVE!!! Can I tell you about my birthday? Okay! Alright... soooooooooo..... fate just happened so that we had weekly planning on my birthday..... whoooooop. It was WAYYYY exciting! haha but really it was.

So, I woke up, opened the bday package from mom and dad which was the best. I ate all four packages of reeses so.... i guess you can say i have no shame. I ate at McDonalds for lunch....(no shame again).. and it was soooo tasty! I then ate at the tastiest pizza place called "Yes, Pizza for Dinner". I tell you what, russian pizza is soooo spicy and so tasty. Every pepperoni pizza comes with mushrooms on top. so yummy! Our investigator "A" has the same birthday, so we ate with her. she gave me a gift! it is a jewelery box with a way sweet russian snow painting on it. I'll attach a photo... but don't look too closely because there is pizza in my mouth. haha anyway, it was great. Then We had a meeting with a less active and his name is "V" and.... he bought me two cakes. I would normally be stoked about that but.... russian cakes are really really sickly sweet and i was so full from dinner that I almost passed out. Some of my best friends from the branch were there.. which consists of "AP" and his wife "T" and their baby "M" and then crazy "AG". and of course "V" and sissy M. they all sang happy birthday to me which was funny because when russians say happy birthday in english, it sounds something like "heppy bwessdei" it was great. Then.... on the 17th of october (friday) it's technically my birthday in america so sister mckell and I went to Cinnabon for dinner.... and it was soooo tasty. #fatgirllife

Something pretty funny happened on friday night. We received a text from "L" after not talking with her for a week, which said "the j-dubs witnesses are coming to our house tonight." I think she did it to get under our skin, and it worked. Haha silly, but true. We wanted to respond in a number of ways 1) "We hope THEY can buy you the wireless keyboard that you told us to buy you." or 2)"You know, the jehovah's witnesses don't have the priesthood." but intstead, we went with number 3 because we wanted to be christlike "We hope that you find the happiness you are looking for, but we just want you to know that we love you, and that we are always here for you." THAT was a tought thing to do, but I can tell you that it feels good have done the christ-like thing, and I know that he was proud of us for putting off the natural man, or the natural brat in this case. I know it's all part of god's plan though, so I feel at peace knowing that all things happen according to his timing.

Okay, so HERES a crazy story. We go to baba "K"'s house once a week to read with her, and to help her clean. We had time to spend contacting before going to her house last tuesday. Lately I really haven't had any desire to contact, I don't know why. But, despite this fact, we scheduled specific time to contact prior to going to this babushka's home. We had just given a Book of Mormon to a really kind lady who worked at a bank. We saw this older woman in a red coat, who we felt we needed to talk to. We got to know her, and she really opened up to us. She showed us her family photos which she had with her, and told us all about her life. Her name is "N", she is from Maldova and was on her way to a court case which she had to settle with her sister who "wanted to hurt her." We testified to her about how she can find comfort and peace from the book of mormon and she was SO happy that we had given it to her. She promised to read it. Well, she asked us where we were going, and told her the street where we were headed, and she said "Let's go!" She started walking with us and it was a miracle what happened next...

We started walking with her, and talking with her to the street that we needed. She was SO funny and such a light and had us all laughing. Well, other women saw this, and would stop in their tracks and ask us why we were all so happy! We told them that we have a message about happiness and gave them all brochures since we were out of books of mormon at the time. Well, there was a specific time were THREE women stopped in their tracks to talk to us. Cute "N" told them that she was our translator and that we were representatives of Jesus Christ. So dang funny. It was such a miracle and I know that all these women saw the light that we have which is the light of christ. The blood of israel is really curious and they're definitely here in Penza. One of the women that stopped us was like "come to my mom's work she works at a museum!" We told her we didn't have time, but she said she just wanted us to meet her mom. So we go ... and it was a drama theater a really small one. It used to be the house of this REALLY famous play writer/actor in russia. It was way cool because they gave us a quick tour for free! we know that it helped "N" a ton because she was on her way to court but she ended up hanging out and contacting people with us for an hour and she really had so much fun and just laughed all along the way. Apparently she was into drama when she was young which makes sense because she is LITERALLY one of the kookiest people I have ever met in my whole life.

Things are going reeeeeally slow with "A", so slow in fact that every lesson we have we invite her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon, but she just isn't keeping her comitments. I don't really understand what to do because her dad is islam, and her mom is prvoslovni. She really wants to read the book of mormon but tells us every time we call her after work that she's too tired to read. We explain even just five minutes, and she says that she will, but she still hasn't. So we will pray and hope that she will keep her commitment, and if not we will read with her. She believes that every religion is true because "whatever people believe in must be true." She believes the Book of Mormon is true even though she hasn't read it so we will pray that the spirit can help her recognize the truth and help her receive a desire to find out all of these things are true for herself.

-THAT'S ALL FOLKS! I love you all and I miss you all. Thanks for caring about me and sending me your love! I miss you all and love you more than you will ever know. You're the best around. And don't you forget to read your scriptures and say your prayers because you'll receive so much help and strength! alright, LOVE YOU ALL BYE!