Hailey in Russia: "D" confesses his love

This week was so dang silly.

FIRST OF ALL WELCOME HOME AG!!! AHHHH WE LOVE YOU and I can't wait to see you again! COUSIN LOVE! You're the cutes and I just can't wait to be reunited with you. Helly and Agg never to be separated again... in 11 months. Anyway, welcome home cousin!

The cooooooolest miracle happened just yesterday. We have been meeting with a less active the whole time that I've been on my mission. His name is "A", he is about 75 years old, has been to the temple, and has a really protiv wife. Every time we meet with him, we intite him to come to church. He always says that he'll try, but he never has showed up. We had a meeting with him last week, Sister Mckell and I both felt inspired to watch the film Finding Faith In Christ. We brought it to him, had our member "L" who is planning to serve a mission, and we all watched it. The spirit was really strong at the end scenes when it goes through the Savior's life and shows some of the miracles that he did. At the end of the film, the Spirit was really strong and we all shared our testimonies of Christ, and then invited him to feel that same Spirit at church this sunday. He said "I'll try." Just like usual. We left with a prayer in our heart that he would be able to come to church. Well...... HE CAME!! Yesterday it was the best surprise! He even came an hour early too. I sat with him in sacrament meeting, and it was so cool to see him taking notes from all the testimonies that he heard. It was a really spiritual day at church, the Spirit was really strong in our branch building, and everybody felt love. I know that in future weeks he will continue to come to church becuase it really is a revelatory experience, and I know that he felt the Spirit.

Halloween was great! as you know I spent mine on a train coming back from Samara to Penza... but guess what? We had a halloween party a week late! And guess what else...... the elders were in charge of it and then guess what.. they didn't plan ANYTHING and our district leader calls me and sister mckell and says "Hey.... just so you know you're in charge of throwing the halloween party. You can plan it because you're sisters and you have better ideas." oh... and guess how many days we had to plan it? Thursday, and Friday… and Friday was the day of the party. Oh my heck it was so stressful and it was kind of a flop, but that's just life! I made a sweet creeeeepy pinata out of a book of mormon box, and then taped toilet paper all over it so that it looked like it was a mummy, and then made a ghost out of news paper and covered it with a white shirt and put eyes and a mouth on it. That was definitely the hit of the party, and all the silly little kids were all silly and greedy and gathered all the candy before we could get any. I was pretty peeved about it... but that's just because I love sweets MORE than little kids (haha:) we bobbed for apples played limbo and some other games. Pretty fun.

THE FUNNIEST THING OF MY LIFE HAPPENED YESTERDAY. So you remember my email when I told you about that guy that told me I was "easy?" (skinny) and tried to lift me up? Well, his name is "D", and we were at church yesterday and we were in branch council after church ended when all of the sudden we get this phone call from a number not saved in our phone. We answer, and it's "D". And he says "I'm in Penza, I took a train here and I'm outside of your branch building.. where are you?" It was sooo weird because it was his first time in Penza and we know that he called the zone leaders (he's been meeting with the elders) and came to see sister Mckell. Long story short, it was so weird because he just came for the day and so we ended up having a lesson with him and two of the elders in penza. It was a really good lesson and we just threw it down. It was way fun, and super cool to have four testimonies just going on at once. Anyway, it was just weird and he wanted to "hang out" with us but obviously we can't do that and we had a meeting later in the evening with a member. Well, what happened next you ask? He calls us because he was just hanging out at the train station because he train didn't leave until 6 in the morning, and it was about 8pm. We told him that we would just go say bye to him before he left, so next thing you know we're at the bus station. Okay so he only speaks in english to us, but he doesn't know it that great so it takes him a long time to talk because he's forming sentences (I know the feeling!) And he said "I have to tell you something." to sister Mckell. Then he was like "it's a romance story." He then went on to say how he only went to english club because Sister Mckell was there (he calls her by her first name Kaleena) Well.... then he just went on and on about how his soul longs for her. He's also a musician and told her that he's written so many songs about her, and how is never going to love anybody as much as he loves her. He was like "I just want to kiss you Kaleena and you're the only one i want to kiss." I couldn't help but laugh. I was trying to hide my grin, but It wasn't very good because it just kept creeping out of my face. He was like "why you laugh?" haha I couldn't control it. It was really sweet though, and he really was being really really sincere but it was just so sad because he's just fresh outta luck. She was like "I'm a missionary right now." and he was like yeah but affffter your mission. and she was like... no. It was really sad and we said goodbye and just testified to him that he WILL find happiness as he reads the Book of Mormon and continues to meet with the missionaries and gets baptized and that no matter where he is or who he ends up with in life, he will be happy because he will have the gospel. Well, good thing he didn't pull a quick one on her. He was really respectful and just shook hands with us then walked back to the train station.

We went home and started planning for the next day, and during the middle of planning he calls us and says "When I left, I was so mad. I am just so mad but I am so happy because I got to see you Kaleena and then I just said.... Screw it. We ARE going to be together one day." HAHAHAH really it was just like that and all she said was "Yeah, we'll see about that." And it was just really sad because there really was no other way to handle it. It was seriously so dang funny. Bless his heart. What a great memory though.

This morning I finished up reading from the Book of Mark. I really love it so much, and you really just learn Christ's true character from that book. I read this verse which I love. It's the last verse of Mark, in the last chapter 16. It's Christ saying his last words to his disciples before he goes back to the Father. What he said really struck me. " And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen." I loved this because it was a nice reminder to me that the Lord is always WITH us, not only that but he is working WITH us, and I really felt that He was there with me when I read that verse. It was almost as if I could feel His presence as I read it. It was just a good reminder to me, to continue to get to know the Savior and to always remember that He IS with me, and is working with me every day. So yeah never forget that He works WITH us! I loved that.

So... if you're having a hard time thinking of what to teach some less actives or some new members for home teaching or whatever... I have the perfect lesson! It's been so fun and I have been doing it a lot lately. So it's called "The recipe of Happiness!" and it comes from 2 Nephi chapter 5. So just like in a recipe, there are different ingredients. Then you go and find the ingredients in this chapter and these are the ingredients

v1) prayer

v5) flee from evil

v6) family

v10) keep the commandments

v12) scriptures

v16) temple

v17) work

v26) priesthood

and then verse 27 "and it came to pass that they lived after the manner of happiness"

It's been SOOOOO fun to do this with the less actives and new members. Because we always bring ingredients to make pancakes, and we teach the lesson after we make the pancakes. It's a really virtual fun activity and I hope that you get to use it sometime! The people go crazy for it, and the pancakes are the best part! (fat girl over here.hahaha

That's all folks! love you all, i pray for you.

Love sissy T