Hailey in Russia: The Cops

HAPPY THANKSGIVING THIS WEEK TO ALL! I hope you all eat your fill in feasts... I will be celebrating with our branch! It won't be quite as tasty as american thanksgiving, but maybe it will because russian food is the tastiest!!! But nothing is as tasty as mom's dinners. You're welcome ma :)

WE GOT TRANSFER CALLS....

and I am so sad.

PSYCHE! i am the most stoked of all! Why? Because I will be staying with sister mckell in penza! This is our third cycle together and the most stressful too. our mission has a goal to get 140 baptisms in 2014 and we are only halfway done. We have six weeks to get 70 baptisms, which is 2 baptisms per companionship, 1 baptism per person. It is possible, and I know that the Lord is really testing our faith and trying our patience and really teaching us how to rely on him. I know that he does all miracles and that with him all things are possible. It's crunch time, but I know that it's going to be okay as long as I just have faith and rely on the Lord. That really is just the key to all things in life. Relax, WORK HARD, trust, be humble, and rely on the Lord. All things are possible in Him. I just love him! If you could keep my miission in your prayers so that we can reach this goal that was inspired by the Lord, I would be the most grateful!

So last night was one of the funniest/coolest night on the mission. We had an hour and a half to contact and knock before a meeting that we had with a member's friend. We were contacting, and we saw this apartment and felt that we should go and knock there. Russian apartments are silly, because there is a HUGE apartment building, right? And there are separate areas, or doors that are locked that you have to call on a doma phone to get people to open the door for you. So the first podezd (that's what each separate area is called) we knock. We knocked about 2 flights (which have three or four doors on each floor) when all the sudden this man came down the stairs. He stood at the top of the stairs with his weiner dog that was on a leash. He had a cigarette in his mouth and he just STARED at us and pointed us down the stairs. We thought he told us to walk in front of him, so we ussered him to go ahead because we were about to knock on some doors. He just stood there and YELLED AT US! Saying things like "YOU'RE BOTHERING ME, YOU CAN LEAVE NOW." I said... "We aren't bothering anybody, you can leave." And so then we just had a stare down for a good two minutes, then he stormed down the stairs yelling at us. We were going to keep knocking, but we didn't want to cause trouble so we just went outside to go to the next podezd. Guess who we see? THAT GUY WITH HIS DOG WAAAAITING to make sure we got out. Well, we did, and went to the other podezd and got into that one after calling a couple doma phones. We talked to a couple cool people but they weren't really interested. It was starting to get late and we had to get going soon for our apointment that we had, so we decided to knock two more doors on the first floor. We knock and this HUUUUUUUGE i'm talking HUGGGGGGGE RIPPED HUGE russian guy opens the door. But here's the trick: he's wearing nothing but his creepy whitey tidy's that are stained and not even white. He's the hairiest guy and asks very stern, " WHO ARE YOU?" We told him that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and that we are inviting him and his neighbors to hear about our message and to come to church. then he just flipped a switch and started YELLLLING AT US!!!!!! it was kinda freaky but funny too. He was like "GET OUT OF HERE. I'M GOING TO WAIT HERE UNTIL I HEAR THE DOOR CLOSE SO THAT I KNOW THAT YOU'RE BACK ON THE STREETS." So I yelled back at him as we were walking down the stairs "RELAX IT'S GOING TO BE OKAY!" and then sister Mckell yelled "PUT SOME DANG CLOTHES ON!" hahahaha so then we got the sickest idea. As he was still yelling at us down the stairs, we came up with this idea to open the door as quietly as we could, and then close it as quietly as we could so that he would think that we were still in the building. We did this ever so sneakily, and then got back onto the street and could still hear him yelling. THEN.... we hear the huge metal door swing open and he's just standing there naked, with his creepy robe on yelling at us never to come back. hahahahahahahahaaha we weren't even mad it was SO funny. THAT'S WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU YELL AT TWO NICE GALS...... YOU FREEZE IN THE COLD! We made him leave his house so it was pretty dang satisfying. He threatened to call the cops on us too, but we just shrugged it off and walked away. We had walked about 4 minutes away from this angry man's house when all of the sudden, guess who we see? THE SMOKEYS!!!! hahaha they were driving on the path we were on to this man's apartment. I bet they were sure surprised when they got there only to see we were gone. Moral of the story... the mormons girls have struck again. haha it was really funny.

Now time for the miracles. After all that hullaballoo we went to that lesson with "L's" friend. Her friend is actually an aquaitance because it's her son "I's" old lady neighbor. We went to the ladies house, and her name was "O". She is 80 years old, so sprite and adorable. We knock on the door, and our member help just went on and on about what we do here and how we are representatives of Jesus Christ. "O" was so mad and just went on and on about how she is proveslovni and that she does NOT talk about religion to anybody. We were pretty sure that she was just going to kick us out, but as we went on to talk about how pretty her apartment was, and asked her about her life, she let us come in. It was really interesting, because we asked her if we could pray and she said NO NO NO NO NO. I will not pray in your way because I want nothing to do with other religions, because I know my religion is right and true. Well, we continued to talk with her and just share personal experiences with her. She opened up to us about how she was baptized just 5 years ago, and how she felt so cleansed at her baptism and how she really feels that she is a daughter of God. We then, brought up the Book of Mormon. I was really nervous that we would get kicked out but what happened was really touching. We really saw the Spirit touch her heart, and she looked at the Book of Mormon, picked it up, then asked us questions about it. We gladly answered, explained why the Book of Mormon is important and testified. It was a really powerful moment to see the Spirit touch her heart. We invited her to read 2nd Nephi 31 and told her how it explains how Christ was baptized. We also talked to her about how our baptism is different because we receive the Holy Ghost as a gift from God, from somebody who has priesthood authority which can only be found in our church. She was so touched and it really was such a great moment when she said she would read the chapter we gave her. The Spirit definitely worked on her, and I know that she is definitely getting prepared. She also has four sisters who live in apartments next to hers. They are all sick, so she takes care of them. She has so much love and it was so clear to us how MUCH Heavenly Father loves her. I have no doubt that she will read the Book of Mormon and have the desire to follow Christ and be baptized.

Another quick story: we were on our way home from "O's" house, and we were walking to the bus stop, when we walked past this woman sitting on a bench in the cold. We were going to be late if we didn't just hurry and get straight to the bus stop, but as we walked passed this woman, I kept having the thought "you need to go back and talk to her." I thought... "but we're going to be late!" we walked more, and then the impression came again. I told Sister Mckell we need to go back to talk to her and so we quickly did so. This woman's name is "I", and she asked us for money. We told her we didn't have any, but told her that we have something for her that is worth more than money. What did we give her? The Book of Mormon. When we gave it to her, tears filled her eyes which were lit up. She kissed the book and then asked us who we were. We told her we are representatives of Jesus Christ and that we walked passed her but then had the feeling that we needed to talk to her. She cried as she told us about her family, and her situation. How her parents died not too long ago. We testified of how she WILL see them again, and that she will know how she can see them and learn what she needs to do in order to see them through the Book of Mormon. She promised she would call us and we invited her to church next Sunday. She said she will come. It just was such a testimony to me to always follow the promptings we recieve, even if we mistake them for our own thoughts. All good things come from God and I know that impression to talk to her came from the Spirit.

That's all for this week. I love you all so much, be full of THANKS THIS WEEK and I will too. You're all the best my preciouses! Don't get those cops called on you.

LOVE YOU I PRAY FOR YOU! MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH! I AM GRATEFUL FOR YOU ALL!