Hailey in Russia: Mashed potatoes & tea

HEY FAM AND FRIENDS AND BROTHERS AND SISTERS!

It was a really long week. I am just looking forward to next pday already. haha.

CAMI MY SISSY! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!! I hope that you have the most magical of days and that you eat some marzipan cake. SISSY I love you more than you know. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! PS when I come home, we should push each other down the stairs in storage tubebberware bins just like old times haha. LOVE YOU SEASTAR! Missyou.

MIRACLES. On Tuesday we FINALLY met with “TY” again! It was so awesome. She is the 29 year old who plans weddings as her job. She is just so great. We taught her the plan of salvation and at the end she said "This would truly be amazing if it was all true." We testified of the truth of it, and invited her to pray about it. She is making great progress. We got terrible news though... she has a boyfriend. Every missionaries worst nightmare hahaha ugggh am I right? We just pray that no funny business goes on and we will be sure to teach her about the law of chastity soon as well as the other laws and ordinances and commandments. She is just a light though. It's just been hard because she hasn't been able to meet with us for four weeks, and then after finally meeting, she just kind of forgot all the things we have spoken about and the great strong Spirit that was present on all of those meetings as well. We are praying for her though, and praying to cast Satan out of her presence so that she too can be baptized.

"IR" the 50 year old mom of the two young kids is still on date for baptism which is great. She will be getting baptized on Saturday! So we are trying our hardest to exercise our faith as well as helping her to really accept every part of the gospel. We taught her about tithing on Monday, and it was just really hard for her to accept. Our member help shared some incredible stories about being blessed from paying tithing, and when we asked her to pay tithing after baptism, she told us to get out of her house. Anyway, instead of being discouraged about that, we chose to keep our heads high and have faith in Christ and know that He could touch her heart. She even came to a baptism last Saturday for "EL" this way sick 36 year old woman. She's just a dang dream and her baptism was awesome too. But anyway, "IR" came but...she came late. So late that she missed the whole baptism, but she made it in time at the end. It is just hard for her to get around because she has a 7 year old and a 3 year old that are a little crazy. Just kidding I lied they're INSANE. Especially the little 3 year old named “LZ”. She's a little monster. Anyway, "IR" promised that we could go over to her house that evening. So we went, and she just expressed to us "I don't want to do anything..........................................except read the book of Mormon and go to church on sundays, and then read the book of Mormon all day, and then go to church on sundays. I don't even want to eat or sleep!" Isn't that so cool? We then read 2 Nephi 31 and asked her what God expects of her, and she answered "He wants me to be baptized." So awesome. The Spirit was so strong and we invited her to pray about her baptismal date, since she was feeling weary about tithing. We will be going over tithing again soon too.

Another miracle was Sunday having the new district created!!!! Basically a tiny stake. You probably know what I'm talking about. It is such an amazing miracle that the Lord has blessed upon the members here in Russia. There was a huge conference, and the speaker was the area president president porter. He is such an inspired man. He speaks Russian too just because when he was young, he was prompted to learn Russian and now look! Pretty dang cool huh? Anyway, it was awesome and the members from 5 branches were there and we had the conference at the renaissance hotel. "IR" came too! along with her 2 little girls..... The older one is under control, but the little tiny "LZ" terror was just a little crazy. She kept taking sister mckells chapstick and licking it and when I took it away from her because it was nasty (especially because the baby has a cold) then she just said "FIIIIIIIIIIINE I AM GOING TO WALK HOME THEN!" And her house is about 45 minutes away on foot. Anyway, we ended up babysitting her and trying to calm her down but she was just too crazy so we went back into the room to sit down, and the "IR" had to leave after her. It's just sad because "IR" is 50 and she has a 3 year old and no energy to just discipline her because she herself isn't the youngest mom in the world. It's just sad. But it's okay because all babies are crazy and it was just funny in the end. "IR" really liked the conference though, but then just stormed off right after because she was just really tired from her 3 year old. I was tired too, so I don't blame the lady haha.

"DM" is having a really hard time right now so if you could please keep him in your prayers I know that he would appreciate it as would I too. He's just the best friend!

Something cool. That member that I told you about once named "EM" whose legs don't work, we had a feeling to visit her on sunday so we called her to make sure that she was home, and she answered and told us "My family went to their dacha (like a cabin) for the weekend and I haven't eaten all day long." WHAAAAT?! So we went over to her house and made her dinner. She really loved it. We made her some really yummy mashed potatoes and corn. Her teeth are really brittle and really few and so she can't chew too much. And some tasty dang tea too. It was just so pleasant though. I really enjoyed it, and she was so grateful for our service. We were able to clean the kitchen too which was WAY too fun. I am seriously obsessed with cleaning ever since I've come on the mission. Anyway, for our spiritual thought, sister mckell and I sang several hymns to her and she just started to cry. It was really so cool. She is just such a dime and I love her so much. I am so grateful for the Spirit and that He really can inspire us as we listen to him so that we know which people we need to go to and when. I think that's one of the best parts of being a missionary. I just love it so dang much. I am just stoked that it won't stop after the mission because we will always have callings in the church which means that we will hold spiritual keys to be able to discern the needs of people. It's just such a gift and I am just so grateful that we will ALWAYS get to serve others!!

That is my invite to all of you this week. Listen to the Spirit more than you did last week, and really act on your promptings and just GO AND SEE those who the Lord inspires you to go and see. They really need your help just as "EM" needed ours. I promise your testimonies really will be strengthened if you do. So go and test it out and see if I'm wrong! But I know I'm right because I know that this church is right and it's true and that as we read in Mosiah, when we serve our fellowbeings, we serve God. I love Him, and He loves you. More than you know!

HAVE A HAPPY SNAPPY WEEK!