Hailey in Russia: Тольятти

Oh my oh my what the heck is Tolyatti?! This place is crazy. It's like a mix of Penza my hometown, and the place I don't care to go back to: Balakova (Love the people there just not the city.) It's great though and this week has been a wild one.

On monday evening we had a family night at the Dunns with "EL" my precious. She was just recently baptized in June and is super super solid. She and I agreed that we must have been really really close friends before this life because she and I just have a special bond. I love her! It hurt really bad to say goodbye to her I'm telling you... it's a huge heartbreak every time saying goodbye to the people you just fall in love with. But it's okay, because she told me that she'll come visit the Tolyatti branch sometime. Anyway, It's okay though because I get to have my last sunday at the Aurora branch which is my last branch where I served, and I'm STOKED about it. I already miss my Aurora family so much.

Tuesday early early morning I had a visa trip. And guess what.......... I was the only sister. And it was awful. Elders Peterson, Stauffer, Porter and Northrup were there and they're the dang pals, but it still just wasn't fun having elders as your companions all day. haha it was a blast though. We flew to Riga Latvia again. Guess what we did there? WE ATE TGIFRIDAYS! It was so expensive and so tasty and I did it just because I know that you, dad, would encourage me to do so. It was interesting though, because something about elders: they ask you to tell a story, and then they get distracted and then don't let you finish your story because they honestly don't care to hear the end. Except Elder Northrup, he's the pal and he always listens to my stories so it's all good. We also got frozen yogurt (obviously) and I just was so happy because I know that I get it again in 2 months with the DUNNS! hehehehe yes. On the flight from Moscow to Latvia, guess who happened to be on the flight? HAYDEN! haha jk I wish though. I would've gone and just squeeeeezed him! But apparently there is this REALLY famous stand up comedian in Russia named Jhenya. And he sat right next to me on the plane. He is 69 years old and looks like he's about..... 55. Not bad. But EVERYONE was bringing their plane ticket stubs up to him to have him sign them. I was like... "Well... do you want a white, long dressed mormon girl's autograph too?" haha they wouldn't have that. Anyway, I got talking with this guy. He's a nice guy. Talked about his family, and about his vacation home which is in Latvia. This man had two iphones, and an ipad which was pretty funny if you ask me. I made fun of him for it hahaha I said "Oh you think you're rich or something? 2 iphone 6's huh?" and then he looked at me real funny and then this man sitting in front of us was like "HE HAS A LOT OF WORK TO DO OF COURSE HE HAS TWO PHONES!" wooooooah sorry dude, I was just messing. haha But Jhenya wasn't offended, he just laughed..... because he really is rich. But he doesn't really flaunt it so that's good. At the end of the flight, I gave him a paper with my testimony written on it, and then a pass along card. Hopefully he won't forget about that experience beacuse I know that I sure won't. Funny story: He showed me an outfit he wore for one of his skits..... he was dressed up like a cholo mexican and it was SOOOO funny. He really did look mexican it was funny. Funny guy.

Met this other woman named "GL". She was the dang best babyshka I ever did meet. She was soooo chatty. We had a nice chat about Stephen Hawking and about how he was foolish to divorce his first wife. hahaha I honestly don't know much about the guy, but she had some beef on him. This lady was just the dang friend! It turns out that she is from a city outside of Samara quite a ways, and it's called Ufah. like Utah, but Ufah. Anyway, apparently there used to be missionaries there, because she said that she used to go to their english group, and that they were Mormons. So that was awesome. I asked her if she had the book of mormon, and she said NO! So you best believe I was able to give that to her. It was really awesome, and she committed to reading it. Then she said "OH YOU'RE JUST THE BEST! LET'S SKYPE!" So then we exchanged skypes and I promised her that in october we will skype. She said she's waiting for me haha. We got numbers and all that jazz, and I even got to meet her granddaughters who spoke perfect english and her daughter who were all from Lithuania. They were just the prettiest fairies you ever did see. Anyway, I just LOVE moments like that, where there are all these weird connections. It just goes to show the world really is so dang small, and there are always reasons for everything. It was just a blast. She squeezed me real tight!

When we got into Moscow at passport control after flying out of Latvia, the most beautiful sight I ever saw happened. 300 Asians just flooded behind us! 300. LITERALLY. They came to Russia for an excursion and it was just so amazing to see all these chinese friends. They were all just so nice! I really realized in that moment, that we really don't speak the same languages at all in this world... but we all speak the language of love and kindness, and EVERYONE knows what a smile means. I got some really cute asian smiles that night. I can go ahead and check that right off my bucket list: Seeing a sea of asian friends at the Moscow airport. CHECK.

You're all probably wondering about my new companion.... well here's the story: Me and all my pals sister Mckell, sis Wilson, sis Wagstaff, and sis Palmer are all training this cycle. We got to have a huge sleepover on tuesday night which RULED. And then On wednesday morning we went to meet our trainees. It was really fun to walk into the room and guess which ones will become our companions. and guess what? I GUESS RIGHT!

Kilie Hullinger from Vancouver Washington. She's a dang hoot. Her personality is a lot like Amy Sorenson’s actually.... (shout out to my Amos. I miss and love you!)So obviously she and I get along just great. She's got firey red hair and blue eyes and she actually thinks my stupid jokes are funny so that's great. She's a lil rockstar too and she isn't afraid at all to talk to people and she just LOVES Russia as much as me so it's way great.

She and I both got into our area on Thursday during the day. Our apartment used to be the old branch presidents house, but he just moved to Moscow for work. So we have his apartment. It's pretty nice, but there's no AC. So we make do with the fan and the fridge (i really do sit in the fridge.) Anyway, Sister Hullinger and I were both a bit uneasy about the whole white washing an area (two new missionaries in one area) but anyway, we got to our apartment and guess whow as there? THE MEMBER “L”!!! I wrote home about her in May... but I'll retell it. Once upon a time in may, there was a conference for the branches in the zone of our mission and Tolyatti's branch came down for it. We had lunch at the Dunns house after, and then this member "L" grabs my arm, looks me in the eye, and said "see you in August sister twede!" OKAY WHAT THE HECK. Anyway she was standing in our new apartment to greet us when we got here. She said to me "I TOLD YOU YOU'D COME HERE IN AUGUST!!!" I asked her how she knew, and she told me that she really just guessed and hoped because she really wanted me to come to Tolyatti. It's just weird that she guess it.

Anyway, it was a huge blessing though, because she ended up showing us around our area a little bit and then she sneakliy said "Come over with me to my house so I can drop off my bags." So we went with her and... SURPRISE!!! A nice homemade dinner was waiting for us! AHH I wanted to cry honestly. She made us Ragu (so tasty) and then she fed us fresh bread, and tea, and fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from her Dacha (summer home) and then way yummy sweet rolls covered in sugar. It was just the best. SHE'S the best! Her daughter “OL” and her husband “VT” got married last year, and they were over for a little bit at dinner. I have met them in the past in samara, so it was good to see them again!

You think that's crazy? GET THIS: "L"'s husband came home right as we finished dinner, and then they said "alright sisters let's go to Lenta!" which basically sounds a lot like "C'mon sisters.... let's go to COSTCO!!!" Lenta is the Russian Costco and it's THEEEE best!!!!! So we went with them and they bought us bread and bananas and journals to write in and then gave us bags FULL of home grown tomatoes and cucumbers and apples and cherries from their Daha. AND THEN they walked us home with all our groceries that we bought. It was so amazing. I was so grateful that night because the Lord really knew how nervous I was and He worked through "L" and her family to comfort and serve us. It was the best, and it really strengthened my testimony of service just like we read in Mosiah "When you are in the service of your fellow beings, you are only in the service of your God." It's so true. Anyway, MAKE SURE that you keep an eye out for all those people the Lord sends your way to strengthen and uplift and serve you because I really do know that He works through His children.

We've been seeing a lot of sweet miracles lately. We went out one night and met this girl named “KT”. She's 19 and recently moved here to Tolyatti. She told us that she has been thinking about God recently for the first time in her life. She said that she has been feeling pretty alone lately since she's moved here and all of the sudden she has this really huge desire to know more about God through scripture. So we gave her the Book of Mormon and she promised to read! We also got her number so we are really hoping and praying that this week we will be able to work out a lesson with her.

What else what else..... On saturday night we set a goal to buy ice cream in the evening because... duh ice cream is the best friend! Anyway, while contacting, we see this girl walking as if she'd be late getting somewhere. I had this feeling to talk to her but she was just walking way too fast and was way too far ahead of us to catch up.So what did we do? We ran after her and just yelled "HEY GIRL!" Probably scared the crap outta her haha. But we had to be loud enough so that she could hear through the head phones she was wearing! Anyway, she stopped and talked with us. She was on her way to develop photos at the store, but the store was closed, so she ended up walking with us. We really got to know each other, and we even got ice cream at Mcdonalds which was the tastiest part of all. Reaching goals one at a time haha. Anyway, she was with us for about an hour and 15 minutes and it was way sweet. She LOVES reading and was really stoked to get the Book of Mormon. We are meeting with her tomorrow so that's just going to be the best time. SO STOKED!

I actually gotta jet now beacacuse the Matroyshka dolls await me. I am going to go and buy dolls today. It's going to be so great! Anyway, I love you all so much. The biggest thing I learned this past week, is to just trust God, and to not take other people's judgements and create our judgements based off of others. I have heard many things about all the companions that I serve with just prior to serving with them, and then I make false opinions of them and it's just lame! I do that with people on the streets too. I think "This woman is too rich and probably won't accept the Gospel." or "This family is too pretty and I don't want to disturb their evening together." But really I should make these judgements with Heavenly eyes. Does that make sense? Here's an example in the scriptures to paint in your minds what I'm talking about. In Mosiah 17:11-12 King Noah has Abinadi preaching to him and his priests as they are deciding how to deal with Abinadi. Should they kill him or let him go? So Abinadi has this moment where the Lord confounds the mouths of king noah and his servants and priests because the message that Abinadi was to deliver had not yet been given. It just so happened, that King Noah was convinced of Abinadi and his words and even feared God after hearing Abinadi's prophesying. But, then he feared man (his priests and servants and their opinions of Abinadi and what to do with him) more than the warnings of God through Abinidi's words. And thus we see... we shouldn't base our opinions of people, places and things off of other peoples because we too are entitled to our own opinions and we are all so very different. HOWEVER.... before judging, we should look at the people places and things with heaven's eyes (just like that song from one of my favorite films the Prince of Egypt.) I know that we won't be confounded before men as we do this, and we will be showing the Lord humililty and charity which is so central to our progression here on earth.

Anyway, I love you all so dang much! I wish you the happiest week! I wish you all "happy lives, a successful job, a beautiful husband, many obedient kids, health, and love." - all the babushki here wish me all these things every single day. Now it's your turn!

LOVE YOU have a happy week. Miss you so much. We're under the 100's now people! See you soon!

Love, Sissy Twede