Hailey in Russia: Cats, cats, and more cats

Seriously you guys. I have seen more cats than i ever have this week and they are the cutest! and i can't touch them because SOMEBODY JUST HAS TO BE ALLERGIC TO THEM! lame.

Apologies in advance. this letter will be so short because i have to go buy new clothes because theres a THRIFT SHOP HERE AND I AM SO EXCITED!!! It'll be interesting... russian thrift shop.

Besides the cats... what a rough week. We got transfer calls and found out that sister coleman and i are parting ways. PSYCHE!!! good joke right? haha my humor has really hit the fan since I've been in russia. But WOOOO great news huh?!? we get to serve together another cycle and we are soooo stoked to just go go go go go go go hard hard hard and introduce people to christ!

Now it's time for story time.

With the small family that we met. Things were really great at the beginning of the week! We taught the restoration to the 7 year old daughter (who will be 8 in a couple weeks) and then the next day, taught that same little girl and her mom the plan of salvation. At the end of the lesson the time was right and the spirit told us to invite them to be baptized! We did so and confirmed the date august 23rd and they said yes without hesitation. It was a miracle! Then we had our branch picnic on saturday. They were so excited to come! We met up with everyone at the bus stop, and were surprised to see that the small family we have been teaching brought 4 of their friends! We were more surprised to see them all drinking and smoking, but not really too surprised seeing as this is Russia and people don't know the word of wisdom.

One of the members told them that they had to go drink and smoke elsewhere so that their little kids didn't have to be around it and they gladly did so. When we got to the picnic, everything was great. The members who befriended "L" the mom and her daughter "k" were all so warm and it was a great time. We missionaries gathered our things and left the picnic and "L" told us that she was having a great time! (even though she and her friends had to leave the members of the branch for short periods of time to drink and to smoke.) side note-i am SO grateful to live free of addictions. It's such a testimony to me that the word of wisdom REALLY is from God! He wants us all to be free from being slaves to addiction. Anway, we left the picnic and got a phonecall an hour later from "L". She told us that this man named "U", of the members from our branch who is handicapped started telling her and her husband and their friends and in front of their daughter TERRIBLE lies about our church. He told them that we are a sect, and that [explicit things] go on inside the temple. side note: (He has never been inside the temple.)

INTERRUPTION: I'M SORRY but i started to cry when i heard the things he said. I never ever thought that I would be so emotional about the temple but oh i just love it sooooo much and you REALLY gain an appreciation of it's beauty and light when you don't get to go to it when you want to.

On the phone "L" said she didn't want to believe him because she sees our light and thinks that we are angels from God. We tried to tell her that everything he said was all a lie, and asked if we could go over later that evening with "U"'s brother "A" and have "A"explain how his brother is, and just testify about our gospel. She agreed to meet at 7 that night. We went to their home at 7, rang the doorbell, called and each time we called they number busied us (weird because she ALWAYS answers our phonecalls.)

I poured my heart out to heavenly father and just pleaded him to have somebody answer the phone. "M", "L"'s husband answered, clearly drunk, and told us that "L" was asleep and to come back another time. We invited them to church again and he said they would be there. It was SO sad. SO incredibly heart breaking to think that satan would be pushing THIS hard on a family who needs the gospel. The next day was sunday and we went to church, waited, waited, waited, and "L" never came. We called her and she said that she felt sick so we told her to get better and that we would talk later. An hour or so later, "M", "L"'s husband called and told us that "L" was in the hospital and that he needed money to feed his daughters. We told him we can't do that and so he said "thanks for your time." then hung up the phone.

"A"was the one who talked on the phone to "M" because we couldn't understand a drunk russian man. "A" told us that they have only been meeting with us to get money. It's interesting because sister coleman felt from the very beginning a weird suspicion that they needed or wanted money from us. But they never asked us when we would teach them lessons and we also know that they felt the spirit during our lessons so we didn't want to even think that they would only meet with us in hopes to get money. Sister coleman and I felt so deceived. "L" went from calling us at least four times a day to not calling us at all.

We bawlllllled our little eyes out at church because we are just really confused and feel really deceived and just frustrated because we don't know what their intentions are and we just want them SO badly to have a better life, to just come unto Jesus Christ who makes all things better. I now know what people say when they say missions are hard: because all the emotional spiritual heartache that we go through is SOOOO taxing but so beautiful and so worth it too. You really come to know the savior on such a personal level and it's so beautiful. I promise you all that he has felt all that you feel, felt and ever will feel. RELY ON HIM!!!

Anyway, we received blessings from our elders and felt better and were given counsel and comfort from our heavenly father. We have a lot of praying to do to understand what Heavenly Father needs us to do. In a really round about LONG way of answering the first question you ask us missionaries, we are casting out doubts and fears about this family and focusing on What the Lord would have us do. It requires a lot of faith because it would just be so easy to drop them, assuming that they just need money from us. We will still meet with them soon hopefully and establish what it is they really are looking for.

my people.. NEVER ever give up. I promise you that as you counsel with the lord he WILL help you! It's hard to understand at first because answers don't come immediately. We still don't have an answer as to what course of action to take with "L", but we know that as we are patience and have faith, we will receive answers.

ANWAY, Sister Coleman and I are SO happy to be together for another cycle! Heavenly Father really has blessed us. We are best friends doing the best work in the best mission. We are so pumped to work our hardest and to consecrate all our thoughts, actions, and time to the Lord this next cycle. IT'S GON BE GOOOOOOOOOOD!

Funny story. sister training leaders came to work with us last week. I worked with sister erickson she's a gem! and also guess who slipped in the shower? THIS GAL and sister coleman AND the sister training leaders heard it HAHAHAHA SO FUNNY also bad news is that they turned off our hot water. Cold head showers and a pot of boiling water to make the medicine go down.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! I am so grateful for all your prayers and love you send my way. keep em comin, i sure appreciate em. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! never believe otherwise. I pray for you all often and just imagine me hugging you right now!

OKAY BYE! ttyl next weeeeeeek.