Hailey in Russia: Guess who made it onto a screensaver.... this gal.

HAPPY VALENTINES TO ALL MY FAVORITE PEOPLE THIS SATURDAY! Have a happy day and go out to dinner with the one you love most. Well, that's just too bad because the one you love most is here in Russia. Haha stupidest joke. But really, have the happiest day.

Zella I got your package! Thanks you SOOO much for the beautiful calendar! I love it so much. I immediately put it up on my wall, and I just think of you each time I see it! And the Savior too, of course. You're just so thoughtful, I am so grateful to have you as a best friend!!! SHAUNA McConkie! Thanks for the card! You're just so thoughtful. I always love to hear from you, thanks for being just so dang thoughtful.

Guess who emailed me this week and updated me on her life finally.... ERIN BERG! THANKS for that my little Miriam.

Guess who came to Balakova this week? That's right brothers and sisters... Sister Mckell!!!!!! Oh my. You have no idea how happy I was to see her. It was so fun to be reunited with her. She really is one of my very best friends and it's just so sad that next cycle is her last cycle. But we had a great time tearing it up together. We even ate at Carls Jr together and that was just a jolly jolly time. I didn't realize how much I really did miss her. We had fun working together. There is a member here named “V” and she has a sister in law named "L". Me and Sister Mckell had a lesson with "L". Get this.... "L" is evangelist and she is definitely pretty prideful because she doesn't listen to us really at all, but I still love her. It was really cool though, because she asked if we could pray together and so we just sat down still in her chairs and she stood and said "can we pray standing up? I just think it's more respectful." So we all stood and prayed together, and she just started bawwwwwling. She was praying for her sons who are severe alcoholics. She really does have a sincere desire to follow Jesus Christ and she just wants her sons to find joy which comes from Christ! As she prayed I definitely felt how much love he had for her. She even closed her prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, so that was good! I just hope that one day she will just listen to us with an open heart. It was cool. We saw some other really cool miracles too as we worked together. We gave out 8 books of mormon during our day together which really was a miracle because these ruski's don't want anything to do with the book of mormon sometimes. Yesterday on a bus, this lady was like "I DON'T LIKE YOU MORMON FOLK. I don't like that you said that Jesus was born in America." We just laughed and said... yeah.... no He was born in jerusalem. He appeared to the people in America after His resurrection. It's okay though, because the word born and appeared sound pretty similiar in Russian, so i'll let it slide.

So we were on exchanges and Sister Mckell is training this new sister named Sister Thomas. I made a goal to focus on talking to everyone last week. While hurrying home to meet the other sisters for dinner, Sister Thomas and I handed a woman an invitation, which she immediately turned down. We almost walked away, but the spirit really did stop me. We just began speaking with her, and we saw her hard shell just crumble as she really opened up to us. She is from Moscow and is here visiting her friends. We had a really nice talk about our message and about our church, we told her our church is all around the world as well as in Moscow, and the conversation ended as she ran to get on her bus. Before she got on, we basically threw the Book of Mormon at her and just testified loud and proud and fast, and she smiled and said "Thank you soooo much I'm going to read it!" I really gained a testimony from that experience that sometimes, we just need to keep digging and digging and pushing the conversation because you never know what could happen from it. She went from being really hard shelled and scabby, and turning down the invitation, to being really soft and open and accepting the Book of Mormon. That really was a miracle to me. Shortly after that, we got placed in the path of the sweetest young mom named “LA”. We instantly talked about the Book of Mormon and she really wanted it, so of course we gave it to her. She then asked us if we could come over to her house some time to talk about it. WELL, YES WE CAN! It was so cool. It's really rare here for people to ask us to come over. Following that moment in time, there was a woman walking behind us, who saw the whole thing happen. We talked with her, and she just kept asking us about the Book of Mormon. We gave her her own book as well, and she was really grateful for it, and immediately gave us her number following giving her the book. These are just little miracles leading up to the big miracles that are just around the corner once we meet with these awesome people. We gave out soooo many Books of Mormon last week, that we literally gave all that we have out... and all of the books at the branch building.. and we have no books left. It's pretty terrible though, because we live sooooooo far away from Samara and we rarely rarely get supplies, so we're just going to have to improvise haha.

Lately I have been feeling pretty good. I feel that I am receiving help from the Lord to understand these people, and someway, somehow, they understand me. I see my language improving in the tiniest tiniest bit, and it is nothing I am doing seriously. It's amazing because it really is the Lord and I'm terrified that I'm going to forget all the russian that I know now when I get home because the Spirit is the one that does the talking and helps me to understand. I am such a bad studier, and I have such a hard time which is how I know that it is not me at all! It's pretty cool. Anyway, I have come to know that the gift of tongues isn't speaking gramatically correct, it's being able to speak enough that the spirit can testify to what we say. Of course we should strive to master the language, but sometimes it's really tooooooo difficult and can get really discouraging. I would say it's one of the more difficult things on my mission, but I really know that the Lord is constantly helping me out, and constantly sending the Spirit to testify to these people who so desperately need the Gospel. Lately I have been trying to refocus my efforts on having faith in Jesus Christ. I find that when I read about the temple, I really come to feel so much peace and I feel that my testimony of the Savior grows as I do so. You should all do some readings about it, it's really incredible how EVERY principle which we talk about really does lead back to Jesus Christ. Every single time! It just makes it so clear to me that this really is His church. This is His Church and He leads it today!

So Today I read a couple of conference talks (october 2014) during personal study. I read the talk by Robert D. Hales, about the Savior and Heavenly Father, and how they are, in fact, two separate beings, and how in the scriptures they are constantly testifying of each other. (You should all go and re read it So cool, I never realized that they really do support each other just like father and son. He also in his talk stressed the importance of gaining a strong testimony of Joseph Smith. I then read Neil L. Andersen's talk all about the prophet Joseph Smith. I love that he based his talk on the several visits Joseph Smith had with the angel Moroni. And that Moroni warned Joseph Smith that his name would be spoken both for good, and for evil in the latter days. He urges each of us in his talk to read Joseph Smith's experience in Joseph Smith history and fulfill that prophecy and spread his name to be good in these last days. I began to read JS's experience when he saw Moroni and as I did so, it just became so real to me that Joseph Smith really was called of God, and that through him, Heavenly Father restored the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's SOOOO COOL! Man, it's so cool to be a member of Christ's Church. He's just the best!

So in a whole, this week was pretty normal, but the highlight would definitely have to be when after english club on saturday, we went sledding down this hill on plastic bags. It was hilarious. But the most hilarious part is that this kid named “D”, the 16 year old that comes to english who wears the suit to match the elders, well guess who is the background on his screen saver. You guessed right. This gal. It was really uncomfortable, especially because it was a picture that he took on his phone that I was in with some other missionaries but he cropped them out. I don't think he knows I saw it, but I saw it and sister martinez saw it and it was just really funny. Another highlight of the week: just kidding it was kinda scary and really sad. After english club we come home and walk up the stairs and the most drunk man i have EVER SEEN was just passed out in front of our door. It was scary because lately people have been knocking on our door really scarily and we didn't know if it had been him and especially didn't know if he was pretending to be asleep then just pull a quick one on us, so we called our friend “S” who lives by us, and he came and walked us up the stairs. All turned out okay but it was pretty funny. But mostly sad. I always get so sad when I see drunk people. He smelled SO strongly of alcohol, and i really wouldn't have been surprised if he just died while trying to go up the stairs because of how drunk he smelled and was. Pretty sad. Another one of my favorite moments this week was contacting and then this lady started barking at us and kept yelling mean things but the funniest part was when she told us "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU GIRLS." Hahaha it really was so dang funny. So you bet that I said "Okay, do it then, c'mon!" There are some mean bullies here but it's pretty funny. I mean c'mon we're two harmless gals in some homely skirts, what's scary about that? I guess that lady is right though.. I think homely skirts are pretty terrifying too. HAHHA but really these clothes though.

I love you all so much, you all make me the happiest! I hope you have a happy happy week and do something nice for somebody you don't know. Kind acts go a loooooooooooong long way. I love you all, thanks for your love! I love Russia and I can't believe that I am here sometimes. It's such an incredible place. The best place! anyway, Happy Valentines day to all! Wanna know a secret? I think it might be one of my favorite holidays.

Love you!

Love Sissy Hayster