Hailey in Russia: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADOO!!!!

HAPPY BIRT-DAY (as mom would say) DAD!!! haha jk mom i love you I love the way you say birthday. It's the cutest. DAD i hope you had the happiest day. You're the best friend of all and I miss you so much. I hope you had the most radical time skiing with Steve boy. What a fun prize! LOVE YOU DAD! Thanks for all you do for me, I look up to you in every way. You're the prince!

Happy BDAY to Ruby too!!!!! You're just such a sweet angel and I am so grateful to have you in my life. My other mother. Have the best time in hawaii getting your TAN ON! LOVE YOU RUBY!!!!! You don't look a day over 30 :)

HAPPY BDAY TO ANYONE ELSE I MISSED! You're just all the best. and I love you all.

It's ALWAYS a bummer for me when my pdays get freaky so I am so sorry that I couldn't write home yesterday. I didn't even know, but they were like "surrprise zone conference in 4 days!" It was such a great zone conference though. Really inspired and really uplifting and super hilarious. I love my mission and all the missionaries here because we're all such close friends and we're all just trying our best and we all enjoy a good laugh and a good time.

I went on my visa trip to Latvia like I mentioned last week, and guess who got detained.... again. NOT ME! FIRST TIME EVER! They built a new airport in samara and it is sooo swanky and nice. OOOOH my. Everything is so new there, it was really col. Anway, hahaha it was a miracle i didn't get detained. None of us had problems this time. It was a success. It was ACTUALLY a fun visa trip! It was so fun because I got to hang out with my pals. They're all nuts and you best believe that there was the best surprise in the Moscow airprort.... FRO YO!!! I got it twice. You know I love my sweets! It's funny because there's a burger king there, and we all ate there for lunch, and there was this black kid waiting in line and he was just on his cell phone the whole time and he was speaking english and didn't know all us missionaries spoke english and while he was on the phone he was talking to his girlfriend and was like "Hode up honey I gotta orderrrrrr. Have yew been a guuuuud girrrrrrrl?" hahaha I almost peed. then he said "Honey I need yo help orderain'. Then I just said, "What do you want? I'll order for you." haha he was surprised when he realized that we spoke english, and he was grateful for the help. Turns out he is from new york and his girlfriend lives in DUBAI and he was just waiting for his connecting flight to go to Dubai. the best part is that he told us his girlfriend is korean. hahaha what the.... Don't really know but it was cool. He was a nice kid and I was really happy to help him out. A MAN'S GOTTA EAT!

Funny story real quick. We had a lesson with a members non member mom named "aunt S” and she always makes us food. She made us bleeni this last time which are like crepes but SO MUCH TASTIER!! Anyway, she made us watch this music video of russian folk music. It's this band called white day and it's all pretty terrible but it's all reaaaaally catchy and I would be lying if I didn't say that I liked the music....

GUESS WHAT I DID ON SUNDAY!?? I gave a talk. My first talk in Russian. The topic was "How can I show gratitude to God and to loved ones?" It was really rough, but everyone just smiled at me when I spoke. I don't think that it was understandable, but I hope that it was. I read the verse from Mosiah 4:17 ( i think that's the chapter) about "When you serve others you serve God." I changed the words a little and said "When you show gratitude to others, you show gratitude to God." It turned out okay and I felt really good after.

Our Zone conference was really good. We talked a lot about Christ and making our testimonies stronger in Him. We also talked about getting out on time and just the importance of a thing we call flow in my mission. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Love, Obedience with exactness, and Work with unwearingess. It was really good, and I got to see sister coleman and that was just the best. I love my sissy C! I sure missed that GAL!

SO many amazing miracles it blows my mind! This week we met with the new convert, 15 year old “SH”. We had planned to just talk with her and find out what has been going on because of the message that she sent to “N”, a member in our branch saying that she "stopped reading her scriptures and praying." We really didn't know what was up. We went to her house to pick her up, and just planned on walking with her outside and talking with her, because meeting at her house usually isn't allowed because her dad is against our church. Well, we waited for her, and after waiting for a few minutes, she came down to us and said "C'mon I want to have you as guests!" Well..... you best believe that we were stoked out of our minds to hear that! We went to her house, and her mom was home with “SH’s” 1 year old baby brother. The story about how the sisters found, taught, and baptized “SH” is really great. Long story short, Sister Martinez and Sister Wilson were contacting, and started talking to this woman about our message we share. She said, "Y'know, I'm not too interested, I have a baby and I"m really busy, but I think that my 15 year old daughter would be really interested." They got her number, started meeting with her, and “SH” was baptized 3 weeks later. Really such an amazing story.

Well, it was of course devastating to us when last week we heard that she stopped reading her scriptures and praying. We hadn't really planned a specific lesson to have with "SH" because we were just planning to get down to the problem and find out how we can help "SH" come back. Well, when we met with her nothing had changed! She was still spunky positive "SH". We ended up sitting in her bedroom and her mom "L" came in to sit with us. We just listened to the Spirit, and he did his work. We came to find out that "SH" really didn't have any desire to go to church, so she chose not to go. She told us that because of that decision she felt really sad and down knowing that she hadn't been to church. She was really honest, and told us that she didn't even want to read her scriptures or pray, but monday she decided to because she felt really bad and sad, and said that after reading and praying she instantly felt better. We testified that is true. Then guess what? "L" PIPED IN! She said "Yeah, there have been a lot of days when I just feel really bad and really overwhelmed, and I'm having a problem with whatever problem it is i'm having at that time, then I just open the Book of Mormon to a random page and my answer is there and I instantly feel better." WHAT?!?!?!?! It was sooooo great! We just testifed that, that is true and that because the Book of Mormon is the word of God, it is how he speaks to/with us in our day. She then expressed to us her desire to come to church with "SH". She told us "Each week I want to go to church, but then I get afraid because my husband will get mad at me for leaving "J"(the 1 year old baby) with him while I go to church." She told us that she wants to go every week but she also doesn't want to have havoc in her home or contention with her husband. We read 3 Nephi 17:17 about how the Savior prays for US, and that he will pray for her always and that only he can soften her husbands heart. We promised her that if she read a chapter from the Book of Mormon and prayed with "SH" after we left, that her husband's heart would be softened and that she would be able to come to church. She was really doubtful and then "SH" piped in and said "C'mon mom, let's just try it! Let's just try!" It was so great. Well, sunday came, and "SH" ended up coming to church alone, without her mom, but I have so much faith that "L" will be able to come soon. We plan on making sacrifying a lot of ourselves to show the Lord that we really want "L" to have this. We have no doubt that she really is ready for baptism, and she often tells us about the light that she sees in "SH" following her baptism, and how much the gospel has blessed "SH"'s life. We always tell her that their family will be blessed at "L" begins coming to church, and that eventually her husband will come around as well. It was an amazing lesson and they even invited us to come back this saturday while her husband is at work!

I had the FAAAABULOUS opportunity to sit in primary with little "VK" on sunday. During primary, we talked about Alma the younger, and the importance of being kind and always serving the Lord. The teacher sister "VA" asked the class a question. "What is the necessary step we need to make in order to live with God and Jesus Christ after this life?" Then "VK" said "Baptism!" It is unbelievable to me how prepared she is. She even said the opening prayer and said as she prayed "I am so grateful that I got to come to church with my brother "VL" today." We set up a meeting with them for this week and we are SOOOO EXCITED to invite "VK" to be baptized. "VL" told us that sunday morning before church, his mom "O" woke up "VK" and said "GET READY FOR CHURCH!" and then said "If you don't go to them they'll come to us!" hahaha I laughed pretty hard but I was also scared what that meant, but then "VL" told me that she was joking of course. We don't know why "O" doesn't come with them, I think she works but we'll find that out when we meet with them this week. She was on date for baptism in December but wasn't baptized because she has a drinking problem. "VK" was also on date and we don't really know what happened. We have some digging to do. "VK" is going to get baptized, and she's going to get baptized soon, and her brother "VL" gets to baptize her! SOOOO CUTE!

Well, I hate to say it but I am out of time. I love you all. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and that it is a POWERFUL powerful testimony. I know she's a true book, and I know that if she wasn't, I wouldn't be here right now. Don't forget to read tonight. I know all the questions that you have in life can be answered there on every page. Just try it.

LOVE YOU ALL!

Love sissy T