Hailey in Russia: I looooove blessings

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON THURSDAY TO MY HAYD! Have the happiest birthday of all best friend. Don't forget that this gal loooooves you<3

I don't have too much time left, I wrote a really gnarly letter to my mission president because times have been a little bit testing for me right now on the mission. Don't worry though, everything is good. I Just feel reeeeeally really tested and stretched. So stretched, that I look like a pasta noodle! Just kidding not that stretched. Missions are just tough and people are just really prideful and sometimes you just want to cry because you feel like your testimony is really being tried. But I'm no too surprised, because in my patriarchal blessing, I'm warned about a lot of the stuff that I am going through on my mission. How incredible is that? It's just a testimony to me that our patriarchal blessings really are directly from Heavenly Father and that everything will come to pass in this life, and in the life to come.

This morning I read something today that really helped me a tooooon. The Prophet's talk from general conference October of 2013. It was right after the Prophet's wife passed away. I think the talk is called "I will not forsake thee." He spoke of trials, and how we all face difficulties. He said. "It is not the difficulty that we are given in life that is the hard part. The difficult part is enduring to the end while we have the difficulty." Really interesting huh? He then reminds us all in his talk that we are given trials to help us remember the Savior. I hear that alot, but today it actually sunk in. I noticed a lot, that this past week I was constantly drawing to the Lord in prayer. I remember just being on the streets, being inside, being wherever it was where we were, I remember that I said a lot of prayers last week. A lot of them weren't prayers, just complaints and cries. All the same, I realized today that the Lord heard every complaint, every cry I had, and I was really frustrated because I didn't receive instant relief. I didn't instantly get the desire to do this work, but I was blessed as I did it even though I had no desire. Sometimes we have to do hard things in life, and sometimes we don't know why we go through some of the hard things we go through. But I know that just as the sun comes up every morning, all our trials will end and will be for our good. I realized today that the Lord really is trying to teach me to just be patient, and to just keep pressing forward and always to remember Him and just to endure to the end. I know that He is always testing my testimony and my faith because He loves me. I don't understand fully why He does it, but I know that there is always something to learn from our trials. Just like we read in Ether 12:27. Trials bring blessings and blessings make me pee because I love blessings.

CRAZY MIRACLE! We were contacting one night before a meeting we had with a member who is going through some rough patches right now. Her name is Sister "R", and she's fab. Anyway, We were talking with everyone... EVERYONE it was so great, but it made us late for our appointment with this sister "R". We decided, "okay let's take a bus." Well, we asked these punk teenagers if the bus that just approached would be the right bus to get to our destination. They said yes, so we got on the bus. While on the bus, we saw a former investigators grandson who is the sassiest of all, named “S”. We asked him if it was the right bus, and he said no. Sure enough, he was right. We ended up getting really really far away from this member's home, and the end of the day was quickly approaching. We had to cancel our meeting with the member. Me and Sister Martinez looked at each other, and just said "Well, guess the Lord has something else in store for our night." We started walking on the empty street after getting off the bus. Nobody was around, just some cats and some dogs. We then decided to walk down this dark path, and we didn't know why. It was like we didn't have a choice whether or not to walk to lit road of the dark. It was as if the Spirit just guided us to the dark path. Well, we're on the dark path, when we see this young couple. Secret..... talking to young couples is my biggest fear. They intimidate me so much! They're just so cool and normal and I'm just so freaky in a homely skirt haha.

Well, we had talked to everyone that we could possibly have spoken to earlier before this part of the night, and... we walked past the young couple. Then the unthinkable happened: We ran after them. Haha we were those kind of people. After walking past them, we felt the strong need to go back. We run after them, and they stop to talk to us. Guess what happened next? The young girl said "my name is "VC"." Guess whose name was in our area book from 9 years ago? "VC". It turns out that 9 years ago, she used to come to our branch here in Balakova all the time with her older sister who was investigating our church at the time. She had read the kid's book of mormon and loved it. She loved coming to church. While we were talking with her and her boyfriend, she said "Yeah you're mormons! I used to go to your church all the time, I loved it." The conversation got better and better. She told us she lost the kid's book of mormon that she had and that she loved because she moved out of her house into her boyfriends house after her mom passed away in September. We testified of the truth of the Book of Mormon, and about how it's true, and that she will find comfort as she reads. We went to give her the book of mormon, and she declined, but then her boyfriend, “V”, took the book and told us that he'll look into reading it. "VC" is 18, her boyfriend is 22. They are SO great. After talking and teaching and testifying, we told them that we had been looking for "VC" (true) and that we actually got on the wrong bus and that it's not a coincidence that we ran into them on the street. They also agreed to it not being a coincidence, and as we ended the conversation to walk home because we were already late, they said "We'll walk you home, it's dark and we want to make sure you get home safely." IT was soooo amazing, what a miracle right? But it gets better. Then "VC" came with us to our english club on saturday. She told us that the night before, she read the introduction to the Book of mormon and the testimonies in the front of the book of mormon. We can't believe how merciful the Lord is and that he really worked a miracle. We're really excited to start meeting with her and her boyfriend, and invite them to be baptized as well. We'll just have to work around the obstacles of them living together. "VC" also told us that she doesn't drink because she doesn't have the desire to. She is so elect it blows my mind. We have become really good friends with them, and her boyfriend is saving up money for the both of them to come to Utah in a couple years.

We also met with VL’s mom "O" and his sister "VK". We invited them to be baptized, and they declined. "O" said "If I get baptized it means I have to change my life." We said, "yes. you have to change your life in order to follow the Savior." (she has a lot of addictions) and she said "I'm just not ready to do that." We told her not to worry because we are here to help her to get ready toward baptism, and she just shook her head no. But then she invited us back. It's just the worst because she felt the Spirit as we testified of Christ being baptized and because of Him we too need to be baptized. She even said "i'm going to cry." as we testified to her. We just have to be patient and just pray for a miracle so that they can all be baptized.

My call to you all this week is to be patient. I know all the hard things you have right now in life are really reeeeaelly hard, but if they weren't hard then we wouldn't progress. Don't forget the Lord in your trials, because he is the one that gives us our trials so that we come unto Him, so that we can grow. I love Him, I know he loves you all, and I know that you're all so strong and I look up to you all. Just keep pushing, just keep going, and you will see amazing blessings happen. Then you'll pee just like me, because like I said.. "I loooooove blessings!"

LOVE YOU MOST FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!!

Love,

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