may 27

Dear Family and Friends,

First off I would like to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my adorable handsome amazing little brother Milton:) He will be 7 on the First of June. I'm so proud of you little man, and I miss you so much!
This week was another great week! It was a little crazy because we had Zone Conference as well as a Sisters Meeting so we had to make trips out to St. Petersburg. It was really nice to see friends again from the MTC again and see and hear stories! One elder has really bad luck, but he got kicked in the face and a gun pulled on him in one week! crazy! Haha he's all good though. And of course there are lots of other crazy stories that happen everyday, a quote from Tolstoy says, "Things that don't happen, happen in Russia". So true!
Our days seem to drag but weeks fly by! On wednesday nights we do an English Group where people can come and we speak English and such. It can't be a class because we aren't teachers but it's just a conversation group. And we have very "random" conversations that may or may not be in general the preach my gospel lessons. haha it's brilliant! We have around 11 people coming right now, which is really good for this area. As some of you may not know, this area was just opened for sisters last transfer and hasn't been opened to sisters for 11years! So my companion and I have a lot of work to do. It's exciting.

I love the ward here! They are all so nice and it feel a little like home. Our bishop, i just found out, is actually the english to russian translator for President Monson! so he travels to Salt Lake at conference time and does that. Super cool. President Clark, (our mission president) started this new thing in our mission that I just love! Each week we have an hour of language study with a member! Which means we get to study with a native, even if all we can do is read the Book of Mormon aloud and be corrected on how to say the words, it really is amazing! We learned just this last sunday that going to too many members homes in a row in one night isn't a good idea. The first house fed us herbal tea,of course and Tvorg, which is Russian cream cheese/cottage cheese filling that they put inside these pastries, and of course they insisted we eat more than we wanted:) Tea is really big in Russia, There is no such thing as a cold drink, everything is room temperature or hotter. Apparently because they all believe that cold drinks make you sick. Haha they are hilarious. The next house she fed us a huge dinner of all of these cooked vegtables and cookies and more tea of course, and It was so great. But we learned our lesson and won't eat dinner before we go out to members houses!
We had a miracle investigator this week! Her name is Natalia and she speaks..wait for it..ENGLISH!! well she is an english teacher here and so in her russian accent she speaks english. She was interested in the church about 10 years ago and then forgot about it. So when we called her up after finding her name on a list she said yes! She knows there is a God but doesn't think he wants anything to do with us. And she admires the relationship and love/closeness we have with God and wants to have the same..SCORE! We are meeting with her again this week, but we left her with a Book of Mormon and a commitment to pray for an answer if our message was true. It's so exciting! I'm so excited to meet with her again!
This week sister boud and I have been asking people a lot about Family History and finding that so many people in russia are very interested in it. and it's a perfect link into the gospel! I never even really thought about family history work myself and now I am coming to realize how important it is! D&C 138 talks all about why it is so important. Love it.
Well Russia is amazing. I am starting to be able to understand what people are generally talking about so I'm not always completely confused after talking with people which is a blessing. It's so warm here right now, but I know it won't last so we are soaking it up!
I love you all! I never missed my family and friends more in my entire life! But I love serving a mission and can see how fast it goes and how I only have this short time to share this gospel in Russia!
Love you all from the other side of the world,
Sister Gigi Yeates