"Living for the Eternities"‏ July 28,2013

Dear Family and Friends,

After 20 minutes of trying to log onto the computer I’m ON! Today is a beautiful sunny, hot day in выборг. Over view of the week, It was pretty good! Slow and a little frustrating because we don’t have a ton of investigators right now because they have all gone on vacation or are in “dacha heaven”.  But really, they are HEAVEN! Anyways so exciting things this week we went to cinnabon! Yes they have Cinnabons in Russia too! I was excited. I got a pecan  cinnaroll, (mamma would be proud)! We also ventured out a bit and got Sushi! They actually have really good sushi here, so after we translated the entire menu….no joke we got some! The food here has been pretty nice, we buy our own things at the stores so it’s whatever we get. The Russian pastries here are a little too amazing and good though. J Other crazy things that happened this week is that we moved apartments! Wow that was so crazy, and that same weekend we had splits! So we had three sisters coming from St. Petersburg, had to clean and move the old apartment (which used to be an elders apartment, enough said), and then move into the new apartment! CRAZY! Sister Eyring, Sister Shaff and Sister Porter (who is going home this transfer!) They are all so amazing and it was so fun to get a change for a little bit! Especially because we haven’t gone to peters this transfer so it’s felt So incredibly long. So for the move the Russian member lady who checks out the apartments for the missionaries was there of course but wouldn’t let the sisters do anything! She made our two Elders do everything! She kept saying that we couldn’t because we were girls and that lifting things were bad for our ovaries. HAHA who says that! It was hilarious but all Russian people are very concerned for young women who haven’t yet had families yet and will not allow them to do anything that may put them in harm’s way. Interesting fact for the week! So moving was on Friday, then on Saturday we (all 5 sisters) went to a member’s house to do service and hauled water for her to her dacha. And she also insisted that we ate her berries! Raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries, currents, and cherries. So delicious but a lot of us ended up not feeling too well afterwards. I actually got really sick, so the long Russian bus ride home was definitely not the most enjoyable thing ever.

Natalia, the lady we baptized is doing so well! She is really just fitting right into the ward, her little girl going to primary now and she is getting a calling soon and doing all this family history work and it’s just incredible to see the change that has taken place! We love her so much! We also had a little miracle this week; we were having a hard time with this babooshka named Tatiana. She is the sweetest and we met her from English group, she wasn’t interested in the gospel but loves to have us over and bake us things and she just loves the company. So we finally got the opportunity to sneakily slip in a lesson on family history which was so good! The spirit came in and she really just loved talking about her family so it was perfect! I love how the gospel is so incredible and really anything can be related back to it! Such a testimony builder that anyone and everyone can be a missionary! And missionaries really need member help, I can’t even explain how important the members are in missionary work!  

Lately I’ve really loved reading through the Liahonas we get every month from the mission home. I think they are the ensign, friend and new era compiled into one for other countries? I’m not exactly sure. But they are really cool and I was reading the one from this month (July 2012) a talk called Living for the Eternities by Elder Keith K. Hibling. Really amazing talk I recommend reading it on lds.org or something; anyways there was a quote in it that I really loved it said, “Live not for the moment but rather live for the eternities”. I just love that and it is such a good reminder that we need to be looking with an eternal perspective with everything that we do. Our actions and choices reflect who we are and we are children gigimission.blogspot.comof a loving Heavenly Father so we need to be “living for the eternities” and not just “for the moment”.

I love you all so much and miss you all daily! You are always in my prayers!

Love, Sister Yeates

P.S. the internet in this café really isn’t working today at all, if I get this one email sent that would be a blessing. So I will be responding to many letters next week! Sorry, so frustrating, love you all!

Family and friends

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry about last week, Time limits are NOT! the most fun things in the world. Well these last two weeks have been really great:)

last Monday we actually went wild blue berry picking in the forest....in Russia...with Russians. Ya, it was pretty incredible. We picked for hours and only got a little container full! Maybe because we were eating them all, but hey its okay! So fun, and we went with some people from the ward which was even better because they knew all the good spots! Then we had a ward picnic later that week! The missionaries had to put the entire thing on which was stressful but it ended up being a blast! we were all going to meet at the church and then from there go on a 45 minute (i wish i was kidding) walk to the park. BUT it ended up raining so we just stayed at the church! We played Signs, Water balloon volleyball (in the rain!), then three legged races, and ended with a donuts on string eating contest:) Very American, and they all LOVED IT! It was weird because brother nedelev wanted to have a theme, and while we were all thinking oh "Fiesta" or "Luau" he picked "free agency".....huh? haha it was a pretty good laugh between the missionaries though. Not too many people came because of the rain. When it rains all Russians seriously like shut down. (maybe it's because they have to walk everywhere and don't have cars). But we worked with what we had and it was really fun.

One thing i've come to notice in the past couple of weeks is that it rains and is cloudy all day long and then as soon as it hits 7p.m. it clears up, there is blue skies and sunshine, bizarre. So we are heading home at 9 and it's warm and sunny. I don't quite understand but I guess it's Russia.

Oh my word, so I had a little miracle yesterday. So sister boud and I were walking and contacting through huge apartment buildings. We walked past this old broken car and I heard a baby kitten, the little high pitched meow! So of course I stopped dead in my tracks and turned to look. And there was a tiny around one week old kitten her eyes weren't even open, under the car stuck on it's back! so I picked it up and we couldn't find it's mama anywhere. I was dying, I seriously could NOT leave this tiny baby by itself. I would never be able to live with it. And people passing by just kept saying "zhalka" which means (what a shame, or too bad). But that wasn't good enough. I definitely said a prayer in my heart and then looked around the car, nothing, then I got down on my stomach (going to all measures for this kitten). And i saw the mama cat and was able to push the kitten towards the mama. Then we could finally leave, knowing it would be safe:) Seriously I know Heavenly Father cares for ALL things, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant they may be. I am so grateful for a loving Father who is always watching over us. Little miracles are happening all the time, and sometimes we just need to take the time to stop and recognize them:) And then thank our loving Heavenly Father because i know he is always there for us and he hears and answers our prayers.

I love you all! I was so excited to get emails from aunties and cousins this week, seriously I can't wait to read them when I get home. Thank you so much! And I will be sure to write back of course!

Love you with all my heart:)!

-Sister Yeates

Oh my lovely family and friends.

Dearest Family and Friends,

I just love you all! This week just flew by! It was good though. Had some Dacha service with members, chopping wood, weeding, shoveling, converting a field into a garden (that keeps growing weeds every time we return....never ending service!) haha. I hope Fourth of July was fantastic! I've never missed BBQ so much in my life! Happy Birthday to Alice, now 15 and all grown up, love you girlie:)
So as you know there was a baptism a couple weeks ago, it was incredible. And so we have been meeting with her because she needs all of the missionary lessons again after baptism, and it is so amazing the change that she's gone through. It is like night and day. She is always smiling, literally glowing, she started cleaning her house more, her little girl is all dressed up all of the time. The spirit is in her home. The difference between member homes is incredible. Such a blessing! I know that only through the gospel of Jesus Christ can a change of a person like that take place. Such a miracle.
Did you all see the missionary worldwide broadcast? How incredible was that! We were able to get it copied, in English (kinda helpful), so we watched it, and wow! What an incredible pump up for missionary work! I love seeing the work spread so quickly. Everything is changing, and we all get to be a part of it!
We are going to be starting English Group up again in a couple weeks. It's a great way to find investigators so we are very excited! And many people are interested, well, in English. But that's closer than nothing! We will work with them:)
Well Nothing really new this week. The mission president is making us move out of the "palace":( ah well, it is pretty unrealistic missionary living anyways.Also I've come to notice that ALL of the men here carry the women's purses. So again go ahead and picture huge burly Russian men in tank tops and tattoos with bright pink and flowered purses over their shoulders....nice! Pretty hilarious.
Love you all so much! love hearing from you!
love your Russian Missionary
Sister Yeates

A long awaited day!

Dear wonderful Family and Friends,

We had a fabulous week:) A long awaited day finally happened! Our baptism date with Natalia was confirmed! She was baptized on the 29th of June. It was just such an incredible experience! President and Sister Clark came too and really just made it such a special day for her. She was just glowing the entire time and her little 6 year old girl was so excited and happy the entire time. Asking all these questions and wanting to get baptized too! We had to explain (well sister boud did) that she can when she's 8! She was so excited and talks about it constantly. Just so incredible. I made banana bread for the baptism and it turned out really yummy! (i definitely prayed SO hard that it wouldn't burn). The members were impressed, like they didn't think Americans could cook or something, super funny:) The next day in church Natalia recieved the Holy Ghost, even though the blessings were in Russian and I didn't really understand everything, the Spirit was so strong. A huge testimony builder to me that God's power is everywhere and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the same and true church no matter where in the world it may be.

Well it is the week of fourth of July! A favorite holiday of mine! I was feeling all happy deciding to wear red white and blue on thursday thinking everyone will know we are Americans because of our representing colors. Then I remembered that Russia's colors are red white and blue also....awkward! But it's perfect because now I can represent the two places I love!

There were HUGE thunder and lightning storms this week! The weather has been VERY humid and hot, perfect for storms. They are just my favorite! But it pours rain here and the roads are flooded in only an hour!

We again had our lovely hours of service this week! half of my arms are very tan and I have white hands from wearing gloves all the time! The lady we do service for is so amazing! But she insists on us finishing what she wants before we leave so we can be there for over four hours!!!! She's a great lady though and tells the Elders that they are learning to work like men at her house. (she picks on them all the time and then winks to the sisters and laughs at herself. HA! she's quite the character:) We love her to bits though!

I love you all so much! Hope you are all doing well and you are all always in my prayers!
love your Russian missionary

Sister Yeates

6/24/2013

Dear Family and Friends,

I just love you all! Thank you for everything and anything. Well transfer calls came this week and I found out that I get to stay in my area! I'm very happy about it. I just love and adore this little town, It's gorgeous and I don't think I can ever get enough! The ward here is incredible and made me very happy when they were relieved that we weren't leaving:) So I will be here for another 6 weeks!

This week has been just so incredible. And I am VERY happy to announce that we have a baptism date for this next week! It is for a lady who has been taking the missionary lessons for years, and now she's finally decided it is time! We are so very happy and so excited that she now gets to have this gospel as a part of her life. Her and her little 6 year old daughter will be so blessed and their lives will be forever changed.

We had the opportunity to do some dacha service again this week! Both with ladies from our ward. And They are just the greatest and refer to their dachas as their little piece of heaven. So cute. We get so much done for them and so they just love us and we always love just going and helping them out. One of the ladies is the cutest babooshka ever, her name is "vera" which means faith, and she calls the missionaries her "sweets" and her "good children", and is constantly worried about our health and happiness. She's so adorable. At her dacha we are basically converting her yard of grass and weeds, to plantable dirt, with our hands and basically sticks. It's quite fun:) And I've been getting my missionary tan on, of short sleeve tan line, major sock tan line, and watch and ring tan line. Lovely:)

This week I have been really studying "light" in the Book of Mormon. If anyone wants a topic, "light" is incredible. I just go through and highlight the word light whenever i come across it and have come to realize of it's significance in relation to Christ. for example Mosiah 16:9 it talks about "Christ being the light that can never be darkened", and so forth. It's really interesting and rewarding. The talk by President Utchdorf this last conference about light goes along perfectly with this topic and I've just loved and learned so much learning about it and focusing on something as simple as the word light. It has definitely helped me a ton with seeing what is important, and that is Christ.

I love questions! if anyone has something they would like me to talk more about or explain let me know!

I love you all and I just love being a missionary. The work is going well in Russia!!

love your Russian Missionary,

Your Russian Missionary

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I have just seen miracles. We have had more success this week than ever! There were so many people that were interested in our message, we were able to contact and meet with many less actives, and we actually got two new investigators! We were so surprised and knew that it was answers to prayers. I am loving being a missionary!

Transfer calls are this weekend! They seriously came so fast, and I am now realizing what missionaries are always talking about when they say that "time flies" on missions. Time is just so weird while serving, the days are so long and the weeks so short! I have found many opportunities already on my mission to be able to share my talents, and I am so grateful for taking the time to have talents! I have already played piano in church meetings, zone conferences and district meetings! I also had the opportunity to be in a musical group of missionaries who sang for Elder Ballard's missionary devotional (which he couldn't attend, but it was amazing anyways). I feel so lucky and privledged to be able to be useful to my mission and leaders! So I encourage all to really focus on their talents!

Some funny things i've noticed here is that all Russians have tiny dogs! like Chichiuas and palmerianians (totally spelled those wrong). So we will be walking around and there are these big, built, all tattooed up Russian men with mustaches, walking these tiny fuzz balls! It's quite hilarious. Also people here walk their cats, and most of them are shaved....not too attractive, but whatever makes them happy! One thing I just love in Russia is how important Family History is here. As you probably know, Russians are all given their fathers' first name as their middle names. So they already have family history embedded into their culture! Every Russian loves their families and feels strong connections with with ancestors! What a perfect lead in, into the gospel!

We had the opportunity to tour the Castle in our area this last week which was just really cool!
I love my area and the ward and members here are just incredible. I'm growing t to love Russia each day and loving the gospel more and more. I love you all so much and miss you! Hope you are all doing well!

Love Your Russian Missionary,

 SisterYeates