HELLO! 10/14/13

Previet family and friends!

Conference was incredible! I realize that this is a little delayed because you all got to watch is last week but we just watched it this last Saturday and Sunday and it was so amazing! So powerful and such incredible talks! I really learned so much. Probably would have learned a bit more if it was in English....but gotta work with what I have :) again it was so amazing to just listen and write down feelings and spiritual promptings rather than quotes. I am still very excited to finally hear all the quotes and counsel from our leaders in English but I loved just being able to focus on my own thoughts during each talk.

This week was really great! we actually gained three more investigators just this week! there are miracles everywhere! People are coming unto Christ all the time! Maybe not as fast as others but they definitely are and the work is progressing!

Sister K and I work so well together and these last two transfers together have been so wonderful. They have been full of miracles and light. I wish I could explain everything in detail!! We really have been becoming the best of friends as well! We just celebrated our birthdays on the 10th and the 11th of this month. (we may or may not celebrate our birthdays every month, counting down the months till it is actually our birthdays). ha ha. So we just had our 3 more months till our birthdays celebration. It was quite fun and we celebrated over delicious Russian cake. Time is flying! I will be 20 in three months!

This week we did service for an investigator who really is so hilarious. Every time we go over she has us pick something up for her. From dog hair socks to pans to cabbage, we've bought it all!!! She is such a special lady we love her! She always calls us smart girls and her sweets and other "pet names" Russians use. And she was so shocked and amazed that you could "De-hair" pants using tape instead of a comb..... she praised me for the rest of the time as well as every time we see her. ha ha. Russian babushka are seriously the greatest.

We have a quote in our mission that i really love, it says "a rising tide lifts all ships". I just love that and really love how it relates to missionary work. When the announcement was made so many new missionaries responded to the call the serve, and because of that membership in the church is growing and the Lord's work is hastening! I love missionary inspiring quotes like that. And it is so amazing to be uniting together into one cause to bring others unto Christ! I love this work! And it's not only the missionaries but all of you! The members of the church are all called to be missionaries as well! We are all called to serve as Latter Day Saints! How great is our calling! Pretty incredible!

I read a verse in first nephi chapter 21 today. Verse 16 it says, "i have graven thee on the palms of my hands.." I LOVE THAT! how gorgeous are those words of the Savior. He loves us so much that He gave his life for us. And He will always remember us, we are "engraven on the palms of his hands". The marks of the nails in his palms are symbols of His love for us. He is always there for us and will never leave us. all we need to do is come unto Him. I am reminded of the picture of the savior knocking at the door with no knob. We need to open our doors to Him, because he is constantly there, knocking, calling and reaching out to us "all the day long". I know Christ lives and that He loves ALL of his children! no matter where, who, or what situation you are in. Let us remember Him, because He will never forget us!

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love your Russian missionary

A Russian Coat! 10/06/13

Dear Family and Friends!

 

The goal last pday was to find a warm coat for the winter! Since it was -2 degrees the other day I figured it would be a good time to invest in a nice warm coat! The sisters and I all went hunting at the market and oh my there were TONS! I even found out that there are wool lined heels! They have everything and anything for the cold! I found one that I really liked and bought it. It is turquoise and long and really cute! I decided to get a color because everything is so dull in the winter and standing out is always good:)! I haven't found a good fur hat yet though, so I'll see once people start wearing those more. This week was great! we were in St. Petersburg for a couple days and so we got to go on splits and help out other areas! We've really been focusing on helping less actives lately and It really is heart breaking to see people fall away and not want to come back. I know they will remember and come back though. We just need to give them so much love and support!

I'm really loving my area! It is so incredible and I've learned so much! There are so many lessons to learn on missions and I am so grateful to be where I am and be experiencing the things that I am experiencing! I love the Book of Mormon! Every time I read I gain a stronger more sure testimony of it's teachings and how blessed we are to have the words of the Lord and His prophets in our lives.

We were able to watch the women's broadcast this last Saturday night at the branch! Wow it was incredible! Even though it was in Russian I was so surprised how much I could understand! It was such an amazing experience to listen to it in Russian because I had to listen more by the spirit and write down impressions rather than word for word quotes. It definitely made me appreciate my own native language and appreciate the power of the spirit! I am excited to listen to it in English though and be able to understand more. I loved how the theme was keeping our covenants! It really reminded me of how lucky we are to be able to enter into covenants with the Lord. Covenants are so sacred and promises that help us so much. They are such blessings and it really is so incredible that we have the opportunities to make and keep our sacred covenants! I also loved how they talked about the temple and how amazing those covenants we make are also. It made me really miss the temple and see how grateful we are in America to have temples so close to us! I am so excited to go to the temple again when I get back! It was also so wonderful that President Monson spoke! It really is so powerful to hear the Prophet's voice and hear his counsel and guidance. I'm excited to hear all about conference and how it was for all of you! We will be watching conference next weekend and I am so excited! Again it will be in Russian which is hard but it's an amazing opportunity to listen to it anyways and listen to it more by the spirit! I hope we will be able to listen to it in English but we shall see! Conference is amazing and seriously a holiday to celebrate! I've learned that on my mission :) I love you all!

Love your Russian Missionary! Sister Yeates

9/30/13

Dearest Family and Friends!

 

Happy Birthday shout out to Caitlin my Sister! Happy Birthday I love you tons! 

Lots of happiness in the world today. Today was a great week! The temperature is dropping RAPIDLY! right now it feels like a Washington winter, and it's only September! I really need to get my coat soon because only so many layers of cardigans keep you warm in Russia. On Sundays the church building is colder inside than outside, so we can see our breath in sacrament meeting! so crazy! We got word that the city will be turning on the heat (which is hot water that runs through the pipes in the buildings) on September 7th, cause it's finally cold enough! AH! but it's okay we just walk briskly everywhere and run into stores or get on buses when it gets too cold. So exciting.

I heard a hilarious quote that missionaries here use and it says, "Every door knocked is a baptism in Brazil..". It's pretty funny and maybe it's a bit more funny from the missionary perspective here. ha ha! My companion and I are the best of friends! I'm going to be so sad to see her go in a couple weeks. She truly is an incredibly missionary and I hope I can be like her!

We had just miracles here this week! We went to find a less active and ended up calling the neighbor to let us in because she wasn't home. We were let in and met with the neighbor who became a new investigator! She is so amazing and really wants to know more about God and how to be saved. And of course we are more than happy to have met her! I just love finding people, and being able to help that person come to know Christ for themselves. And to be their guides in leading them back and reminding them of what they already know! So incredible. We went to another lady who was an old potential investigator. I just loved her so much. She is the mother of 22 children, no, I'm not kidding and yes, they are all hers. We met 3 out of the 22. WOW! pretty incredible. they are all grown up and most of them are moved out. She was such an intelligent woman and really interested in the gospel. She had a book of Mormon from years before but gave it away when she was in the hospital to her roommate who was interested in the book. she's not even a member and is doing missionary work! She was so sorry for giving "our" book away but we told her that we were so glad and that she could have a whole box! She was just so amazing and such a testimony builder that ANYONE can be a missionary. We hope to be meeting with her more and maybe some of her children as well!

This week I was reading in Alma and I just love Alma 31-Alma 40. Such amazing chapters! They are definitely worth reading over and over again. I found some other quotes this week that i really loved. one was in preach my gospel and it says "Your calling gives your authority, keeping your covenants gives you power". Such a powerful and amazing quote. I love how it puts that, and really explains how important our covenants we have made with our Heavenly Father are. Obedience and being worthy are really so important and are what make us stronger and grow our faith and strength in the gospel. Another quote was from Brigham Young in President Utchdorf's talk in this months ensign and it says "every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation". Such a testimony builder on how much Heavenly Father loves us and he is ALWAYS there for us through it all. That quote has helped me look for the positive things and lessons learned from my trials. Big or small, there are always lessons to learn and strength to build.

I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!

Love your Russian Missionary

Getting cold!! 9/24/13

Hey Family and Friends!

First things first, Happy Birthday to my Mum! I love you so much and miss you everyday! I hope you have the most wonderful birthday and know that my companion and I will be

celebrating for you big time here:) You are the best Mum I could ever ask for and I love you so much!

Transfer calls came and went last week, sorry for failing to spread the news. I GET TO STAY IN PSKOV! I am so incredibly excited! And i get to finish out Sister Kefalas's mission!

She is so amazing and I am so glad that I get to send her home! well not for the sending home part but I get to be her last companion, It's bittersweet. This week wasn't too eventful,

I got super sick and so we had to stay in a couple days. Definitely not fun at all and not being able to go out was killing me everyday!

The weather has been getting REALLY cold lately. It's been raining a ton, so we are in coats and rain boots with our umbrellas almost everyday. The Russian winter is coming! It

sounds dreadful and scary but I hear it is absolutely breathtaking and gorgeous as well! I'm definitely going to be needing to get my big fur coat and hat here soon!

The babushkas here wear at least 3546543646 layers of clothing and will yell at us if they see that we aren't as bundled up as they are. They are so funny.

All the babies here are starting to wear snow suits here too, that is the usual dress for the winters here. They just look like bundles of clothes with stacks of blankets on top of them 

in the strollers. The only visible skin are their little chubby faces, it's quite adorable. I guess in the winter all of their baby buggies have little skis that they replace the wheels with.

Pretty smart!

I don't have too much to tell about this week because we just got to email this last Wednesday because our p-day was changed! But I shall have more to write for next week for sure!

I was reading in first John this week and fell in love with chapter four. It's all about the love of God, all should go and read it. We are so lucky to have a God that loves us so incredibly

much, and we are commanded to love others, just like he loves us. I love one of the last verses in that chapter when it talks about how "perfect love casteth out all fear". Such a beautiful

line and so true! I love you ALL so much! Thank you for your constant prayers and emails!

Love your Russian Missionary

9/18/13

Dear Family and Friends,

 

Happy Birthday shout out for Lizzie who is now 17!!! woohoo love you so much girlie!

I did get my package! thank you all for your prayers and efforts! It actually was really fast too! I got it in a little under 3 weeks! which is so fast for a package coming here, I'm sure the angels were carrying it for me! I love you all so much thank you so much again! my sour cravings are definitely satisfied!

So there are new rules for emailing so i won't be as detailed as I would like but I will do my best:) I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! sorry this letter is a few days late! We were able to go to St. Petersburg for a mission devotional given by Elder Evans who is over the missionary department of the church, pretty incredible that our mission was chosen out of all the missions in the world! We learned so much on how to be more powerful, and effective missionaries! Always good things to learn:) So going all the way back to last monday night our district (2 sets of sisters and a set of elders) went to zone conference in Novgrod. Weird to actually have a zone now because in my previous area we were our own zone and district! That was really fun and cool to see new areas. I did take pictures but they will be on a lovely long slide show when i return now! We had great lessons this week, one funny thing was I played a hymn for one of our investigators and my companion sang and after we were done she said that I had the hands of an angel and my companion had the voice of an angel, haha it was so cute. Missionary work is challenging here but I know that every bit counts and is worth it to our Heavenly Father! He loves us all so much! On wednesday we had a little adventure. We were walking to church and there was a huge tree in front of the church building and a cat stuck at the top of it! (I don't know why I find all these cats always in distress!) Anyways so of course we had to help it! there were some young boys at the foot of the tree trying to climb it and get their cat down. It was a pretty high tree so we got the ladder from the church. As a sister in a skirt i for sure couldn't climb it, and there was starting to be a bit of a crowd that had gathered all talking about how the cat was "a house cat and shouldn't know how to climb trees". Finally the Elders came and one of them who is ukrainian ended up climbing the tree which was pretty tricky because the branches were all spread out and not super thick. The entire time he was in the tree the old babooshkas (grandmas) that were there were yelling "don't let the cat fall" "dont let the boy fall" over and over again. They only stopped once the cat and elder were down from the tree. Everyone didn't clap as i would have expected, but more of nodded in approval and walked off. haha it was pretty hilarious! 

There are weddings all over and have been all over the last few months! And i'm starting to see and pick up on the traditions they do. There are always lines of cars which are the wedding party and everyone honks at them for good luck. They always go and take pictures by the eternal flame which is in every town and city here. They have wedding bread which are these huge fancy gorgeous round breads and the whole thing just looks so fun and exciting. My companion and I have to try really hard not to just run in the middle of the wedding and hand them a book of mormon or a family proclaimation haha, they probably wouldn't be too happy about that one. 

We had a miracle on sunday! saturday night we had gone looking for a man that we had met a month ago and hadn't heard anything from but had been praying for him. We returned home with no luck but continued to pray to find him because he was a very special person we could tell when we met. Then on sunday he showed up! we were stunned and so happy! seriously i know that was no accident, heavenly Father looks out for ALL of his children. Also on sunday sister and I sang in church, "i know that my redeemer lives" in russian of course. it was really cool and the spirit was so strong, i loved seeing the faces of the people there as we bore our testimony through this gorgeous song!

Then this monday and tuesday we were in ST. Petersburg and we were there for p-day so we were able to just tour around! seriously it is SO GORGEOUS! and i cannot wait to show the pictures of what I saw. We saw the hermitage and the cathedral on spilt blood and the summer gardens (where russia was dedicated for missionary service) and so many more! Russia is an absolutely beautiful place and I love it and the people more and more every day!

I am so grateful for each and every one of you! I think and pray for you all daily!

love your russian missionary

sister Yeates