RUSSIAN WINTER HAS HIT!‏

Family! RUSSIAN WINTER HAS HIT!

It started snowing on Tuesday then melted and then started right back up on Thursday and has been snowing on and off and then at night it all freezes over and then it snows again! CRAZY! but i just love it so much! well, for now! :) This morning there was a crazy wind storm, and my companion and I got up early to run to the store to get groceries and the wind was so strong that we were sliding across the ice! Kinda crazy. So all the sidewalks and parking lots and roads that were slush are now ice, pretty dangerous but I guess the people are used to it here. It is my absolute favorite time right now:) Christmas month! And here everyone wears snow clothes all day everyday or huge fur coats, which i actually think are really cool. The little kids are my favorite though. They are walking around in their huge snow clothes like penguins and can't really move, hahaha it is the funniest thing to watch ever. And the little girls wear these hats that are like beanies but with a puff ball on the top that is bigger than their entire head!! Pretty much the cutest thing i have ever seen in my life. And it's real fur! well, i am pretty sure all the fur in Russia is real. Also the children are pulled around in sleds by their parents instead of in strollers! so brilliant, and the kids just love it!

Thanksgiving was good! I hope you all had wonderful celebrations! We actually had a little branch party and i made carrot cake and pumpkin pie! (well, we thought it was a pumpkin, we are pretty sure it was a squash, but hey it turned out really great!) we also had potatoes and gravy, vegetables and squash, cornbread and cranberries. It turned out really well haha and everything was made from scratch, we were all really scared but it was better than we thought. :) We had a cooking party to prepare and listened to some nice Beethoven which has become my most favorite music! We have yet to find the nutcracker though. it's a great contacting tool since Russians love classical music and are very impressed that we do too! also, funny story. so the elders were in charge of bringing the turkey. and they got instructions from the other sisters how to make it and such, so they showed up and the turkey was tiny and the other sisters were all confused and just laughed at it. then AFTER the party, once all the Russians had made fun of the turkey that they had made the elders announced that it was GOOSE, cause they couldn't find a turkey! WHAT! oh my word it was actually hilarious to see the sister's faces who ate it. hahahaha so gross.

One really thing that has been cool here is that the sky is so clear at night. so we can go star gazing at 5 p.m. cause it is so dark! So that is when we go out to do missionary work at night too is from 6-9 so not only is it absolutely freezing but we are traveling in the dark. And it doesn't really help that many of the streets here are not lit. I have become a pro at navigating in the dark though, so it is a really fun experience.

Transfer calls are THIS SATURDAY! seriously this transfer has flown by. We didn't even realize it until we were planning for this week and it caught us and we had a little bit of freaking out. We call home in 23 days! That is so strange too. I am so excited though!

The work is going well! It is still rough in this area, there is a lot of hardships especially in the branch. We are in a branch where everyone moves away into the city. So it's been left! It seriously is so sad but we are doing all that we can to find people to strengthen the ward! So this transfer has been LOTS of tracting and contacting. In the snow it is a bit difficult but we just need faith to find and it will all work out!

I love you all so much! Sorry for not being as good as i should be at writing! I will be better! Know that you are all so important to me and that i miss and love you all!

love, sister Gigi Yeates