ICE 1/20/2014

Dear Family!

Well it is currently -19 c right now. can you say FREEZING! it is freezing. i feel like i can never get warm enough!!! Sister R and i seriously put on 3 pairs of tights and leggings and then our boots and then a skirt then thermals and shirts and cardigans and sweaters and then our huge coats! and our hats and gloves! i definitely have learned to dress for the cold! and we are always getting tips and such from the babooshki:) gotta love it!

Transfer calls came to us on friday morning.....I AM LEAVING MY AREA! wow i am still in shock! i have been in my little area for 4 transfers! SIX months! and now i am finally leaving. and to the city! even bigger shock and i will have a Russian companion from moscow! I am so excited and so nervous! But that means one thing, i'm going to get amazing russian. well i hope! i am so grateful for this opportunity and will take every opportunity to reap the rewards from serving with a native! The area i am in right now is a small city, and now i am going to THE city. It's a burlington to Seattle difference. HUGE! i am so nervous but i know it will be amazing! and they have a ward there! something i haven't had in a long time! i am going to miss my little area so much. it has stolen my heart and will always have a special place in my heart:) When president called he told me that there are going to be a set of sisters there and then two sets of Elders. So that will be really cool. sisters haven't been there for a couple transfers and so i was told to make the members fall in love with the sister missionaries again! I am so excited! The mission is all changing and it is so weird but so good! i wish i could explain more!

this last sunday was my last sunday in my area. I was asked to give a talk and talked about prayer quoting from president monson's talk from the general relief society broadcast this last october. Prayer is so important and really makes all the difference in our lives. We are never alone! Bearing my testimony i actually started tearing up which was weird. but seeing the faces of those i have worked along side seriously made me so sad to leave! i love this place!

we are leaving tuesday and it still doesn't feel real to me! i'll miss it so much!

we actually had a service project this weekend where we all got together as a little branch and we made sandwhiches for a homeless shelter. Here is the funny thing though. So a sandwhich in russia is different then in america. A sandwhich consists of a piece of bread, with a slab of butter, cheese, and meat. and that's it! not even a piece of bread on the top! Cause two pieces of bread is a burger.....ya i was confused. But it was good! we mad 91 and took them to the shelter. I loved seeing the faces of the recievers. Service is so amazing! You can never get a bad feeling! Even if you have to walk for 30 minutes in the freezing snow to deliver them! :) I love service.

Oo so cool so here they actually turn the basketball courts into ice skating rinks in the winter. Crazy right! they just spray them down and then the water freezes and then people come skate! and play ice hockey! FUN! i wish that was allowed! 

the rivers are frozen solid and the trees are all frozen too. basically everything is freezing! even in the buses we can see our breath! actually because it is so humid here too when we breathe our hair and scarves get all wet from the warmth and then it freezes so we have to defrost and take the ice chunks out of our hair and scarves! OH it's an adventure! :)

I love you all so much and think and pray for you all daily! Remember Prayer! Heavenly Father is always there to listen to you and WANTS to hear from each of you! one of my favorite phrases that i use on my mission (i forgot where it is from) "When you want to talk to God, Pray. When you want God to talk to you, read the scriptures". It's so true! I've witnessed it countless of times on my mission! He loves you! I love you!

Love, Sister Yeates

Baptism 2/24/14

Dear Family!

This week was awesome! WE HAD A BAPTISM! it went so well and it was really one of those experiences
that i will never forget:) such a miracle! The program went smoothly and the Spirit was so strong! When he
got baptized he came up out of the water with a huge smile on his face and said "woa!" haha it was so cool.
And to know we helped to get him to this point where he could enter into a covenant with Heavenly Father and
be completely clean is seriously such a blessing and amazing experience. Afterwards I asked him how he felt
and he said, "i am so happy. My mind can't even understand how happy i am". And i know that happiness comes
from following the Savior! He is a changed man; and he knew and felt that. To me, that is such a huge testimony
builder that this gospel is TRUE! it changes lives and helps people come back into the presence of God! I know it.
I've seen it. And i will do everything i can to help more people come to this incredible knowledge! And the next day
in church he was confirmed and that too was such an amazing experience. He actually brought his friend too who
was so sweet and she actually became our new investigator! He is already being a missionary! We are going to
start meeting with her starting in March and she is just so special we can already tell! Miracles are happening!

 

such an amazing week! We actually had zone conference at the beginning of this week too! longest meeting of

my life but it was so good and uplifting! it started at 8:30 and we finished at 3:30with a little break for lunch. GO

MISSIONARY WORK!

this last sunday, the 23rd was also a holiday in Russia! it was men's day! where all the men in russia are celebrated!

even in church we sang a russian anthem and then sang to the men and had cake and such afterwards. so cool!

So i am thankful for all the wonderful men in my life! i love you all!!

It is bright and sunny today! it is still cold but this is the first sign of spring we have seen! we are so happy and so

ready for spring! i love my area! there are miracles happening every day!

This morning i was reading in true to the faith and i read some really cool quotes that i wanted to share!

"as a part of Heavenly Father's plan of redemption you experience adversity during mortality. Trials, disappointments,

sadness, sickness, and heartache are all a difficult part of life but they can lead to spiritual growth, refinement, and

progress as you turn your heart to the Lord" "although some of your responses to adversity will vary, one response

should be constant- your trust in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ" "When you trust in the Father and the Son you are

confident that they love you perfectly- that they want you to be happy and that they will help you grow spiritually"

I love this and it has been a great help to me! also in alma 36:6 it talks about trusting in the lord and mosiah 24 is a

wonderful example and story of a people who took this to heart!

Hard times come, but i know that they are all for our good and that we can learn from them! I loved what President

Monson said in this last conference "You are loved!!! His love never changes. It is simply always there"

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love each and every one of you! And i love you all so much as well!

Never forget to trust in the Lord! he knows us all better than we know ourselves and wants the very best for each

of us!

LOVE YOU! and miss you all!

From russia with love!

decisions

Dear Family!

What a crazy week!!! But it was oh so amazing!

There has been a decision that has come up in my mission and it was that of whether to be home a

transfer before or not. I have been praying hard about this decision becuase it is one that i definitely
don't want to mess up with. I am happy and relieved to say that I recieved an answer. After much prayer
and study I found the answer in the scriptures. 3 Nephi 13: 32-33 spoke right to my heart and answered
my question.I have found multiple times my answers in the scriptures and seriously my testimony that
Heavenly Father answers our prayers has grown so much. I know that he loves each of us, that he has
a specific plan for each of us and will be there to let us know what it is if we listen and align our lives with
His will. I know i need to stay out until august 21st. As hard it still is to know i will be sacrificing more things
I know it is what Heavenly Father wants of me. I am determined to finish my mission, and finish it strong. I
know that Heavenly Father is watching over me and is expecting me to keep to the promise i promised when
i signed up for 18 months. You are all a huge support and blessing to me thank you so much!

This week has really been such a testimony builder. Even through the trials and hardships we are finding the
miracles. We recieved 5 member presents this week! I don't think i have gotten more than two in a
week my entire mission! :) So that in and of itself was just a miracle to me!
The ward is doing better. I feel like we are getting a better relationship with most of them. Of course it's not where
we would like it to be but we will continue working and doing all that we can to help them.
I really love sister k. my companion. She is really so special and has taught me so much.

We make lots of goals and are really working well together!
Even through the hard times we are strong! we are thriving! trying to make the best out of everyday! and we are
not perfect of course but we are striving to do all that we can for this ward!
 We have a baptism this saturday that i am just so excited for. It is such a miracle and blessing and a huge step for
 our investigator.  He really is so special, and i know he is so special to Heavenly Father too.
We have been working with part member families as well and so far it's going well. i will keep you updated
about those as well.

Our building is closed which is really hard especially because we have to redo everything and move everything

around but it is good. The stake center is really fun to be at and there are THREE wards there right now! woooo!

we start

at 10 a.m. sacrament meeting was scarce as 10 on a sunday is VERY EARLY for our lovely Russian people.

But we had an awesome investigator come to church and it looked like he really enjoyed all the meetings so we

will see what happens with him! I am pianist for the ward now basically. i play for sacrament meeting, sunday

school and relief society. Heavenly Father is giving me LOTS of opportunities to share my talents which i am so

grateful for!

HAHAH fun fact about russians. i am learning so much more since i have a russian companion. They drink juice

like it is water here:) haha which makes sense becuase the water is dirty and not okay to drink unless you have

'a filter. but they just down gallons!!!!! sad cause most of them have no teeth! :/ also my companion eats jam like

pudding. just with a spoon and loves it so much! hahaha she is so hilarious:) and she is actually vegan! so that

has been fun as well! i love her so much!

i love you all! hope all is well! you are all in my prayers!

love, sister Yeates

family 2/10/14

Dearest Family!

 

This week was just awesome! SO many miracles happened!

For one.. WE HAVE BAPTISIMAL DATE for the 22nd of FEB!

we are seriously so excited! and it was on a first lesson!We were getting to know him and just

 going over why we were meeting and such and hhe asked us when he could

be baptized! MIRACLE! he has been meeting with the missionaries for a year and now

he is ready! so cool! Also we called up a potential from a couple months ago that

other missionaries had contacted and we met with him and he became a new investigator!

Seriously this week has just been amazing!

So after our heat stopped working this week we called and it was sort of fixed. but the

next day our oven blew out! LIKE SPARKS! and we had no power and it was crazy.

Anyways so we were hungry and ended up cooking spaghetti in our chinek...like an

electric tea pot. so that was fun and it turned out aweseome:) haha only in russia:)

This last sunday was awesome! The members are warming up a lot more to us and we

are able to work with them more which is such a blessing cuase missionary work is

really difficult without supportive members! I also played the piano in church for basically

all meetings besides priesthood of course. That's exciting, and it's keeps me in practice!

We heard super sad news though! our ward building here in this area is going to be closed!

i guess there is a huge rat problem in the basement and so they need to close and fix it.

which creates HUGE problems cause we used the building a lot for english group and for

lessons and church of course and for activities and such. really going to be hard without it.

now everyone has to go to the stake center which is really out of the way. hopefully everything

will be good and work out smoothly.

We had hermitage service this last saturday which is always really fun. haha it is really fun to

guess where people are from too. the americans are really easy to spot out. We met two

americans that called us out! they are members from provo and were traveling through to the

olympics!(lucky ducks!) anyways so they chatted with us for a bit and then got a picture with

us which was fun. so weird to have a conversation in normal english. haha but they were super

nice one of them served his mission in samaria and the other in paris. They asked for tips and

good places to go and then we told them where to go to church too. Then a couple minutes later

we met some more mormons from utah also traveling to the olympics! so weird to be called out

as sister missionaries in english.

I love my mission so much! There are so many miracles EVERY DAY! i love you all and i

hope you are all doing so amazing! Time flies and i am learning to make every second,

every day count:)!

from russia with love!

Sister Yeates

HEY!!! 2/03/2014

Dear family!

one hundred apologies for not writing last week! It was a bit crazy and had to do with a....

lovely Russian man who would not stop talking to me about America while i was emailing!

i have to admit i was a bit frustrated cause email is sacred time!!! haha okay no but i was

really distracted! 

ANYWAYS! my area! amazing. I love it so much. It is so different from the small town

cities i was in before! in a good way though. there is always so much to do and so many

people to talk to and we see miracles everyday!! so where i am serving there is a ward!

so cool and i feel so lucky to be able to serve in a ward again. i really love it! It was hard

because we got a bit of a cold shoulder welcome from the ward. So we prayed a lot and 

tried to figure what to do to strengthen this ward more and get a better relationship with the

members and we received answer after answer to our prayers. PRAYER WORKS! Heavenly

Father is always on our side! Anyways so this last week we have been working with the members

and have gotten great relationships with some of them and they are trusting us and helping us

more and more! such a blessing! seriously missionary work without members is so hard! and

so we have to work together! 

so there was a rule that we couldn't use transport from 8-10 in the morning and then from 5-8 

at night due to crazy things happening because of the Olympics so that made it super hard

to get lots of meetings! but now it has settled down and it is allowed again! so happy!

we are meeting and working with lots of people now and there are just so many miracles!

here in the city we get to do service.....wait for it....at the HERMITAGE! ya it is more than

amazing! seriously so gorgeous! i will be sure to take lots of pictures to show:) we are

the welcoming volunteers and tell people to take off their bags and coats and put them in

the cloakroom. ya you would think that that is boring but i actually really enjoy it. there are

SO many people all the time so it is so fun just to watch and chat with people!

 there are totally English speakers cause people come from all over the world so it is fun to talk to them. 

2 weeks ago on the 25th of January was a very special celebration for Russia. it was the day the

blockade ended in Russia. oh my word i had no idea what this holiday really even meant until

i heard the stories of the veterans and such. so incredibly sad. wow. these people are so strong.

and many of the veterans are obviously still living but they were only in their toddler years so they

remember only so much. seriously unbelievable. anyways so there was a ward party for that and

we invited lots of people who came. 

The weather. REALLY COLD! it is actually super funny cause in Russia when it is sunny and blue

skies we are super bummed and sad cause that means that it is FREEZING! cause no clouds

which means they can't hold in the warm air. and when it is cloudy and snowing we are so 

pumped because that means it is warmer! ..weird huh! only in Russia ahha.

Anyways that is what's going on right now! we are actually going to go and play in the inner city

and such today which should be really fun! 

my companion is awesome i love her so much and we just bonded super easily so that makes

it all the better!

i love you so much! i was reading in the end of mosiah this morning and i LOVE the story 

of Alma the younger. he is one of my heroes:) It is so cool to see the "other end" of the 

prayers of the righteous. in this story that being the angel who came to Alma the younger

and told him to repent and the reason he was doing so was so the prayers of Alma's righteous

father Alma could be answered. SO COOL! i love this story! mosiah 27 ish.

LOVE YOU ALL TONS AND LOVE HEARING FROM YOU!

from Russia with love!

sister yeates

Family

Dear Family!

This week was awesome! WE HAD A BAPTISM! it went so well and it was really one of those experiences
that i will never forget:) such a miracle! The program went smoothly and the Spirit was so strong! When he
got baptized he came up out of the water with a huge smile on his face and said "woa!" haha it was so cool.
And to know we helped to get him to this point where he could enter into a covenant with Heavenly Father and
be completely clean is seriously such a blessing and amazing experience. Afterwards I asked him how he felt
and he said, "i am so happy. My mind can't even understand how happy i am". And i know that happiness comes
from following the Savior! He is a changed man; and he knew and felt that. To me, that is such a huge testimony
builder that this gospel is TRUE! it changes lives and helps people come back into the presence of God! I know it.
I've seen it. And i will do everything i can to help more people come to this incredible knowledge! And the next day
in church he was confirmed and that too was such an amazing experience. He actually brought his friend too who
was so sweet and she actually became our new investigator! He is already being a missionary! We are going to
start meeting with her starting in March and she is just so special we can already tell! Miracles are happening!

 

such an amazing week! We actually had zone conference at the beginning of this week too! longest meeting of

my life but it was so good and uplifting! it started at 8:30 and we finished at 3:30with a little break for lunch. GO

MISSIONARY WORK!

this last sunday, the 23rd was also a holiday in Russia! it was men's day! where all the men in russia are celebrated!

even in church we sang a russian anthem and then sang to the men and had cake and such afterwards. so cool!

So i am thankful for all the wonderful men in my life! i love you all!!

It is bright and sunny today! it is still cold but this is the first sign of spring we have seen! we are so happy and so

ready for spring! i love my area! there are miracles happening every day!

This morning i was reading in true to the faith and i read some really cool quotes that i wanted to share!

"as a part of Heavenly Father's plan of redemption you experience adversity during mortality. Trials, disappointments,

sadness, sickness, and heartache are all a difficult part of life but they can lead to spiritual growth, refinement, and

progress as you turn your heart to the Lord" "although some of your responses to adversity will vary, one response

should be constant- your trust in Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ" "When you trust in the Father and the Son you are

confident that they love you perfectly- that they want you to be happy and that they will help you grow spiritually"

I love this and it has been a great help to me! also in alma 36:6 it talks about trusting in the lord and mosiah 24 is a

wonderful example and story of a people who took this to heart!

Hard times come, but i know that they are all for our good and that we can learn from them! I loved what President

Monson said in this last conference "You are loved!!! His love never changes. It is simply always there"

Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love each and every one of you! And i love you all so much as well!

Never forget to trust in the Lord! he knows us all better than we know ourselves and wants the very best for each

of us!

LOVE YOU! and miss you all!

From russia with love!

Sister Yeates

GOODBYE TEENS‏

Dear Family!

I love you all so much! Seriously thank you for the early birthday wishes! I am actually really excited to turn 20! I do feel so old though:) My last week of being 19! Time has seriously flown! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2014, year of the horse! if you all wanted to know. Russians actually

love that kind of thing. They have horse everything, seriously everything. It's hilarious. they also

are very into the whole "birthday star constellation" thing. i actually have forgotten mine at the 

moment. great contacting tool for today! haha.

New Years was crazy! more fireworks then i have ever seen or heard in one week in my life! They

were non stop new years eve and day and are still going off this whole week. In Russia new years

and Russian Christmas are looped into one huge holiday. people are off work for 2 weeks and everything is a bit crazy! we stay obedient and safe though. we had to be inside by 5pm on new years eve and so we had crepes (known as blini) and just relaxed a bit. Outside was NUTS! 

The new year is now here and everyone is making new goals and such! such a great opportunity to restart! 

Since it is a new year everyone in our branch got new callings and such. and since there are not 

enough members my companion and I got called to be relief society teachers for every Sunday! and since there is no presidency I just call ourselves the relief society presidents:) Very exciting! we are so excited to be able to serve even more than just missionaries!

i heard that the boundaries and everything was changed back home! good changes i hope! sounds like everything is going to be so great! 

Work is going a little slower and harder than usual because of the holidays. That has been hard and really frustrating. but we are keeping optimistic and pressing onward! 

Our mission president has given us new challenges for the new year and we will be speaking 100% Russian from 6:30am to 9:30 p.m. WOW is right! It will be hard but SO good for us to be able to learn this language better and faster! I would love your prayers as the language is rough and i need lots of work with it:) i am grateful for this challenge though! 

i love you all! hope your holidays went well! thinking and praying for you all daily! 

love, sister Yeates