GOD BE WITH YOU! 6/23/14

“God be with you till we meet again; by his counsels guide uphold you; with his sheep

securely fold you. Till we meet at Jesus’ feet, God be with you till we meet again.” 

Hymn #152

Dear Family,

That was the title of President C email this week. Honestly a bit heart breaking! Ahh it is just so unreal that they are leaving home this week! Us, as missionaries, are all a bit nervous! The new president will be incredible though, they also come the end of this week and so President will have a one hour meeting with them before they leave home. THAT IS IT! i guess that is how it always is, a hello and then goodbye! just a bit stressful....! There were so many goodbyes this week! investigators and members all leaving on vacations and such until the fall! most of them will still be gone when i leave, so sad! I am not a fan of goodbyes. But it comforts me to know that i will see them all again someday.

This week went so fast, the weeks seem to fly faster and faster as i near the finish line. millions of emotions as well. We met this new young guy who was interested in English and he is just so cool! he speaks very good English so it was fun to be a missionary in English! super awkward but luckily i could say have the things in Russian and he understood them:) we are hoping that he will maybe become a new investigator!

when we were in a store the other day we ran into this man who spoke English and actually came up and started talking to me (he said we had "awesome clothes" and that we looked like librarians....thanks?). He spoke English and was asking where we were from and what we were doing here and such. I started starting about the gospel and came to know that he was from a satanic church.....ummmm so i just started bearing my testimony of the true church of Christ and how it has changed my life and my family and everything we believe. It was such an incredible experience to me and a learning experience of the power of testimonies. As i was testifying it was so cool to see his face go from a mocking smile to understatement and respect when he realized that i was serious. He left with a pamphlet an invitation and a promise of the joy he will feel and a better happier and more fulfilling life he can have if he wants to learn more. :) I seriously love moments like that, working with the Spirit really changes everything!

We had a relief society activity this week as well. One of the sisters taught us how to make beautiful real flower bouquets! seriously so fun and a great time to bond with all of the sisters!

Well i love you all! I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary. WHAT A WONDERFUL CALLING IT IS:) I know God lives, and he loves us more than we can ever understand. I know that The Lord Jesus Christ is our Redeemer; through Him anything is possible, and we can find rest and peace in his arms. 

I love you all so much!

Love your Russian Missionary

HELLO EVERYONE!‏ 6/16/14

Dear Family!

this week. what even happened it flew by so fast! I will go by day so i can

remember better!

first off HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!! especially to my dad! i love you so much! you are such a huge example to me and i am so lucky to have a dad like you! 

sunday- my companion sister A was actually super sick so we were grounded

home all day! pretty weird and we were feeling so guilty and trying to find things

to do all day but we had no choice really. we even got calls from some members

who were checking up on us, so sweet! family away from home:)

saturday- we went to the hermitage in the morning. seriously hermitage service is one of the

highlights of my week. SO HILARIOUS. although some people are super rude and 

immature i always walk away feeling so good that my english is "perfect and without an 

accent" thank you british people! although i wish i had a britist accent! :) it was on the

way home that sister A started feeling sick and so we were in for the night as well.

Thursday and Friday- we had splits with the sisters in center area. SUPER FUN especially because i was on splits with sister C from the MTC! ohh good times. super weird that 

we hadn't "served" with eachother even in the same zone or anything for over a year! we had some sweet catching up and had a great time working together. we went to babooshka N with a member and taught her about the holy ghost. it was a super good lesson and she is excited and ready for baptism on the 5th of july!

wednesday- we really go to babooshka N almost everyday. she is really old and lives alone which is hard. so we are practically her daughters and help her with everything and anything. she loves us and she is our russian babooshka! :) we made her this poster with pictures of Christ on it and scriptures and her baptismal date and we were putting it up in her house and i was able to put it right over the russian icons....oops;) it was perfect! a lot of russians even if they don't "use" the icons they have them up everywhere because they are so russian and are "culture". funny russians.

we also had english group tonight and it was so funny because one eternal investigator came and brought these printed verses of the book of mormon and was having us "translate them into modern English".....i guess he is trying to memorize the entire book of Mormon in English...he has the first 16 chapters down already. pretty impressive.

Tuesday we taught N again. this time about the 10 commandments. she agreed to live everything and is getting more and more excited to enter into a sacred covenant with her Heavenly Father! she still believes that all churches are special and are of God, and we agree with her and explain that only one has the priesthood authority though. She needs to grasp that a little better.

We had district meeting finally since the last weeks we had zone conference and such. we had a getting to know you where we brought pictures and such. a good time to really unify our district since sometimes we feel like strangers! and we can't feel that way if we are all in the same work together!

Monday we taught a member about the 12 tribes of Israel. she is from the tribe of Naphtali? okay sorry i have no idea how to spell that. I love finding out people's tribes:) one amazing thing about Russia is that there are so many different ones here! we are gathering the lost tribes! :) i have learned so much about topics like the 12 tribes that i had never even really paid attention to before! so cool and such a blessing!

I love you all so much! this week was great and we are expecting next week to be even better! things are about to get a little stressful because our loved President and Sister Clark are leaving home! :( it is really hard and super sad because we love them so much. the new president sounds awesome though and so we are going to be meeting him and such over the next couple weeks. we are all a bit nervous. we feel like we are getting new parents! really hard and uncomfortable but i am sure the Clarks feel the same way, giving their "kids" up. it'll be really good though and the new president will be amazing. the mission is only going to continue to grow and become better and better!

i love you all! thank you for everything and your love and support through letters!

Love, sister Yeates

The fun goes on !‏ 6/9/14

Dear Family! 

What a wonderful week we had! Time is so strange on the mission. It flies and drags:)

We had zone conference this last week on tuesday and it was really awesome! I always love it when all of the missionaries in zones get together and can build eachother up and help support and learn how we can do this work better! This last one was a bit different than the other ones because President had it be more of  a question and answer meeting where we could all join in and address concerns and get advice. It was really helpful and turned out really well. ALSO! it was President and Sister Clarks last zone conference! super sad actually and so they did a "open the window" moment for an hour and just guess what they talked about....MARRIAGE! so ending interviews are pretty big as a missionary where your president does a big dinner and you have a long interview and get tips and advice and such. and so since they weren't going to be here and the new president will be really new they gave us a bit of the night! it was SO WEIRD but so cool. there were a lot of things that they talked about that were actually super helpful and great. Us missionaries were all super weirded out since that is the biggest no no of a mission hahaha but we all loved it. President and sister clark are like our parents so it was an awesome gift.

this last sunday was cool, there was a huge fireside given for investigators and new converts in the young single adult group by the clarks. it was the same kind of "tools for a happy marriage, family, and life" deal. Sister A and i actually went over to the C who are the senior couple in the office. they are the best! they fed us lunch and it was so awesome cause it felt like a bit of home:) senior couples seriously MAKE missions:) they are the best EVER! we love them all so much.

This week was a bit harder with investigators. N couldn't meet all week and then she was going to come to church, and didn't and was for sure going to be at the fireside that the Clarks held but then wasn't....really disappointing actually. I've been realizing lately that a lot of things are out of my control, like peoples free agency of course, and it's really been dragging on me. But i know they are in the hands of Heavenly Father so we just need to be patient and ready to listen to the Spirit to know what to do. I was so happy when i heard that S and D and S's friend O went to the fireside! They weren't sure they were going to go so we were super glad that they did.

Sister A and i are really having an amazing time here together. It has already been so much fun already and we are learning to work really well together, it wasn't a hard transition at all! we just are really good friends and are wanting to be really good missionaries. 

We had ward counsel this last Sunday and like always it was pretty tense. The contention really gets old. Especially when it is just from the same people over and over again. AHH! other good skills we are learning as missionaries though, how to work with all sorts of people! 

our investigators are doing well! we actually met this really awesome guy named N who we found on old English potentials list. he came to English and is pretty much fluent, we chatted and i ended up in a full on gospel conversation with him. He is SO COOL! it was amazing how easily the conversation came and pretty soon i was inviting him to church and to meet with us. he is pretty much set on his own theories but agreed to meet and talk about it. He doesn't "get" church and other things religious people do but he is really awesome and i see a lot of potential. He is younger and is married YAY FAMILIES! he actually left this last Saturday night on a business trip for two weeks which is a bummer but i am just so glad that we met him! God definitely has something great in store for him!

oh! so i heard that there is a YouTube video out there that is TO DIE FOR HILARIOUS! if you haven't already go find the prophets voice peanut butter cups video. i don't know exactly what it is called but i guess it is people talking about peanut butter cups but using the speech patterns and diction of the apostles....it's totally harmless but sounds super funny:) 

love you all so much! love hearing from you and miss you all the time!

love, Sister Yeates

WELL HELLO !‏ 6/2/14

Sweet Sweet P-day:) 

I am SO PROUD of my little angel brother Milton! I am so happy and heard that his baptism was just amazing! All clean and pure! and now an official member of the church:) Welcome little brother! I was thinking about you all yesterday and today!

What a wonderful joy filled but hard week. A big lesson to me of the blessings

of the gospel and how frustrating free agency is! but we all have it for a reason.

It is one of the biggest blessings from God, to choose and learn from those decisions we make everyday! That's what this life is all about! Live and learn and prepare to enter into the presence of God again:)

Fast Sunday is probably my favorite day of the month. Such an incredible opportunity to focus and consecrate. As a missionary i have come to love and treasure this special opportunity. 

Oh! This last Thursday after transfer meeting on Wednesday we had a special guest! Bishop Gerald Causse was here! he gave a fireside to the missionaries and it was just so amazing!!!

Our investigators and new converts, members and less actives are all doing well, progressing and feeling the love of God in their lives. We have been meeting tons of new people and finding new topics to teach as the well loved conference ensign has come out. Wow i have never loved conference so much in my entire life! It is so amazing! I am going through and reading all of the talks again and i learn something every time! They are just like the scriptures, the word of God through his servants:) TREASURE THEM!

S and her friend O (not a member) came to church on Sunday which was really awesome. We were talking to O and she sounds like she is really sincerely interested in the gospel and what it has in store for her. S has definitely been a good example to her and that is huge because it is making S be more responsible and attentive in church:)

Babushka N also came to church and she said she loved it! All of the members basically know her now and so they were all greeting her. I was by her side basically the entire meeting so i could repeat the questions and such extra loudly :) it was great. during gospel principles we talked about the holy ghost and she really loved that. she

had lots of good questions and at the end of the class she announced that she is going to be baptized on the 5th of July( the date we set for her) we were thrilled! Since she still was iffy about the whole thing. Then after the class she continued to tell everyone she saw that she is getting baptized! it was so amazing and i was so proud of her! Finally she feels comfort and peace with the decision....7 years after first meeting the missionaries! WOO! some souls take a bit longer than others:) 

Sister A and i are doing awesome! we are loving serving together and really have hit it off doing all that we can to help this area. We are getting back in touch with our ward mission leader because we want to help him fulfill his calling more which will be worth it; even if he is difficult. I figure that it is a trial for our good! and his of course.

N is doing well we are planning to meet with her this next week. She couldn't make it to church but let us know that she was aware that she missed and will meet this week. We also met with T this last week and did the tripod lesson with him which he really liked. committed him to come to church but his phone died so he missed the wake up call....we'll work on that one more.

i love you all so much! i am so happy to know each and everyone of you and you are all some of the biggest blessings in my life! I treasure each of you! :)

from Russia with LOVE!

- sister Yeates

FAMILY! 5/24/14

Dear Family!

Transfer calls came this last week and i am staying in NEV again! Kinda bummed but

super excited too cause i know that this is a little bit of the vineyard that i need to be in
right now! sadly sister K and i are saying goodbye and i get to be companions with sister

A who actually already served in the same area with me before and we've become really
good friends! i am so excited! I feel like i will finish up my mission here. Sad how time is
going so fast but i try to look at everything with a positive outlook:) makes life so much

easier!

I love you all so much! hope memorial day was well celebrated and a good family day!

Good luck to my baby brother Milton who will be getting baptized this Sunday! Milton i am
so proud of you and i love you so much!

This last Saturday was really crazy but super fun! we put on a ward picnic which turned
out really well and we had so much fun! such a good bonding time for the ward!

also we served at the hermitage and it was ACTUALLY cat day! apparently last time it
wasn't actually it. all the basements were opened at the hermitage and there were huge

tours of the tunnels where hundreds of cats live! so fun! super funny to see people coming

from all over to take pictures of these cats and getting all excited when they see one when
they most likely have one on their couch at home:) love Russia:)

at the hermitage they also had a scavenger hunt for kids where they look for paintings

with cats or dogs in it and they get prizes and such. super cute and fun to keep even the
little kids entertained in a huge museum!

the weather is super humid and hot right now! we can walk around in short sleeves and it
is so nice!

All of our investigators and members are doing well! hard at this time since they are all at

their dachas for months at a time but we are meeting new people everyday and it is really so

amazing! i love being a missionary and serving in Russia really is the best:)

this week i read a ton in the new June 2014 ensign and there was tons on media! it
was so cool to read and a good reminder to me! sadly media ruins tons of relationships
everywhere and it is so important to strengthen family bonds and just turn it off more!

having a huge break from media has actually been a huge blessing. i have realized that

media really isn't that important, and that the things i treasure most don't come from out of
a screen:) (besides emails from family on pday...:) )

i love you all and encourage you to read those articles! they are great reminders!

thank you all for your amazing support and love! you are all so amazing and huge examples
to me!

keep up the amazing work!

love sister yeates

SUNNY DAYS FINALLY! ‏ 5/19/14

Dear Family!

What a wonderful week! From the weather to finding and meeting new

people it was all so wonderful! Starting at the beginning of this week

we met a new investigator S and he is just awesome! He is going through

a lot of things in his life and he wants to change his life around.He works two days on and two days off so we are going to be meeting with him and helping him turn his life around! 

We also helped and met a girl L from Finland! She was completely lost and this was her first time in Russia so we helped her around and got her information to give to the missionaries in Finland! She was just awesome and we don't count her trip and getting lost as a mistake! she was just amazing and was really interested in the gospel and what we believe in. Service really goes a long ways:)

We had babushka N and N and S at church yesterday! and S brought her friend Who was so cute and might be interested in the gospel! We are so proud of our new converts being missionaries! The entire meeting S was explaining everything to O and helping her understand! We were so happy and so proud of her! they even stayed all three hours! Miracles:)

We are going to be having a ward picnic this Saturday which we are really excited about! This will be a great opportunity to help strengthen the ward and get less actives back and for all to invite their friends! Activities really do a lot i feel like. Help bond and make everyone friends in the ward! We need to be doing more because a lot of the members don't even really know each other, and it is hard to be a united church family if we are all strangers! so we are bringing the love and light into our ward.

We are doing better at talking to people! I feel like this week as we've been trying to open our mouths more we've been rejected more but i think it's just the walls we need to get through:) Sharing the gospel isn't easy sometimes but it is SO worth it:)

I feel like every week we have new rules and standards of excellence! a bit overwhelming actually but it pushes us to be better which can never be too awful.

The weather is SO NICE! right now it is hot and humid! The big river (Neva river) that runs through all of St. Petersburg is right now full of cruise boats! To take a nice river cruise! they are HUGE! the summer is so fun! The parks are all full of everyone tanning and playing and just loving life! 

This last  Saturday we had a baptism in our ward! the elder's investigator Sh she is so awesome and super strong! She is going to be so great for our ward!

This last Sunday we had an awesome lesson about burdens. That has seemed to be the theme of my studying lately as i have been going through things myself, my companion has been having trials and our investigators too. Turns out, no matter how hard the burden, they are blessings:)

i loved a story given ( it was in Russian so i will sum it up as well as i can). There was a man that was given a cross to carry up this huge mountain, along the way it got heavier and heavier and he was discouraged and complaining. Satan came to him and told him to just cut off a little of the cross and it will be lighter to carry, the man reasoned that it wouldn't hurt to just take off a couple inches and so he sawed them off. he continued his journey and he again stopped, complaining and arguing, again Satan tempted him to take just a bit more off and the man did so, thinking what is the difference of a couple inches. when he reached the top of the mountain he came to a huge cliff; on the other side was the kingdom of God and the cross which he bore was to be used as the bridge to the other side. As he stood there on the opposite side of the Kingdom he realized that his cross wouldn't be able to reach the other side, it was too short.

there is the rough version of that story, i think i got the point across though. As hard as it is sometimes we need to look for the blessings in our trials. we need to "endure them well and then God shall exhort thee on high". i have such a huge testimony of this! Heavenly Father knows exactly what we can and can't handle. better than we ourselves know. Trust HIM. We were never told this life was going to be easy, we were told that it was going to be worth it. And it is, the ultimate goal of this life is to get back into the presence of our loving Heavenly Father, to be united with our families for eternity. Don't let the trials in life cloud the view of eternity. This is something we are teaching our investigators and the more we teach it the more i learn it and start really understanding and adapting it into my life.

we live in a hard but GLORIOUS time:) we were all given these lives because He knows we are strong enough to live them:)

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

love your Russian Missionary!

Sister Yeates

5/12/14 Hello Family!

Dear Family! 

Well I love and miss you to the moon and back at least five billion times:)

WE GOT TO SKYPE YESTERDAY! And to what I thought would be all tears

(like Christmas was) ended up just being the perfect dose! Although I wish I had

a few hours! not just 30 minutes! Time flew but I was so grateful to say hi! Even saw

Baby Olivia!!!! yes...i love technology...:). 

This last week was awesome! Well, hard but great anyways! It was VICTORY DAY on the 9th which was HUGE! as missionaries we actually weren't allowed at all into the center

city because it was super dangerous. LOTS LOTS LOTS of drunks everywhere. Not

a fan with how most people celebrate here. It was an all day/week thing and there were

decorations on every street, Russians are very proud of their victory. The coolest thing

of the day was i guess there was a parade where people could walk the streets holding 

big posters of their ancestors who had fought in the war. FAMILY HISTORY! I wish we 

could have gone and seen but it was really touching to see how much they love their family!

Mothers day was this last Sunday! just for America though since Russia has theirs in

February. Weird that there are so many different holidays!!!!

Our investigators are all doing well! J the girl i help with piano is seriously so amazing!
we have been sharing with her some Mormon messages which is cool and she is really
liking those! hopefully they will be getting more interested soon!

our babushka N has a baptismal date for the 24th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she is still praying about
it but we are so excited! the missionaries have been working with her for FIVE YEARS!

wow! some people just take a while i guess!

Time is flying and it is bittersweet! i love Russia Russians and Russian so much! the thought

of leaving is a hard one but i know it is easier to take life as it comes and be grateful for
every little moment!

Everything is going awesome here! The ward is getting better, still rough but we are doing
all we can to make everyone happy! our ward is over 90% less active.....ya, we found that
out yesterday at ward counsel. SO SAD! times get rough and people lose hope. DON'T
EVER LOSE HOPE! look for the things that are the most important in life. I know missionaries as well as members are going to be doing everything we can to help these members find the love of Christ again in their lives. We are all family and need to look out for each other! as a counsel
 we planned a ward picnic for the 24th which will be awesome for ward unity and getting everyone to become friends! and inviting friends and such! such a great opportunity!

i love hearing from all of you! you all give me so much hope and are such great examples
to me! Happy mothers day to all of you amazing mothers! i love you all!

love- sister yeates