But this time it was to the best place.... FINLAND!!! Okay, it's the second best place... of course home is the first.. :)
So sorry that this is late... but that's the reason. :)
HELLO!!!
I'm SO glad that everything went well with Mom's surgery! Really, I prayed so much for you, Mom, and I hope you are feeling okay!
Good luck with the house-buying. It will be interesting to come home to a new house, but I guess all the cool kids get to do it!
So this week was pretty.... amazing. Yes, I just got back from beautiful, clean, wonderful Finland yesterday. The trip back was way harsh... we had an hour flight from Finland to Moscow. Then we had a 5 hour wait until about 2:15 am when our flight was supposed to leave to Novo. But our plane was delayed until 3:55 am!! Can you believe it? So we were on that flight for about 5ish hours. Then we got to Novo and left on a 5 hour bus trip to Barnaul. You know me and I can't sleep in transports, so I was dead tired by the time I got home.
But I'll tell you about our trip:
So we stayed in this was awesome HOTEL. Usually we stay in the guest house by the temple, but it was full. When we got there we went on a ferry ride to this island that has cool caves and stuff. The caves were completely dark, so we took pictures along the way to light up our path. :) Oh and we were also eating ice cream in the cave so it made it a bit trickier.. :) Then it started to pour rain! So we got pretty wet. After that we went back to our hotel and ate. We were super tired so we went to bed.
The next morning we got a glorious continental breakfast that came with the hotel, and then we went off to the temple. Oh my goodness, the temple was ....... wonderful. I needed it so much and it was the biggest blessing to go there. What's cool is that there we have little translator machines because everything is in Finnish, and there's about 5 languages on there. Sometimes I would listen to English, and sometimes switch it to Russian. :) It's pretty cool. So after the temple we went back to the airport and started our trek home to our cities.
To be honest, I know I need to repent for this, but I had the hardest time coming back to Barnaul. I know what waited for me there.... not too much. We are so dry of investigators right now... we have some, but are having the hardest time working with them or they have no time... blah blah. And I really got quite cynical and didn't want to come back. And I also found out that I only have about 5 months left on my mission. I might have to go home a month early because of our visas. (p.s.- you might want to look into tickets and stuff if you still want to come here... and will you need any kind of visa?) So I was depressed about that and had a mini crisis.
Good thing today we had a great District Meeting and made some goals for the future of this city. We got reminded that God has a plan for these people. And I was only thinking about myself. About how hard it is and the lack of success we are seeing. But I know that if we just do our part and do our very best, God will find a way for us to find new investigators here. Even in ways that we would not expect. He truly does perform miracles, and I only have 5 months to do my part. So that was a pretty big reality check for me.
So I hope that in some future e-mails I will be able to tell more exciting news!
Mom: Thanks for such a wonderful letter! I love you so much and am so proud of who you are!! You are so wonderful, and I can't wait to go on our trip together!!! Sounds like things have been great. Yes, I did write Dave, I guess it just hasn't come in the mail yet? I love you and keep being awesome! Feel good!!!
Dad: Thanks for the letter and the support! It was good to hear that all is well with you!! I love you and can't wait for you all to come here! :)
I love you all! Keep being great and stay happy!!
Love,
Sister Reed :)
