Thursday, September 24, 2009

Well this is my last email from the MTC or the USA in that matter, and I am totally sooooooooo excited!!! One of my companions,Sister Gillmore, and I made a chain last week to count down the days till we leave, you know like what we always do for Christmas. So there is 6 links left ok well actually we have 7 up so we can take the lsat one down right as we leave. Oh which brings me to my next subject, my Flight Plans. I leave the MTC at 4 am and then fly out of SLC at 7 am to Atllanta. We have like a 3 1/2 hr layover there, so that is when i will call you. We arrive in Atlanta at 12:42 and leave at 4:15, so figure out the time change and be my your phones. This goes for all my siblings too, i am pretty sure i can call all of you too ( sorry friends I wish that I could call you all.) I will call home first ans talk to whoever is there and then start calling cellphone. Mom have everyones cells phone numbers ready to give to me. I think i will get a phone card, there are some here at the store. Ok so then we fly from Atlanta to Moscow and in Moscow we have a 12 hr layover. While there we go get a second passport and then i have heard that they might let us go to the Red Square (i think that is what it is called) to contact, thay will be interesting. So I am excited for the layover in Moscow. Then after that we fly to Novosibirsk, and then as of now i dont know anything what will happen at that point. Ok so get this, we will leave utah on sept 28 and we get to Novosibirsk on Sep 30th hahaha isnt that crazy!! 3 days!!! Well it may only be 2 with the big time change. Anyway so that is my flight plan. Also I am going to see if I can call you at the airport in Moscow, if i get the right type of phone card maybe i can call just to let you know i arrived to Russia. I will find out and let you know. I CANT WAIT TO TALK TO YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!

So i chopped off my hair!! I got it cut today. There is a hair salon here at the MTC. It is alot shorter than i wanted it to be but it is cut well and everyone says its cute, i just need to get use to short hair on me. It is a rule for the Novosibirsk mission that your hair has to be shorter then you shoulders. I will send pictures.

So Elder Holland came and spoke last tuesday, so I have had 2 apostles come while i have been here. Way cool! Tonight is my last devo here so I am hoping it will be another apostle. Keep your fingers crossed. Elder Holland's talk was really good. He talked about not missing out on our missions and coming home with regrets. It really hit me that i cant waste time, my mission isnt just affecting my life for the next 15 months but for the rest of my life. This is preparing me for my future. I am going to be a good missionary, i am not here for me, I am here for the Lord and for the people of Russia. I am just so thankful to be on a mission.

So Zenton, the guy that sister boggs and i comitted to baptism is still coming along, he still wants to be bazptized but he still has a ways to go before he can. We and he are sad that we cant call him once we leave, but hopefully the missionaries in his area will do their part. They were supposed to go and meet with him on sunday, they had set up an appontment but they never showed up. So that made sister bogs and i a little upset, cuz he already didnt like those missionaries and then they didnt show up. So we are going to write them a note and get it sent to them and tell them a little more about Zenton, because they just might not realize he wants to be baptized. Also last night i was at thr RC doing online chatting on mormon.org. People can ask questions through chat and then we can talk with them. Anyway I chatted with a young man, he is 21 and he is really interested in the church. he said he knows the church is true but he just has a lot of questions. he asked about polygamy ( everyone asks about that haha man its crazy), if the prophet actually sees and talks to god, temples, temple marriage (his girlfriend is a member and wants to get married in the temple). Anyway we had a great talk and then I asked him what he knew about baptism, he said he didnt really know anything. I told what baptism was ans then told him he needed to be baptized. He then told me he wanted to!!!!!!! I gave him the number to call to meet with the missionaries and told him to talk to his girlfriend about getting baptized. I hope it all works out for him, i wish i could keep in tounch with him to see what happens. Missionary work is GREAT!!! It brings me such great joy to see other people come unto Christ. The message of the gospel is so important and so many people dont know it. Every person on this world is a child of god and deserves just as much as we do to return to live with god again. We need to help them to be saved, its only through Jesus Christ!

Well i love you all so so so much!!! Thanks for being amazing. I cant wait to talk to you on Monday. I hope all is well for everyone, keep me informed on your lives. Dont forget your favorite child and younger sister (yes me)!!! haha you all know its true

Love Always
Mindy oops cectpa gneiting

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Hello everyone,

Mom tells me the list of who she is forwarding my emails to is getting longer and longer. I hope all is going well for everyone, I love you all!!! Well eveything is still great great great here. Only 14 days left and i will be on my way to Russia, I cant wait!!!!! Mom and dad I should get my flight plans either this thursday and friday, and then next tuesday i will email you all the details about when i leave and what time i should be able to call you from the airport!!! Oh i cant wait to talk to you!!! I miss you all so much! Next tuesday will also be my last time to email before i leave.

So yesterday we started our SYL (speak your language). We are only allowed to speak Russian for the next 2 weeks except to people to dont speak Russian. Its hard, fun, and frustrating. I still have soooooo much more to learn. It is interesting to listen to us speak!! I am excited to talk to you in Russian when i call you! Mom I got the package yesterday, thank you thank you thank you!!!! Everything i needed was in there plus things i didnt even think of and i am happy you put them in. Everyone I have the best mom, im sure your moms are very great to though!!!

So a friend of mine from BYUI will come into the mtc tomorrow i think, and i am a host tomorrow. So I help the new missionaries find their rooms and help them around campus a little, hopefully i will be her host!

Sister Lent (i think that is her name) the general primary president spoke and relief society last sunday. So all we need is for Sister Beck to come this week and I would have had all the women who are general presidents come while i was here, and i have meet both the other two when they came. So i am keeping my fingers crossed for sister beck! haha

OK so we get to work in the call center here and my companion sister boggs and i have called a man named Zenton a few times and talked him about the restoration and book of mormon. Well we sent the missionaries to his house to give him a BOM, which they did but he said he didnt like them and so he just took the BOM and put it in his drawer. Well we started talking to him about the BOM and he said he wasnt really interested in reading it until we had him read the intro and after that he said, " i think i am interested in this book, it reminds me of the Bible." YAHOO He felt the spirit while we read with him and he had a change of heart. We prayed with him over the phone about if what we had told him was true and then we told him we would call him back in a few days to see how his reading was going. So we did call him back, he hadnt really done any of his reading, but he was interested in our message. As sister boggs began talking to him i had a feeling to open up to a scripture about baptism and then to tell him about baptism and maybe even committ him to be baptized. So i opened up and wait for the right time to talk to him about it. Siste boggs still was talking to him when he asked us if a something he was doing in his life was a sin, we told him it was but that through the Lord he could be forgiven. He then went on to say, "I think i might need to be baptized" AHHHHHHHHH, yeah thats what was going through my head and probably sister boggs too. Well as i looked at my Book of Mormon sitting infront of me, opened to a scripture about baptism i also noticed that just above it was 3 very good scripture about the atonement and how christ can save us from Satan and how he can relieve is of pains and sorrows, Perfect for talking about Zenton's sins in his life. So i read to him the 3 scrips about the atonement and told him christ has atoned for his sins and that through baptism you can be cleansed and then i read the scrip about baptism and told him that the only church who holds the true athority to baptize is the LDS church and i then asked him if he would be baptized...... he said YES!!!!! And the is where we are now, we need to call him back and get him set up with the missionaries in is area as well as give him the bishops number. So we have 2 weeks to help with his process of baptism.

Missionary work is amazing, i love seeing people come unto christ. I am so happy to be on a mission, this is the best thing i could be doing right now. This where the Lord needs me to be, helping him save the children of God. I hope all of you are following christ, he needs our help. There are people around us everyday, member and non members that need our help and need to see our testimonies. We are all missionaries

Well my time is up :( I love you all so so so so so much!!! Thank you for you love, support, and letters. I am still trying to write some of you back so if you havent gotten a letter from me in a while i will send you one when i can, i dont have much time to write. I pray for you all everyday and i pray that you all are following christ. Missionaries can only do so much and the members do the rest!! Pray and read you scriptures daily!!!

Love you,
Cectpa Gneiting

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Well everything is going amazingly awesome!!! 3 WEEKS FROM TODAY AND I WILL BE IN RUSSIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so so so so so so excited. I still have so much more to learn. but i think i will learn so much more once i am there. So as for your question more if i can speak as well as the older group of missionares that were here when i got here, well I am doing pretty good. There are some missionaries here that are doing really really good, but it takes me a little longer to remeber words and phrases that i learn. it is coming though, give me a few months a i will have it down. When i call you at the airport i will talk to you in russian and then at christmas i will be alot better. We get our flight planes next week!!! I cant wait.

Ok so i have 2 weeks that i have to fill you all in on. Elder Scott came and spoke 2 tuesdays ago. It was amazing!! He spoke about the holy ghost, but my favorite part was when we go away from his written talk and talk from his heart. When he first started talking he ask us to raise ours hands if we were learning a different language. Then he said. " I know that it is hard.... but you can do it. So i am going to do something and use my authority as an Apostle of the Lord, I am going to bless you with the gift of tongues. Now i want you to know that i dont do this much, i dont go around throwing out blessings, but i love you all so much." and so then he personally and an Apostle of the Lord blessed us with the gift of tongue, later on in his talk he also blessed us with safety. I has so powerful, i am strieving so hard to be obidient and to work hard so that those blessings can be manifested on me. So i have the personal blessing of an apostle. He also bore his testimony of the Lord, which was AMAZING! I have never heard such a powerful witness of the savior jesus christ. before he started talking about the savior he said. " I want to tell you about someone very speacial to me, someone i know.... it is the savior jesus christ." I thought he was going to talk about like the prophet or a family memeber. he also said, " I know Jesus lives, because I know him." it was so powerful, we all need to try and develope as strong as a relationship with the savior and elder scott has. I want to be able to say " i know christ live because I know him!"

Also either that same day or the sunday after Sister Elaine Dalton, General young womens pres, came and spoke at relief society. She is awesome, afterwards we went and meet her and I started talking ot her and said thank for coming and that i felt like i had known her my whole life, she smiled and said " i know i do to i feel like i could be your mom.'" and then she gave me a big hug and she was holding onto my hand for the whole time we talked. She was so nice, she also told me that she is going to russian in november on assignment from the church and she thinks novosibirsk is one of the stops. So hopefully i will see here again, and maybe some apostles will come with here :) It is nice when women like that come and speak with us and afterwards we can meet them. They are so nice and it is a comfort, because we all mis our moms and having them come is a comfort cuz they treat us like daughters. Also of branch presidences wives are awesome to and come and she us at night during the week, i call them our other mom. so mom i am in good hand with people that really care about us and love us and who are here to comfort us.

So everyone keeps asking me if a still love the food. it is still good, some of it i am getting sick of cuz they make it alot. I still mainly eat salad and keeping my weight down, which you know i care about haha.

Scott and amy i am excited that you are blessing Trent here in utah. While you are in town drive past the mtc and maybe i will feel your near. Maybe just leave Trent outside on the sidewalk and i will maybe walk past him and look at him. haha ok dont do that that is bad.

Mom good luck with school, and the camera jeannie gave me will be fine i just need a memory card. i think it is an sd card for a kodak easy shot (i think).

well i have 2 minutes and i want to make sure i get it sent off today. I love you all SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!! SEND ME LETTERS AND PICTURES, i want to know whats going on in with you.

Love always
Cectpa Gneiting

PS Jenny, my old roommate if yo uare reading this send me another letter cuz i have a letter to send you but i lost the letter you sent to me

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Hello family and friends,

Sorry you didn't get an email last week. I had it all typed up and was trying to finish a sentence real fast and I ran out of time. So sorry, it was my fault-I should've kept better track of the time. If you run out of time the email disappears and you cant sent it. So I will try to keep better track of my time in the future.

My estimated departure date from the MTC to head to Russia is Sept 28th. We will get our flight plans in 2 weeks. I should be able to call you when I'm in the airport. Yay!!! I'm looking forward to that. In my district there are 9 missionaries. Five are going to my mission and will be leaving with me. There are also more elders from my branch going to my mission too. I think there are about 10 going to my mission.

So last week Elder Scott was our devotional speaker. It was an amazing experience. He talked about the Holy Ghost, but what was the most spiritual part to me was his testimony of the Savior. He said he knows Christ lives because he knows him. His testimony was so strong and I could tell he has a close relationship with the Savior. I want a testimony like that too. He also used his apostolic authority to give us two blessings. He blessed us with the gift of tongues and with safety. It was so powerful to see his love for us and the strength of a blessing straight from a prophet. Then afterward we hurried outside to try and shake his hand. We were at the front of the line, but he said he couldnt shake our hands because of the flu. He did talk to us for a little while. He doesnt speak very loud so only the first few rows could hear him, and of course - I was in the front row. :) Then when he left he was driving himself - haha- it was funny and cool! I started singing "Called to Serve" when he was driving away and soon everyone, which was ALOT of people, started singing too. I'm such a trend setter!! haha

So last night one of the elders in my district surprised us all and decided to go home. I didn't see that one coming. He said that he had stuff from his past that he needed to take care of before his mission but that he is going to come back as soon as he can and continue his mission. I hope he does, he is a great elder. We will miss him. He left at 3:00am this morning and we went out to where he caught the bus so we could say goodbye to him. I hope everything goes well for him.

Sorry this is short - I need to get it sent. I love you all and hope everything is going great with you.
Love you always,
Cectpa Gneiting