9.29.10

Hello everyone!!!!
Well it has been another great week in Russian! Filled with lots of missionary work, which is the best work ever!! Well this last week has been great and we have had no big distractions like we had in the past. No sicknesses and no moving apartments. Its was been very nice to get back to work. We have had a lot of meetings with people and have found some new investigators.

On Sunday we meet with Masha and her mom Valentina who had meet with the missionaries in the past but it had been a while since meeting with the missionaries. They are both great! Masha has excepted the gospel and our message for the most part and her mom is very much looking for the truth and the help of God. Valentina though has a lot of questions and some really hard ones to answer at times. We have more work to do with them but they are interested in learning more.

Also on Monday we went to a inactive ladies house to visit her and our branch president came with us and it was just an amazing visit. Her husband was there who is not a member and at the end of our meeting he was crying because he felt the spirit so much. We talk about eternal families and how through the temple they can be together forever. She really wants him to get baptized and for them to go to the temple together. We asked him if he wanted to be with his wife forever and he said of course he did. The spirit was really strong at that lesson and he invited us back to teach him more. So we will work with them to get her active and him baptized. It is so amazing to see families strengthened through the gospel.

We also had a great lesson yesterday with another investigator Valentine, who also is just a fabulous lady. We watched the movie about the Joseph Smith and the restoration and she really enjoyed it and told us that she believes it 99.9% and that she wants so much to believe it all and accept it. She has known about the church for a few year and has family members who are church members and my companion and I both dont understand why she hasnt been baptized yet. We plan on talking about baptism with her at our next meeting.

Our other investigator Marina whos mom was baptized a month ago is doing great as well, it was been hard lately to meet with her because of her schedule but tonight we are going to their house and will have a meeting and teach about the Holy Ghost and how to receive answers to prayers and revelation. She is soooo close to baptism but is waiting for her answer about what to do. Well so that is basically what we are doing right now with our work her in Nove. We do have more inactive members that we are trying to work with to increase their faith and desire to come back to church. Thanks for all your prayers for the work her in our mission, your prayers are a strong help to us.

Well what else to say????? On sunday I taught primary :) Well actually basically i just translated. We have a new family that moved into our branch from america. The parents both know russian pretty well and are teaching in a university here. They have a 3 year old girl and 4 months baby girl. They are members of the church as so they started coming to out branch. Their little daughter is soooooo cute and it is really fun to talk to her in english. All the russians from the branch just love her. Well she is only 3 and the youngest in primary and the only one in her class. So a young girl named Anya from the branch was little Elizabeth's teacher and came and asked me if I could help her since Elizabeth doesnt speak russian. Anya knows english pretty well but wanted Elizabeth to understand. So anyway Anya taught the lesson in Russian and I translated. It was soooo fun. We taught about prophets and Elizabeth is already soooo smart in the gospel because her parents have done a very good job teaching her and she was able to answer all the questions really well. So it was cool. I hope to help again!! We even got to color pictures and have snack time :) any missionary would love that!!!!

I cant believe I have been in Russia for a year!!! I remember when i first got here and somethings seems so weird and different from american, but now they are sooo normal to me and I am use to being here. I love Russia and love being here and communicating with these people. I wish you all could come here to Russia and see why it is I love it so much. I am so grateful the Lord sent me here on my mission. I have no desire to be anywhere else on my mission. From the time being here I have had many wonderful and spiritual experiences that have helped me to see why I am here. It is not just by luck that we serve in a certain mission. Every missionary is meant to be in their mission for a reason and those reasons are real. There are people here that I know the Lord sent me here to help them. Every missionary has different reasons and different people that they were personal sent to help. We dont know ahead who they are but there are times on the mission when you stop and think "WOW this is why I am here. The Lord needed me here for this person of for this reason." This mission has strengthened me in many ways and I will forever be thankful for this experience. I know this church is true and know it is lead by Christ himself. I know he is our savior and that through him we can change and always become better. His atonement is real and it is the biggest blessing we have. Through his atonement we CAN be forgiven of sin, no matter the sin. Repentance works and through forgiveness of sin we receive so much joy and happiness. Being here and seeing people change and become better and have a desire to repent and then seeing how joyful they are when they know the Lord has forgiven them is amazing.

Well my time is up :( I love you soo much and cant wait to hear from you next week!!!!! Keep being awesome and working hard!!!

love always,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

Return Date

We received Mindy's itinerary for her flight home.

She will return on January 5, 2011

WOW!! That is only 3 1/2 months away.

She will be home before we know it.

If you are thinking about sending her a card or package please send it soon so that there is plenty of time for it to get to her before she leaves.

Thank you !!

Packages to Sister Gneiting

We received this letter from the mission office about sending packages to the missionaries. So I thought I would pass this on so those of you that would like to send something to her for Christmas - you need to get on it soon. Thanks.

Dear Missionary Family,

As the holiday season fast approaches, we want to remind you of a couple things:

1. Your missionary loves getting mail from family and friends.

2. NOW is the time to send your holiday greetings- cards, letters, or packages- in order for your missionary to get them for Christmas. Packages from America can take 2-3 months as the season gets busier. And then they only get the packages when someone is going to the city where they are serving and that could be only once a month.

3. They love special treats that are consumable and non-perishable. Remember, our missionaries move often and carrying extra “stuff” is very hard for them. Please keep this in mind when making your gift selections. They may not transfer or go home with more than 2 bags 20 kg each and some are collecting a lot of things. Please don’t add to that. Also remember that someone has to carry those packages to their cities and if there are 12 missionaries in a city and each one gets several packages that weight 20lbs each, you can see it will be difficult to get the packages to them.

4. Please don’t send any electronic equipment. Missionaries are not permitted to use them (but family tapes are fine).

5. If you send CD’s remember that just because you find it in Deseret Book does not mean that it is missionary acceptable. The only music that does not need pre-approval by Sister Trejo is Tabernacle Choir, classical music and EFY (and some of that is questionable). Sister Trejo can approve other music but some that has come has not been acceptable. Please help your missionary obey the music rules. Music can be a great aid or a great distraction. And sometimes CDs doesn’t make it through customs.

6. As missionaries have come through the office I have asked for ideas they like in packages. These are only a few and you will need to adjust this to your missionary’s particular tastes. Missionaries can buy just about anything they NEED here in Siberia manufactured in Russia. In other words, don’t send shampoo or deodorant or socks unless they like a special brand from home. There are plenty of candy bars but some special kinds not found here are 100,000 Grand, Butterfingers, Nutrageous, Reese Peanut Butter Cups are a few. They do have Snickers here.

7. Other ideas: Past and current pictures, Koolaid, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce dry mix, Tide pens, Spray and Wash stain sticks, dry cider mix, vanilla, maple and rootbeer extract, games (no face cards), games that can be used for family home evenings or Single Young Adult gatherings that could involve a lot of people, things to be used for object lessons, stickers to use in other missionaries’ journals, American souvenirs or pins to give away, jerky, dry BBQ sauce, any favorite spices, homemade candy, Doritos, hot sauce, dry taco seasoning, ranch dressing mix, jello. Missionaries spend a lot of time traveling (buses, trains, planes) and an inflatable travel pillow may save a few necks. They only carry their backpacks on these trips so there is no room for anything that can’t be deflated.

8. If you will write Merry Christmas on the outside somewhere or put on a Christmas sticker so we know that this is for Christmas, we will try to save it for Christmas time if it comes in early.

Send your mail/packages to the mission office address:

630102 Novosibirsk, Russia

ul. Kirova 46

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Russia Novosibirsk Mission

Elder/Sister ___________

Our missionaries are the very best of Heavenly Father’s servants. We love and appreciate them, as you do. Thanks for sharing your missionary with us and the good people of Siberia.

Love from Novosibirsk office couple,

Elder and Sister McCauley

9.15.10

HELLO FROM RUSSIA!!!!!!! thats me screaming, i hope you heard it,

Well really it has only been a few days since i email you last, so not much has happened. Actually really not much at all has happened. My companion is really sick and has had a temperature for over a week, so we have spent most of our time home so she could sleep and get feeling better. So we havent done much missionary work. Its really weird actually not going out all day as a missionary. Today was the first day that she actually said that she felt a little better. So hopefully she will get feeling better and then we will get back to our work.

As a companionship we are serving in 2 different branches, but church is at the same time on Sunday. So one Sunday we went on splits and she went to the 1st branch and I went to the 4th branch. Most of the people in the 4th branch I dont know, so it was good to get to know all those members. After church we had some meetings with those members too and had some good meetings. Members are one of the most important parts of missionary work. As we work with the members they begin to trust us and feel comfortable with us teaching their nonmember family and friends about the church. So we are working with these members to think of people that they know that we can teach.

Well we havent been able to meet with our investigator Marina so is close to baptism for a few day since we have been home so my companion to rest. I did see her yesterday at english club and she is doing good and still reading the book of mormon and still looking for her answer about baptism. Hopefully soon we will meet with her again.

Tonight we are going to a hockey game. The pro team from Novosibirsk is playing. Im not sure who they are playing, but it will be way fun. Last time i served in Novo we went too and President only lets us go once a year i think, so i got pretty lucky that i get to go twice!!! haha

Well i cant really think of much more to say, so im going to spend the next little while attaching some pics cuz it usually takes awhile on these computers. So ok im gonna do that....... well sorry its not working. the computer wont let me download my pictures. So i will try again next week :( sorry

ok well i love you all and im sorry this email was really lame and not interesting. I hope you all still love me!! Have a great week!!

Love,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

9.10.10

Hello everyone,

So sorry this email is getting to you 2 days late, I hope you havent been worrying! I was on my visa trip on Finland and Moscow this week so I didnt get a chance to email on wednesday. So dont worry, Im still alive!!!!

Well this last week as been busy, crazy, and different. Last week I left Irkutsk on a train and was on the train for over 30 hours traveling here to Novosibirsk. So now I am back serving in Novo which was the first city i served in on my mission. It is nice being back, but i am in a different part of the city so there are new people to meet and a new area to get to know. My companion is Sister Antonova who was my companion for 2 of the transfers that I served in Irkutsk. So we are excited to be back in together, but we both dont know a lot about the area we are in right now but we will figure it out together.

It was really hard for me to leave Irkutsk. I was serving in that city for almost 8 months, so I was really close with the people there and all the people we were working with. I knew everything about that city, even the Zone leaders would call me when they didnt know things and ask me question. So anyway its been hard being away, they were like a family to me, but I know the Lord needs me to be here right now, so I will continue to do the work here in Novo.

Well I have only really been here for a few days, so there isnt much to say about our work here because I dont really know about it myself haha but we just had a baptism last saturday. A lady named Lena was baptised and the great thing is that we are teaching her daughter who is 20 years old and her daughter is close to baptism. She still waiting for her answer she says to get baptized, but she is really serious about getting her answer, so hopefully soon she will decide to be baptized about follow the example of her mom. They are both great. There are also some recent converts that we have had a couple meetings with since I have been here and then some inactive member also who we have meet with. Next week when I email you I should have more information about this area to share with you, just right now i am trying to figure it out for myself haha

My visa trip was great. So i packed a change a clothes, my toothpaste and tooth brush and we headed off to Finland again, but unfortunately the temple was closed so we werent able to attend a sesson. Instead we just spent more time exploring Helsinki and seeing the cool sites. One place we went to was what is called the "church in the rock." The name basically gives it away, but it is a church that is inside. Im not sure what religion it was, but it is a working church, like they have religious meetings and stuff in there. It was really cool to see. Helsinki is a very beautiful and nice city and the people there are so friendly. Also this time we had a 12 hour layover in Moscow, so we were able to go into town and explore too. We spent most of our time around Red Square which is just amazing. The building are just sooooo beautiful and the grounds of the Red Square was so beautiful. Last time I was there it was snowy, but this time there was green grass and leaves, daffodils, and other flowers and it was soo gorgeous! Also we say a big police escort for someone. I dont know who it was, but someone really important, maybe President Medvedov. Anway there was a really nice black limo surrounded by alot a big police vehicles and they drove down the street next to us. It was cool to see but we wished we knew who was in it. I'll send you some pictures next week, just remind me.

Well I have to get going cuz this isnt pday and we need to go do some missionary work. Well as always I love you all so much and hope you all are doing great!!!! Have a great week!!

love,

Sister Mindy Gneiting