The joy that comes from spreading the gospel is indescribable!

Hello everyone who I love so much!!!!

How are you all doing? I hope great! I hope you had a wonderful christmas. My russian christmas here was fabulous!






Well as some of you know this is my last email. I leave early morning next pday (wednesday) to fly home to Idaho, so that means I wont be doing email next week.

This last week though was great and we had a lot of success. We had some really good meeting and saw some small miracles that I would love to tell you about....... but I'll just tell you about all of that next week when I see you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHA Well have a great week and New Years and see and talk to you all next week!!!!!!!! :)))))))))))

I can't end though without telling you all how much I am thankful that I served on a mission. This last 18 months I have spent on this mission have been the best of my life. The joy that comes from spreading the gospel is indescribable but one of the most joy full feelings ever. I dont know why i am so lucky to have been born into the true church and to have had the opportunity to be raised in the gospel with a wonderful, loving, and faithful family. The Savior and his gospel is EVERYTHING to me! A life without it is not one i want to live. My time here in Russia is to quickly coming to an end, and it hurts. I have grown so much to love these people here and this great country of Russia. As Ammon said, "Yea, I desire to dwell among this people for a time; yea, and perhaps until the day I die." I wish i could be with these people forever, but I know thats not possible and it hurts. I am so thankful for the time that the lord has given me to be here. I know I will think of my mission every day for the rest of my life and remember the amazing time that it has been.

Well i cant wait to see you all and tell you A LOT more about my mission :)

Love Always,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

Lots of pictures

Here's some pictures of Mindy enjoying the Siberian Winter.

This is her zone in Novosibirsk and the picture they sent to all of their parents in a Christmas card!

Modeling some of her winter wear!

Not sure if they are dancing or doing Karate. But it looks like she is having fun as usual.

Playing dress up?

Sister Gneiting with Russian members.

Mindy's time is winding down. She will arrive home on Jan 6. I cant believe that it is time for her to come home. It really has gone by very fast. It has been a joy to have a missionary again, from our family, serving the Lord. It really has brought such a sweet spirit into our home. Her emails have been a weekly gift that we have looked forward to and enjoyed and we will truly miss those emails.

I am having mixed feelings about her time being almost done. I am so excited to see her again of course but I know how much she has absolutely has loved her mission and my heart feels sad for her that this wonderful experience is almost over for her. I know that she has met some wonderful people in the past 18 months and I know that she will have a hard time saying goodbye to her fellow missionaries, but especially to the wonderful people of Russia. And of coarse it has been wonderful to see her testimony and faith grow over the past 18 months.

We look forward with anticipation to feeling of her spirit when she gets home and of coarse

to get to hear her speak Russian.

12.22.10

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE FROZEN LAND OF SIBERIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First of all I need to start my email like i did last week and say HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOLLIE!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you have an amazing day tomorrow, that means Cameron you should have something great planned! I love you so much Hollie and am so thankful to have you as a sister. Im sending you a HUGE birthday huge and kiss with this email. I hope it gets to you!

I cant believe it is already Christmas and I cant believe how cold it is here. Here in Novosibirsk we are forsure having a white christmas and very cold one too!! Today we were out on the street for a long time doing some errands and I thought my feet were going to fall off. It is sooooo cold right now! We have been inside for almost a hour and Im still frozen. I need hot chocolate desperately!!! Dont worry I'll drink some soon!! Its fun though being in this much cold.

I cant wait to talk to you in a few days on Christmas!!! I cant believe it has already been a year since last christmas. I am so excited for Christmas. We will have a fun day at President's house. Just like for Thanksgiving we will be at his house for a good part of the day and then after that we will go back to work. Im sure there will be delicious food and fun games and things. Also on Christmas eve our zone here in Novosibirsk is going to the Nutcracker. I am so excited to watch it. I cant believe that is in a couple days!!!!

On saturday we had a district (like stake) christmas party. So all the branches for the city of Novo were there. We had a choir and then the little children acted out the nativity and then there were some games after. It was a really great night. Three of our investigators came and they really liked it. Two of them are two young girls who have grown up in a culture that believes in nature gods. Its a very interesting religion. So these girls dont really know anything about Christ. So the nativity was really new to them, but they really enjoyed it.

I just love the christmas time so much! I love feeling the christmas spirit. Russians dont celebrate Christmas much. It is a holiday, but New Years is more celebrated. So the spirit of christmas or the feeling of christmas isnt as big here, but i'm still feeling it. Most of our meetings the we have been having with people have been focused of Christmas and the importance of Christ in our lives. At this time of the year we always think more about him and his life dedicated to us. Its sad though that we cant continue to feel this spirit all year long. At christmas time we can think more about what we can give back to Christ. He has given us so much. A great thing to do is to make a difference in someone elses life. There is so much power in service and showing our love to others. As we give of ourselves we in return receive so much happiness. We everyday so find a way to bring light into someones life.

So an update of investigators. Irina is doing great. We had a good meeting with her yesterday and she said she thinks the restoration really could have happened and that she knows through prayer she can find out. She is great and I know she will find her anwser. She said she is waiting for the answer but that she knows sometimes god doesnt answer right a way. So we will continue to meet with her and help her to understand the Holy ghost and his role in receiving answers. Next is Anya the little girl. We werent able to meet with them this last week. WE are waiting for her mom to give her permission to get baptized. Her mom is inactive and try to do all that we can to activate her. Anya really wants to get baptized but she needs support from her mom since she is so young that makes it hard for her to progress alone. These two are really close to baptism so we are trying to work with them to help them be ready.

I hope you all have a great Christmas! I will be thinking about you all the way from Russia. I hope Santa finds you all and gives you something great and not coal!!!! I love you and cant wait to talk to you soon and see you soon too but its to early to be talking about that.

love,
Sister Gneiting

12.15.10

HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!!!!!!!

Well to start off I want to wish Amy a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! It is coming up in a couple days and I hope you have a wonderful day!!!!! So Amy here is a happy birthday wish coming all the way from Russia!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you soooooooo much!!!

Well today we went sledding for pday. It was really fun. We just went to a park nearby the mission office where a hill has been made from all the snow cover the stairs. So its really just stairs, but since there is so much snow, it is now a sledding hill. We were the only ones there, but it was really fun. There is so much snow here and its so fun to play in. I told you last week that I just wanted to go around jumping in all the snow cuz it is so deep everywhere.... well last pday I actually did. One girl who is a member of the church was with us and her and I just started jumping into the snow and it was way awesome!!!! haha I want to go ice skating now, i think next pday we will try.
Its beginning to feel a lot like christmas!!! No really compared to how it feels in america because chirstmas isnt celebrated as big as in America and actually they celebrate in on the 7th of january. Anyway though we are stared to have christmas things go on. This week we are having a district (like a stake) Christmas party for all the branches in Novosibirsk. It will be really fun. We are singing in a choir and some little kids are doing the nativity seen and there will be other stuff too. It will be great!! I cant believe christmas is already next week. Mom I got the package you sent!!!! My companion wrapped up all the stuff inside and put them under of little christmas tree. So i dont know what was in the package, but i will in a week when I open them!!!!!
The work is progressing as usually here. Our little investigator Anya really wants to get baptized, but her mom has not yet given her permission. Her mom is an inactive members, so we are working on activating her so that she can be a help for her daughter. Her daughter really wants to get baptized and come to church and activities, but Tatyana her mom doesnt want to. We are getting the branch involved, certain members that we think she could relate to an find friendship with them. This way she would feel more comfortable to come back to church. WE are just praying that Tatyana will come around so that anya can get baptized. We met a new family that is really interested in meeting with us. They were going to come to a family home evening that we had on Monday but at the last minute the wife called saying that we was waiting for her husband to get home and didnt think that they would make it. She was really sad and said she really wanted to go next time. We are really excited about this family. It is so amazing to see families come into the gospel together.
Next week we get to go to the Nutcracker on Christmas eve. Im so excited to watch it. I have heard this production is amazing, and come on I am in Russia and they are famous for the ballets. Next week we will be sending part of the day at President's home for christmas. It is always fun to get together on the holidays to celebrate.
We have had a water pipe problem in a house for a while. For the last we have been going to the senior couples house to shower and we have not been able to use the water at home. It was pretty frustrating. ALso our ladyland is living in a different town so we had to wait for her to come to town to get the problem fix. We today she came with a plumber and he supposedly fixed it. We really hope so because it will be sooooo nice to take showers at home again :)
So I hope you all have a great week before christmas and get all you shopping done. OHHHHH for the secret santa thing we are doing, I would like to say to my secret santa that I would just like some new clothes. My missionary clothes are getting really old and I know wont be in fashion when I get back!! HAHA

Well I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!!

Love,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

12.15.10

HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!!!!!!!

Well to start off I want to wish Amy a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! It is coming up in a couple days and I hope you have a wonderful day!!!!! So Amy here is a happy birthday wish coming all the way from Russia!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you soooooooo much!!!

Well today we went sledding for pday. It was really fun. We just went to a park nearby the mission office where a hill has been made from all the snow cover the stairs. So its really just stairs, but since there is so much snow, it is now a sledding hill. We were the only ones there, but it was really fun. There is so much snow here and its so fun to play in. I told you last week that I just wanted to go around jumping in all the snow cuz it is so deep everywhere.... well last pday I actually did. One girl who is a member of the church was with us and her and I just started jumping into the snow and it was way awesome!!!! haha I want to go ice skating now, i think next pday we will try.
Its beginning to feel a lot like christmas!!! No really compared to how it feels in america because chirstmas isnt celebrated as big as in America and actually they celebrate in on the 7th of january. Anyway though we are stared to have christmas things go on. This week we are having a district (like a stake) Christmas party for all the branches in Novosibirsk. It will be really fun. We are singing in a choir and some little kids are doing the nativity seen and there will be other stuff too. It will be great!! I cant believe christmas is already next week. Mom I got the package you sent!!!! My companion wrapped up all the stuff inside and put them under of little christmas tree. So i dont know what was in the package, but i will in a week when I open them!!!!!
The work is progressing as usually here. Our little investigator Anya really wants to get baptized, but her mom has not yet given her permission. Her mom is an inactive members, so we are working on activating her so that she can be a help for her daughter. Her daughter really wants to get baptized and come to church and activities, but Tatyana her mom doesnt want to. We are getting the branch involved, certain members that we think she could relate to an find friendship with them. This way she would feel more comfortable to come back to church. WE are just praying that Tatyana will come around so that anya can get baptized. We met a new family that is really interested in meeting with us. They were going to come to a family home evening that we had on Monday but at the last minute the wife called saying that we was waiting for her husband to get home and didnt think that they would make it. She was really sad and said she really wanted to go next time. We are really excited about this family. It is so amazing to see families come into the gospel together.
Next week we get to go to the Nutcracker on Christmas eve. Im so excited to watch it. I have heard this production is amazing, and come on I am in Russia and they are famous for the ballets. Next week we will be sending part of the day at President's home for christmas. It is always fun to get together on the holidays to celebrate.
We have had a water pipe problem in a house for a while. For the last we have been going to the senior couples house to shower and we have not been able to use the water at home. It was pretty frustrating. ALso our ladyland is living in a different town so we had to wait for her to come to town to get the problem fix. We today she came with a plumber and he supposedly fixed it. We really hope so because it will be sooooo nice to take showers at home again :)
So I hope you all have a great week before christmas and get all you shopping done. OHHHHH for the secret santa thing we are doing, I would like to say to my secret santa that I would just like some new clothes. My missionary clothes are getting really old and I know wont be in fashion when I get back!! HAHA

Well I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!!

Love,
Sister Mindy Gneiting


HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!!!!!!!

Well to start off I want to wish Amy a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!! It is coming up in a couple days and I hope you have a wonderful day!!!!! So Amy here is a happy birthday wish coming all the way from Russia!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you soooooooo much!!!

Well today we went sledding for pday. It was really fun. We just went to a park nearby the mission office where a hill has been made from all the snow cover the stairs. So its really just stairs, but since there is so much snow, it is now a sledding hill. We were the only ones there, but it was really fun. There is so much snow here and its so fun to play in. I told you last week that I just wanted to go around jumping in all the snow cuz it is so deep everywhere.... well last pday I actually did. One girl who is a member of the church was with us and her and I just started jumping into the snow and it was way awesome!!!! haha I want to go ice skating now, i think next pday we will try.
Its beginning to feel a lot like christmas!!! No really compared to how it feels in america because chirstmas isnt celebrated as big as in America and actually they celebrate in on the 7th of january. Anyway though we are stared to have christmas things go on. This week we are having a district (like a stake) Christmas party for all the branches in Novosibirsk. It will be really fun. We are singing in a choir and some little kids are doing the nativity seen and there will be other stuff too. It will be great!! I cant believe christmas is already next week. Mom I got the package you sent!!!! My companion wrapped up all the stuff inside and put them under of little christmas tree. So i dont know what was in the package, but i will in a week when I open them!!!!!
The work is progressing as usually here. Our little investigator Anya really wants to get baptized, but her mom has not yet given her permission. Her mom is an inactive members, so we are working on activating her so that she can be a help for her daughter. Her daughter really wants to get baptized and come to church and activities, but Tatyana her mom doesnt want to. We are getting the branch involved, certain members that we think she could relate to an find friendship with them. This way she would feel more comfortable to come back to church. WE are just praying that Tatyana will come around so that anya can get baptized. We met a new family that is really interested in meeting with us. They were going to come to a family home evening that we had on Monday but at the last minute the wife called saying that we was waiting for her husband to get home and didnt think that they would make it. She was really sad and said she really wanted to go next time. We are really excited about this family. It is so amazing to see families come into the gospel together.
Next week we get to go to the Nutcracker on Christmas eve. Im so excited to watch it. I have heard this production is amazing, and come on I am in Russia and they are famous for the ballets. Next week we will be sending part of the day at President's home for christmas. It is always fun to get together on the holidays to celebrate.
We have had a water pipe problem in a house for a while. For the last we have been going to the senior couples house to shower and we have not been able to use the water at home. It was pretty frustrating. ALso our ladyland is living in a different town so we had to wait for her to come to town to get the problem fix. We today she came with a plumber and he supposedly fixed it. We really hope so because it will be sooooo nice to take showers at home again :)
So I hope you all have a great week before christmas and get all you shopping done. OHHHHH for the secret santa thing we are doing, I would like to say to my secret santa that I would just like some new clothes. My missionary clothes are getting really old and I know wont be in fashion when I get back!! HAHA

Well I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!!

Love,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

12.8.10

Hello from frozen Siberia!!!!

There is SOOOOOO much snow right now!! I LOVE IT!!! I dont remember there being this much snow last year. The drifts of snow are so big and dip. I keep jumping in them. haha yes in my skirt!! haha I'll say to my companion. "Look at how deep that is!!!! Here hold my bag Im going to jump in it!" haha its so fun!!!! I keep telling her tha for pday we shuld just go around jumping into snow piles, but we havent done it yet :(

So first thing is first!! Rhiana your poems you send me are AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have never read better poems then yours!! They are fabulous!!!! There you go, was that good enough??? Sorry everyone but that was a inside joke with her!

So the work here is going great right now. I told you that the last few week have been hard and it seemed like even after all our efforts nothing was happening. Well now I can see that the Lord was giving us the opportunity to show our diligence and desire to work. The last week and a half have been so rewarding and we have found 5 new investigators.One is a young girl Anya wo is 8. Her mom is an inactive member of the church. Anya wants to get baptized, but we dont know how much her mom wants her too. Her mom is not against the church, but I just think she has lost her testimony. We are working on activating her so that she will be supportive of anya. We asked her mom about her baptism and how she found out the church is true and her answers were very great. She said her baptism in our church was very special and a new start for her and she also said she knew this church was true and she received an answer through prayer. We plan one getting Tanya (anya's mom) around some ladies from the branch that can befriend her and help her to return. Another new investigator in Irina and she is just great. She is a lady we found contacting on the street and has come to english many times and is interested in the church. We met with her yesterday and she said she really likes what we has found out about our church and that she thinks that if there is something better or more true then she would want to be apart of that. She said she would pray about the the church. There are also some other great investigators that we have found, but right now i dont have time to tell you about all of them. My time is short today to email.
Things are awesome here though, other then we are having plumbing problems again. Right now we cant use the shower, so we had to go to the senior couples house to use theirs. WE hope it all gets fixed soon.
OK im sorry that this email is so short, but know that i love you all so much. Mom i thought of some recipes for you cook book, remind me to email them next week. Everyone have a great week and enjoy the christmas spirit and celebrations!!!

Love as always,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

12.1.10

Here is your weekly hello from Russia!!!!

Well another week has come and gone, and it has been a great one!! Well I guess the week started off with Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a great thanksgiving. Out thanksgiving here was great. My zone here in Novosibirsk plus the new missionaries that just got here from the MTC all went to president's house for thanksgiving. We were there from 11 to 4:30 and had a fabulous dinner and played games and watched "Bolt" the disney movie about the little dog. I had never seen it before cuz i think it came out while I have been here. It was a cute movie though and I really liked because Miley Cyrus was one of the voices :) haha anyway I hear she has changed a lot... well nothing i can do about that, to bad. Ok anyway back on subject. So Thanksgiving was great. That night also we had a thanksgiving party at English club which we have every tuesday and thursday. So people brought food and we all just ate and talked and it was great!!!! So even though I was away from you for thanksgiving it was still great, but I did miss your food mom.

So this week has been great and very successful. This week I really saw how the Lord has blessed us for our hard work. The last couple weeks have been hard ones. Our work had come to a peak a few weeks ago and then all of a sudden took a drastic dive. We were struggling to find people to meet with and not much seemed to be happening. Despite this we keep working hard and a lot of the time it was just us putting in effort but nothing really happening. This happened to about 2 weeks but I knew that as we continued to work hard that things would get better and that the Lord would bless us. Well this last week was great and we found 4 new investigators and few more great contacts. These people seemed to just fall in our laps. The Lord truly blessed us. This was a good experience for me to see how we are given trials and difficulties in life for our blessing and when we endure and are diligent and obedient to the Lord he always helps us and blesses us. So we are very excited to start working with these new people that we have found. We have a goal to get 2 more baptisms as a companionship before the end of the year and we are really working to reach this goal.

We have had a couple funny things happen the last few days. Well first last night we were coming home and we live in a 5 storey building and we live on the 5th floor and have no elevator. Also a need to know for this story is that the light on the 5th floor has been burnt out for the last couple of days and then last night the light on the 4th floor was out too. So as were climbing the stairs and got to the 4th floor I though, "Well maybe the lights are just turned off." So I started looking for the light switch. Well I finally found it and went to it and right as I flipped it... we heard a "Ding Dong." haha it wasnt really a light switch it was our neighbors door bell. So as soon as a heard it I was so surprised and i said "AHHH RUN!!!!!" haha so we started running up to our floor but then stoped so that they wouldnt hear us. I made it to the top of the floor but my companion was still on the stairs trying to hide. Our neighbor didnt open the door but just yelled out a few times "who's there!!" we were trying not to laugh and finally made it into our apartment and started laughing so hard. haha it was so funny. We were scared too because that neighbor doesnt like us because we had a water problem with our pipes last month and flooded her. So we were scared of what she would say to us. haha is was so funny though. We should of just stoped and said hello to them but we were so surprised that we just acted on reflex and my reflex said to RUN!!!! haha Well some other funny things happened but i dont have enough time to tell you about them today :( remind me to tell you a story about a cramped bus and my companion getting stuck in the door when i get home in January!!

So speaking of getting home in January... I am sooooooo excited that you are getting endowed Amy and that we will all be in the temple together as a FAMILY!!!!! OMG its going to be so spiritual and amazing. It will feel as if we are all in the celestial kingdom together!!! WOW its going to be wonderful!! A perfect thing to come home to!

So Mom, Dad, Rhiana, Scott, Amy J, Trent, Amy, Hollie, and Cameron....... I AM YOU SECRET PARTNER... What do you want for Christmas!!!!!!! haha So from the emails I guess this is want I am supposed to do. Well let me know so I can be apart of this game.

Well the library is closing so I have to go. Dont forget through out the week that I love you all sooooo much!!!!

Sister Mindy Gneiting