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