Called to Serve in Russia

Well done thou good and faithful servant.........

2011-03-02T12:52:00.000-08:00

She is home!!!!!

Sister Gneiting (aka Mindy) flew home from Russia and arrived home on Jan 6, 2011.

Her total trip, including layovers, took her about 42 1/2 hours.

We were able to track her flights online through the airlines which was fun. They had a screen that showed her airplane while it was in route and so we watched with excitement as she got closer and closer to home. She flew from Russia over Norway, Iceland, the southern tip of Greenland, across the Atlantic Ocean, Newfoundland and dropped down into New York City, where she had a long layover. Then she flew to SLC where she spent the night and then on home to Idaho.

Rhiana and Amy were able to make it home to see Mindy fly in.

The rest of the family came the next day.

These are the signs we made to welcome her home. As you can see a couple of them are in Russian. We wanted to test her to see if she really had learned and understood Russian. haha.......and we found out the she did!!!!!
Our first glimpse of our Russian missionary!

Such a happy happy reunion!!

Back on American soil!!

All of our family came home to see her and we had a wonderful weekend together. She gave a beautiful report of her mission on Sunday Jan 9, 2011 and we all felt her love of the gospel and the country and people of Russia as she shared her testimony that day.

She is adjusting well but really misses her mission. Especially the friends that she made while she was there. But luckily through Facebook and Skype she is able to keep in touch with them. We are so proud of her and her willingness to serve the Lord and spread the gospel to the great country of Russia!!

The joy that comes from spreading the gospel is indescribable!

2010-12-29T05:33:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-26T18:15:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-26T18:14:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-16T20:42:00.001-08:00

12.15.10

2010-12-16T20:42:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-08T18:58:00.000-08:00

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

2010-12-01T12:57:00.001-08:00

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

11.24.10

2010-11-24T07:35:00.001-08:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

WOW can you believe that it is already Thanksgiving again?!!!!!! This last year has flown by! So tomorrow is actually thanksgiving and we will be spending part of the day at President's house to eat thanksgiving dinner and hang out for awhile. It will be fun ans ofcourse I am excited to EAT!!!!!! So I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving. Today we sort of started our thanksgiving celebration. Today for pday we had a turkey bowl football game!! HAHA it was so fun. It was some of the missionaries and a couple members and we met and played football in the snow. It was really cold, but as we ran around we got a bit warmer. We had a lot of fun!! Also tomorrow after we go to president's we will have english club and we are going to celebrate with them there too. They are all really excited to celebrate this american holiday with us. We told them that they can bring food and then we all will eat together and then do some other celebrating with them. It will be fun!!

Well this week, actually today begins the new transfer...... But no new news for me. I am staying here in Novosibirsk and my companion is still Sister Schwab. I am very happy to stay here and with her. I just love her so much. We have become great friends and really enjoy being together. She is such an awesome missionary for only just beginning. She is already speaking russian very well, even though she thinks she doesnt. Russian is a hard language, but she is doing great.
So on the side of Thanksgiving. i want to tell you mom and dad how much I am thankful for you!! I love you both so much. You are the best. I am so thankful for all that you have done for me throughout my life and also I am thankful for the examples of righteous church members and just great people that you are to me. I tell people all the time about you and about how grateful i am for you!!! Also i am so thankful to you Rhiana, Scott, Amy, and Hollie.You are the best siblings ever!! We have had so many amazing, great, funny, and just awesome times together. Your examples to me always helped me in my life as I went through things that I saw you go through when I was younger. You all have taught me so much. Amy Joy and Cameron I also am so grateful for you and the great additions you are to our family. You have also been very loving and supporting always to me. Then little Trent, I dont know you yet, but Im thankful for all the cute pictures that are sent to me of you. I know that I will just love you soooo much when we finally meet. Then to all of my relatives and friends reading this. Im so thankful for you all as well and love you all so much. Thank you for all that you have done for me. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!!! Thanksgiving is such a great time to remember all that we are thankful for.

So my most excited news happened yesterday. On our way to english club last night we saw a lady with a son struggling a little to get him and the other stuff she had with her out of the subway station and through the street where there was a lot of ice. So we helped her and then headed off to english. Well surprisingly she and her son came to english. Her son in 3 and knows russian and armenian and now she wants him to learn english. Well the english club isnt very effective for him because there is a lot of people and he was getting distracted. So afterward I offered that my companion and I could go to her house and do family english lessons with them. She was so excited about that and we are going to their house tonight. I think it will be a great way to share the gospel with them. She was a very nice lady. Right now in our mission we have a goal to teach more families so that we can bring whole families into the gospel that can help and strengthen one another. I really think this family will be interested. Please pray that we will be able to start teaching this family.

So thats crazy that you are having a really bad storm. I wish I could see it!! We have snow here too, but no blizzards really. It just gets really cold. The last couple days have been -12C and it felt really cold, but then I remembered that last winter it was in the -40sC. I have forgotten how cold it gets here. I hope to experience that again before i go home. Warm clothes make a big difference though. I am very thankful for my winter clothes.

Well in the end I just want to say how thankful I am for my Heavenly Father, his son Jesus Christ, and my knowledge/testimony of their true church. I dont understand why I was so lucky to have been born into a family who already knew about the true church and then to have been raised to have a strong testimony that it is true, but i am so thankful for that. All the joy and happiness that I have had, now have, and will have in life is because of this gospel. Its the biggest blessing to me in my life. This church is true and I know that with no doubts.

I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving and dont forget how much I love each one of you!!!

love always,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

11.17.10

2010-11-17T07:15:00.000-08:00

Hey Hey Hey its Fat Albert!!!!!!!

haha actually its not him, its me, Sister Gneiting, and Im not fat!! Which is a good thing!!! Im basically the same weight as ever. So that answers your question mom, Im the same size in clothes :) Well enough talking about how I havent gained any weight, lets talk about more important stuff!!!!
Well the mission and its work is continuing and I am just so thankful for this opportunity to serve. Its amazing how much someone can learn and grow on a mission. This was truly just been the most rewarding time of my life. A couple times in the last couple days we have been taught about sacrificing for the Lord. We talked about how when we sacrifice something we ultimately in the return receive much more blessing worth more then what we sacrificed. There is a story about a little girl whos parents gave a a pretty but fake pearl necklace. This little girl just loved this necklace and never took it off. Every night when her dad went to tuck her in to bed he would ask her if she loved him. She of course would respond and and say yes of course I love you dad. He then would say to her, well if you love me give me your necklace. She would always acted sad and didnt want to give it away but would offer one of her other toys. After many days one night when her dad went to tuck her in she was just sitting on her bed and before he could say anything she said,I love you dad so much so her i my necklace. The dad took it from her and then gave her a little box. She opened it and inside was a new and REAL pearl necklace. Every night we took the box with him and was just waiting for her to give him her old necklace. I just love this story and we can learn so much from it. The same thing happens with our Heavenly Father. As we sacrifice things for him, he in return will give us soooo many wonderful blessings. We each can think about how we can show our love to Heavenly Father and what we can sacrifice to him. I think about when I was trying to decided to come on a mission. There were many things that I thought I couldnt sacrifice to take the time to serve a mission, but now I see that I have received so many blessings from coming on the mission. Now I see that it really wasnt a sacrifice considering all that I have been given because of serving a mission.

I have also learned that in missionary work we must sacrifice much for the lord to bless us in our work. This last week was a hard week. I felt like EVERYTHING had crashed. Everything that we had been working for before that just seemed to come to a halt. People that we had been working with in the past seemed to just disappear and we were trying to find new people, but we werent successful. Many things happened last week in my life here in Russia that just weighed me down and I felt stressed. There was a part of me that was losing faith. I felt like I was doing so much to be diligent, obedient, and hard working but yet nothing last week seemed to go well. So at the end of the week I started thinking about it and what I could learn from this experience. Even though a part of me was losing faith and even felt like giving up, the other bigger part of me was saying that the Lord had given me this experience for a reason and i needed to find that reason. Well I actually now have come to realize that last week was a blessing for me. I was humbled and have realized the things the Lord want me to learn. I need to as that little girl, sacrifice my time, my talents,my everything to this time that i have left on the mission. Although I was working hard last week, I can be working harder. There is more I can be doing. I have already seen the blessing from this sacrifice already in this new week. The work here is already getting better.
Well what else has happened. Yesterday a cool thing happened. We were at a meeting with a member from the branch who is less active. She was telling us about her mom and that her mom is really sick. Ofcourse we always start our meetings with a prayer and she asked me to say it and pleaded for me to pray for her mom. she said, "i know god will listen to you." Well I offered the prayer and asked god to bless her mom with health. Then about 5 mins after that her phone rang and it was her mom on the other end. After this lady hung up the phone she was so amazed. She said, " I was just with my mom about 30 mins ago and she was too sick and weak to even get out of bed and could barely talk. She just called me and the phone is in a completely different room then were she was laying. I have no idea how she got to the phone. She also just sounded so alive, when before she sounded so sick. Your prayer worked, God answered it" I was actually so surprised. I have never seen a prayer work like that before. It was a huge testimony builder for me. Prayer is real and it does work.
So funny story. Yesterday we were contacting and talking to people about the gospel on the streets. I saw this lady selling milk on a little table. We decided to go and talk to her. Well to make the story short, we decided to buy some milk and cheese from her so that we could start a conversation about the gospel with her and that maybe she would like us more if we bought stuff from her, you know like build a friendship. Well my plane was to buy it and then start the conversation. So we payed for it and then this other lady came up and started asking her how much her milk and stuff was and then things got real awkward. WE were basically just standing there and they were looking at us funny cuz we already bought stuff and should have already walked away. So I just awkwardly said we were missionaries and then gave here a little p[pamphlet about out church. She looked at me and then the other lady and then me again and took the pamphlet and then started talking to the other lady about prices and stuff. SO then we turned and walked away and bursted into laughter. HAHA it was sooo funny!!!! The moral of the story it.... YOu shouldnt try to buy investigators!!!!! But in the long run, the milk was very good :) haha
Well my time is up :( i love you all so much!!! Have a another great week. Thanks for you love, prayers, and emails!

Sister Gneiting

11.11.10

2010-11-15T18:06:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

Well its been a great week! Last saturday Marina was baptized!!! It was such a beautiful ceremony. Many people were there to support her. She was so happy. Before the baptism she a little scared again about the water, but everything was great in the end. The whole ceremony was very spiritual. She and her mom were so happy after the ceremony. Then on sunday she was confirmed and received the gift of the holy ghost. Once again she was so happy!!!! So it was a great weekend.

So this morning i got back to Novosibirsk from my visa trip to Finland. It was a nice trip and no problems. It was just me and one other sister, so it was more relaxing then having a bunch of crazy elders with us haha!! This time we were able to go to the temple in Finland. It was the first think we did when we got off the plane, we went straight to the temple. It was so amazing to spend that time in the house of the lord. Ahhh i wish i could go everyday. The temple is just such an amazing place. The feelings and knowledge we receive inside is priceless. Im so thankful for the temple. After the temple to just hung around the temple hotel where we stayed. The next day we woke up early and headed to the airport and flew to Moscow. Then we had the about a 12 hr layover there. So we went to Red Square and walk around looking at things around there. Its was really fun. Then last night I had a red eye flight back home. Now Im back to mission work :) well right now im emailing but after this i will work :)

Well Im sorry this is a short email, but really i have no news. SInce i was gone on visa trip, that is basically all my news. And since this isnt pday we dont have as much time to email. Well i wanted to let you know im alive and doing great!

So as for the two days that are an option for me going home, i have decided on the 5th. So yeah thats the plan.

Im so sorry this is sooo short. Next week will be better I hope!! I love you all so much and hope you all the best.

Love you daughter, sister, friend, and whoever else,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

11.3.10

2010-11-03T22:02:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!!!
Every week is going by faster, i still cant believe it. Well this last week has been great!!. Well I dont have much time to email to day, but i will try to make this interesting. So last wednesday we had the fake baptism and it was GREAT!!! This girl Marina is 17 and she is getting baptized this saturday but she was very scared of the water and being dunked under. So last week we did a fake baptism and now she is so ready for her real baptism. It was really cool. She was in the white gown and the elder who will be baptizing her also was in white and then he showed her how it would work and then dunked her a couple times. She says she isnt scared anymore. She is really excited for her baptism, well we all are. So this saturday will be her baptism and i will tell you all about it next time.
So i have something to talk to you about that President Trejo has asked me to ask you. So my realise date is supposed to be on the 5th of January, but that is considered a national holiday in Russia. So they cant send the new missionaries from provo here because they first need to go to the embassy in moscow and it will be closed. So they wont get here until the 12th and so they want to keep us here til the 12th also. So president asked me if that would be a problem with starting so and i told him no and they he wanted me to ask you because maybe family members have planned to come at the 5th to see me. Anyway so think about it and let me know if it would be better for me to come home on the 5th. I can go home either the 5th or the 12th, so let me know what your thoughts are.
Well next week i go on visa trip again. Im going a month earlier then usual, so it was a surprise when I found out about it. Me and just one other sister will be going together, but for part of the trip i will be alone because she is serving in a different city. So anyway we are going to Finland again. This will be my last visa trip.
So yesterday the coolest thing happened. I went to english club and i heard a girl calling my name and i turned around and it was one of my old investigators from Irkutsk. It was a total surprise. She is living here now and so im totally excited about that and hopefully start working with her again. Also we have a new investigator named Galina so is a friend of a member. We have had one meeting with her and it was really good and tonight we have another one. She is really interested in learning more.
On Sunday was Danna's year anniversary since her baptism. It was a very speacial day and she was really happy. I cant believe it has been a whole year.

Well sorry i have to go and i might not get a email sent to you next wednesday because i will be in finland. so dont worry if that happens. Well i love you all!!

Sister Mindy Gneiting

10.27.10

2010-10-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!!!!!

Wow I really cant believe how fast these weeks fly by!!!!! I trying to think back through out this last week to think about what has even happened. Well it has been a great and busy week and I think thats why it went by so fast. I'll try to make this email worth reading.
So last thursday my companion and I did some service for a lady from our branch. Most people here in Russia have what is called a dacha. Its like how alot of people in Idaho have cabins, well people here have dacha. They only spend time there during the summer and it is were they have a big garden and plant a lot of stuff. Well most people are done harvesting and doing everything at their dacha and all have moved back to their real homes. Well this lady wasnt quit done so we went out to her dacha, which is just out of Novo, and helped her dig up her potatoes!!! YAY thats right I said POTATOES!!!!! Well actually helped her again on monday, just a couple days ago. I felt so at home like in Idaho, like as if it was potato harvest. The smell of dirt and potatoes, wow I didnt realized what a comfort it is to me and how much i missed it until i was out there with a shovel in hand digging up those potatoes, yeah I will never get ride of the DIGGER in me!!! I wonder how the sugar city diggers are doing in sport..... haha fill me in someone!

Well so we had district conference this last week end. It was very good. President Lawrence from the seventy and his wife came for it. I was asked to be Sister Trejo's (our mission presidents wife) translator. So it began on saturday. Saturday their was a auxiliary training for the leaders in the branches. So I followed Sister Trejo around and translated for her when it was needed. Then on Sunday for the conference Sister Trejo spoke and I translated that too. I did pretty good, but there was a couple times I didnt know how to say something she said the right way in russian. So i looked into the audience for help from people who knew both english and russian. It was kind of funny. I made them laugh, so it lightened the mood. Afterwards alot of people told me good job translating and then a young girl came up to me and gave me a big hug and said your trusting was soooo awesome, it was funny!! haha and Sister Trejo thanked me and said that she was really scared and nervous to be speaking but because i was a fun or funny translator it helped her to calm down! HAHA so yeah thats that!

So today we have a interesting thing happening. This may be one of the first times if not the first time that this has ever happened. Tonight we are having a fake baptism, yes you read right, a FAKE baptism. So our investigator Marina is getting baptised next saturday, but she is really scared of the water and being dunked down into it. So we talked to President Trejo about it and he said we can do a fake baptism so that she can try it out first so that she will be ready for her real baptism and not scared. So tonight her, her mom, our zone leaders, and us will be doing a fake baptism. Of course the elder baptizing her wont say the prayer, but we will just show her what it will be like and dunk her down. Interesting huh!!!!! It will be fun :) I'll tell you how it goes. We are really hoping it will help her be ready and not scared for her baptism.

This last week has been great. Well one thing that isnt to great is that some of our investigators are really busy right now and cant meet much. So we realized we needed to find more people to meet with. We have been working really hard and trying to talk to alot more people on the street and any places we are. From our hard work we have found some new people and not just that - we have received blessing and small miricales from the Lord for our hard work. I know that as we keep working hard, we will find these people who are ready to receive the gospel. We had been praying alot for some certain things and people for the Lord to help us with and we have seen many of those prayers answered. I know that as we work hard and so the Lord we are willing to do what he needs of us then he will give us the help we need. That isnt only in missionary work but just in life general.
Well i have to get going. We have a really busy day today and a lot of stuff to get done. I love you all so much!!!

love always,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

10.20.10

2010-10-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

Hey its me ur russian missionary!!!!!!

Well its been another great week in russia!!! So finally after much waiting i have my new companion, well we have been together for almost a week now!! She is awesome!! Like I told you before her name is Siter Schwab and she is from Germany. She speaks great english and is working now on her russian. She is a greenie so this is her first transfer and week in russia. Everthing is so new to her and she doesnt understand a lot of things that people say in russian, but I'm trying to help her alot. Its interesting being a trainer, but I like it. It helps me to be a better missionary because I really want her to start her mission off good and get into good habits as a missionary. So I'm trying to do things different and to be better in my missionary work so I can be a good example for her. We are having a good time together though. I really love her already.

So things are still going great with Marina. Her baptism is still set for the 30th and she is still excited about it, just scared of the water. We talk to our mission president about it though and he said we can do a test run/dip with her a couple days before her mission so that she will not be scared of the water and be ready for her baptism. So we will be doing a fake baptism, interesting huh!!!!! haha She is just a great girl and im so grateful for the opportunity to teach her. Please continue to pray for her that all will go well with her baptism next week.

So to answer your questions mom. First about the jobs, yeah I would really like to get right into work when I get back. So yeah do what you can to find some options for me and I really want to just stay in rexburg until school starts in april. So a job in rexburg would be great.

Dont worry about sending me a package for Christmas. The package you sent and I just got was AWESOME!!!!!!! Thanks soooo much, it was filled with so much stuff that I needed!! Im enjoying everything you sent!! So you dont need to send anything for Christmas, i will be home soon after that and we will celebrate then!

I havent bought any boots yet. I'm looking to see if i can borrow some from someone since i will only have to wear them for about a month or so. So i will let you know. I did buy some other things that I needed so you will notice that on my debit card.

So last week we finally watched general conference and it was sooooo great!! I wish we could have conference every week or at least month, 6 months is just toooooooo long of a wait. I learned so much. Also this weekend we are having the Novosibirsk district conference and Pres Lawerence who is in the east europe area presidency is coming with his wife. So it will be a 2 day conference, kind of like stake conference but a little different. I was asked to be Sister Trejo's (our mission presidents wife) translator. So i will follow her around and translate what she says into Russian and then tell her what people say to her. Then when she gives any talks or something i have to translate in front of EVERYBODY!!!!!!!! I'm a little scared, so please pray for me that I will be able to do a good job. It will be a good conference though. It happens i think once a year and is always alot of help for the members here.

Well right now I cant think of anything else to say, so I will just tell you how much I love you. Well I love you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!!! Have a great week!

love,
Sister Gneiting

10.13.10

2010-10-13T16:21:00.001-07:00

HELLO AGAIN!!!!!!!

Well not much has happened since I emailed you last since last week we has pday on saturday. So sorry mom this email might not be to long. Well I have been without a companion since Monday. My companion Sister Antonova was transferred to a different city and they needed her to get there early. So since then I have had to find church members to be my companion. Its a cool experience to have the members as companions. It help them to strengthen their testimonies and well it help us. Since I am not Russian it useful to have these members with me because they can relate with the people we are teaching and can share their experience of when they joined the church, and also the speak russian PERFECTLY!!!!!! haha Well anyway I get my new companion, my greenie, tomorrow afternoon. She got here to Novo from america early this morning but they are with President Trejo and his wife that their house. They are actually probably sleeping right now since the flight over here is so long and you changed so many time zones. Then tonight and tomorrow they have orientation and then after that I will go pick her up at the office. I'm excited to be training. I hope I can help her start off on the right foot here in Russia. Did I tell you she is german. So maybe I will learn some german and make our german ancestors happy!!! So next week I will tell you all about her and how things are going.
So we have had some great lessons with our investigator Marina. She has a baptismal date for the 30th of this month. She is really progressing and is really wanting to get baptized. While teaching her lately we have realized she had some concerns about baptism, but we couldnt figure out what they were and she wasnt flat out telling us. Yesterday she told us though and we are relieved to know it is only because she is scared of the water and being dunked in the water. We talked with her about how there would we an strong, tall elder with her who would make sure she was ok and that the water isnt very high, but she was still scared after talking about that. I have talk with the zone leaders and we think we will have an elder show her how it works and where to put her hands and feet so that she can feel more comfortable. She asked me if before her baptism if she could like be dunked a couple time to practice so she would know what it was like and so she would be ready for her baptism and it would be a surprise. Well I dont know if that is allowed to do, but we are figuring out how we can help her. She is great though and has really accepted the gospel!! Another cool thing happened. Well we have been doing a service for a girl named Nastya and going private english lessons every so often. Well one time after the lesson i asked her if we could do a spiritual thought with her about she said no. Well my comp and I talked about it and wondered if it was worth our time to teach her if she wasnt interested in learning about the church. Well we decided to do it maybe once a week. SO yesterday we had an english lesson with her and at the end she herself ask for us to share a spiritual thought. So we taught about the restoration and Joseph Smith and in the end she was really interested and said she really like what we told her. So we are going to meet with her again and we hope to continue teaching her about the gospel. It helped me to see how doing service and showing our love for someone is a very important part of sharing the gospel. Thats something that all of us can do, if we are full time missionaries or not. Service is always needed around us.

Well i need to get going to meet the other missionaries we are going to go to a park and ride bike today!!! Its been awhile since i rode a bike so hopefully i dont fall off!!! :) well as usual I love you all soo much and hope you have a great day!!

love,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

Lots of Pictures

2010-10-10T21:52:00.001-07:00

Here are a bunch of pictures of Mindy on her mission. As you can see by her

smile she is loving serving the Lord.

Enjoy!!

Mindys companion, Senior missionary, Mindy, members

Ice Cream with companion Sisters in the Gospel
Wall Art
Companions
Yes thats Mindy on top
Relaxing at home
Senior couple, Mindy and her companion
Cooking? Baking? Dancing . . . . ?
Yummy cake!!!
Kiss? More wall art
I'm not sure about this one but may be her branch in her last area
Mindy and her comp with the branch president and his wife
Missionaries having lunch at a statue
I see you . . .
Cectpa Gneiting

Mindy with a member

10.9.10

2010-10-09T10:14:00.000-07:00

HELLOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Sorry I am emailing you a few day late, I hope were not scared I died or something!!! This week we had a 3 day training with our Mission President so we didnt have our usual pday on Wednesday so today is pday instead. I will just say WOW!!!!!!! This training we just did was AMAZING!!!! This training is being done all over the world for all the missionaries. Salt Lake wants us to be better teachers as missionaries. So they have made a new training program and have changed som thing about missionary work and now through out all the world we are starting this program. The training was so awesome and it really helped us to see how we can be better missionaries. We went over alot of stuff, 3 days worth of learning. I am really excited to talk from what i learned for the rest of my mission and do a lot better work.

Well I have great news... our investigator Marina, who i told you has been waiting for her answer about baptism, decided on a date to get baptised. Her one concern about getting baptized is that she doesnt want to to it with out being ready. She has told us many times that she knows the church and everything we teach her is true and she is living by the commandments. She really is ready top be baptized, but she know that baptism is a very important thing and she wants to feel completely ready. So anyway we set a date with her for the 30th of october and told her that we would help her prepare and be ready for her baptism. Please keep her is your prayer that we will be ready to be baptised. She is such a great girl. Her mom was baptised about a month ago and together they are both so strong in the gospel other then the fact that Marina isnt baptized. It is so great to see families come into the gospel together. Another investigator Valentina we think is close to excepting baptism. She believe 99.9% that the church is true, so we need to work with her on that other .1%. We need to get her to church though, she didnt come last week. So maybe thats why there is .1%. Anyway I'm excited to be working with her.

Oh I almost forgot the BIG news!!!!!........... I'm pregnant!!!!!!!!!!! haha well not really. That is mission slang for that I will be training next transfer. We always call out trainer our mom or dad for the elders. So i will be getting a greenie or daughter right from the MTC!!! The way cool thing is that she is from Germany!! Cool huh? I hear she speaks english though, so that will be good. She will get here from the MTC on wednesday and then probably be with me on thursday. So this means that it is transfer time again, but I will be staying here in Novo and be training Sister Shwab. It will be great! I hope I will be a good trainer for her. So I'll tell you all about her in 2 weeks cuz next week when i email i wont know her yet.
Amy I'm not sure what your surprise for me is, but I'm way excited about it!!! Dont give it to anyone else. Good luck on your last semester of school!!! I cant believe you are finishing, thats awesome! Keep working hard your almost done. As we say on the mission alot "Endure to the end"!!!!!

Well its really starting to cool off here. We have been wearing coats for a couple weeks now. No snow yet thought but probably soon. I miss the warm weather, but what can i do? Nothing, so i will live with it :) It has actually been raining a lot lately. Siberian winters are awesome though!!! I can say that i lived through 2 siberian winter if i make it through this next 3 months!!! That's pretty impressive!!

So I can't really think of much to say, Oh actually i know!! I pierced my ears!!! Many of you probably thought i had pierced ears, but i didnt. Anyway last pday i pierced them. I got some ear rings for my birthday but couldnt wear them, so i fixed that problem. Right now i have to wear the ugly beginner earrings though, but soon i will have cute one :) haha so thats more news!
Well another Internet session has come to an end :( I love you all sooooo much!!!! Have a great week!

Love,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

9.29.10

2010-09-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-18T13:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-17T10:52:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-11T19:40:00.000-07:00

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

8.31.10

2010-08-31T22:42:00.000-07:00

Another one bites the dust!!!!!!! Haha i mean the week ofcourse.I still cant believe how time flys by.

Well the big news of the week is TRANSFERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So where in the Novosibirsk Mission will Sister Gneiting go.................. well I am getting transfered and will be going back to serve in the city of Novosibirsk, but in a different area of the city. I am really excited to go back to Novo because I really love that city, but I am sooooooo sad to leave Irkutsk. I have been here since January so I have grown to love this city and the people here very much. I leave today and its been really hard to say goodbye to everyone here. Of course though I know that transfers lie in the hands of the Lord and that its his decision where I go. He has allowed me to be here in Irkutsk for almost 8 months and I am so thankful that I had that opportunity, but now i know there is work prepared for me in Novo. So I will go willing to my new area to serve. I really do love the city of Novosibirsk and the people there and am looking forward to serving there again. Like I said though I will be in a different part of the city and in a different branch. So it wont be completely the same as before. Also my new companion will be Sister Antonova, who I already served with here in Irkutsk. She is great and I am excited to serve with her again.

So today I get to started my long journey to Novo on the train. I will be on the train for over 30 hours. I wont be alone though, my companion Sister Semonova is leaving too, so we will be on the train together. So yesterday we bought a bunch of food and later today we load the train with all of our suit cases and head down the tracks. I like train rides, they are fun. It can definitely be an interesting experience. I will let you know all about it next week. Actually I dont know when i will email you next week because next week I have another visa trip and will be going to Finland again. So i have a lot of traveling in the next week and a a half.

Sunday was a special day. We got to watch the broadcast of the Kiev Ukraine Temple dedication. It was so great. President Monson, Pres. Utchdorf, and Elder Nelson were there. There was a bunch of members of the branch that received recommends and were able to come to watch it too. The sacrament room was where we watched it. The coolest part was that new convert Natasha that we taught and who was baptized in July was at it. Being baptized is only the beginning right? You see what we do as missionaries helps prepare people to eventually make it to the temple. So it was really special to see this young girl who was just baptized have the opportunity to participate in the temple dedication. I felt as if i was actually with her in the temple. I pray she will continue to grow in the gospel so that she will have the opportunity to attend the temple someday.

So our investigator Tamara is doing great! We had a baptismal date set for her last saturday, but we decided to move it back a couple weeks. Like I told you, she is 82 yrs old and its hard for her to remember everything. She wants to get baptized and keeps asking when she can get baptized, but we just want to make her she understands completely before she does. So I wont be here for that baptism, but the new sisters coming to Irkutsk will continue to work with her. She is a great lady. It is sad to have to leave while she is so close, but it happens in missionary work sometime.

So i bought you guys a bunch of souvenirs, but instead of sending them i think i will wait and give them to you when i get back. So you can look forward to stuff from Russia!!!!!! :)

Well I cant really think of anything else interesting to tell you. next week I should have a lot of news!! So look forward to that :) Well of course I love you all so so so so so so much!!!!

Love,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

PS Parachute pants are a huge fashion right now in Russia! Funny huh?!!!!

8.24.10

2010-08-31T22:41:00.000-07:00

Hey Hey Hey its Sister Gneiting!!!!!!

Ok this last week has gone by soooooo fast. Its was a good but interesting week. Monday was a normal day as a missionary. Tuesday morning and afternoon were normal, but then that evening we were at the train station alot. First the senior couple Elder and Sister Southam left to go home to america. So we went and said goodbye to them. It was really sad because I have been here in Irkutsk with them for 7 months and they have become like my mission parents. So it was sad to say goodbye. Then a couple hrs after that my companion, who is a mini missionary and a youth from the mission, left with the other youth from Irkutsk on another train to head to the Youth Conference and they were there all week. Then on Weds was pday and then Thursday morning I got on a train and spent the whole day traveling to Ulan-Ude and got there in the evening. So Thrs night until Sunday afternoon I was serving with the sister in Ulan-Ude. Ulan-Ude is a great city. Its a very beautiful city. This city is very close to Mongolia so there is a lot of asian people there. It was a really great city. Well then I got back to Irkutsk Sunday night and then my companion got back Monday morning, but she came back sick so we spent the day home so she could rest. So the last week has been interesting and a little unusual. Yesterday though was a full day of missionary work, so we are back to it. It was hard being away from Irkutsk that long, because this is were my work is. So I had to leave the people I have been working with. Im back now so things are great!!

So I told you about our investigator Tamara who is 82 yrs old. Well things are going well with her. She is supposed to be getting baptized this saturday, but she is not quit ready so we will move the date back a little. Its just kind of hard with her because she is older and forgets thing easily, so we have to repeat a lot of things with her. We just want to make sure she really understands the gospel and about Joseph Smith and the Restoration before she get baptized. So we will continue to work with her. So please pray that she will be able to become ready for baptism. Sorry I dont have a lot to tell about my mission work here in Irkutsk because i was in different city for most of the week. The work in Ulan-Ude is great though. We met with some of their investigators, member, and less actives and they are working hard down there too.

Well the weather is starting to cool off here slowly. Thats a booger though because it makes me sad because I love the warm weather and im not very excited about putting my warm clothes back on. Right now the weather is ok but soon it will get colder. How is the weather there, is it still pretty warm.

So you asked about my Russian, well its coming along one day at a time. My russian is not perfect, but the most important thing is that I am able to do the work. The Lord really does bless us to learn this language. It is a very hard language to learn, but its amazing to thing a year ago I didnt know any russian really and now I am able to teach people the gospel and get along fine her in Russia. Everyday I just continue to study and show the Lord I'm willing to be here in Russia as a missionary. Even though the language is a booger and very hard to learn, its when I show my faith in the Lord and show that i am willing to struggle to do what he has called me to do as a missionary that he blesses me. Work Work Work is what we can do to show our faith.

Well I love you all so much and again I hope you have a great week. Stay strong, read your scriptures, and say your prayers!!

Love always,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

8.17.10

2010-08-17T22:42:00.000-07:00

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

Well things are great here in the beautiful city of Irkutsk Russia!!! I just love being here so much. I love being on a mission and I cant even dream of being anywhere else. So things are great right now. So I think I told you last week about our investigator Tamara who is 82 yrs old. Well........ great news........... She is getting baptised :) She loves meeting with us and coming to church with us and she has accepted everything we teach her. So this last week we talk to her about baptism and she told us that she was already baptized when she was a baby. So ofcourse we talk to her about how only our church has the priesthood and the authority to baptize. Then I asked her what she remembered about her baptism and she said "nothing ofcourse I was a baby" and then we talk about how Christ said that little children dont need to be baptizd and we talked about how it should be our choose if we want to be baptized and she said "yeah I mom made the decision not me" and then she said she wanted to be baptized in the true church of Christ and the right way. So I am very excited that she has made this decision. So if everything goes as planned she will be baptized on the 28th of August.

So this week I will be in a different city. Tomorrow morning I get on a train and ride to Ulan-Ude. I will spend the rest of the week until Monday there and then come back here to Irkutsk. I am doing this because right now I am without a companion. My companion is a mini missionary which means she is just a young girl from my mission who is serving one transfer as a missionary. This week is the young single adults conference for the mission so she is at that. So I am being sent to Ulan-Ude to be with the sisters there. So that will be exciting.

Yesterday the senior couple Elder and Sister Southam left to go back to America. They have finished their mission. It was sad. They have become like the missionaries parent. They take care of us. I just love them so it was sad to say goodbye. They had been here in Irkutsk for a 18 months, so the members here love them so much too. so everyone was sad to say goodbye.

Ok so right now I am with a girl from the branch, she is my companion for the day. Well she is awesome and she has a car!!!!!!! Of course the missionaries in Russia dont have cars, so its so awesome that she has a car and is driving me around haha I didnt realize how much i missed my car until yesterday when we went to the gas station and I begged her to let me fill it up with gas :) So I am on cloud 9 right now!!!!

Well I have to get going to meet with the elders for an activity. I love you all sooooo much!! Have a great week and everyone should send me pictures

Love you
sister gneiting

8.3.10

2010-08-04T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hello family and friends!!!!

How are you all doing? I hope you are doing great! Seriously, where does time go!!!!!!!! Well first off all I have very little time to write, I spent to much time reading emails sent to me and then realized my time is almost done :(((( sorry. You know forgiveness is a very important characteristic!!! haha Well I will type fast, so excuse my many mistakes in spelling.

Well it has been a great week! Our investigator Katya is coming along great. She is still searching for her answer to if the church is true, but we have had some great meetings with her and I she will find her answer soon. She is very involved in our meetings and really likes what we teach and is always paying attention and listening and giving great answers to questions. She is a great girl and I am very grateful for the opportunityty to teach her. She has been to church and many activities and is developing great friendships with the branch members. We also have a new investigator named Tamara who is 82 years old!! She is soooo cute. She was a former investigator like a year or two ago but the sisters only had i think 1 meeting with her. Well anyway we have meet with her twice and she is great. The thing is that she talks a lot and gets side tracked, so its hard to teach much. You know how grandparents like to talk and tell lots of stories about their life. The stories are great and its really great to hear about her life, we just hope to be able to teach her more. We will continue to meet with her. Well you remember Natasha who was baptized a few weeks ago? Well she is continuing to be great and continuing to grow. Well the next cool things is that her and her mom have a young girl living with them. We went to there house yesterday and had a lesson with them and this girl named Anya joined in on our lesson and she was very interested. We invited her to meet with us again and she said she would like to. So we are really excited about that because Natasha and Lyudmela will be great examples and help for teaching her.

Well today is pday of course and today we are going to watch the movie Saints and Soldiers on the projector at the church building. Im excited because I really like that movie and its been a long time since i watched it. Dont worry we have permission to watch the movie :)

Also this week we are having zone conference. We have zone conference ever transfer and the president of our mission always comes to Irkutsk for it. Usually we have it later in the transfer but this time they want to do it earlier for some reason. So I am excited for that. Its is always such a spiritual experience and I always learn so much from President and Sister Trejo and the assistants to the president. So next week I will write you about that.

So soon will be the Temple dedication for the Kiev Ukraine Temple. All of russia will be in its temple district and so its a really big deal here. Its almost as if there was a temple coming to russia. Ukraine is a different country ofcourse but in a lot of ways like russia. Its make us here in russia excited for the future temple to come to russia. Ukraine is being an example for Russia. We will be able to watch the dedication for our branch building and right now all the members are getting their interviews for the branch president so they can attend. It will be a great event. Also in a few weeks the patriarch for russian is coming to our mission and our city. There is only one for russia and he has to travel around to all the area through out russia. so he is only comes very rarely. Its been along time since he was here. So we are preparing the members for the great blessing of receiving a patriartical blessings. They are very excited for him to come.

Well my time is done. So until next week!!! I love you all sososososososos much!!! Have a great week and I cant wait to hear from ALL of you :)

love you all,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

7.27.10

2010-08-03T07:19:00.000-07:00

Hello again from Russia!!!

I hope you all are doing great. Things here in Russia are great, but very hot!! The weather has been very beautiful lately. I just want it to stay this way because I know in the near future the temperature will get VERY cold!!!!! So I am enjoying the hot weather while it lasts!!!!!

So I am with my new companion, her name is Lyuda Semenova, and like I said last week she is a mini missionary. She is great. She is 21 years old and was baptized a year ago in another city in our mission. She is the only member on the church in her family but is very strong. I was a little worried to get a mini missionary at first because sometimes it is hard when your companion isnt a full time missionary and just a member because they haven't been through the training at the MTC or the experience of being a full time missionary so they dont understand completely what our role is.... but Lyuda is great and I am so thankful to have her as my companion right now, I think she has already taught me more than I have taught her. I know this will be a great transfer with her. It might not be a full transfer with her though because well first of all in a couple weeks there is a young single adults conference and she will be leaving to go to that for a week and then we heard that maybe after the conference she will be going back to Tomsk where she is from instead of coming back here. So that might happen but at this point we are not sure. So I will keep you updated.

So Natasha who just was baptised is doing great. I was a little worried this last week because when I called her a couple times she didnt seem herself. So i was praying everything was alright. It even seemed like she didnt want to meet with us, but we were able to see her a few times and she is back to normal. She has a pretty hard life and I think she was a stressed with some stuff. She came to church though on sunday and that helped her alot too. It was her moms birthday as well on monday. Her mom is a member and a very kind and sweet lady. Well they dont have really any money so Natasha asked me to help her do something for her moms bday. So we asked the Southams (the senior couple serving here) if we could have a family home evening at thier home and invite some people from the branch. So on monday we had a little surprise bday and fhe and it was so fun. There was about 15 people there and once again it was a good event to help bring unity to the branch. We taught a spiritual thought about friends and why friends are important and that we need to be good friends and love and serve each other. It was a very good thing for Lyudmela (natasha's mom) because she lives a very humble life and it was great for her to feel loved and supported. Its so important for us to love one another. I have attached some pics from that party. One of a group of us at the party and also one of Natasha and her mom. Also there is a pic of me with FRESH strawberries for lake baikal that the branch president's family gave us SOOOOOOOO GOOD. They picked them yesterday themselves and then brought them to us last night. WOW what a blessing!!!!

So I hope you all are reading you scriptures. I love the Book of Mormon. It is such a blessing for us, written for us. We always can find answers to our questions about life. A girl here was telling me about how she will pray to Heavenly Father about a question or concern she has and then right after praying she opens up the book of mormon and just starts reading a random verse. She told me that it is amazing because she always opens up to a verse that is exactly what she needs to hear. Thats way cool! We should all try that, I think that really shows trust in God and it shows our desire to find the answers we need. He will always give us answers, advice, and counsel, but we need to be watching for the answers.

Well once again I love you all so much and I hope all is well for you. Have a great week!!!

Sister Mindy Gneiting

7.20.10

2010-07-20T22:48:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!!!!!
So transfers are here again!!!!!!!! Can you believe that??? Well what do you think is happening to me?..................... Well I am staying here in Irkutsk!!!! I am very happy because I love this city. Well my companion was transfered to Novosibirsk so I will be getting a new companion, but it is a little different then usual. My new companion is what we call a mini missionary. She isn't actually a missionary but she's a member from one of the cities in our mission. She is from Tomsk. Right now we have a lack of sister missionaries in our mission, so when that happens the President finds some worthy young sisters who can serve for a transfer. Her name is Lyuda and i hear she is great. So this transfer will be a little different but I'm sure it will be great.
Well great news!!!!! Natasha was baptized!!!! YAY!!! It was such a great service and she was soooo happy. I am so happy for her. It has been so amazing to see her from beginning to end. Of course when I say the end I mean to her baptism, of course there is much more we need to do after baptism. Well anyway she has been interested in the church since we first started teaching her and has grown so much and has changed many things to follow the savior and his teachings. She is great because she is always asking quesiton and wanting to know what she can do to be better.
So this last week we had an activity with the whole branch. My companion and one of the girls from the branch planned it and it was great. The branch here really needs to strenthen their relationships with each other so they can make the branch stronger. These branches are small, not like our wards in america. Well this activity was great and a lot of the members came and they had a lot of fun with each other. Unity is so important with a branch or ward. We need to always work together to strengthen the church where we are a part of it. The thing is that here in russia missionary work is a lot different then in america. We work very close with the members because they themselves are new converts and need to be strengthened. We have many activities and things we do with the members to help them and then ultimately they help us with our missionary work. The members are a very important part to missionary work.
Im so greatful for this oppurtunity to serve a mission. The work is hard, long, and sometimes it feels like its not going anywhere, but the best part is that as we continue working hard through the hard times the Lord always helps us to do his work. We are working very hard here in Russia to bring these people this joy from the gospel and that work we are doing is with investigators, inactive members, less active members, active members, and non members. This work is so amazing. This mission is the best thing that has ever happened to me. To this point of my life I have never felt more joy then i have while being on my mission. It is so joyful to serve and help people come unto christ. I currently have only 4 transfer left and it breaks my heart. I feel like i could stay here forever serving these people. This makes me want to work even harder, i know my time is becoming shorter with everyday, so I must work the most I can everyday so i can complete the work the Lord has for me. I love being a missionary.
Well I am out of time again and I am sorry i didnt send pics next week for sure I will :)

I love you all so so so so so much!!! Have great week :)

7.6.10 and 7.13.10

2010-07-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

7.13.10

Hello again from Russia!!!!!

So it has been another week, interesting week I'd say. Well told you about my tooth last week right..... well last wednesday wasnt quit the end of the story. Well my tooth was pulled on Monday and then on Tuesday and Wednesday the area where it was pulled still hurt really bad. We finally called my dentist and she said to come back in. So i went on Thursday and she said i had an infection. What had happened was when she pulled the tooth the blood clot in the hole didnt form fast enough which caused an infection. So on thursday, friday, and monday and i had to go in for her to treat the infection. Now basically everything is ok, the infection i think is gone but now i just have a huge hole in my mouth. Hopefully it will heal soon. Cameron what do you think, am i ok?

Well this last week we had zone conference and is was great!!! I learned a lot in which i can do to be a better missionary, now i just need to apply it my work. President and Sister Trejo were here and it was ofcourse great to see them. They have just become like our parents on the mission. Its really cool to see how we develop a family like bond with them and with the other missionaries. In our mission we are just a big family. Because our mission is so big and president is usually far away in a different city, we have to be like a family in our own cities so we can help each other and get the work done. I have heard from a lot of other missions that a lot of time the missionaries dont get along very well, but here it is a totally different story.

So on saturday Natasha will be baptized. We will be continuing to work with her this week to be ready for for great day. There is nothing better then to see someone accept Christ and his teaching and enter the waters of baptism in his true church. I will tell you all about her baptism next week.

So something interesting happened this last week with all the senior couple in our mission. So there was a senior couple conference at lake baikal this last week. So all the husbands and wifes who are serving in our mission and also president and sister trejo. Well on like the second day of there conference they all get very sick. Some very sick and others just alittle. But every single on of them got it a little. At first they couldnt figure out why they got sick, but just a couple days ago they found out it was food poisoning. At one point they were told it was because of the wind coming up fromMongolia haha but anyway some of them were really think and didnt eat for 4 days and just stayed in bed. We were all praying for them because the work they do for us is so important. They all for the most part are almost all recovered. The was one bad chicken dinner :)

A group a ladies from the branch here just got back from the temple for the first time. It is amazing to see people who just with in the last few years were baptized make it to the temple. The are great women and are striving to follow chirst and stay active members. What a great blessing for them to go to the temple and preform endowments for themselves and then for members of their families so have died. They are great missionaries. The temple is such an important part of the plan of salvation and its so great to know we can help others receive these saving ordinances. I hope you all are attending the temple regularly, if not start now!

They weather here is beautiful. Really hot most day lately, which is a suprise because i am in siberia. I am getting a pretty good farmers tan, the first one i think i have ever day, but not as bad as that time a had the sock tan from working at the golf course :) but also i have soooo many mosquito bite, they love me and bite me so much. My companion has like none. I was told that mosquitoes like A+ blood the most, which is what i have. Its the most disairable to them. So if thats true it makes sense. My companion and I refer to my blood and Belle blood, for those twilight fans you will understand!!! haha

Well tomorrow is my year mark! WOW!!!! One year ago I entered the MTC. Can you believe that? I cant. I only have 6 month, lets just not think about it. I dont want my mission to end, there is so much more to do.

I love you all so much!!!!! Have a great week!!!!

Love always from your missionary in Russia,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

7.6.10

Wow really these weeks just fly by so fast!!!

Well i hope you all had a great 4th of July weekend. Mine was great too, we went to the parade, went swimming, had a bonfire, and then did fireworks!!!!!! HAHA JUST KIDDING!! Of course not, anyway I am in Russia so there was no celebration, but i still thought about it and how thankful I am for America and to be a citizen. Well every night our zone leaders call us to see if we are home safe and how our day went. So they called on the night of the 4th and when we answered they had the other elders on a different phone and then they started playing the song that goes "this land is your land this land is my land from california...." So we all listened together and we all sand along. My companion is the only one in our zone who is not american, so she didnt really care that much haha, but the rest of us very much enjoyed it!!! It is weird being soooo far away from america on the 4th of July, but i can say that even all the way in the middle of Siberian Russia the 4th of July was celebrated!!!! YAY I LOVE AMERICA!!!!!!!

So actually this 4th of July weekend wasnt the best. I had a horrible tooth ache. I noticed on saturday night that my tooth kind of hurt when i ate and then I woke up on Sunday and it hurt a lot worse. As sunday went on it kept getting worse and worse and worse. If anything would just barely touch that tooth it would just explode in pain. So the pain was really bad at church but the branch president's wife and daughter, so have become like my russian family took good care of me and gave me some medicine. So I took the medicine and then we went off to a meeting on the other side of the town and soon i felt really bad. I has really weak and dizzy and couldnt talk cuz my mouth hurt so much. So after the meeting we called a taxi and just went home and i went to bed. That night I couldn't sleep very much because it hurt so bad. Then the next morning my mouth was swollen and numb, which took some of the pain away. The branch president and his family told us of a good dentist, so on monday we went. Well the sad part is that they said they couldn't do anything about it and had to pull it :) So now i am missing a part of me and have a big hole in my mouth, yeah i kind of feel like less of a person haha but the most important thing is that the pain is gone. SO what had happened is that i had a root canalin this tooth a few years ago and the dentist here said that whoever did the root canal broke part of my tooth and then it caused a infection. Im not sure if i was in american if anything could have been done to fix it, but here i guess not. So when i get back to america i guess i will get a fake tooth. So thats i guess how i celebrated the 4th :)

Well this transfer is just moving along. This week we have Zone Conference again, which i am always excited about. I always learn so much from my mission president and his wife. They are both amazing and help us so much!!! Well Natasha is progressing great, she will be baptized on the 17th of this month. We are very excited and happy for her. She has excepted the gospel so well and is continuing to learn more and more. Marina who was baptized a month or so ago is leaving this week to go back home to Ukraine. We are sad that she is leaving. We have really been teaching her about how she can continue to strengthen her testimony when is in Ukraine and how she can be a member missionary. We will miss her but she is already so strong in the gospel and is always finding ways to learn more.

Well i am really sorry this email is short. I will try for a better one next week! I love you all so much though, so dont forget it. Have fantastic week!!!!!!!

Love,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

7.1.10

2010-07-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

(Two new emails - read them both)

Happy 4th of July week!!!!!

I hope you all have a great 4th of july because its my favorite holiday and I am going to miss it. I'm in Russia, so for sure there wont be a celebration here haha So I will wait till next year.

Well I am sorry this probably wont be a very long email. Soon we have to go meet with our zone for an activity we are doing today. But really nothing too exciting or new has happened this week ;)))

So our investigator Natasha who has a baptismal date set for July is going as great as ever. She is continuing to progress great and is getting ready for her baptism. She loves coming to church, reading the Book of Mormon and learning more about the Church. She is so willing to follow our savior and his commandments. We asked her if she had prayed and asked God if this church was true and she told us she did and that she received an answer that it is the true church. It has been so great to see her come unto christ and accept his gospel. Another investigator Ira is also progressing. She has no background really at all of religion, so everything we teach is very new to her. We have a lot more to teach her, but she is very interested. We are working with her on prayer right now and that God really will answer our prayer. Isnt it amazing that God has blessed us with the gift of prayer. Prayer works, it truly does. God listens and he hears us and he will always answer our prayer, but sometimes we forget to listen or watch for the answers. My testimony of prayer has grown alot lately, even in the last day. I have never prayed so hard before and its not for myself, its for others. There are people here that i communicate with everyday that I know need god's help, his love, his comfort, and his protection. I see these people and wish so much to help them, but with some of their problems there is NOTHING i can do to help them and the only thing that comes to my head is PRAYER!!! Pray for them! God knows how to help them and he may be the only one that can help them. Yesterday I saw how through our humble and sincere prayer God will help those in need. Yesterday someone we are working with here very much needed Gods help and after MUCH prayer I saw his love and help extended to this person. Prayer works and we need to have faith in our prayers and remember that they truelly are conversations with our loving Heavenly Father. I encourage you all to pray for others, recognize the needs of others and keep them in your prayers. This is a service we can do for all the children of God.

So what else is new... Well we do have a new investigator that i m excited to start working with. The elders have been teaching a young girl Yana, but they think it will be better if we take over teaching her. She is a great girl and is very interested. We're excited to start working with her.

This saturday we are having an activity with the branch and then anyone else we invite. It is a soccer game which is girls against boys!!!!!!!! Our Branch President is a professional soccer player but he will be on the girls team :))))))) it should be really fun!

So mom to answer your questions, yes I know Elders Drasso and Eborn. I only know them from the visa trip though. They both seem like great missionaries. I will probably serve with them someday. Yeah and Elder Drasso is from the Newport area. Small world!! Yeah while we were in Finland there was only 3 hours of darkness. There is not much darkness here either. We go to sleep at 10:30 to light and wake up at 6:30 to light too. I am not sure what time it gets dark though. Its interesting though.

Well i love you all so much. Thanks for all your love and support. Until next week :)

love always,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

6.27.10

2010-07-05T20:45:00.001-07:00

Hello My Everyone!!!!!

So I am sitting in a internet cafe in the middle of Siberia sweating...... who would have thought that was possible. Any hoo the weather is beautiful right now. The last week has been VERY hot. It has been around 38 C which is 100.4 F WOWEEEEE!!!!! SO HOT!!!! But you know me, I love hot weather, so even though i sweat its ok with me. I think it is better then -40 F. Which it got that cold in the winter.

Well lets see what interesting things have happened this last week. Well last week one night i was doing the dishes and actually talking to someone on the phone when all of a sudden the knob on the faucet broke off and water went spraying everywhere, I started screaming like, " AHHHHHHHHH OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!" I was talking to the branch presidents daughter and she was like "Is everything Ok!!!" Anyway I hung up the phone and yelled for my companion and then she came in and saw the water spraying everywhere in the kitchen and then TOGETHER we scream "AHHHHHHHHH OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" So my comp hurried and put a towel over the gayzer of water (which was really hot) as i got under the sink and tried to figure out how to turn off the water. Her hand was burning up as i was messing around with the knob. Well anyway I shut it off and then we called our landlord to come look at it. Well the next 3 days we spent a lot of time at home as he attempted to fix it. One day we came home and found a note on the front door from our neighbor directly below us saying that we NEEDED to talk and then we opened the door and found a huge puddle of water on the kitchen floor. Well in the end everything was fixed, but it was an interesting few days!

Well great news.... our investigator Natasha has a baptismal date for the 17th of July. She is a great girl and we are looking forward to her baptism. We still have a lot to teach her about. She is very excepting of what we teach her and really loves the church and she believes it is true. Also Marina who was baptized a few weeks ago is doing great. She just continues to amaze me at how strong she already is in the gospel. She teaches me more than i think i teach her. She will be moving back to Ukraine soon and the church is not in her city, but she will continue to read the Book of Mormon and keep contact with the church and her uncle who is a member. She will be a great member missionary for her family and friends.

Yes mom Diana danced at the graduation at her university, but it wasnt her graduation. She graduates next year. She dances very well and did a great job at the graduation!!! She is actually my companion right now. My companion is really sick and couldnt leave the house today, but she insisted that i still have a PDay. So we arranged to be on splits today. I hope she gets feeling better soon. Its always horrible to be sick and to try to continue doing missionary work.

So a couple days ago I read a talk by Elder Uchtdorf from the last young womens conference. It was such a great talk. He talked about fairy tales. He related how we start our own live as "once upon a time" and how it is up to us to find our "happy ever after." He talked about how through the gospel and the atonement we can have a happy ever after. This concept is completely right and one that we need to think about always. We are here is this life writing our own fairytale and in the end if we live correcting we can live with God again which will be our "happy ever after." The important part it that we spend everyday living the gospel and strengthening our testimonies by reading the scriptures, praying, and living by the commandments. As we do this we get closer to that happy ever after. If you havent already heard this talk you should read it, its very good.

Well my time is over :( I love you all soooooo much!!!! Have a great great great great week!!!

Love always,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

6.16.10

2010-06-16T17:55:00.001-07:00

Hello again from Russia!!!!!!!

Well I am back from Finland and back to work as a missionary. Finland was great though. It was sooooooo beautiful and green this time. While we were there we stayed at the temple guess house and ofcourse attend the temple. It was so great to be in the temple again. It was so relaxing and peaceful. We did an endowment session in Russian and it was so spiritual. Members from all across Russia save money and plan for along time to make a trip to Finland to attend the temple. As you know, or maybe you dont, there are no temples in Russia. So Russia is in the Helsinki Finland temple district. We have a group a members through out our whole mission preparing to attend the temple in July. Most of them will get on the trans siberian railroad and travel for like 5 days or something to go to the temple. These members are very dedicated. I can not wait for the day that the first temple in Russia will be announced!!!! It will be an amazing and happy day!!!!! This is in the future of Russia, but there is still alot of work here to prepare this great country for a house of the Lord. In August the first temple in Ukraine will be dedicated. Our mission will then be apart of the Kiev Ukraine temple district. Everyone here is soooo excited about the temple in Ukraine. We might even start going there on visa trips, so maybe i will see this temple while i am still on my mission!!!! That would be great!

DAD HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for ALL you have done for me! You are the best! I am sending you a HUGE bear huge and kiss through this email.... so i hope it reaches you :)

Well on to our work for the last week. The first news is that our investigator Natasha told us a couple days ago she wants to be baptized!!!!! YAY!!!!! The date is not official because we still have more to teach her, and it takes her time to understand everything. So we are thinking either the 26th of June or the 3rd of July. Please keep her in your prayers that she will continue to progress and be baptized. She is a great girl and really enjoys coming to church and meeting with us and talking about the gospel. She has also already made some great friends is the branch who are welcoming her in!!! As for our other investigators, really no new news :( it is still really hard right now to meet with most of them because they are busy with finals in school. So lately we have been trying to find new investigators and then working with the less active members who need help strengthening their testimonies and coming back to church. Reactivation is sooooo possible with less actives in the church and this is something at all members can help with. Here in Russia this is a big part of mission work. Our mission president really stresses working with these less actives. I have seen a lot of success with some of these members. Right now we are working with Galina, an older lady from the branch. My last companion sister reed and i started working with her and then sister antonova and I have continued. For the longest time we would go and get her every sunday morning and go with her to church. She was always standing outside her apartment building waiting for us to get there. There was a few weeks when we couldnt go and get her and those weeks she didnt come. We were trying to get her to come on her home...... well after some time and work with her, she has come the last 2 or 3 weeks on her own and is even there early. This last week she was the first one at the building and had to wait for someone to come open it for her hahaha She is great and it has been really rewarding to see her come back. We have also seen success with many others. So for those of you who are reading this, think of those less actives from you ward or branch who needs help coming back to church. Its so vital for them. Sometimes these poeple just need friends, so go and visit them or something. You will be surprise by the difference you can make in their lives. Always remember that God works through us to help this children.

So there is little boy, maybe 2 or 3 years old, who is the grandson of one of the ladies in my branch. Well he was at church on sunday and after church he was running around building and so then i started chasing him a little and running with him. But then i had to go into a meeting and soon he followed me in to this room and started telling me that he wanted me to run with him again.... but then i realized what he really said, "баба баба,побегай со мной" which translated means, "grandma grandma run with me" haha he was calling me grandma. EEEEEEEE!!!!!!! haha I thought HEY I'm not THAT old!!!! Haha it was really funny and everyone was laughing about it. So now i am a grandma :)

Well i love you all and again i hope you have a fabulous week and i cant wait to hear from you all next week!!!!!!!! YAY!!!

love always,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

sorry i have no time to send pic this week, next week :) and sorry this isnt a very long email, but i hope u still love me :))))))))))

6.9.10

2010-06-09T15:29:00.001-07:00

Hello family and friends,
I know i always say this, but i cant believe how fast every week goes. I always feel like i just wrote you. So we are starting another transfer.................. and i will be staying here in Irkutsk :)))))))))) I am very happy to stay, I know there is work here for me to do. So this will be my 4th transfer in Irkutsk, which i cant believe because i feel like i just got here. It is a great city with great great great people.
Well this last week was great! We had another baptism here in Irkutsk on saturday. It was a man named Alexander who has been an investigator for many years. He finally took the step and was baptized and everyone was so happy for him. Soon he should receive the priesthood and become a strong priesthood leader here in russia. The number of priesthood leaders here is low, so everyone is valued extremely. One of our investigators, Natasha, was at the baptism. We think she will be baptized soon. She has alot more to learn and some things she doesnt understand very much, but she really has a desire to learn more and she loves reading the Book of Mormon. So we will continue to work with her and help her progress to baptism. Most of the people we meet with right now are younger and right now all the universities are winding down for the year, so all the students are very busy with homework and exams and things so it makes it hard to find time to meet with them. A couple of our progressing investigators are like this, so we arent able to meet with often. We are just praying for time to meet with them so we can help them.
So this last sunday was a holiday, well just here in Irkutsk. It was the Day of the City. Well where we meet for church is right on one of the main streets, so as we were at church, in sacrament meeting and we starting hearing loud noises and music outside. Well it was a parade. We were just finishing up sacrament meeting and then after we all hurried to the windows and watched the parade. Sunday school ended up starting late because everyone wanted to finish watching the parade. My companion and I go to the sunday school for the youth, so we went and dragged them all into class haha and then closed the windows so there werent distracted. It was really funny!! Tomorrow I leave to Finland. I am really excited to see it this time because Finland is just so beautiful and everything will be green this time. Last time i was there there was still snow. This trip is a little shorter than usual. We will only have a little time actually in Helsinki, but the most important thing is that we will be able to go to the temple. Mainly the trip will be just be traveling there and back, so we will be really tired when we get back.
Today Elder Scott was in Novosibirsk and he did a conference for the missionaries. All the missionaries in the mission except us here in Irkutsk and one other city were in Novo for it. We are just soooooo far away for it to work to get us there. It is like being on 2 different sides of the united states. They broad casted it for us though, which was great. President Powell, who is in the seventy and in the area presidency of like east Europe or something was there too. They both gave us great advice and counsel that will very much help our mission. It was amazing to hear the words of an apostle directed specifically to us here in the Novosibirsk mission.
This last week we had a concert at a childrens hospital. Us missionaries and some of the members went and did kind of like a talent show for them. These kids have tuberculosis and live at this hospital. The ones that came to the concert were about between the ages of 3-10. They were so cute and loved having us there. Elder Southam, who is here with his wife on a mission, did magic tricks and pulled money out of their ears and they just loved it. It was so great because they were so happy and had big smiles. They have hard lives and so it was a blessing for us to be there with them and see them happy. It is always great to do service and see how happy we can make people.
Sorry if this email wasnt very interesting, maybe next week will be better :))))) Well you all should already know this but........ I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am soooooo thankful for you all and you love and support. You are all great!!! Have a great week :)

Love,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

pictures: Marina's baptism, Alexander's baptism, my comp and i on the trans sibirian railroad, the parade, and us at the concert

6.2.10

2010-06-03T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hello from Russia,
Ok so i only have a little time to write. So i got my birthday package!!!!! Thank you for everything, it was great. I loved it. I love all the cards from everyone, and I love how some of you attempted to write me in Russia haha it was great!!! Thanks for all the little gifts in there too!!!! I love you all soooooooooo much!!!
Well life is greater then ever! Yesterday we had Zone conference, so President Trejo (our mission president) and his wife are in town. Yesterdays conference was just amazing. I learned so much. A great thing about life is that we aren't prefect, yes some may think that is not a great thing but, that means we can always learn how to be better and always improve ourself. A mission is one of the biggest learning experience EVER. We are here to serve the Lord and help people accept the gospel of jesus christ, but we arent perfect, although some may thing that. I remember before i served a mission thinking that missionaries were perfect. I thought that as soon as a person was set apart to be a missionary they became perfect and set off on their journey as a missionary and did all that missionaries were supposed to do perfectly. Well soon after being set apart i realized that wasnt true. The more i learn as a missionary and the more I apply the atonement of jesus christ to my life, the better missionary i can become which means i am more prepared to help people come unto christ. The atonement is the biggest and most important blessing for us. Everyday through the atonement we can become better and become more like christ. No matter who we are our or what we do, the atonement works for all of us. Yesterday at conference i learned alot. I have been taught how i can become a better missionary, so i am excited to start doing the things i know i can be better at, and show the Lord i am willing to become the servant he wants me to be.
Well the greatest news right now!!!!! Marina was baptized!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!! It was a beautiful ceremony too. She was sooooo happy. Then she was confirmed a member and recieved the Holy Ghost on sunday. It has been such a blessing to teach her. She is already so strong in the gospel and so willing to follow christ and his teachings. I have pics from her baptism but i forgot my camera, so i will send some next week.
So you wont believe it but....... it is already almost transfer time. This friday we will find out where we will be next transfer and then the beginning of next week we will all start moving to the new areas. So next week i will let you know were i will be. Also next week i go on my next visa trip already. We will be going to finland again. I am excited to see all my missionary friends that are serving in other areas that i havent seen for awhile. There is a group of us that always go together on visa trips.
Well i have to go. I love you all of course so so so so so much!!!!!!! Have a great week!!!

Love Sister Mindy Gneiting

PS Just to let you know, I first typed sister mingy gneiting hahaha

2010-05-26T12:01:00.001-07:00

Hello Hello!!!!!

Well its that time again to email you!!! The weeks come and go soooooo fast. Well things here in Russia are great! Today was Pday and we spent the day at Lake Baikal, which his so beautiful!! The last time i went there the lake was all frozen and we could walk on it, but this time ice was gone which means i was able to drink the water!!! Lake Baikal is the worlds largest fresh water lake so you can drink right out from it and its as if you are drinking filtered water. Yeah its cool. It was a fun day! I will attack some pictures.
So yes it was my bday yesterday, thank you for all the bday wishes!! I cant believe i am 22, thats a little weird for me to think about and it just means the rest of you are even older then that haha. I still think of Hollie as abut 22 or 23 haha i guess i need to start thinking different. Mom i havent gotten that package yet because no one has come to irkutsk from Novosibirsk for a long time, but there will be some people coming soon. So i will just get to celebrate my birthday twice!!!! I had a great birthday though. In the morning right before my we started companionship study my companion said we need to take the garbage out, so i went and open the door to go out and as i walked out all the elders jumped up and suprised me with balloons and a poster and a gift! It was really cute of them. And then later in the day all us missionaries and the senior couple here had a little party with cake. It is Elder Southam's birthday today, so we celebrated together. Then that night some people from the branch and english club suprised me too with some flowers and a gifts and then when we went home I was suprised again. Diana the branch presidents daughter, who has become my very good friend surpised me with cake and some gifts and flowers. It was really cute what she did, she is just awesome. So it was a good day filled with alot of surprises. The people here are just great and have become like family.
So this week we will have Marina's baptism. It will be on Friday and she is soooooo ready for baptism. We met with her yesterday and she is so excited about getting baptised. Her uncle who she is living with right now is going to baptize her, so that will be special for both of them. So next week I will email you all the details about her baptism. Anya is also supposed to be getting baptised on saturday, but we are not sure that will happen. She is really busy with school right now and has alot of exams, so we will see what happens. We also have 2 new investigator who we found from english club. There names are Katya and Era. We have only taught them a little but they both are interested in learning more. Era has a lot of good questions about God and the gospel. I am really excited about these girls. Oh also i told you about that girl named Alex, well i think i dont you about her. Well she has been very inactive the last year or so. We we have had a couple meeting with her and she came to church on sunday and to some other activities. So I have been very excited to see here start to come back and i hope we can continue to help her strengthen her testimony.
So in a couple weeks Elder Scott is coming to our mission. He is having a confernece in Novosibirsk and all the missionaries that are serving near Novo will be able to go to it..... but Irkutsk is so far away that we cant go. Elder Scott have a rule that has long as the missionaries can get to the confernce and back and only miss one day of missionary work then they can come. Well since we travel on train from irkutsk to novo it takes almost 3 days... so we cant go :( but its right on transfer so if im tranfsred i might be able to go, but if not that is ok. I think they will broadcast it or something so we can see it, but it would be cool to see him. I did meet him while i was in the MTC though, so its ok if i dont make it to it. Its cool to know that he is coming to our mission though. He will give us some great advice and I know our mission will be strengthed by his visit.
Well onve again I love you all soooooooooooo much and miss you all to. Just know everything is great here in russia !!!!! I attached some pictures one with Diana, some of my bday, and some at Baikal. Enjoy!!!!!!

Love always,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

5.19.10

2010-05-19T11:09:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone!!!!!
I hope you all are doing great. I love you all so much. Well first and most important thing is first HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well actually I think when you read this it will not be your birthday yet, but it russia it is your birthday today!!!!!!!!! So you can celebraty for a little longer than normal. Well iu hope you have a great birthday and that everyone does something nice for you. So hint hint everyone haha. I just love you so much mom, thanks for everything you do for me. You will be getting a package (who nows when though) and there will be some bday presents for you. I LOVE YOU SOOOOO MUCH MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well things are great here in Irkutsk. Two of our investigators we have set dates with for them to get baptized next week!!! Marina and Anya. They are two young girls and are just great!! Marina is the one that we met last week, she is just amazing and so ready for the gospel. She accepts everything we teach her and is so willing to follow the commandments we teach her about, even if they are new to her. She is a miricle. Anya is also great. We have been meeting with her for 2 transfers and she had progressed alot. There has been some things we have had to work through with her but she is ready know for baptism. So we are praying this baptisms happen next week and everything is great. We would appreciate your prayers aswell for this two girls. Prayer are mighty! We have another young girl named Natasha, who we think will be ready for baptism soon too, but its really hard to meet with her cuz she doesnt have a phone. She is really excited about the gospel and has been to church and really like it. So we are praying everything goes well with her. Also last night this girl, who is a member, came to english club. She hasnt been to church or english club for like a year. She is a great girl though and we are going to start meeting with her and try and help her stregthen her testimony and come back to church. I really feel we can help her. A big part of our work is the less actives here and its great when they start coming back to church after a long period of time. They just have to be reminded about the gospel and remember that it is true. Thats why it is so important that we go to church every week. If we miss only 1 or 2 sundays,. its easier to miss more. Satan really workd on us and tempts us and the longer we are away for church and for hearing and studying the gospel the more he is able to lead us away. Every sunday we are able to stregthen ourselves and each other. THe gospel is SOOOOOO important but sometimes its easy to forget parts of it. I am just so thankful for the gospel and im so greatful to be on a mission. I can see that i have changed a lot since last July 15th when i entered the MTC. The gospel changes us and makes us better. THe Lord is our example and when we strive to follow him and his commandment life is just so much better. We need to always keep the savior as the center of our lives.

Well i love you all so much. Thank you for everything. Keep being amazing!!!!! Sorry this email wasnt very long

Ok the picture are 1st: my companion and i with marina our investigator, 2nd: at a sevice project, 3rd: standing by the wall (its funny because every once in a while we find funny english words on the walls) 4th: with the branch president, his wife, and daughter, and the southams who are the senior couple here

love always,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

Pictures Pictures Pictures!!!!

2010-05-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

5.13.10

2010-05-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello Hello!!!!!!

It was so great to talk to you on Sunday and hear your voices. I feel like i have told you everything already, so i am trying to think whats new to write in this email. Well i guess i can start with the weather :) haha well it stinks right now, well not literally, but it is cold again. The good thing is that it is only raining and not snowing. We had some really nice warm days last week. Its really nice when i dont have to wear a coat!!!!!

So i have a new amazing person to tell you about. Well her name is Marina. She came to church on sunday and we didnt know who she was. Well we started talking to her and found out she is our elders quorum president's neice. She is not a member but is very interested in the church. We went later that day and taught her and then have been teacher her very day since. She is SOOOOOO ready for the gospel and to be baptised. She is only 18 and has battled with leukemia. At one point she was in stage 4 of cancer, but now is doing better. When you talk to her you can tell that because of her battle with cancer she has become a very strong person and has developed a strong testimony with the Lord. She told us that at one point the doctors has no hope for her, and she said that is when she turned her life over to god and started reading the bible and praying and soon received a miracle and was healed and recovered and know is doing great. After that she decided she wanted to find the truth church and through her uncle she found out about our church. She is amazing and is soaking everything up that we teach her. She is such a great example for all of us. Life is hard, we all have things that weigh us down, and we can choice how we will respond to this tribulations. We should all learn from Marina and always allow the Lord to led our lives. The gospel brings so much happiness to our lives, if we allow it to. We need to live everyday the way the Lord wants us to. Not only will he bless us as we follow him, but he will use us as instruments in his hand in bring others to this great happiness we acquire from the gospel. The gospel is true, so why not share it with all. I am so thankful for the gospel and to be serving a mission. Everyday my testimony is strengthened and i learn new things that i know i never would have learned if i wouldnt have gone on this mission. IF anyone has the opportunity to serve a mission, DO IT!!! You will never regret it. Oh and by the way for all you married older couples with grown children, my mission president has asked us to tell everyone that we know that our mission needs new senior couples. If any married couple are interested in serving a mission or if you know of any couples who are thinking about it, let me know because my mission president can request them and then most likely they will be called here. This is the best mission is the world to serve in and because our mission is bigger then the united states, its very hard for president to get around to all the cities and take care of everything, so senior couple are a HUGE blessing to our mission and to the missionaries here. So yeah let me know.
Mom thats way cool about your friend from your youth that was baptised and way cool that he lives in scotts ward. Oh by the way scott i gave mom that info about that lady who lives in costa mesa and is the daughter of Galina, a member in my branch here. You should try to get a hold of them. I hope they speak english. The next time i see Galina i will take a picture with her so you can show them. Anyway that would be cool if you could help them receive the gospel because they arent members. I expect a report from you on your effort.

Dad i am sorry the Jazz lost. There is always next year though and now you have baseball to watch!! GO YANKEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People here dont no really anything about baseball, its really sad. Also they dont now how to play american football, its very funny to watch them try. But the are great at soccer!!!

Well im sorry i cant think of anything else to say. I should start keeping notes of things that happen through out the week so i can remember to tell you about them. Well maybe i will do that for next week!!! Well ofcourse i love you all and cant wait to hear from you next week!!!! Have a great week.

Love,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

4.28.10

2010-04-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

Hello my amazing family and friends,

Well it of course has been another amazing week. Well first is first, transfer info!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will be staying here in Irkutsk, but i am getting a new companion. Her name in Sister Antoniva. She from Ukraine. I dont know her, well i think i met her once, but anyway i hear she is way awesome, so i am excited to be companions with her. I think this transfer is going to be great and that some great things are going to happen.

Well we have 6 investigator, that area all progressing. Two have said they want to get baptized and the others are very interested. It will be great to see how they progress this next transfer. I have 2 cool stories to tell about 2 investigators. So the first one is about Kostia. Well he has a lot of questions about the resurrection. Some days he feels like he beliefs it and some days she doesnt. Well he has always been really excited to meet with us and then all of a sudden he stared not coming to meeting. We would call him and he would kind of make excuses not to come. Well on sunday we had a meeting with him and talk AGAIN about the ressurection. At the end he said that lesson had given him alot of answers and he was really happy he came and he said he felt like resurrection was possible. In our previous lessons we had committed him to pray about our message and ask god if it was true. So on sunday we asked him if he prayed and her said, "WELL........ You know..........(right then i thought oh here comes another excuse why he didnt pray)..... Yes i did pray....... and i was told to come to this meeting"!!!!!!! WOW EEEEEE then they continued to say that he didnt really want to come because he was having doubts about what we had taught him and about what he had read in th Book of Mormon. So he said he prayed about it if he should go to the meeting and he said said he really felt like he needed to come. Then he realized that god wanted him to hear our message. He is a great guy. That is a great example how prayer is real and it does work. God always listens and he gives us answers.

Ok well the other story is about our new investigator Diana. Well last wednesday we had set up a meeting with another investigator Gelya and we had asked a young girl whos name is also Diana who is the branch presidents daughter to help us with this meeting. Well she was going to come a half hour early so we could have a small lesson with her before our lesson with Gelya. So at 6:30 as we are waiting for Diana, in walks a girl that we dont know into the branch building. There were 2 elders there too and i though maybe they knew her. Well to make the story short none of us knew her. so i asked her what her name was and she said DIANA!!!! We thought what another Dianna. Well what happened was that we thought we had called Diana(the presidents daughter) but really we called and this other Diana who was a old investigator of some elders a couple years ago hahaha well the cool thing was that she was way excited to meet with us and very interested in the gospel. What a coincidence, I think not, it was a miracle. Sometimes the lord works in interesting ways. Sometimes he leds people to us.

Missionary work is great. So often i see this small miracles and realized AGAIN that this really is the lords work and he knows what he is doing and knows what we as missionaries can do to be successful. I love being a missionary and i love being here in Russia. The gospel is so important and it needs to be shared with all. I feel and see myself changing everyday and growing closer to my savior and gaining a great understanding of this gospel. The gospel is amazing and wonderful and beautiful and PERFECT!!!!!! Its true and its our way to happiness and eternal life. OHHHH man i am just so thankful and i have never been so happy!!!!!!

Well the weather here is great!!! Its getting warmer and warmer!!! YAY i am tired of the cold weather. Some days we dont even need jackets.

So life is good and i hope all is well for all of you. i love you all so much!!! Well i cant wait to hear from you all next wednesday!!!!!

love always,

Sister Mindy Gneiting

4.21.10

2010-04-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone amazing who is reading this!!!!!!

Well life is great!!! Thanks for all the photos you sent. Its was so great to see everyone, I'll just say everyone has changed. You all look so great, not saying you didnt look great before!! haha Oh i just have an amazing family, i love you all so much. I loved the picture of the whole family together. It looks like your having fun with out me, haha thats good. Im glad you dont miss me to much :)

Well life is really so great right now. This last week was amazing. This last week we found 3 new GREAT investigators. The first one was Kostia, he is 31 and we found him while contacting on the street one day. He was very interested in hearing more and this last half of the week we meet with him 3 times and he came to church. He is progressing so much. He is excepting everything and loves learning more. When we first meet him he said he didnt believe in life after death, but then in our meeting with him yesterday we asked him what he thought about it now after we have taught him. He said he believed in the Restoration!!!! He still is looking for his answer if the Book of Mormon is true, but he will receive it soon. He is so great though. We asked him to think about when he wants to get baptized, so we will see what happens. The other is this lady named Gelia. So to start of this story there is another lady Tatiana so is not a member but is mom of a member, so anyway we had set up a meeting with this lady to tell her about the church, well she brings her friens Gelia along and we didnt even now Gelia. Well we taught them about the restoration through Joseph Smith. It was a great lesson and at the end Gelia ask. "I was baptized in the russia orthodox church, is that ok?" (by the way we hadnt even talked about baptism yet, all we had said is that our church has the priesthood and the authority to to baptism) so we told her that her baptism wasnt done the right way and not by the authority of Jesus Christ but that out church has that authority. She then told us she want to be baptized that right way and in our church. I asked her is she though our church was true and that JS was a prophet and she said YES!!!! So we set a baptismal date that will be in the beginning of April. We had another lesson with her yesterday and she told us that she has been searching for the truth for soooooo long and now she thinks she found it. We feel so blessed to have found her and now we have the chance to teach her about the gospel. She is amazing and its is so true she has found the truth. Our church is the truth, we have the true gospel, the only true church of jesus christ. We have another meeting with her tonight. Then we have another new investigator Natasha so is really interested in learning more. She came to church and really liked it and wants to meet with us again. And then our other investigator Anna, we are still working with. We had to move back her baptism because she didnt come to church. We not quit ready for baptism, but she wants to, we just need to help get ready for it by teaching her some more stuff. So those are the main people we are working with right now.

Lately we have been on, you could say a dry spell and didnt have many people to teach, but we kept working and tried to do what the lord wanted us to do and tried to find this people to teach and now the lord was blessed us and has led us to this people to teach. This is the lords work, and when we do it his way and recognize this help in the work, we become successful, ITS GREAT!!!!

Well transfers is this next week. We find out transfer info on friday. Im not sure if i will be staying or going, but we will find out soon. So next week i fill you in on the news.

So Russian is coming along well, I am still not fluent, which i dont know if i ever will be haha but i know enough to be a missionary and do the lords work. The cool thing is that i dont need to know perfect russian, as long as i am doing my part and trying, the lord helps me the rest of the way. I have seen and felt that help many times. This is his work and he wants this work to continue so it only makes sense that he would help me.

Yeah mom you can accept those people on facebook haha people i know here are always telling me that they find me on facebook. I tell them, "cool we can be real friends after mt mission!" haha if your friends on facebook that means its a a real friendship, right? :)

Yes there are alot of asian people here, thats alot different than Novosibirsk. The weather is getting warmer. Today i wore no coat!! YAY!!!!

Sorry if my english is really bad, russian is taking over and english is becoming hard to speak and spell haha

Well i love you all so much. Keep being great!!!!

Love,

Sister Gneiting

4.7.10

2010-04-17T22:53:00.001-07:00

(Mindy actually sent this email a couple of weeks ago 4/7/10 but I forgot to post it - so here it is a little late. sorry!)

Hello my wonderful everyone!!!!!!!!

Life is great, and i am in Russia which makes things even better!!!! Yes mom i do think time has spead up. Time is flying by!! Mom you GRADUATE next week!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH thats so AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Im so excited for you. Send me lots of pictures of it. You are amazing mom!!

So this week has been great. We found 2 new investigators this last week. One of them we still arent sure how interested she is, our first meeting was a little weird and she is a little interesting, but she said she would meet again, so we will see what happens. But the other new investigator is Anna, she is 15 and is awesome!!! She is GREAT!!!! Her older sister is a member, but right now leaves in Germany for school. We have had 2 meetings with Anna and she has accepted everything we have taught her and really wants to learn more. I see alot of potential with her and i think she will be ready to set a baptismal date soon. She has started to read the book of mormon and really likes it too. Im so excited about her. Our next meeting with her is tomorrow. Another lady named Nastia we are started to meet with. Her husband is in the branch presidency and she comes to church with him. They have 2 little kids that are just adorable. Anyway she is great and i very nice lady. They are only like in their late 20s. We had FHE with them on Monday and we talked about families and what our church belives about families. It was great. At the end we ask her if she was interested in meeting, but she said "well i have my husband to answer my questions." yeah we were sad about that. Her husband isnt doing much though to helping her learn more about the gospel and to get baptized. So we need to work with him and help him see how important it is that he talks her about the gospel so she will want to get baptized so they can recieve the blessing of being together forever.

So we get to watch conference this weekend. We watch it a week later here because we have to wait to get the russian traslation for the branch. We will watch it in english though, it is better because we can actually hear their voices and not someother persons voice. I am so excited though, i have heard it was great! We also have zone conference this week, which is always great.

The pictures are of my zone decorating eggs for easter, the train station in Irkutsk, me and a girl named Angelina from the branch with Charlie Chaplin, me with Alexander II and Stalin haha they were in Moscow, me with my companion and Angelina. Enjoy!

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

Love,

Сестра найдинг

4.14.10

2010-04-14T15:56:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!!!!

Well it has been another great week here in Russia. Time is going by faster than ever. We are approaching the end of this transfer, yeah already I know crazy. Next week we will find out transfer info about where we will be next transfer. Well this last week was conference week. First we had zone conference, which was great. President and Sister Trejo and the Assistants came and we had a great conference with them. We were taught how we can teach by the spirit and how we can use the Book of Mormon better in our teaching and why the book of mormon is so important. It was a really great conference. Then on saturday and sunday we got to watch general conference. We watch it a week later because we wait to get it in the russian language. So the members of the branch watched it in russian in one room and we watched it in english in a different room. Conference was GREAT!!!! As usually. So much guidance on strengthening relations within the family. After wards we were talking about how it kind of made all us missionaries trunky with all the talk about family and thinking about out families back home. We overcame our trunkyness though and are back to work :) but conference reminded me how thankful i am for my family. YOU ARE THE BEST AND I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! I'm so excited to talk to you in a few weeks!!

Well the work is continuing on here in Irkutsk. Our investigator Anna who is a little sister to a member of our branch said she wanted to get baptized!!!! YAY!!!!! She is great. We have only been teaching her for about a week, so we still have a lot more to teach her, but she said she knew the church was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet. So her baptism will be in a few week. The date isnt forsure, but we have a meeting with her tomorrow and we will set one then. She hasnt come to church yet though and she needs to come twice before she can be baptized. So we are working with getting her to church. She is such a great girl though. Last week we had 2 baptisms here in Irkutsk. It was this older married couple Vladimir and Tamara. It was great to see them baptized together as husband and wife, and maybe in a year they can be sealed in the temple and have the oppurtunity to be together forever. How great this gospel is to give families this wonderful blessing.

Mom you graduated!!!!!!! YOU ARE AWESOME!!!!! I'm so happy for you. I wish i could have been there to celebrate, we will just have to take a rain check and when i get back we will celebrate. Man you are just amazing! You will miss school so much though im sure, you loved it. I will miss seeing your 4.0 grade reports on the fridge :) Good job mom!!!! I just love you so much. Oh no.......... now i cant say "my mom goes to college" like Napoleon Dynamite anymore. oh man sad day haha

So everyone you wont believe it................. tomorrow is my hump day. Tomorrow is the 15 of April which means i have completed half of my mission. I only have 9 months left. I cant believe it, i have so much more to do. I am jealous that elders get 2 years, that would be so nice. Its just that this work is amazing. My time is spent in the work of the lord, and it truly is incredible. The church and this gospel IS TRUE and ALL people need to hear. This work is hard, its the hardest thing i have ever done, yes even harder than nursing school (my friends from nursing i know you cant believe that, but its true :) haha) but all the hard times is worth it. To be honest some days are so hard i feel like quiting, but you know who that is right.... yup Satan, and he wants me to think that i cant do this and that i might as well give up, but when i turn to the lord and allow his love, mercy, and knowledge to become part of me, my attitude changes and i realize I CAN DO THIS and more importantly the lord knows i can do this. The Novosibirsk mission is a hard mission, it is actually considered i think in the top 5 hardest missions, but that doesnt matter. The work is possible anywhere and at anytime. Its possible here for me and its possible for you were ever it is that you are reading this. Every person needs US to share this gospel with them, and the Lord knows we can so it. The work is great!!!

I love you all so much

until next week

Sister Gneiting

3.28.10

2010-04-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone -

I hope that you are having a wonderful week. I am and things are great here in Russia!! First I will answer all of your questions mom. Yeah you can add Ganbat Mandu on facebook. She is a member here in Irkutsk. She in an amazing girl!!! She was baptized a couple months ago and so now we are working with her on her after baptism lessons. For the school stuff that you have to take care of. Um my mission officially ends at the beginning of next January. I had told the nursing program that i would be back though to start that winter summer. If i stay until the end of my mission and go home when i am supposed to than i think the semester will have already started. I talked to president Trejo about it when i first got to russia, and he said I could home early to be there for school, but i dont think i want to do that. I want to stay until the end. So I probably wont start until the summer semester. Thats good too because it gives me time to study and remember what i had learned before and to get ready to start again. So thats what i think i will do.

My companion is Sister Reed. She is from Washington state and she is great. We are each others first american companions, so we like that. We understand american jokes and stuff haha!!!! She is a transfer younger than me. She is great and really loves this work and understands why she is a missionary. It has been great being with her.

So i finally got your Valentines package!!! HAHA i love getting the packages late, it makes things more fun. So i get to have holidays twice!!! I loved the package and all the valentines from everyone and i loved the american candy!! I miss american candy :) In russia they have sneakers and twix and thats about it, there is other good candy here though. By the way Amy and Katie Wilson you both asked if i got your letters, yes I did and I LOVED them. Thanks for sending them. I only get mail when someone comes to Irkutsk from Novosibirsk which only happens like twice a transfer. So i love getting mail, cuz it doesnt happen much :)

Things are going great here in Irkutsk, time is flying by though. This transfer is almost half over already!!!! i cant believe it. Well here is Irkutsk there is 6 missionaries. My companion and I and 4 elders. There is also a senior couple, the Southam, who are from Colorado. The Southams are great and help us out alot. My russian is coming along. It is a very hard language so it does take time. I understand better than i can speak, but it is coming along. I know as i continue to study it the Lord will bless. The Lord has already helped me alot to do this work in the Russian language.

So that investigator that i told you about last well has kind of gone weird on us. She has a friend that is a member of our church, but she is not a very strong member and she still goes to other churches and had a lot of strange ideas. Well we think this member is talking to our investigator and scaring her about our church. We dont know forsure but this investigator went all of a sudden from being way excited to meet with us a talk to us about the gospel to not showing up to meetings and making things alot harder. We are hoping things will work out and that we can meet with her again and help her feel the spirit and the truthfulness of our message. So keep Nadia in your prayers please. We have a couple other investigators that are great but really busy and we cant meet with them enough, so their progression is very slow right now. We are trying to find new investigators, we have some great contacts that we are hoping will turn into new investigator.

Next week we have zone conference again! Yup already! I am excited, they are always great. President will be in town for a few weeks!!! YAY im so excited.

Well im sorry i cant really think of much more to say. Sorry if this letter is a little boring!! I have to go though because we have a meeting with a lady that will hopefully be a new investigator for us!! Thanks for all you love, support, and prayers. They are well needed.

I love you all,

Sister Gneiting

3.23.10

2010-03-24T00:43:00.000-07:00

Well its wednesday, which means time to email my wonderful family!!!! Well Im still in Finland... there was something wrong with my visa so i am stuck here for awhile, im not sure when i will be able to go back to russia...... haha just kidding. Im in Russia, but that does happen every once in a while with missionaries, something happens to their visa or passport and they cant get back into Russia. All is well with me though :) Finland was great though, it was so beautiful and clean there. Russia isnt the cleanest country so being in Finland and breathing fresh, clean air was great and also in Finland we can drink water right from the tap and in russia we can only drink filtered water, so that was great too!! I left early friday morning and got back monday. We flew from Irkutsk to Moscow, which was like 5 or 6 hours and then we flew to Helsinki, which was like maybe 2 hours. In moscow we had a 8 hour lay over so we went to the Red Square. It was AWESOME!!!! I took picture, so i will try to attach some. When we were in Finland we went to the temple, which ofcourse was wonderful. We did a session and the baptisms. The session was in Finnish, but they gave us headphone so we could listen in English, but it also had Russian on it, so I listen to the session in 3 languages. Isnt that so awesome to think that the gospel of Jesus Christ is spreading throughout the whole word and being taught in 100s of languages!!! The Kingdom of God is being built through out the whole world, and its great that we have the oppurtunity to help.
So Scott and Amy I have a contact for you, yes all the way from Russia. There is a lady in my branch here, she has been really sick the last couple of months ( i think she had a stroke) anyway we went and visited her the other day and she started showing us some pictures of her granddaughter and daughter. She had a piece of paper with the pictures and it had their address on it, and guess where they live.......... Costa Mesa!!!! Crazy huh!!! Well i got their address and told her that my brother lives there too. Its is really hard for this lady to communicate right now cuz she is sick, like i said i think she had a stroke. Anyway you should get ahold of them, i dont think they are members. I think she is married and has 2 kids. So tell them that i know her mom and maybe you can become friends with them, and then........... introduce them to the missionaries!!!!!!!!!! I forgot the book the i wrote the address in, but next week i will email it to you. So you have a week to get ready and then you start some missionary work!!! So cool huh!! I am way excited about that.
So we have a new investigator, her name is Nadya. I think i might have mentioned her last week. Anyway we met with her before i went to finland and then while i was gone sister reed met with her again. She is really great, and accepting of what we have taught her. I had talk to her at english club and she was very interested and she wanted a book of mormon, so i gave her one. Then we met with her a couple days latter and she had already started reading it and said she really liked it. We taught her about the Restoration, she had some questions, but seemed to really accepts what we taught. We are meeting with her again tomorrow, so we are excited for that. She still has a few questions, but I see great potential with her. So i will keep you informed. As for our other investigators not much has changed since the last email, since i was in finland for most the week. They work a lot so its hard to find time to meet with them. We are trying to find more investigators and ones who the lord has prepared to accept the gospel. Some really great news is that most of the inactive members that we have been regularly meeting with have started coming back to church, which is great. For the church to go here is russia we need new members but also we need the people who are already members to stay strong. Russia is so new to the gospel, so right now the missionary work here is building a foundation. All them members need to stay strong or come back to activity so that foundation will continue to grow. It is growing though. There have been prophecies given by prophets and apostles that say that someday Russia become one of the strongest nations within the gospel and that there will be villages and towns baptized by the thousands. That time is coming, Russia WILL be like that, but right now we are building that foundation. So the work is hard right now, but I see that future for Russia, and i know that millions will be baptized. So we are continuing the work here is Russia, because we know that what the prophets have said will happen. This work is wonderful and i am so grateful to be a missionary!!!

Well I love you all so much and i am so grateful for you!! I hope you all have a great week!

Love,
Mindy

3.17.10

2010-03-18T22:17:00.001-07:00

I cant believe it is time to write again! seriously time is going by so fast!!! This last week was great. We had zone conference and of course it was amazing. The conference started at 9 am and went till 3 pm and Pres and Sis Trejo spoke and they were both very inspiring and then Pres Schwitzer basicall took the rest of the time teaching us about all sorts of stuff. Also the APs (assistance to the president) did some training with us. It was all GREAT!!!! After I just felt to inspired and ready to get back to work and so much harder and better.

I also had a interview with both pres trejo and schwitzer, which were great experinces. They are so smart in the gospel and so spiritual and they were able to answer questions i had about the gospel and how to be a better missionary. So conference was great and i wish all of you could have been there too.

Well the new transfer starts today and i am staying here in Irkutsk. I am glad because there are some great people we are working with here. It is always sad to think about leaving the city I am serving in and that when i leave i may never see this people again, but i am here for another 6 weeks, so all is well.

So last night i started talked to this lady at english club and we were talking about the gospel and she was really interested in hearing more, so we are meeting with her today to teach her about the restoration. Her name is Nadya and i really excited about teaching her. So as for our other investigator, well Natasha and Helen have both been so busy lately, they both want to meet with us, but dont have time. So thats hard but Helen came to english last night and she told us that she read the assignment we had given her to read in the Book of Mormon and that she really likes it. That made us really happy.

We have a couple other investigators too, but they arent really wanting to progress. I guess know is not there time. We need to find new investigators, but english club just started back up and we get alot of investigator for that. So soon we should have new people to teach.

Also we have been working with s few inactive ladies from the branch, and we are seeing great progress with them. Once has been to church 3 weeks in a row, when before she hadnt been for along time. Also another lady said she would go with us to church this sunday. I wont be here because i will be in finland, but my companion is going to meet her before church. So the work is moving along.

This city is a really hard city for missionary work right not. It has only been open to missionaries for 7 years!!!! YAY 7 YEARS!!!! Can you believe that? My interview with Pres Trejo was really good, and he help me to know that even though the work is really hard here is Irkutsk the lord want us here and he will prepare a way. We are working hard here, it is just hard sometimes when we dont see the fruits of our labors. But I still love being a missionary,even through this hard times.

Well I leave in 2 days for Finland. Finland is great and i am so excited to go to the temple. So next week i will tell you how the trip went.

Well i love you all so much!!!!!

Sister Gneiting

3.9.10

2010-03-10T14:38:00.000-08:00

Hello again

Well another week has FLOWN by and now there is only one week left in this transfer!! I cant believe it. Then on top of that I am almost half way done with my mission!! This just cant be right. This must be about another missionary and not me. I fill like i am running out of time and cant even imagine not being here is Russian, but my time here as a missionary will come to end and sooner than i would like so i have to not waste anytime. But lets not think about the end, lets think about whats happening right now. Ok so let me think, whats happening? haha Well tomorrow President Trejo and President Schwitzer are coming to town. President Schwitzer is a general authority and i believe our Area president or something, im sure yo could look him up and find out exactly who he is. I have meet him once, he came to Novo during my first transfer, and he is amazing. So he is doing a mission tour of our mission right now. President trejo our mission president is accompanying him as well. They have been to the rest of the areas of the mission and are coming here to Irkutsk for the last stop. While they are here we will be having zone conference, which we have once a transfer. I am very excited for this. President Schwitzer and President Trejo are both men called of god to be in this leadership positions and when they speak inspiration just flows from them. So this conference i know will be great. Tomorrow i will be having my interview with Pres Trejo, which i am looking forward to as well because it is always great to talk one on one with him. I always leave our interviews feeling great and inspired on how i can be better.

So this friday night is when president calls all the missionaries and tells them their transfer info and where they will be next transfer. So i will find out then where i will be, but since we are having interviews with him tomorrow he might just tell us missionaries here in Irkutsk a little early. But anyway i will find out soon. I am hoping to stay here a least one more transfer because we do have so investigators that we have started teaching with in the last couple of weeks that i would like to continue to work with also we have some old investigators from previous missionaries that we started working with again and things are looking good with them. One girl named marina we talked to last night and she said she had prayed and read the book of mormon (we had asked her to do that) she said that she had prayed before reading though and wanted to try and and pray after and see if she could receive an answer about if it is true. She is a great girl, but had problems with the past missionaries about following through with commitments they gave her and about having a desire to change churches, but know she is keeping commitments so we pray she will continue to grow. Two other investigators who are friends, Helen and Natasha both came to church on sunday. It was there first time and they really like it. The hard thing is that they work alot and so it is hard to meet with them, but we are supposed to meet with them later in the week and hopefully they will come to church again.

Well English Club is back!!!!!! YAY Our branch building was being painted for the last month and so we didnt have english club, which was a bummer because we get alot of new investigators from it. So this last month we spent alot of time passing out flyers advertising for english club. Then yesterday we had a sign up for new people and we had a lot come and sign up and then we are doing the sign up again today and then on friday we begin club again. So we are hoping for a lot a new people at english club, which mean more potential investigators!!!!

So some other great news is that next week i will be in finland again!! It is time again to go get a new visa. For americans missionaries here in russia we can only get a 3 month visa and then at the end of the three months we have to go out of the country and the come back in on our new visa. So we go to finland for the weekend. Finland is beautiful and amazing so it will be good.

So Mom you graduate in like a month!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! I wish i could be there to celebrate with you. So Rhiana, Scott, Amy Joy, Trent, Amy, Hollie, and Cameron you all better be there to support her and to celebrate with her afterward, because i cant and i wish i could. Im sure it will mean a lot to her for you to be there with her. So take a road trip!!! :) Also mom you are going to the sugarland concert!!!! Sweet!!! That will be awesome!!! Take lots of photos. Thanks for the pics of Trent, he is so cute and getting so big. Does he have blue eyes? Scott and Amy, he is so cute and i am sure very spoiled!!!

Well I cant think of much more to say, so I guess i will say good bye. As always i love you all so so so much!!! I cant wait to read all your emails next week!!!

love,

Sister Gneiting

Leave Mindy a message

2010-03-04T20:10:00.000-08:00

I know that their are several of you following Mindy's blog and enjoying reading about her Russian adventures.

I know that she would love to hear from you.

Please feel free to leave messages to her on this blog

(Click on comments at the bottom of each post)

I will send her your messages each week in my email.

Or you can just email me at mommagneiting@yahoo.com

and I will forward your message on to her.

I know that she cares about all of you and hearing from you would be a real lift for her.

Thanks,

Carol (Mindys Mom)

3.2.10

2010-03-02T23:02:00.000-08:00

(Sorry the picture is sideways)

Hello again everybody!!
I cant believe how fast this week went by, i feel like i was just emailing you. Well the work here is moving along and we are working hard. The transfer is almost over though!!!!! WOW!!!!!! next week we will find out if we are being transfered or not. I feel like i will be staying, but you never know. Irkutsk (oh mom you asked me once how is was pronounced- well it is Earkootsk) is a great city. The biginning of the transfer as i have told you in other emails was kinda hard and we didnt have very many people to meet with. Well we did the hard part and started looking for them. Now we have 3 investigators that we are working with. They are 3 girls in their 20s and they are great. One was a former investigator with some other sister the served here before, but she hasnt met with missionaries for a long time. She knows like everything about our church and she likes the church but she still has some concerns and questions that we need to resolve, so we will see how things go with her. Then our other 2 investigators names are Helen, but i call her Diez because i think she looks like Cameron Diez, haha she likes that attention and the other is Natasha. They are friends and great girls. We have had some great lessons with them and they said they would read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if the church is true. I am really excited to work with them and help them come unto christ and be baptized. We havent talked to them about baptism yet, but it will be in the future. So those are out investigators and then we have some inactive members that we are working with as well to help them come back to church. It is so sad to see how many people are not active in Russia. President Trejo is really wanting us to work with the less active members. So the weather here is playing with our minds haha we will get like one day that is really nice and the sun is shinning and its not to cold and i always think, YAY spring is almost here...... and then the next day is FREEZING!!!!!!! haha so im not sure whats going on, but i just want it to be warm weather again and no snow so i dont have to wear boots and a coat anymore. But I will stop complaining.
So i was just reading out of the Book of Mormon and read this scripture Alma 5:16 "I say unto you, can you imagine to yourselves that ye hear the voice of the Lord, saying unto you, in that day: Come unto me ye blessed, for behold, your works have been the works of righteousness upon the face of the earth?" And i thought this was a good scripture and wanted to share it with you. I thought about myself and if the Lord would say to me, come unto me mindy, i am well pleased in you because of you righteous and good works. And know i am thinking of the things that i can change about myself and become better so that the Lord really can say this to me. I then turned to another verse a few pages away about how we can become better. Alma 8: 23-24 23 "And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

24 And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works."
So there we go. That scripture tells us what we need to do to abound in good works. I am going to strive to be more humble, obedient, patient, etc and also ask God to help me in my needs. I know if we strive to be better, we can be better. God wants us to be better. I know the we all can help more in building the kingdom of god on earth, sometimes we just need to remember that we can and that the lord expects it from us.
Well i love you all so much and miss you all. I love it here is Russia, i cant even imagine being anywhere else. I love be a missionary and helping people feel the love of god and to know the truth. I cant wait to here from you all next week!!!

Love,
Mindy/ Sister Gneiting

2.25.10

2010-02-25T23:41:00.000-08:00

Hello again all my favorite people!!!!

Well it has been a great week!! The last few weeks, or beginning of this transfer had been really hard for me. It was challenging in many ways.... but this last week was a big difference and i have seen the Lord lift me up and push me beyond the point i was before and has helped me become a better missionary. We truelly do have times in our lives that are hard and sometime we even feel like giving up, but if we fight through them and always remember to do it with the lords help, we come out better and stronger. The last 3 weeks were hard because everything was just slow and we didnt really have any investigators, the ones we did have werent able to meet with us. It seemed like almost everyone we tried to set up meetings with either couldnt or just wouldn't show up. So we were spending alot of time outside in the freezing cold Siberian weather doing a lot of contacting, which for anyone reading this that has been on a mission knows that contacting is usually not a missionaries favorite thing to do. Well we were getting really frustrated with it. So last saturday after having alot of days of feeling crummy, we decided to fast. We knew we couldnt do the work on our own. We know that Russia is and has been know as a hard country for missionary work, the work is slow here at times, but its possible and 100 times more possible and successful when we are doing it the Lords way. Well so before we started our fast we we really had no investigators that were progressing... but then with in a few hours we had a new investigator and some numbers of people we had talked to on the street that wanted to meet with us to learn more. This day was so unusual, we had people coming up to us and asking who we were and saying they wanted to meet with us. And the things was that we werent really doing anything different then we had in the past, the lord saw our faith and saw our sacrifice and saw our huge disire to be good missionaries and he providing this people for us and putting them in our path. It was a great day. That day we meant with a girl who had met with the missionaries in the past but not for along time. We had a great meeting with her and then after wards she asked me why we decides to call her, and the answer was that we felt the holy ghost promt. We then said, well why did it take you so long, i have been waiting for the missionaries to call me again!! She wants to meet again, and she is a great girl and we are excited to teach her. Also yesterday we had a first meeting with two girls from english, and it was probaby one the most spiritual lessons and best lessons i have had. We watched finding faith in christ and then after talked about christ and why he is important for us. It was a great lesson and they too want to meet again and learn more about joseph smith and how the church was restored!!! Those are just a few of the things that have happened this last week! It really has been a great week and a week that i has been directed by the lord. The last 3 weeks were hard, but i know i learned for them and have relized again the miracles the lord can do.

Well today we went to LAke Baikal, and it was BEAUTIFUL and AMAZING. Im trying to attach photos but it is takinf forever so you might not get any. But it is so beautiful. The whole thing is frozen right now and we walked out on it and we could look down through the ice because it so so clear. It was just so amazing, sorry i cant even describe it. This lake is the deepest lake in the world and the world biggest fresh water lake. YAY it was huge.

Well i love you all so so so much. Keep being amazing and dont forget about me all the way in siberia OK!!!! haha

Love always

Mindy- Sister Gneiting

Sorry you only got 2 pics one of my comp and i on the lake and then one of me lying on the lake. i will send more next week, well hopefully Love ya

2.17.10

2010-02-17T00:06:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!!!

I can't believe it has been another week!!! Time is flying by soooooo fast! I feel like i just emailed you so i am trying to think what has happened since last wednesday. Well Im still trying to get to know everyone here in the branch, but the people here are very busy and its hard to meet with them. This last week was kind of hard for us. We got a lot less meeting for the week then what we set as a goal to get. We both dont know alot of people here so we are trying to meet with everyone, but it seems like right know no one can meet. There are alot of inactive members in this branch. President Trejo has asked all the missionaries in the mission to work alot with the inactives. So Sister Reed and I are trying to find them. we have meet with some of them and we are hoping to help them get back to church. They are all great though. This last week our strong investigator who was progressing and very interested in the church moved back to Mongolia for a few months. It was sad for her to go but hopefully when she comes back we or whatever sisters are here will start meeting with her again.

So our branch building is being painted on the inside so it is closed for almost a month which means we cant have english club, which is a bummer. Twice a week we have english club and we get alot of investigators for it. There are a couple girls from english that we are wanting to start meeting with. We have a meeting with one tomorrow and we hope that goes well and the others will be going to an activity that we have on saturday. We hope the will feel the spirit and want to continue meeting with us. We are really needing new investigator. When i got her the companionship that was already here didnt have many investigator, mainly because they all got baptized last transfer, which is awesome. So we are searching for new investogators.

My Russian I think has gotten tons better in the last 2 weeks since i left Novosibirsk. I dont have my russian companion anymore to rely on when i dont understand or dont know how to say something. This is my first time having an american companion and she is a transfer younger than me, so we both have a lot to learn in the russian language. So we have really had to rely on the lord for help to say what we want and to understand. The Lord is helping us though and we are speaking Russian. I know as we keep working hard and even though things are a little tough right now as we show the Lord we are willing to work and fight throught the hard times, he will bless us.

So mom all of your facts about the area are fun to read and they are all true. So you sent me info about lake baikal. Well next week we are going there!!! Everyone needs to look up lake baikal on the internet, because i dont have enough time to tell you about it. But it is like the worlds biggest fresh water lake and a bunch of other stuff. So we are way excited to go there.

Well i love you all so much and love reading you emails. Have a great week!

Sister Gneiting

2.10.10

2010-02-10T15:23:00.001-08:00

Hello everybody!!

Well life has changed a little for me this last week. I am now in a new city called Irkutsk. This is a great city, i already love it here. The people are great and the city is great. I miss Novosibirsk and the people there horribly though and so i am trying to get over my homesickness for Novo. I dont know when i will go back to Novo, of course i will because the mission office and stuff is there, but we dont go all the way to novo for conferences so it might be a while until i get there.

So i traveled on the train here for over 30 hours. There was 4 missionaries on the train, 2 elders and another sister and 1. Sister Colderwood and I shared a cabin. The cabina are these small little rooms with 4 beds and a little table. THe beds are like bunk bed style. It was fun. There were a bunch of other russians in our car and most of them were drunk haha and it was pretty funny. They all wanted to talk to us because we were americans, and actually we were able to talk to alot of them about the gospel and some of them were very interested. Hopefully when they recover from being drunk they will remember. It was an eye opener for us though to remember that everyone is a child of god and deserves to hear the gospel, even if they are drunk. Of course we need to be careful but its something to think about. Well funny story from the train. When on the train sisters and elders arent allowed to go in each others cabins, so sister calderwood and i were standing outside the elders cabin talking to them and one of the drunk guys (maybe in his 40) came over right between Sis C and I, he started talking to all of us and was asking us if we wanted some vodka. Of course we told him no and we didnt drink, but he kept asking and was like "no dont worry its on me and its on russia, just have some...) well we kept telling him no. So anyway sis C and i decided to go back into our cabin to get away from the drunk man, so i started walkin to our cabin and then i stopped to turn around to wait for her and this man he was walking the same direction as me and when i stopped he put he arm on my back and started to lean into kiss me,and i thought "OH NOOOOOO" i was quick though and turned my head right in time and he only kissed my cheek/ear!!! I was like "OH MY GOODNESS" and then just kind of stood there for a second shocked and then hurried into my cabin with sis C right behing me and slammed the door shut and locked it as fast as we could. Then we laughed and laughed and laugh! It was so funny! So i have had my first kiss with a russian!! haha

Well now to the more important info. So Irkutsk is a new city to the gospel. It has only been open for 7 years to missionaries. There is only 1 branch but good amount of active members but also of course a lot of inactives. We have 3 investigators. One of them is Mongolian and she is pregnant and later this week she is leaving for Mongolia to have her baby, and she wont be back til may. So thats sad to see her leave because she is close to baptism, she just has a couple things to work past first. So hopefully she will continue investigating the church either when she gets back or in mongolia. Another invest. is also mongolian but i havent met her yet, so i dont know much about her. There is a group of mongolian girls living here and going to school and 4 of them have been baptized in the last few months and the other friends are our investigators. So thats really cool because they are all supportive of each other. The third invest. is a young girl who wants to be baptised but her dad is very against it, so he are not sure what will happen with that.

We are searching for new investigators right now. I feel the work here is going to be great. Its hard coming to a new city and trying to adjust, but i feel i am basically adjusted and now i can get to work. This work is the most amazing thing ever. This is the lords work and he is putting his trust in us, not just fulltime missionaries but all member. He needs our help. We are so blessed to know that we have a loving heavenly father who has prepared a plan for us to return to him and to recieve eternal joy and happiness. This is all REAL!! God LIVES, his son Jesus Christ LIVES, Christ IS our savior and he DID atone for us. Turn to the Lord and allow him to guide your life, without the Lord there is no point to life!

I love you all so so so much. I hope all is well for all of you and i miss you all!!

Sister Gneiting

2.3.10

2010-02-10T15:21:00.000-08:00

Hello again everybody!!! It has been another great week. Well i actually have news this week. I am being transfered. I am actually going to see what the rest of russia looks like, and when i say i rest of russia, i really mean the REST well almost, but i will get back to that. So i am being transferred to Irkutsk and will be serving with sis read. Do you remember how i meet that other girl right before I went into the mtc who was going to the Novo mission too through one of my friends.... well thats her!! haha she is a transfer younger than me and I will be senior companion. I have mixed feelings about everything, but i know everything will be ok.

My russian is ok, but i still have a long ways to go and its hard to understand people at times. im sure her russian isnt much different then then mine so it might be challenging at times with russian, but I know the Lord will help us. This is what the Lord wants so we will work as hard as we can and he will make up the difference. I know this is going to be a huge learning experience and i know my russian is going to get alot better this transfer. The only other companions i have had have been russia, which means they know russian perfectly, and so when i dont understand what is being said i could always rely on them for help but know it will be a little different with have a younger american as a companion. So yes i am a little nervous but i know everything will be ok, the Lord always provides a way for this servants.

So anyway I leave Novo tonight, weds night at 11:30 on the train and ride all night and then all day tomorrow and then all night tomorrow and then get to Irkutsk at 9 or 10 am. So when i said I will see the rest of russia i wasnt joking. It will be cool to be on the train. I will be with a couple other missionaries too, so dont worry about me being on a train all by myself. I am sad though to leave Novo, i love it here and will miss it. I have been here for four month and so i have gotten to know the people here very well. I will miss them alot, but i will see them again. Alot of missionaries have to come through Novo when they are being transferred.

Well mom i still havent gotten that package, but dont worry that normal. it taked about a month to get here. I will eventually get it. They will just keep it at the office until someone go to Irkutsk and can bring it with them. So one day i will be very very happy!!!

So the work here in Novo is going well, i am leaving my area in good hands with the sisters here. We have some great investigators who will hopefully be baptized soon, I will be sad not to be here to see that. Also i had told you how there is alot of inactive members in our branch and how we have been visiting alot of them and trying to bring the spirit back into their lives so that they will want to return to church. Well alot of them have started coming back!!! This last sunday we have a lot of people at church and it was great, i hope that continues.

Well I cant really think of anything else to say. I love you all though so much, thanks for being the best family and friends ever.

Well I love you all so so so much. Keep being amazing!

Mindy - Sister Gneiting

Update on Sister Mindy (long post)

2010-02-06T13:58:00.001-08:00

Well Mindy has been serving on her mission now for 7 months. She is doing great. She loves Russia and the people. She has been in Novosibirsk since she arrived in Russia 5 months ago. It is Russias 3rd largest city, after Moscow and St. Petersburg, and is the largest city of Siberia. This is where the Mission home is located. She loves this city and has enjoyed serving there.

Novosibirsk Skyline

Mindy with a couple other sister missionaries

(picture retreived from Bro and Sister Simmons blog - thanks!)

She was transferred this past week. She is now serving in Irkutsk. She had quite a journey getting there. Irkutsk is approximately about 1800 miles from Novosibirsk. She took a train to get there and traveled for 35 hours. She crossed two times zones. On the Russian map below (sorry its not bigger) Novosibirk is right in the middle of the map toward the southern border. Irkutsk is east of Novo (about an inch) next to a long sliver, crescent shaped lake (Lake Baikal - more pictures below). Considering that this is almost 2000 miles apart on this map it kind of gives you an idea of just how big Russia really is.

She is now the Senior Companion with another american sister that has been out about one month less than Mindy. Mindys other companions have all been Russian and they have been able to help her with the language and understanding the culture, etc. So now she is going to have to rely much much more on the Lord to help her with her understanding and speaking the language. She has great faith - I know she will do awesome!!

I have been studying about Irkutsk and its history and surrounding area and it is very interesting. I am learning alot about Russia. So I thought that I would give you a some interesting tidbits on this new area that she is serving in.

FACTS:

It is one of the largest cities in Siberia with a population of 593,604.

In the early 19th century, many Russian artists, officers and nobles were sent into exile to this part of Siberia for their part in the Decembrist revolt (Because this happened in December the rebels were called Decembrists) against Tsar Nicholas 1. (Hence the saying when someone does something wrong, "You are going to get sent to outer Siberia!")

Irkutsk became the major center of intellectual and social life for these exiles, and much of the citys cultural heritage comes from them. Many of their wooden houses, adorned with ornate, hand carved decorations ( see picture below), are still standing there today.

It has the nickname ~ The Paris of Siberia.

It is a very prosperous cultural and educational center for eastern Siberia with many museums and universities. The architectural design of many of the buildings and churches is very beautiful and ornate.

Kazansky Church in Irkutsk

Epiphany Minster (built in 1718-1746)

Irkutsk railway station on the Trans-Siberian Railway

(This is probably where Mindy arrived in this city)

A Decembrist house with distinctive hand-carved trim

Irkutsk sits near Lake Baikal. It is called "The Pearl of Siberia". It is the deepest lake in the world (about 2,442 ft) and it contains a total of about 20% of the worlds surface fresh water. It has a surface area of 12,248 square miles and is home to more than 1,700 species of plants and animals, 2/3 of which can be found nowhere else in the world.

The lake is completely surrounded by mountains, contains 27 islands (the largest is 45 miles long and is the 4th largest lake-bound island in the world. The lake is fed by as many as 330 inflowing rivers.

Irkutsk is toward the bottom of the lake on the left side.

Sorry that this post is so long but I thought that you might be interested in seeing and hearing about the new area that Mindy is in. I hope that you enjoyed learning something new about a country that most of us know nothing about.

2010-01-26T23:56:00.000-08:00

Well hello again to my wonder family and friends,

Well life is great and the work here is great, EVERYTHING is great.

So here in Novosibirsk there is alot of less/inactive members and we have been spending alot of time visiting and teaching them and we are seeing our effort with them payoff. The last couple sundays we have had alot come back to church! They are needing to be reminded of the importance of the church and reminded of the reasons why they joined the church. The amount of people at sacrament meeting in increasing very week lately and hopefully more and more will continue coming.

Then our invstigators are doing great to. One 19 year old girl named Marina started reading the book of mormon this last week and she also prayed for the first time like EVER in our meeting with her. We are seeing a great change of heart with her and she is progressing great. I think she will soon have a baptismal date set. Also we are teaching a man named nickoli, he is a husband to a lady from our branch. We ask him to read the BOM last week, which he did, but he was confused by alot of thing. We told his wife to read with him and help him understand it, and she hasnt done it much but we taught him yesterday and they said they would read together and also pray together. The wife very much wants him to accept the gospel, which he has accepted what we have taught him and he is progressing. Its wonderful to see the gospel bring a fam together. Many of our other investigators we havent been able to meet with lately, either they are sick or working or something, so that has been a roadblock.

So also great news, we have a meeting with Danna's sister Victoria tomorrow. She is 21 and Danna has realy wanted her to come to church activities but Victoria is scared what their mom will do if she finds out. I have only meet her once, so we are excited to meet with her tomorrow and teach her.

So yes it is very cold here, the last few days have been very cold. The coat and boats i have are really warm though and so i dont get to cold when i go outside. If we are outside for a long time it is usually only my toes that get cold.

So tranfers are next week!! I cant believe it. Time is flying by. We find out friday night where we will be next transfer. I have been here is Novo for 3 transfer, so i could very likely be transfered somewhere else, but where the Lord needs me I will go. If i do get transfered it will be hard to leave Novo, I love it here and the people here are great.

So i finally got the chistmas package from the Ward. It took over a month to get here! haha crazy. I loved it though. A lot of people had put letters in it. Tell the ward thank you sooooo much for that. Reading what everone wrote was a great blessing. Everyones love, support, and advice is helping me be a better missionary. I love the Newdale Ward.

Mom I cant believe you graduate soon!! Thats so awesome, you are amazing and the best mom ever (yes everyone it is true). So Mom for the college class you are helping teach, some good questions that an investigator might ask the missionaries could be: Why do I need to be apart of an organized church, why do i have to go to church when i can worship how i want at home, How can you believe Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus, he could have just been a crazy man gone mad (someone asked me that this last week), I have already been baptized in a different church, I believe god is a energy and not a real person. Anyway those sould help.

Well i love you all so much,
Sister Gneiting

2010-01-13T05:56:00.001-08:00

Well you havent heard from me for awhile, because i think my last two email didnt get to you. So sorry about that. I am alive and well though. So i think in those emails i wrote about christmas and new years, so you havent heard about my holidays here in russia. Well everything was great. Both christmas and new years we spent at presidents house. We spent those two days just relaxing and playing games, watching some movies, and eating ofcourse. Also on new years eve we had to be home at 4 pm for the night. New years is a huge holiday here in Russia and very much celebrated and people can get very crazy and drunk, so we stay inside away from the partying. New years eve for all the missionaries in the mission is deep cleaning day, so when we got home at 4 we cleaned. So while everyone else was out partying and celebrating new years, we were cleaning! haha Missionary Life is GREAT!!!!!!

So in the last email, which i dont think you got, I told you about this lady in our branch that died last week. She wasnt married and lived with her parents.we would go and see her every week. It was a surprise that she died, everyone was shocked. Her mom is a member and also in our branch but no one else in her fam is. We went to their house the day after she died and the mom was said of course, but her knowledge of the gospel helped her alot. But her dad, who is not a member, was taking it very bad. He was drinking out his sorrows and pains. When we were at their house I felt so bad for him. I felt like we need to teach him and get him baptized and get this family sealed. He would just pace the house mumbling thing (of course drunk) and it was really sad. At the funeral he was just sitting next to her casket crying and crying and not really looking at anything else. Elder Miller (he and his wife are here on a mission) spoke about the Plan of Salvation, and during his talk the dad looked away from the casket and just starred and Elder Miller. I thought again,we need to teach him. I prayed that we would be able to help him and teach him. Well prayers are answered and heaven father loves all his children and........this last sunday the mom told us that the dad wants to start coming to church with her and that he wants to be taught about the church!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited, i couldnt stop smiling. I just kept thinking, THIS FAMILY AND BE TOGETHER FOREVER!! So we taught him a couple days ago about the restoration and the lesson was great. He said he would start reading the book of mormon and come to church and his was very happy and of course his wife is happy. I am very excited about teaching him. The Lord works in mysterious ways but he will provide a way for all the children of god to hear the about the gospel.

We have 3 other investigators who are progressing and getting closer to being baptized. They accept what we teach and understand. Hopefully soon we will have some baptismal dates.

So today we are going to the Ice City!!!! I guess its like a city carved out of ice, so that will be cool. I will send pictures.

So this week is Zone conference! I am way excited. Zone conference is always amazing and i learn so much from president trejo and his wife and the other leaders of the mission. I always feel a bust of energy after zone conference.

I havent gotten the packages but it is just probably taking forever. Thats ok though, it will be a surprise when i get them

Mom you said in you email that we are the same temperature right now and that it is really cold for you!!! Haha i was think that it feels really warm, i wasnt even wearing my gloves today!!! haha it has been so cold here lately. like -30 F so -5 F is great!!! HAHA I LOVE SIBERIA!!!!!!!! Oh and dad guess what, the tip of my nose did get frostbite, haha it was probably like 1st degree (idont know if that applies to frostbite) but yeah something happened to the tip, but it is better now.

So the pic Danna put on facebook, well i am not sure what pics they are. She had my camera for awhile, so maybe she put some one from my camera. Thats probably what they were. Oh I love that girl, she is amazing. I hope you can meet her someday. She is really wanting her sister to come to church things so right now we are working on that. Her sister is scared what their mom might do, but Danna is a great example and very strong is the gospel and has a great testimony. She is such a pioneer for her family.

Well things are great and i love Russia and I love being a missionary. The gospel is true and Jesus Christ is our savior and this is his true chruch. I love you all so so so so much!!!! Have a great week!!!

Love ya all

Sister Gneiting

2010-01-03T14:01:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to everyone all the way from Russia!!!!!!!

Being away from home and a missionary makes me realize what christmas is about. Its not about the girft we recieve, but about celebrating the birth and life of our Savior Jesus Christ, and what makes christmas even better is we can celebrate this wonderful holiday with our families! I am so glad i will be able to talk to you on the phone, because you mean everything to me. I thank you for being the best family i could ever have, God placed us together in a family for a reason and I'm thankful he has given us a way to be together forever, yup you guys are stuck with me forever :) I love you sooo much!!
I want everyone reading this to know how much I love you and am thankful for you! I also want you to know how much the Savior loves you. Stay faithful to the Lord and as you do so he will take care of you and lead you to happiness. Only with the Lord at our side do we receive eternal joy and happiness. Jesus Christ came into this world selflessly and gave us the most important gift we could ever receive, he gave us the atonement. Please take time to remember the Lord Jesus Christ and all that he has done for us. Dont become distracted by the worldly meaning of christmas.
So Finland was great! We flew from Novosibirsk to Moscow then to Helsinki. We had a 4 hour layover in Moscow and then when we went to board our flight to Finland we were told that we were trying to get on the wrong flight and that our real plane didnt leave for 4 more hours. so we had a 8 hour layover in moscow, which we were all a little sad about because if we would have known we would be there that long we would have been able to go see the Red Square. So then we got to Finland and went to the temple because we stayed at the temple hotel. While in Helsinki we went to through a session at the temple and then went to this place called the fortress, which we dont really know what it was because we went at night and there was no one there to tell us anything or give us a tour. Well it was like an old war fort or castle or something. it was really old and cool. Maybe you can look it up on the internet and then tell me what it was haha - the Fortress in Helsinki. So the temple was beautiful, it is a small temple. It is actually the exact design of the Newport beach temple, well the outside isnt really but the inside was. So i sort of felt like i was in cali!
So I am getting the feel of the Siberian winters. Today -35 C today which is -31 F. YES THATS RIGHT -31 F cold cold cold but its ok because i get to wear fur to stay warm! haha
So I loved the pictures you sent me of Trent, he is soooooo cute! Does he wiggle around alot because in some of the pictures you sent he was blurry in them but everyone else wasnt blurry haha i thought that was funny. Also i like the picture by the tv you have up of me in that fur hat haha old ladies wear those here but i want to buy one but everyone says they will make fun of me, but i am ok with them making fun of me.

Well I love you all and I hope that you have a very Merry Christmas and a great 2010!!

2009-12-16T17:51:00.000-08:00

притывег ргожщгыо лтекдяцт рекдлсит

Hello Everyone!!! Happy Holidays!!! Ok so that Russian doent mean anything or say anthing. The keyboard was just set to type in Russian when I started so I typed some letters. It takes me forever to find the right letters in russian though on the keyboard for me to actually type you something. My email time is precious and goes by fast so i wont, so thats all the Russian you get haha

Well everyone, yesterday was my 5 month mark as a missionary! Can you believe that, i cant! time goes by so fast. I am a week away from my 3rd transfer here in Russia, WOW!!! Only 13 months left, I dont feel like thats enough time!! Rhiana I remember you told me once that when you got to your mission right away you felt like you were running out i time, I agree with you I feel that way to. So I need to not waste anytime, besides it the Lords time not mine.

So I leave for Finland on friday morning!! I cant believe I am going to Finland haha Im on a mission but i get to do a little traveling across Europe while Im here haha pretty cool. I am so excited to go to the temple though!!! It will be great! I cant wait to tell you all about Finland.

OK so that gets me to my next point. I told you I would email you on the 19th to let you now forsure were i will be for christmas calls, well i will be in Finland on the 19th so that wont work. I will probably email you on the monday when i get back from findland. So make sure to check your email to find out my details. I CANT WAIT TO TALK TO YOU!!! ok so i can only recieve one call, but you could can do a conference call some how or just hold the phones together so Scott and Amy and Hollie and Cam can talk to me too. Also you can call me at 8am christmas morning for me, which would be the 7pm on christmas eve for you. So it will be christmas for me but not for you, but thats ok. Let me know if that works for everyone, if not email me so i can know by the time i email you about the exact detail on monday so we can figure it out. Or tell Danna to ask me! haha yeah having Danna around is way nice!!

Amy and Hollie HAPPY BIRTHDAY coming up!!!!! You guys are getting so old, haha jk I love ya!! I hope you both have great birthdays. Im sending you both a big hug through this email. I love you both so much!!

Mom and Dad totally awesome that you saw the Prophet!! WOW!!!! Im a little jealous :)

So one of our investigators named яна (Yeana is english) we had a miricle with this week. She has been very interested in the gospel and i feel she is getting close to baptism but for the last couple weeks she disapeared and we had to idea where she was. Her phone wasnt working so we couldnt call her and she didnt come to anything. So every sunday we have a fireside at one of the senior couples home and we had just left our apartment and i thought, lets call Yeana just to see if her phone works and invite her to the fireside. My comp got the phone and went to call her and said, pray that she will answer. SO i said a silent prayer as she called... we her phone still didnt work and so we didnt get ahold of her. So we headed to the Simmons home (senior couple). WE got to the simmons home early because we had 2 meetings the before the fireside. WEll our phone starts ringing and my comp answers it and guess who it is YEANA!!!!! She told us she had changed numbers and thats why her other phone wasnt working and she asked us if there was a fireside that night. We invited her to come and we had a meeting with her about the plan of salvation before the fireside too! I know that was a answer to my prayer. Prayer is real and it does work, but only on the Lords time. So her phone works now and she is able to come to all meetings and things and we are hoping she soon will except the invitation to baptism. I love being a missionary Well I love you all so much and I CANT WAIT TO TALK TO YOU!!!!!! Have a great week!

Love,Sister Gneiting

2009-12-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!!

Happy Holidays!!!! I cant believe it is December! I have been a missionary here in Russia for almost 4 months, but when i think about it it feels longer than that. I feel like I have always been a missionary and that I have always been here in Russia, and I feel like I have known the people here forever.

Well everything is great, I am alive and well! :) Except it is really really cold here. The last few days it has been between -24 and -38 degrees C which is like -15 F and lower, so really cold. Mom you say it is cold in Idaho, how cold? But i bought a new coat that is really warm so that helps. So yes I bought my christmas presents with the money you gave me. I bought a coat and some gloves and socks!!!! ALL VERY WARM!!! Russian made winter stuff is very warm. The socks and gloves I bought from an old lady. All over the city usually around the metro (subway) or bus stops you can find old ladies selling gloves and socks and things they have made. So i am already for the winter.

So I just had an interview with Pres Trejo. We are having our Zone conference her in Novo tomorrow and at zone conference is when we have a once a transfer interview with president. It was a great interview. Its always great to having time to talk with president, he is awesome. He always helps me refocus on the reason I am here on a mission and what we talk about gets me pump up. He is so caring and loving and supportive of us. So tomorrow we have zone conference, which i am looking forward to. Two other zones are coming in from a couple other cities in the mission, so it will be fun having a lot of the missionaries in town.

So next week is transfer call already, i cant believe it is already that time again. Transfer calls is when president calls each one of us and tells us where and with whom we will be serving next transfer. Unfortunately I will be on my visa trip in Finland, so i am not sure when i will find out. I think they will have someone call us and tell us. So i will get back from my visa trip and then if i am transfered i will have like 2 days to pack and say goodbye to Novo and get on a train, plane, or bus and head somewhere. So we will see what happens.

So mom about the ring. We got permission from the Assistants to the President for you to send it to Elder Joseph Hansen who is at the mtc right now. I asked the office elders to email him and tell him what is going on. Just send it to the mtc addressed to him, i dont know his po box number, but you dont need it, just send it to the mtc and with his name and Novosibirsk mission and it will get to him. Also write on it the intructions to deliver it to the mission office in Novosibirsk when he get here. Tell him to give it to an Elder Byers who is a missionary who works in the office. I am having him give it to Elder Byers incase i am transfered out of Novo. If I am not here then it will be easier for Elder Byers to give it Ela. Ok hopefully that made sense. oh aqnd also Elder Hansen is leaving the MTC on Dec 21and so if you cant get it to him intime for him to have by like the 18th or 19th of december then dont send it to him. If you have any questions ask Ela or Danna to ask me.
Ok so next item of bussiness: CHRISTMAS CALLS!!!!!! i cant wait to talk to you!!!! I am copying the email i recieved from the office about xmas calls
with Christmas that means calls home. Because the transfer will be ending the 23rd of December, the process is going to be a little different. What we will do is have our parents be calling us on our home phone. So your parents will have to call like this…

1) -011- In order to dial out of the USA.

2) -7- Russia’s country code

3) -city area code- a four digit number (except in Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk)

4) -your home phone number- - a 6 digit number (expect in Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk)

So they will dial <<011-7-(10>>

Tell your parents your number and set up a time for a call, but let them know that there is going to be a transfer on Dec. 23, so it is possible you will be in a different area. Tell them that, if transferred, you will be given time on Saturday 19th to write home and inform them of your new number and set up a new time. All parents must check their e-mail on Saturday the 19th (or at least before Christmas) to find out about changes. Let them know!!

Ok so that is what will happen. I will let you know on the 19th where i will be. Cant wait!!!

OK so life is great. I am over my cold, but for a few days i was really pretty sick. I had a fever for a fews days that stunk. It was just a flu but i am better now!! We are having a christmas concert this friday and we are singing at it. We (all the missionaries in Novo) and some young adults from Novo are in a choir and we are singing 4 song, a couple in russian and then also in english. It is also an open house for the church. We hope to have a lot of nonmembers there and after the concert we will show them around the building while telling them about our church and the different organizations of the church. So we will be looking for new investigators there. its will be good.
Well I love you all and I am looking forward to talking to you. Have a wonderful day and week. Talk to you soon

Love always,
Sister Gneiting

Ps you asked about the culture here. Well i only have a couple mins left on the internet, but some stuff: everyone LOVES tea, so everywhere i go the give me teas (ofcourse we can only drink tea thats not against the WOW) all the members give us tea when we go to their houses, I started out not liking me but i beginning to like it. Russian sandwiches are only made with one piece of bread and a piece of meat and cheese, i like them. Um everyone smokes here which can be annoying. OK sorry i have to go but i will tell you more next week!!

Love ya love ya

2009-12-02T17:58:00.000-08:00

Hello!!!!

Well it sound like you had a great thanksgiving from your emails and for the pictures. Everyone looks extremely happy!! GOOD!! Oh i love you all so much, and miss you tons. Mom and dad happy anniversary yesterday, 33 years wow that must mean I'm getting old!! haha actually funny story, when I read in your email mom when you said that it was you 33 anniversary, I thought "noway Rhiana is 34!!! thats crazy" but then i realized i wasnt right haha

Well Thanksgiving here in Russia was fabulous. The missionaries serving here in the city of Novosibirsk went to President Trejo's house and we had a full Russian dinner of Borse, fried beats, crapes filled with meat, and baked duck. haha just kinding it ofcourse was just a ordinary american dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and everything else. Everyone at thanksgiving was american except for 4 native missionaries. The food was delisious! It was a great day, we spent the whole day at presidents house playing games, watching 2 movies (a movie about the Book of mormon, and Incredibles), eating ofcourse, and just hanging out, and then we had a fireside that night to end the day and to get back into the mind set of being a missionary.

Mom I will talk to Ela about the ring and see what she wants to do. Also we are allowed to listen to EFY music and MoTab.

So about Finland to answer your questions. President isnt going with us, he went on his visa trip like 2 weeks ago. Everyone goes at different times because everones visas expire at different times. So you go every 3 months. There is i think 17 missionaries going in our group, all the missionaries which came in with me from the mtc and then some older ones too. The sisters usually stay at the housing at the temple and the elders stay at a hostile somewhere. So it will be fun.

So our baptism didnt go through last week. Our investigator's phone is not working and we have never been to her house, so we cant get ahold of her. We hope everything is ok with her. She might be having 2nd thought about baptism, but Im not sure if thats the case becasue she was very excited before, but satan can have a big affect on people.

So mom and amy you both have been sick, I am sick too! I stared feeling sick yesterday, I have sore throut. Im hoping it doesnt get anyworse. I hope you get feeling better too.

So it is so cold today. It is -20 C so convert that to F, but i think about -8 F. So pretty cold.

Well I wish i had more time to write you but i am out if time again. I love you all so so so so much and miss you. We are working hard here teaching the gospel. We have some investigators we hope will accept the invitation for baptism soon. Im thankful for all of you and your prayers and support.
Love,
Sister Gneiting

2009-12-02T17:54:00.000-08:00

Happy almost Thanksgiving to everyone!!!!

So tomorrow is thanksgiving, except for all of you because I am a day ahead of you. So by the time you have thanksgiving dinner i would have already had my thanksgiving. So today is usually pday, but since tomorrow is thanksgiving we are only have 1/2 a pday today and then tomorrow we have the whole day off. So today we just have time to email to go grocery shopping. Then tomorrow we will go to Presidents house at 11 and be there all day. So Russians of course dont celebrate thanksgiving since it is an american holiday but AMERICANS THAT LIVE IN RUSSIA DO!!! So we are all soooooo excited to have a a really good thanksgiving dinner!!!!

So big news...in a couple a weeks I will be going to Finland! I am being transfered there. They decided my service is needed in Finland. haha just kidding, but really i am going to Finland. Its time for my first visa trip. For american missionaries serving in Russian every three months we have to go out of the country while our new visas are approved. So on the 17th of december a group of us are going to Finland. We will be gone for like 4 or 5 days. We will be going to Helsinki, and there is a Temple there, so we can go to the temple!!! so thats coming up soon.

So this saturday one of our investigators is supposed to be getting baptized, but the last couple of days we havent been able to get ahopd of her because her phone isnt working. So we arent sure if its happening this saturday, but she is super excited about baptism and she does want to get baptized to it will happen someday. We dont have any other baptismal dates right now but we have some good investigators that are progress towards baptism. The last 2 weeks has been kind of hard to find time to meet with some of our investigators mainly because alot of them have been sick. So hopefully they start feeling better soon so we can meet with them.

Oh so just so everyone knows, today is my half birthday! haha someone gave me a little friendship present the other day and i said " well thanks, its not even my birthday." but then i thought about it and realized that my half bday was in a couple days. Haha so thats exciting news for the day.

So at our english clubs lately we have been having less and less people come. SO yesterday and then we will do it again today, we have been as our whole zone doing english contacting. A couple people put in "free english" shirts and we can wear jeans and we just go out on the sidewalk and talk top be about english club and get there numbers so we can call and remind them. We also dont wear aour tags because when we do it with tags on it scares alot of poeple away. so this way we can get them more interesting in english and then when they come we can try to talk to them about gospel. English clud is a great way to do missionary work, so we are really wanting to get more people to come.

Well thanks for all your letters and emails, they help alot! I love you all so much. Everyone have a great thanksgiving and now that i am so thankful for all of you. Have fun at Hollie and Cams house.
Love you all so so so much
Сестра найдинг
Sister Gneiting

2009-11-18T17:12:00.000-08:00

Hello again from your favorite russian missionary (i hope) haha

Well i want you all to know how much i love you, its ALOT. So everything is going great here in Novosibirsk. We just started our new tranfser, so that means i am no long a brand new missionary!! YAY There are now 7 new missionaries that just got here from the mtc, so i am now basically an old missionary :) My new companion Sister Bystrova is great. She is from a small town near Moscow and she has been serving for 10 months. So she is my new senior comp. The first little while with a new companion can been a little different because you dont know each other but you are with each other 24/7, but her and i are adjusting very well together.

So not much exciting has happened this last week, sorry. This last week unfortunately was a little slow with the work. With my companion Sister kiselyova leaving and getting her to the right place to leave to go home took almost a whole day and i wasnt able to have an meetings and then I had to wait 2 days for my new companion to come. So for two day I was either with sister boggs (She has been in the mission the same amount of time as me, which means we both dont speak much russian) or with Danna, who i was on an exchange with for half a day. So that was hard because first sister boggs and I are used to being the jr companion and having our senior companions basically planning what we would do. So haha sister boggs and I felt a little lost. And then when i was on the exchange with Danna all of the meetings i had set up with investigators and members fell through and they all had to cancel. Haha so then we had to scramble to get some new meetings. But it all worked out. Danna has only been a member for a few weeks but she did so great as my companion for the day. She taught and testified about the gospel in our meetings as if she had always been a member. She is awesome and has so much faith in the lord. The things I am seeing as a missionary are amazing. Growing up in rexburg can cause you to forget that not everyone in the world are members of the church. Here is Russian the only people who were born in the church are teenagers or little kids, everyone else are converts and when they tell their stories of how they became members its amazing to hear. Its amazing to personally see the revelations about how the gospel will be preached to every nation, kindred, and tounge be fullfilled. Its happening in Russia. Russia is new to the gospel, missionaries have only been here for a short time, but the Lord loves EVERYONE, here in Russian, in America, in Africa, England, Mecixo, EVERYWHERE!!! The Lord will provide a way for everyone to hear the Gospel, but he needs our help. The gospel will not penetrate the hearts of the poeple of the world if someone (members) doesnt first share it with them. There are people around us everyday that the Lord is placing in our path for us to help. They may be people who have never heard of the gospel or they may be inactive members who need a helping hand and a friend in the gospel. We are so blessed to have the knowledge of the gospel, we learn more and more about it every day as we study the scriptures, words of the prophets, attend church, ect. This is all preparation for us to be prepared to SHARE the gospel. Why gain a knowledge of the gospel and the truth of a message that is the way to salvation and not share it with all we now. I pray that you all will look for opportunities to help in this great work. There is no greater feeling then seeing someone you know and love accept the gospel of Jesus Christ and choose to follow him and either be baptized or change their lives in accordance with the gospel. REMEMBER the Lord needs OUR help!

So mom about that cereal you asked about, yes i know what your are talking about, and yes it is really good. I havent had any for awhile so thanks for reminding me. If you want i can try to send some home. Yeah its like Chex with creamy vanilla or chocolate inside.
So I do want a new coat, but i am not sure how much it will be. I will look around and see what the prices are let you know how much to put in my account. I also need some new glove because i left mine on a bus the other day, but i will prob get those soon. So basically only the coat for christmas.

Well i love you all so much and cant wait to get emails from every single person reading this email :) love ya love ya love ya

Sister Gneiting

2009-11-11T18:18:00.000-08:00

Hello my wonderful family and friends,
Well it has been another great week in Novosibirsk Russia. Mom I will answer this questions you sent me and then try to write more so i can make dad happy haha. btw dad YAYYYYYYYYY THE YANKEES ROCK!!!! great time to be a yankees fan!!

Who is your new companion?
So we had transfers this week and my old companion finished her mission and flew home this morning. She was great and i will miss her. My new companion will be Sister Bystrova. I dont really know anything about her , she gets here tomorrow night.

Are you still in Novo?
YES IM IN NOVO!!!!! Im so happy cuz i am not ready to leave here yet. there is still to much work here and i have some great investiators.

Who else are you teaching and what do you spend most of your time doing?
We teach investigators, new converts, and member (so we can get them involved and excited about during missionary work and get referrals from them). Era is one of our investigators, she is 22 and is great. We found her in the area book which is a book that has info on old investigators. She was taught once by some sisters 2 years ago. We stared meeting with her almost two weeks ago. She is very interested in the church and learning more. She always has great questions. I think she will be baptized, but we arent puching her because she told us she didnt like how the last sisters tried to puch her into baptism. She is coming to alot of church actives and is making friends with the young single adults in Novo, which is great. So i am excited about her and rthe progress she is making. We also teaching Ula who has a baptismal date for later this month. she loves the church and knows it is true, but she smokes and we are working with her on that. Also we are teaching Looda, she is 22 and knows alot about the church, her sister is a member. She likes the church but we are helping her to see that the church is true. We havent been able to meet with her for about a week or so but we have a meeting with her tomorrow. There is also another girl named Ula who is 23 and we have taught althrough last transfer. She has ups and downs of he excitment about the church. But this last week we had a good meeting with her and she is thinking about baptism. So those a some of our many investigators. They are all great and I feel like they all will be baptized sometime, when im not sure, but they are great

Have you had any other baptisms?
Me and my companion personal no, but in our zone we have had 2 others. In our mission right now we have a goal of getting a total of 144 baptisms for the year. WE have 56 left to get. Now this goal is quit a stretch for a Russian mission, but all the missionaries in the mission are working really hard to get this goal. There was been some amazing stories of miracles that have happened has we have worked to accomplish this goal. We know the Lord is helping us and we wants us to get 144 baptism, and if we can faith in the lord and are obidient and work hard we will get our goal and miracles will and are already happening to bring Gods children unto baptism.

Do you go tracking?
I havent spent much time tracking. We have alot of meeting with investigators, new converts, less actives, and members through out the day that we dont track much. On our way to places though on buses, subways, and on the sidewalks we track.

What kind of food do you eat?
A really popular food in Russia is blini, which is like a crap rolled up like a burrito with stuff inside. My companion (well old companion) and i would eat those alot. We would buy frozen ones at the grocery store and cook them through out thr week. I have had borsh a few times, but i dont really like it. I am still searching for borsh i like because most poeple seem to say borsh is really good. Also there are these things called palmini which is kind of like ravioli, those are good. Inside them is different kinds of meet. We eat pretty normal stuff though. I dont like Russian salads though, which is a bummer cuz i love salad.

Is there McDonalds in Russia? hahaha
There are McDonalds, but none is Novo that i am aware of. When I was in Moscow i saw one though. Russia doesnt have any fast food place. In america there are fast food places on like every corner, but here there are like none, that why people are so skinny here probably. On every corner in Russia though there is a ice cream stand, like how in rexburg there are a bunch of snow shack, thats what it reminds me off. But seriously on ever corner you can get ice cream and they stay open all through winter.

Are you warm enough and have all of your winter clothes?
Yeah i am warm, come on Im from Rexburg. I think I will get a new coat maybe with the money for christmas. The coat i have when i wear it i feel like an old lady, but i havent decided for sure if i will get a new one.

Are you still able to open the pictures that I send in my emails?
Yes i have been able to open all of them, thank you thank you. Send more

OK so i answered all the questions, unfortunatly I am out of time haha sorry dad. But i think i went into detail about most of those questions and thats basically tells you alot about my life here haha. i did want to tell you one thing that happened this week. We were at a meeting at this ladies house who is inactive and as we were talking with her her son and a friend of his came into the kitchen where we were. They were probably abut 23 or 24. Well the friend started talking to me but i couldnt understand his Russian and waht he was saying, so the lady whos house it was told him, "she is american and she is learning russian" well then the kid starts talking to more and i have no idea what he is saying. I though he was telling me that i needed to go to school and learn russian so i could talk to him, haha so i say in russian " OK good" and then my companion say " NO sister No not good" and then I though AHHHHHHH What did i jsut say good too. Well i just stop talking and everyone is laughing and finally the boys leave. So i turn to my comp and ask what did i say and she told me " You said you would go on a date with him" haha I though oh my goodness!!! haha so that was way funny. So i am doing missionary work and getting dates, haha great life.

Well i have to go, but i love you all so much and thanks for all your love, support, and emails.

love,
Sister Gneiting

2009-11-04T16:05:00.001-08:00

Hello from Russia!!
So today is a holiday, it is The Day of Unity, or something like that. I have asked a couple Russians what this holiday is all about and they dont really know haha. Danna said its not important, but i said important enough to get school off!! yeah
DANNA WAS BAPTIZED!!!!!!! it was beatiful! She is such an amazing girl and so such a strong follower of christ. She is so knowledgable in the gospel too, she is very impressive. So on saturday she was baptized and then sunday confirmed! OH It was just amazing. There is no greater joy then seeing someone choice to follow Christ and then be baptized. Missionary work is amazing. So to answer your question mom about why Danna said she would need your prayers more then ever is because, well i am assuming she meant, her parents still dont agree with the church and they dont know she was baptized. She is an adult though so she decided for her self to be baptized. She is scared what they will do if they find out, she lives with them and they are her means of income. They had threatened her before that if she was baptized they would kick her out of the house. So that is why she needs all your prayers. That shows how amazing she is and how strong of a testimony she has in the Lord and the Gospel. She knows the Lord will take care of her, she has the faith.
So as we were walking to this internet cafe there was a celebration from the holiday today and there was a stage with some people singing Russian musica and bunch of people dancing. We started dancing with them and i took some picture. I will attach some. They are of my companion and I and Sister Boggs and Sister woodhouse (the one who feel into the hole at the simmons house haha she is the one that looks hawiian).
So the last few days all the snow melted, so that was sad. I thought I was in for the sibirian winter, but then it went away. But then this morning we woke up to more white snow. So we are in a winter wonderland again :) its not very cold yet though.
So transfers are next week. Transfer calls are on saturday, which is when Pres Trejo will call us and tell us where we will be going and who our new companions will be. My amazing companion Sister Kiseylova is leaving me :( she is done with her mission. So she is heading home to St. petersburg next week. I am pretty sure i am staying here in Novo, because i have heard through the grape vine. I will let you know next week though. Or maybe Danna will tell you on facebook sooner. Funny story, yesterday I called Danna to see if she would help us with a teaching appointment and as i was talking to her she told me she was on facebook looking at moms and amys facebooks haha yup funny so she read a few things that were on your pages. She knows more about you then I do.
Sorry this email isnt very long. I promise next week it will be longer. I only have a few mins so i am going to use it to attach pictures. So I love you all so so so much.

Love always,
Sister Gneiting

Zone Conference

Birthday party for Danna

Halloween Party

Mindy and Danna

Day of Danna's Baptism

2009-10-28T23:29:00.001-07:00

HELLO HELLO HELLO!!! Its me again from Russia!!!!

So it has been another GREAT week here in Novosibirsk!!! Mom so you got Danna's facebook add, haha. The other day she wanted to look me up on facebook and so she did and then she added you and Amy I think, I am not sure which Amy Gneiting though haha. Get on my facebook and accept her invite for me so she can look at my page. So Danna is AWESOME and yes her baptism is in 3 days!! We are so excited. Oh and you pronouce her name Donna but In Russian it is spelled данна which in translation is Danna, haha i dont know if that made sence. Well yes she is amaxing and very strong in the church and has a great testimony and so very very ready for baptism. I will send you some pic of it next week, well I guess check her facebook and you will probably see them faster haha.

So mom i asked one of the other sister missionaries here about if she has recieved any packages with food in them and she said her packages always have food and she doesnt think that anything has ever been taken out, so if you still want to send that package i think it will be ok, because those hand warmers sound really nice!!!! So we have snow now. the last week it has been snowing every day. It isnt too cold yet so i havent started wearing my fur coat but i am wearing my fur lined boots. I am excited to see how cold it gets. Danna told me a couple years ago it got down to -50 C , so im not sure what that is in F, but usuallu it is gets around -30. So yeah really cold.

Thanks for all the pics of trent Amy and Mom, he is so cute and funny. I laughed when i saw the pictures. So he is getting to be a big boy, huh? Yeah he will be a sports star some day, train him well!!

Dad thanks for the Yankee update, I got really excited when i read they are in the world series!! Let me know how it goes.

Grandma and Grandpa thanks for the email! Sound like things are going well in Montana, stay warm!! I cant believe you are almost done with your mission. You are awesome, Love ya

Amy I just started reading the BOM and am going to read it all the way through before the end of the year too!! So yes we can totally do it together, I am in 2 Nephi 9, so you need to catch up haha

So i tried to upload some pic to send to you but i dont have the right cord. so i will try to figure that ok and then i will send you some pics!! Oh but the simmons have a blog that they do it is http://simmonsinsiberia.blogspot.com/ i think so you can get on there and they keep it updated.

So we have some other great investigators. Another one name Ula wants to be baptized and we set a date with her to be baptized, but she smokes but she wants to stop, so we need to work through that first before he can be baptized. We are also teaching Galena, Luda, and another Ula who all are very interested in the church. I just LOVE being a missionary and espeacially a missionary in Russian. This place is amazing. I know this is where I am supposed to be and there are people here that the Lord needs me to share the gospel with. The gospel is true and it is the most important thing we have on this world. It can save every single soul on this earth. I want to return to live with God again and I want my fam there too but I also want every child of God there and its only throught the gospel that can be done. The Lord love us so much. It interesting to see how there are so many people here in Russian with out the gospel, but the gospel is getting bigger and bigger here. The Russians are excepting the gospel and we as missionaries are working hard to get it to them. I want you all to know how much I love you and how thankful i am for your love and support. I wish i could sit here longer and type more to you, but there is work to be done. I love you i love you I love you!!!!!

Love,
Sister Mindy Gneiting

P.S Just to let everyone know, i can only write one email which is this one i write to mom. Anyone can email me though and i can include a reply to you in this email. SO i expect a lot of emails next week :) My email is: sistergneiting10@myldsmail.net

2009-10-22T14:31:00.001-07:00

HELLOOOOOO FROM RUSSIA!!!!!!!!
Well today is actually thursday and my pday is wednesday but yesterday we werent able to email, so we are doing it today. Everything is still great! Today we had zone conference and it was really good. President Trejo and his wife spoke a few times, which were really good talks, and the assistants did some workshops. Yeah it was good.

Well today is Thursday which means we have english club tonight. We are meeting with one of our investigators Galena before club and then Donna after. By the way THANK YOU to all that prayed for Donna this last week. 2 days after I sent you that email asking you to pray for her, she came to me and said she wanted to be baptized!!!!! I am so excited and happy for her. She is an amazing girl. I need you to continue praying for her though because she has had baptism dates before and then she was to scared. Her parents dont like the church. She is very strong right now though and she has a strong testimony. Her baptism is this next saturday october 31, so please pray that she will have the comfort and confidence she needs to go through with the baptism.

Amy yeah I know Elder Taylor haha thats so crazy you know his brother and yes his aunt gave us pizza in Moscow. He is a great elder. Also I wanted to personally thank you for praying for Donna every night, you dont know how much that means to me and I know she felt yours and everyone elses prayers. It sounds like yo are having a fun time doing alot of fun stuff from you email!! Keep being amazing!! love ya

Mom, dad, and Rhiana thanks for your emails, i love you so much. Mom yes we can listen to music, well only MoTab, EFY, and classical music and as for garments i will let yo know what size i am next week because we are in an internet cafe and i dont think it would be good to look right now to see what size i am! Dad thanks for the Yankee update, that is so exciting. Let me know if they get to the world series. So Rhiana about the picture about the sidewalk, you are just going to have to ask Katie Checketts about that, but yes we did . . . haha . . . Katie, Rhiana has my old phone and she asked me about the pictures about what happened to us on the sidewalk after the clue game on campus. Yes remember it was really funny and we SAT there laughing for ALONG time!!! haha good times

Scott and Amy mom sent me pics of Craigos in Provo. It looks super nice!! I WANT SOME PIZZA!!!!! haha and she sent me a pic of Trent and he always looks different in evey pic i see of him but he is a cutie.

Hollie and Cam thankgiving at your place?! Fun!!!! Think of me while you all eat yummy food.

Well I 'm sorry this isnt very long, we only had 30 mins today cuz we have a meeting with Galena soon. Well i love you all so so so so much. Thanks for everything. Keep being amazing and doing what the Lord needs of you.

Love always
Sister Gneiting

2009-10-14T00:20:00.000-07:00

Hello Family and Friends,

Everything is great here in Russia. HUH where to start? I love it here is Novo, I am getting to know all the member a lot better and they all are great. My companion and I serve in the 3rd branch here. We have only been able to attend sacarment meeting once at our branch because last week we watched conference. When we did go to the branch there was about 40 to 50 people there but there are a lot more members who are inactive.So along with working with our investigators we also have a big job with the inactive members. We have about 6 investigators right now that we are working with but acouple of them we havent meet yet because the other sisters in novo were working with them but those sisters arent assigned to 3 branch anymore.

Donna, our investigator that i told you about last week is awesome. She is soooooo close to being baptized but her parents dont believe in god and think that we are a cult or something. So it is hard for her and she is scared. I have no doubt though that will be baptized soon. I feel though that people here are giving up on her and it makes me really sad. For everyone that is reading this I need you to pray for her.PLEASE PLEASE. Pray that she will have the courage to be baptized and that she will know that the Lord will comfort her and help her with her family after she is baptized and pray that her parents hearts will be softened to the gospel. Thank you!

So I am trying to remember the questions you wanted me to answer. So Novosibirsk is a pretty big city. Between a million and 2 million people live here. Everyone lives in apartment building, there are no houses. Eveything is pretty old here, people still live in buildings that were made in like the 40s or 50s. We ride the subway and buses everyday, which is fun. I havent really eaten anything that is to weird yet but i am sure i will haha. Oh and it is so true that the Russian people are beautiful and the very fashionable. I was thinking yesterday that I think Hollie would like to live here because of the way the women here dress. There are alot of really cute boots here Hollie, you would like that, oh and coats!! haha And everyone is so skinny here, i think it is becuase there isnt fast food places here, which is good.

Mom I told President that you are from Tucson, he was excited about that and he said his uncle was a bishop and stake president there and that his uncle has a bunch of sons, so i think that is the one guy you thought was you bishop. Small world. I dont see President and his wife much because they are traveling alot to the other city which some take a few days to get to. This mission is the biggest mission or openned prosiliting area in the world and it is suppossed to be the coldest mission too. It is basically the BEST mission too!! haha

So yes I did get the money back for traveling over here, i actually only used $50 and then i changed some into russian money. Today we are going to go get the rest of the warm clothes I need. Oh and yes they have nice stores here too. I went into a mall once to go to the grocery store there and they had stores that we have in america like pac sun, adiddas, and i cant remember what else haha.

So yeah we got to watch conference this last weekend. In russia we watch it a week after you watch it in america. It was sooooo good. Love and the holy ghost were brought up alot, it was great. Mom I love how you put Elder Scotts quote in that email to me, that was one of my favorite talks, so good. So i was so excited for Elder Hollands talk after I read in you email last week that it was super good and OH MAN it was AMAZING. I was so into it that I couldnt get myself to write any notes because i was scared I would miss something. It really was a very good talk.

Scott and Amy I am excited about the new restaurant in Provo opening this weekened! UHHHHH i miss craigos pizza, send me a take and bake please haha. Little Trent is looking great, Mom sent me new picture of him. Oh and Hollie I really like your dark hair, very cute. Cam was is up, hows work going? Rhiana thanks for your email, I started laughing really hard in the library while i was reading it and my zone leader looked at me and was laughing at me! GREAT TIMES! Amy mom sent me me a couple pictures of you and you look really good and your hair is really cute and I think my pants i gave must me working pretty good for you. Mom and Dad I just love you SO much, thanks for being the best parents. You have done so much for me even though i probably dont deserve most of it. I love yo so much. Mom good job with school, thats totally awesome!!! Dad how are the Yankees doing? OH I just love you all so much. I have the best family ever!

I love being a missionary and I love being a missionary in Russia! The gospel is exploding here and its amazing to see a country new to the gospel fullfilling the prophecies that the gospel will go to every nation. i love that talk that was given in conference about Russia and how 20 or 30 years ago no one would have even though missionaries would be here. Well Russia is opened and the people are coming unto Christ its amazing to see the work going forth here. We need your prayers though. The gospel is true and the Lord lives and the time is coming when he will come again and we need to prepare the world and Gods children. I love you all and cant wait to hear from you all.

Love always,
Sister Gneiting

PS. you can send any mail to the mission home address or you can use the pouch, either one!

MINDYS POUCH MAIL ADDRESS TO RUSSIA
Sister Mindy L. Gneiting
Russia Novosibirsk Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City, UT. 84130-0150
USA

IMPORTANT:
To prevent possible fines or discontinuation of pouch service to Russia, please only send postcards and letters that are single sheet, folded into three panels, and taped at the top only (no envelopes may be sent through the pouch.)
Thanks!!

MISSION HOME ADDRESS: (Packages and letters in envelopes need to be mailed here)
Sister Mindy L. Gneiting
Russia Novosibirsk Mission
46 Kirova Street
Novosibirsk
Novosibirskaya oblast', 630102
RUSSIA

YES I'M ALIVE AND I'M IN RUSSIA!!!!!!!

2009-10-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

HELLO HELLO HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm in RUSSIA and loving every moment of it. It is different then i thought it would be. Oh man where to start. Well I am serving in Novosibirsk and my companion is Sister Kiselyova, she is Russian. She is from St petersburg. She speaks pretty good english so we are able to communicate, sometimes though we have to use a Russian/English dictionaries to look up words when we dont know what each other are saying. Well then ofcourse I dont even know what anyone is saying in the first place because they all are speaking Russian, huh who would of thought that. haha but i am studying Russian everyday and hopefully someday i will understand people better. Everyone is really nice though. The first few days i was here i didnt talk much to the Russians because i didnt know what anyone was saying and i did know how to say what i want to say, but then i just decided to jump in and get my feet wet. So know i try to talk to people sometimes i do a good job and sometimes we end up laughing at me because of what i say, ok nevermind usually they always laugh at me but i have learned to use that to my advantage. When we are on the street contracting i can talk to tons of people because I am american and am trying to hard to talk to them so they will stop and listen. My companion always laughs at me because when i go up to someone on the street and they at first dont want to talk to me and they start walking away i just walk with them and they cant get away and then i try to speak Russian and they start smiling and then they start talking to me. HAHA they love it. So Novosibirsk is great, i have fallen in love with the city and the people. It is a big city about 1.5 or so million people. We ride the subway everyday. The mission office and home are located here. The city its self is pretty dirty and everyone smokes, and it doesnt smell very good. Alot of weird smells but i think i am getting use to it. There a 4 branches here and i am serving in the 3rd branch. It is one of the biggest branches, on sunday there was about 40 people maybe. I am getting to know the members and they all are great and very nice, they love missionaries. We have some great investigators that we are working on to be baptized. One of them is name is Donna and she is 21 and her and I have become great friends. She has been an investigator for about a year and a half but she hasnt been baptized yet because of her parents and I think she is a little scared. So we are working with her, she is ready to be baptized but she just needs to make the decision and follow through with it. So every tuesday and thursday we have english class were we teach english, oh I LOVE THAT. WE had it yesterday and during the week we have cards about englidh classs that we pass out on the street, subway, buses, and whereever else and last night a lady i had talked with came, which is really good because we get alot of our investigators from english class. Anyway she came and then we set up a time to meet with her on thursday and teach her about the gospel. So english class it great, oh and there are people there that actually know english so i can talk to them and not have to worry about my russian not being very good. So my goal is to get as many new investigators as i can from english class.
Well it is not cold here yet, it is in th fall months. So i still wear my jacket but it will soon get colder. Oh by the way a got a free heavy winter coat from my companion, it use to be the old mission presidents wife coat and it is way nice with real fur and leather. So it will way warm and better yet now i dont have to pay $200 for a new coat.
Well I have to get going, my time was cut short for emailing this week because we have to go with the senior couples and the APs to do some shopping for our new apartment that we just moved into and it need alot of things. Anway next weds (my pday) I will have an hour to email. Well I love you all, oh any yes i was able to look at the pictures you attached, Trent is such a cutie. Ok I love you and eveything is great here and I love being a missionary.

Love Always,
Sister Gneiting

2009-09-24T18:47:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-17T17:41:00.001-07:00

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

2009-09-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-08T22:57:00.001-07:00

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

Pictures in the MTC

2009-08-29T21:07:00.000-07:00

Mindys aunt Jeannie and uncle Roger are serving a mission in Oklahoma. Mindy got to see them often while they were in the MTC. Jeannie sent me these pictures she took of Mindy. Sorry that they are so small but I couldn't figure out how to enlarge them.

This is Mindy pointing to Russia on the Map in the MTC.

These are Mindys companions in the MTC.

This is Mindy and her Aunt Jeannie

Mindy and Aunt Jeannie pointing at the map to their different missions.

2009-08-29T17:16:00.002-07:00

HELLO HELLO HELLO,
So I have finally figured out how to get more time emailing. Still 30 mins but just today I figured out that if I print the emails off real fast and log off and then log back on when I am done reading the emails I will have like a lot more time to write!! WOW Im smart, it took me a few weeks to figure it out though :)

Well everything is still great! I was sad to see aunt jeannie and uncle roger leave. It was so fun having them here. A good friend of mine came into the mtc this week. His name is scott and I know him from school. Its fun seeing him around!

So we taught lesson 1 in Russian last weds, it went pretty good. I need a lot of improvement, but I know it will get easier. HARD WORK AND THE LORDS HELP!!!! The lord helps and guides us so much. I am realizing all the things in my life that the lord has helped me with, or things that have led to getting me on this mission. I know the Lord has something planned for me in Russia. I wouldn't pick to be anywhere else but here on this mission, I would really really love to actually be in russia, but that comes soon enough. I love the Lord and I love his gospel, I have recieved so many blessing from the Lord. I have an amazing family and the best friends ever! I love you all so much. I have an understanding of why I am here, where Im going, and where I came from. I have the atonement, which without, life isnt even worth living. Because of our Savior Jesus Christ, we have everything we could ever want and need. He loves us so much, and is so willing to help us. Will you all do something? I want you to read in 3 Nephi when the Lord appears to the Nephites and then keep reading the next few chapters while he ministers to them and while you are reading think about what it would be like to see Jesus and to hug him and bow before him and kiss his feet. I know the spirit will touch your heart and you will grow closer to Christ. I WANT to SEE HIM, I want to stand before him and know that he is pleased with me and what I am doing. I know He loves me and that His love for me will never die, but to know that he is pleased with me is a whole nothing story. Those chapters of 3 Nephi and so powerful. Pay close attention to what the Lord says and what he does, VERY POWERFUL!!

Well only 5 more weeks and I will be in Russia. OH I cant wait. I'm so excited. So the new group on russian missionaries come tomorrow. We are excited for them to come.

OK so yesterday the coolest thing happened. I got 22 letters in the mail!!! HAHA it was awesome!!! All of them were from Katie all the way from Hawaii! Everyone in my district was so jealous and so impressed. That set the record for the most letters recieved in one day in our district! haha it was a great day of my life!!

So i hope everything is going great for everyone. Mom and dad, i hope you had fun in cali, at disneyland, and with little Trent, and with scott and amy! Drive by the MTC on your way home and wave to the buildings, im sure i will sense when you drive by. Rhiana hows school, are you almost done with that class, Amy have you started school yet, Hollie and cam whats up with you, and scott and amy how is little trent and life as parents? ok now you all have to write me and answer those questions!!!!! and add in alot more info about your amazing lives.

well once again my time is up :( I love you all and mom i will send pictures soon, i am developing them today

Love always and forever
cectpa gneiting

2009-08-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

Hello My wonderful family,

How are the lives of the Gneiting/Kuehnes? anyone else reading this? I'm doing supper supper good! Everyday is amazing as a missionary. I still like here, but am so ready to get to Russia. Im not ready to speak the languange though, so a few more week will be good. Only 5 more weeks and then I will be in Russia!!!! YAY!! I cant wait, obviously since I have a countdown. The older group of missionaries left for Russia yesterday and today. So now we are no longer the new russians! Yesterday I had a new companion, it was one of the native russian sisters. Her companion and all the other native sister had already left so she couldnt be alone. So she asked me to be her companion, her room is right next to ours. So we had a good time yesterday. It was nice having her around all day, she taught me alot about Russian. I became really good friends with all the native sister, she all loved me!! haha ofcourse right? One of them is going to my mission, well she probaly is already there cuz she left yesterday. She is awsome, so maybe we will be companions someday!

You will never believe what happened!! Someone stole my camera! On sunday I had it with me cuz as a district we went up to the temple to take picture. We went back to the class and I was looking at the pictures I had taken and then I left it in our classroom and went to the fireside. Well that night I couldnt find it anywhere, I thought I had misplaced it. So i looked in the classroom and my residence room. Well it was nowhere. My camera case was in the clasroom though, which i thought was weird since it didnt have my camera in it. Well after searching, I reached into my camera case and my card that stores the pictures was in it. So someone went inot my classroom and stole my camera, they were nice enough to leave the memory card though haha. I was mad at first when I thought I had lost all my pictures, but once I found the memory card I wasnt mad anymore. I thought maybe it was the elders playing a trick on me, but they said they didnt do it. So I probably need a new camera. haha My memory card fits into sister boggs camera so if I really need to take a picture I just use hers. Try to buy on online, you can probably find a good deal. Gary usually can find really good deals of things, so maybe ask him. Anyway I was so excited to tell you all that haha. Great story to tell that my camera was stolen at the MTC.

So mom guess who spoke at RS on sunday?! Sister Susan W. Tanner! She did a really good job, ofcourse. After RS we went and meet her. She was way nice. We have devo tonight, which is always a general authority, we havent had any apostles come since I have been here though. I think it will be an apostle tonight, but we dont find out until like 20 mins before devo start. Cross your fingers that it will be!!!

So I got to go to the temple yesterday and today. And yesterday I even got to do baptisems, which missionaries arent allowed to do. I have my connections! haha no since I was companions with the native russian sister, we were allowed to. Since there are no temples in Russia, the natives can do whatever they want! so i got lucky. Tomorrow we have to teach the First lesson in Russian, no english! Kind of scarey, but we will do fine.

Well I am almost out of time again. 30 mins is not enough time. I love you all so much. Still waiting for pictures of Trent! He sounds like a cutie, Im sure he is cuz it runs in the family!!!! Well I want you all to know how much I LOVE being a missionary, everyday i am so thankful. I am so excited to share this gospel with the people of russia. I pray for yo uall every day, you mean so much to me. Remeber the Lord always and how much he loves you. Never lose faith, faith blesses our lives. Through faith we dont every need to fear. God and Jesus christ love us so much and want us to be happy, allow them to do that for us.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU,
Cectpa Gneiting

Aug 4, 2009

2009-08-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

(In my last email to Mindy (this is Mindy's mom) I asked her a bunch of Questions and then she just hit reply and answered them and sent it back. She doesn't have much time to read and write emals so i thought this might make it quicker for her. So here are her responses to my questions. I had to edit this a little but I left a few things and you can see in some places where her spelling and english are a little different. She says that the Russian is really doing a job on her and she is already forgetting her english.)

1. So tell me what your responsibilities are as senior companion.
I basically just led them haha. I'm just responsible for making sure we do things we are supposed to and helping us get things done. We all are in the small boat though, so we all help each other.

2. Have you had any general authorities come speak?
We had Elder Groberg, you know the "otherside of heaven" a couple weeks ago. Every sunday we have a fireside but it is just some one that works here at the mtc. Then on tuesday nights we have devo which is some general authority, elder groberg is the only one that I have actually known who he is. Maybe the prophet will come tonight, I will let you know!

3. What is your favorite part of the MTC so far?
I love the food! That answers alot of questions people have asked me. All I eat is salads though! I have lost 9 lbs since being here!! YAY!!! I WILL NOT GAIN WEIGHT!!!!!

4. Did any of your instructors go to your mission? Have they told you any cool stuff about Russia?
One of my teachers went to my mission and the other went to st petersburg I believe. Yeah they tell us stories!

5. Answer the CD question from the other email I sent?
Yeah that all sounds great! Send me Women of Destiny forsure, thats my favorite. Make sure its the one with Gladis Knight!

6. How do you like your companions? Tell me a little bit about them.
I love my companions!!! Sister Boggs you already know about her, she is from Pason Utah. Then Sister Gilmore is from Seatle. They both are great, they are both helping me so much!

7. Do you still see Emily much? Have you heard much from Sister Alli Burton?
Oh do I see Emily!!!!! HAHA yes all the time. I havent seen her yet today though. But that will change soon. Emily leaves next monday :( so I am going to miss her, her companion is way awesome too. She is a nurse, so we get along well! Yeah Alli is doing great as always. I got a letter from her last week. She is now seving in Kansas, which is still part of the Independance Mission. So now she is a full pros sister. I have no doubt that she is doing awesome!I

8. Can you print off your emails? Can you get pictures on email if I send a few attached?
I dont know if we can print them I was wondering that to cuz I dont have a ton of time to read them and then write one too. No the pictures dont show up, well at least they didnt on sister gilmores email.

9. Will you get to call us from the airport when you fly out to Russia?
I dont knoe, i will find out.

10. Do you get packages and mail on the day they arrive at the MTC or do you have to wait until P day?
for the most part, unless the mail comes on saturday night then we dont get them til monday. And dearelders usually come the same day or next day unless they are on sunday then they come on monday.

Thanks for your emial. Great Idea with the questions, that makes things easier. Oh so i have been meaning to tell you that my departer date is September 28 or at least around that date. so not exactly 12 weeks! Eveything is going great here still, I am still loving it. Time is flying by though, i cant believe I have almost been here a month. Russian is coming along, some days coming slow and other days fast. It is a hard language but the way they teach us it doesnt seem to be as hard as you would think it would be. The Lord makes up the difference if I let him! I love my savior so much. Everyday I grow closer and closer to him!! He loves us so much, beyond words. He loves us so much that he volunteered to atone for each one of us. He wasnt forced to do it, he just loves us so much that he did it! He is my strengh, I cant do this with out him. I am so excited to go to Russia and bring happiness to those people. The gospel changes lives and makes people happy.
So the holy ghost is amazing, I am relying so much on him. At times I dont even realize it but the holy ghost is leading me to do and say things. Every week we get to do a mock teaching leason and sometimes I dont even know what I am saying becuase its not me saying it, its the Lord through the holy ghost. Its amazing.

Well I am out of time I love you all so so so much. Thanks for the letters they help me so much. I need your love and support everyday!!

Love all of you always,
Cectpa Gneiting

PS mom can u buy some of the scripute master picture things that you can put in sciprutes for me and send them to me. A sister from russia wants some but they dont have them here. thanks

July 28, 2009

2009-07-28T15:41:00.001-07:00

HELLO EVERYONE,

Well it's another great day as a missionary!!! Everything is just so amazing here, I love it love it love it here. I'm so glad that I am going to Russia cuz I stilll have 10 more weeks here :) well we will see how I feel about that later. I went to the Temple this morning, we get to go every pday! The Provo temple is so beautiful!
So I am going to try to answer all of your questions, but if I forget some I am sorry. I only have 17 mins left.
Thanks for your letters and emails, I love hearing for you all! They feel my day with sunshine! Well things are coming along very well. Its amazing to see how much Russian I have learned in two weeks, I can't wait to learn more though. There is not much new going on though, still I wake up, go to breakfast, go to class, go to lunch, go to class, do personal company and language study, go to dinner, go to gym sometime during the day, and then go to sleep. HAHA thats basically my schedule. Every day is GREAT! I really do love it here.
Mom I check my email around 12:45 when I start my laundrey. Oh by the way mom no one had said anything about my waist line haha!! Oh and yes my clothes are working just great! thankfully all the sidewalks are under covering so it doesnt get very hot since we are in the shade!! Food is great here too, well at least I love it. Some missionaries dont, but it's usually the Elders who just left their parents home and good home cooking. For those of us who have been at college for a while and had to cook our own food, which most of the time wasnt very good, then its great!! I love the salad, so that makes its easy to not gain weight!!
So I see Emily all the time, its awesome. It's so fun having her here! Oh Amy, I taught Emily the Hoedown Throwdown lastnight haha!! We have been able to sit by each other at some meetings, which we realized that it is good that we arent going to the same mission and arent companions cuz we get talking alot when we are with each other, we wouldnt get anything done as companions! Oh by the way she said she didnt get the email forward. her email is... oh nevermind i forgot it so i will send it to you in a letter :)
Scott and Amy, have your baby already???!!!!! Goodness your killing me here! Good luck with everything though, i pray for you daily that everything will go well. Let me know ASAP when it comes. I think it is going to be a girl!
Its been amazing feeling the power of the Lord here. The other day the 9 of us in my district all bore our testimonies, it was so powerfull. Missionary work it amazing and so important! I cant wait to get to Russia. The Lord love us so much! He wants us all to come closer to him. We all need to build our foundation upon him, he is our rock. We need not fear anything when we trust in him. He makes life. We cant forget him and what he has done for us. The gospel brings happiness to everyone and so many people dont have that joy, LETS FIND THEM AND SHARE IT WITH THEM!!!!! I hope you all are doing your part

I love you all so much. I have the best family ever. You all are my strength, I could not do this without you! Your support and love mean so much to me! I need your help though with this work, we full time missionaries cant do this alone. Look for every oppurtunity to share the gospel. The world need its. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU!!!! Have an amazing week, and I can't wait to hear from you!!

Love Always,
Cectpa Gneiting

ps. if my spelling and english is not very good, please just dont pay attention to that. Russian is doing a number on me, i am already forgetting how to say and spell things in English. haha

July 21, 2009

2009-07-21T17:11:00.000-07:00

HELLOOOOOOO my wonderful family!!!! I miss you all so much, but not enough to make me homesick and want to come home. haha sorry. Well it's amazing here, I have loved every moment being here. As soon as I walked in the front doors after saying goodbye to you, I just felt at home. Before arriving I thought I would be lost and not know what to do or where to go, oh was I wrong. This place is so organized. As soon as I walked in I was directed exactly where I needed to go, I never had to ask for help. Right after walking in I got my tag, it has Cectpa Gneiting (pronounced sestra) and then the church of jesus chirst of... and thats all in Russian. I would type how it is spelled, but I dont know how to type on the computer in Russian yet. I do know how to say it though!! Russian is coming along, actually very well. Its amazing how much we have learned in only 5 actually days of class. I know how to introduce myself, meet someone, share my testimony, pray, contact someone on the street about the gospel, and then just random words and things to say. So its coming along. There is a huge group of elder/sister going to Russia. There are 2 other sisters going to my mission, and then a bunch of elders going there too. There are missionaries going to Russia that have been here so 6 weeks and their Russian is so good, so I am looking forward to when I can talk like that!!!!
The spirit is amazing here, you feel it everywhere! We are in class basically all day long, and if I was anywhere else that would be the worst thing ever, but because the spirit is in class with us and because what we are learning is the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, every minute in class is amazing! So is is my schedule for every day except sunday and pday is: wake up, eat breakfast, go to class, eat lunch, go to class, eat dinner, go to class, go to bed!!!! haha yup thats basically it, but it great, I love it. We actually have gym time every day too, which oh man i love love love that! I am so determined not to gain ANY weight while being here, so I eat at the salad bar bascally every meal and I work out everyday! The only thing i dont like about gym is that they have this rediculous rule that in basketball only sisters can guard sisters and only elder can guard elders, and just my luck there are no other sister in my gym time that can play bball. I played one day and another sister agreed to play with me, she wasnt very good so I was able to score a lot of points. Soon though i felt like the elders were just using me to win haha cuz as long as i got the ball i usually scored. So I started passing the ball even if I had a wide open shot or drive, I will not be used haha. I just dont like that rule, but oh well.
well my time is almost up, so i love you all!! Please write me cuz first of all i love hearing from you and second of all one elder in my district get like 20 letters a day and packages!
Im so thankful for being a missionary and learning and growing so much! the gospel is so totally true. I would share more of my testimony but i have 50 seconds!!

love you sooooooo much
Cectpa Gneiting