7.20.10

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

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

(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

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

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

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

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