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 :))))))))))