Everything is a Metaphor (Week 18)

I so thought I already posted this, but today at church, I was told that I didn't. Oooops. Here we go though. :)

"We were so blessed this week to have Elder and Sister EchoHawk come and do a mission tour! Basically, it was like a special zone conference, where the west and east halves of the mission had meetings with them for several hours. It was very inspiring and uplifting, and everyone always leaves all fired up to go out and share the truth! Some of my thoughts from the meeting: The Lord is working to change us in this life. We didn't come here to simply stay how we were and then go to heaven! We go through the exact things that we need to in this life in order to return to Him and have learned the things that we needed to! But, we aren't alone in doing this! We have our Savior Jesus Christ, and He will meet us exactly where we are. No matter our challenges or concerns, they will be resolved through Him. I think that that is evidence enough of His love for us.

Something else...think one of my favorite parts was when Sister EchoHawk had missionaries come up and teach her 15 year old self. That really made me realize that we truly cannot assume things about people! Just because someone says something about themselves, it doesn't mean we have a right to place them in a box based on stereotypes. I think that sometimes I label people immediately as soon as they tell me that what religion they belong to or don't belong to...it's like I have this cookie cutter reaction to them because of their beliefs! However, I know that that's not the right type of attitude to have and so I am planning on working on seeing people as individuals and figuring out how to show them my love. Last night, we contacted a referral, and all she really wanted to do was tell us that we do NOT need the Book of Mormon. And somewhere in my head, I just thought. "I don't even know this woman's name, how can I expect her to feel my love when I haven't even asked her name?" So I stopped saying things to "prove" that we need the BOM and asked her her name. Then I said that we were very glad to see her and be talking to her. And then I tried to very personally testify of how the Book of Mormon is from God and how I personally found out. Of course, it didn't convince her, but I know that I felt the spirit a lot stronger when I felt myself trying to see her as an individual.

We met a cool man from Africa who was the caregiver at a home for older people. One of the men that lived there came out and told us that he was a missionary like us once and that he had 4 sons who all served missions. It was cool. We asked if he had any advice, and he simply said "don't forget that the gospel is true and that we will be happy if we live up to it." I thought that that was an all-encompassing statement that we all would do well to remember about many different things in our lives!

This morning I ran into a screen door. I think I've gotten so used to following Sister Orr around, that as soon as I try to go first I just run into this screen door instead of opening the door all of the day. It's a good metaphor. We shouldn't be content with just following people around and being content with our lives! We have to act and find things out for ourselves and discover new knowledge and find out more and more every day! Like I said earlier, we are on this earth to learn, not to follow blindly! Since I've become a missionary, I've realized that literally everything is a life metaphor.

Miracle of the week! Remember the van guy? Well we called him on Saturday and he told us that he watched General Conference! All we did was text him the link because we knew he was out of town, but he watched it! Super great news :) How could anyone not enjoy hearing from men of God?

I got to write in Brother Slava's infamous book. I'll attach a picture. Also, I love my new dress :) Also a picture is attached!

A lot has happened with my personal testimony in my time as a missionary. I have heard the Holy Ghost clearly speak to me as answers to prayer. I cannot believe how below my privilege I used to be living. Take advantage of all of the small blessings that God places in your life every single day! I know that we are more blessed than we realize and that if we open our eyes, we will see countless blessings and tender mercies that our Heavenly Father has given us.

With a lot of love,

Sister Jenne"

LOVELOVELOVE THIS SISTER OF MINE <3

Mafia, Huckleberry Squares & Conference (Week 17)

"This week we did something that Sister Orr has been wanting to do her whole mission. (well we are pretty sure we did anyways). We MET THE RUSSIAN MAFIA. There were probably 50 cars and trailers out in front of this HUGE house, and a bunch of men walking around. They all looked 100% Russian (it's the nose) and we just basically spent 20 minutes contacting a bunch of different men in front of this house. It was hilarious. So many people walking around. What an interesting experience. None of them really wanted to talk to us (imagine that), but I think that it's a good place to practice our Russian. Never in my life would I ever think that I would be in that situation. In other news, we also reported a man to the police for suspicious activity. It was weird, he was ratching around in a back pack really suspiciously and he had a child's pink bike and we just felt weird about it and so we called the police. I have no idea what happened, but it was strangely fulfilling to call 911.

A cool experience from this week was when we were searching in Federal Way for some new Russian people to teach. It was cold and starting to get dark, but not quite time to head home yet. We knocked on a few doors that we heard were Russian in an affluent neighborhood, and they were not humble and did not want to listen to the point where they were actually pretty rude to us. It was all good though, but we weren't really sure why God would have us there in that neighborhood. We were just walking down the road and about ready to turn around, but a couple was walking and we asked them if they knew of any houses that are Russian. Luckily, they pointed out a house quite a little bit down the road that we probably never would have even gone to if they hadn't told us that it was Russian. Turns out there were 3 very nice men standing there who were happy to talk with us! My Russian has never been better and I've never felt more confident in talking to someone. It was a great feeling. They were all pretty much interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon and it was weird for me because none of them were arguing or anything, they were just genuinely curious. I really felt like I was able to teach with the spirit and that they really did feel something as I was testifying! So awesome.

I got to drive the car this week. Let me just say that for having barely ever driven on freeways (much less in Seattle) and for having not driven in about 4 months (or really at all for the past year)....I didn't do that badly. I avoided death and even drove on the freeway without freaking out too much AT NIGHT. I know it's a sin to be prideful, but I might just be a little proud of myself for keeping our car safe and not getting yelled at for aggressive driving.

Conference was so wonderful. I loved the Washington Seattle mission shoutout from Elder Yamashita. It was cool to hear conference as a misisonary because every single thing that the Brethern say can be applied so well to missionary work! It's so amazing to see how much it really does affect peoples' lives! I never realized how central to the gospel, sharing the gospel is. I love that when we understand the Atonement, it makes us want to share it more and more! When we realize the pure joy of Jesus Christ, we can't help but have "no other object save it be the everlasting welfare of souls." That verse from the Book of Mormon has been my personal theme for this transfer (which is already halfway over what!). Our suffering can be swallowed up by the Savior! Death has no sting! It's incredibly beautifu..this plan that Heavenly Father has for us. We went to an amazing restaurant called Huckleberry Square in celebration of conference. I couldn't help but order biscuits and gravy. Reminded me of home! Not quite as good as some of the Southern biscuits and gravy that I have had before ;) still a southern girl at heart.

Love all of you so much! I am doing well and hope the same for all of you :)

Have a wonderful week

With love,

Sister Jenne"

:)))))

EMP & Mission 5K (Week 16)

SO SORRY I HAVEN'T POSTED THIS I FEEL SO BAD!!
"Hello everyone! Another fantastic week and another email session where I don't have enough time to possibly put it into words. I'll try.

I loved a bumper sticker that I saw this week. It read "Do you follow Jesus this close?" Now, it's pretty simple, and humorous as well. But let's honestly think about it! Do we follow Jesus closely? Do we serve and love others rather than thinking about ourselves and getting caught up in our own world? Do we constantly strive to improve everyday and recognize that it is only through Jesus Christ that we are able to do so? I've been asking myself these questions. Every morning and every night and all throughout the day, I find myself praying for guidance on how I can improve. It's been an amazing experience as I have tried to follow as closely as possible the teachings of Jesus Christ. The only constant thing about this world that we live in is our faith and the gospel. I had the wonderful opportunity of watching the Women's Session of General Conference and I cried during almost every talk because of the amazing things that were said. We don't have to be perfect. Not even close! Christ and the Atonement MEET US WHERE WE ARE. We can be empowered through our faith to do amazing things. I've realized that through humility and gratitude to my Heavenly Father, I have been able to recognize every small tender mercy in my life. I love that bumper sticker.

Funny stories this week:

1) We screamed for a solid 3 minutes when a giant spider crawled behind my desk and almost went to go get Elders to kill it. Eventually through careful planning we were able to kill it. I wonder what our neighbors were thinking when they heard us haha.

2) There is this saying here that if we role play situations, God will give us a chance to use that role play in real life. Well. It happened. But not in the way we expected. We were role playing and Elder Peterson was pretending to be a Russian man who had a black adopted son. Which is not something common at all. Sis. Orr said that she has never met a black person who spoke Russian, much less a child. It was weird and we just kinda forgot about it. LATER THAT DAY, we totally ran into a babushka that was talking to some little kids. A SMALL AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILD TURNED AROUND AND STARTED SPEAKING RUSSIAN TO US I SWEAR IT WAS SO WEIRD. So hilarious. God is mysterious.

3) One of our zone leaders is a known mumbler. He mumbles so much. He was praying during a meeting and he said "We are grateful for Jesus Christ's atonement." However, a few people thought that he said "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" it was so funny because everyone was really confused saying Amen and then he was all I'm not done...and so he KEPT praying. It doesn't sound funny when I type it out, but I promise that it was.

We met a wonderful couple this week. They are busy, but thought that our message is really cool. They are really cute and said that they couldn't go to church because they were giong to go mushroom picking. I mean that's a pretty cool excuse, not gonna lie. The man said that he wants to read the entire Book of Mormon. When a Russian says that they will read an entire book, they mean that they WILL read the entire book. So excited to hear about what he thinks! However, they live about 45 minutes from where we live and an hour and 15 minutes from the Russian speaking group at church, which makes it a little hard.

For anyone who has a dork dot/orange dot from the MTC I have some advice for you, stick it on the back of your tag and then paint over it with clear nail polish. Works like a dream.

Love everyone! Sorry for a slightly short email, but everything is going wonderfully! We had a great mission "5k" this morning where we walked around and were able to get JDawgs at the end (it's a Provo thing). It was fun to be with all the missionaries and have a chance to unwind and have fun with everyone (and we actually did jog probably the last 0.25 miles haha)

With love,

Sister Jenne"

Fire Alarms and Caliburger (Week 15)

I can't believe Savannah has already been out for almost 4 months!! I miss her so much. But I'm so proud of everything she's doing. Here's the email:

"So this week we happened to find the Washington version of In-N-Out. It's called CaliBurger and it's seriously the exact same as In-N-Out, except that you can ask for things "Cali style"...super yummy and totally recommend it.

We also managed to set off our fire alarm after I burned some cornbread muffins. I think Sister Orr almost had a heart-attack when it went off because next thing I know, I look up and she's running around like crazy, turning on all of the fans and opening all of the windows and fanning the fire alarm with a towel....turns out she was worried that the sprinklers would come on, but I was pretty startled by her reaction at first. I'm grateful though...because I do not want wet books to study from every morning!

Continuing the story from last week about the man who developed his own Russian accent just for the sake of things, he promised us over text this week that he would drive all the way from Auburn to Bothell in order to bring us "rations" of food. However, he texted us on Sunday morning and said that he would have to come next week. To be honest I was a little bit disappointed because I really want to know that it means to bring "rations" of food to the missionaries. Hopefully I'll have more news next week. I know you're all probably dying to hear haha.

Speaking of food! We had a really cool experience yesterday! We showed up to coordination meeting at the Jensen's and there were these random "amazon fresh" bags on the porch. Sister Jensen didn't order them and she didn't know whose they were! So we called Amazon and they said to keep it. The coolest part is that earlier that day we had just been talking about how it would be awesome if a member could give us a few items of food (we really try to save our money, but it's hard because we don't get to eat with members). And then apparently Sis. Orr prayed about it and lo and behold God sent food right to the doorstep of the Jensen's! Sister Jensen of course gave all of it to the missionaries because she didn't need any of it and it was just such a blessing. God is really cool :)

In further news, we have started listening to Christmas music in the car. It's never too early :)

SISTER CHRISTENSEN came this week! It was transfers! So much fun to see so many people with new companions and the new missionaries coming in. Also, sad to see missionaries going home!  Of course, I'm still with Sister Orr (there aren't that many options as a Russian missionary hahah) and I'm loving being her companion! So much fun and so much spirituality; I have learned so much. I'm pretty sure she is the perfect trainer. Anyways, I don't know if I've told y'all about Sis. Christensen. So she is a new Russian sister! I was with her for 3 weeks in the MTC and she is way nice and fun and always so positive. I helped her translate sacrament meeting yesterday and let's just say that both of our horrible Russian combined doesn't make for a very good translation. I don't really know if any of the Russians got that much out of it..but they got to be there and take the sacrament and that's the most important part anyways. We went and worked with Sister Truax and Christensen in the Russian north area, and got invited in by a couple who was very interested in just loving us. They just wanted to show us their family and talk about ours. They probably had 15 puzzles that they had put together hanging up on their walls and that was really cool to see. I think that they had been married over 50 years! Wow, what an inspiration.

It was sad to see one of our investigators go. He was not expending any energy to actually try and learn from us and so it was pretty evident that he wasn't ready to learn anything! It was hard for me because I think that I am really starting to understand that love that missionaries always talk about. The love for the people where they serve! I really do LOVE the people in Washington. and especially the Russian speakers. It's so fun to see myself developing.

Not that much else exciting that happened this week! Keep trusting in God and keep the faith. I heard something in church yesterday.. something like "if you follow what God asks you to do, you can trust that you will see rewards from it. They might not be immediate, but they will come because they have been promised!" I know that God really does want to bless us and he has this amazingly perfect plan for each individual person on the Earth. I love all of you! I miss everyone. Have a fantastic week and remember that you are a child of God.

2 Nephi 4:15-35

-Love, Sister Jenne"

Stay tuned!! (:

The Peaches Here Are Really Good... (Week 14)

Yay! Email!!

"I thought about trying to make my emails shorter, and I realized that that's just not possible! There is too much that happens and too many things that I want to share with all of you! The first thing is that every single person here tells me that I do not look like I am from Alabama and that I don't have an accent and basically they are all just really really confused when I say where I am from. It's very interesting because they really seem to have a picture of what someone from Alabama should be like hahah. Speaking of Alabama, there is a new sister coming who is from Alabama! Actually she is from Ukraine, but she was adopted into a family in the great state of Alabama. So that's cool, she'll be here in December I think. Cannot remember her name.

Food wise, I have some more lovely pieces of advice that I have learned from making my own food. First of all, cinnamon on a peanut butter and honey sandwich is quite amazing. (but not too much or else it's like the cinnamon challenge all over again). Also, I have discovered Trader Joe's. This is the most amazing store on the planet. They have this thing called Cookie Butter and it's way better and more addictive that Nutella and I suggest everyone try it (with caution). Also grilled cheese and spaghetti sauce is something we are going to try this week and I have a prompting that it will be really yummy :P I feel kinda guilty saying this, but I think Washington peaches might be better than Georgia peaches. I'm not that loyal to the South, I guess hahah. Maybe that's why I don't look like I'm from Alabama who knows.

For funny stories this week:

1) I was telling a man a story from when I was 16 and he got a really confused look on his face. I guess he couldn't see how I was any older than 16. So not only do I look like I'm not from Alabama, but I also look like I am merely 16 years old.

2) We met a man who had developed a Russian accent because he just needed to change his life. Turns out he is a member and so we got his number and he started texting us some interesting questions about life and philosophy and offering to give us rations of food because apparently he always does that for missionaries. Let's just say we don't really plan on meeting up with him...ha...ha...

3) We called a Russian babushka on the phone and asked her if she wanted to be baptized. In 2 days. The thing is, Sister Orr was driving and so I made this phone call all by myself and I don't think she understood a word that I was saying, so that was a fun experience and I couldn't really hold it together through all of the absurdity. The fact that I am trying to have a serious conversation on the phone with a tiny little Russian grandma IN RUSSIAN and I don't know how to understand her or really say that much in return. Pretty absurd. That's how the mission works though apparently.

We had the most fun this week with Elder and Sister Peterson! They came and worked in our area and helped us contact people and have a fun time. A ton of work got done and so we are planning on doing the same thing tomorrow night. This area is honestly pretty hard and we are just trying to keep the faith and stay positive and know that there are Russians out there that want to talk to us! It's hard getting the door slammed in your face or getting told that you are going to a bad place, but just gotta keep smiling through it all and knowing that God is there! I know that the best way to be happy is to focus on the amazing things in this world! Just appreciate nature and all of the beauty we are so lucky to see every day. The trees here in Washington are absolutely beautiful. We went out into the country this week and I LOVED it so much to see all of the trees in that transitional phase of half green, half orange/red. We just have to focus on how blessed we truly are! To live in this country where we have freedom. To be able to have freedom of religion. We are a blessed people :) Focus on the wonders and miracles of life and God will help us to notice the happy things in life if we have patience and work at it! I have been trying to do this and I have really seen a difference in how my thoughts are way more present and I am just happy in the moment!

We had the amazing opportunity to go to the temple! It was beautiful and so much fun. What a way to start off a new transfer. Speaking of transfers...they're insane! They just call missionaries and tell them whether or not they will be transferred but don't tell them anything else and so they just have to sit there for a couple of days and wait to see what is going to happen! Craziness. So much fun to hear about who is moving in and out of different wards and zones.

"Christianity is love in action. There is no better way to manifest love for God than to show an unselfish love for your fellow men."

-David O. McKay

Romans 11:33-36

I love you all so much!

Sister Jenne"

Pictures, pictures, picturesssss!!

Ah I'm so proud of my seeeeeester! <33333

Stay tuned!

In Every Change, He Will Remain (Week 13)

Our email this week rocks!! Here it is!!!

"The title is my favorite line from a song we have been listening to on repeat in the car. I know that it is true. Missionary work is not a constant thing. There are thousands of different emotions that run through my mind every single day! We are happy one second because we have gotten someone to commit to coming to church and then the next moment we are discouraged because that person never showed up. However, there are always more happy moments than sad moments somehow. I always finish a day or a week feeling so fulfilled and happy about everything :) Even when we only have one person in an entire day that is willing to talk to us without arguing, or even when I cannot understand a word that an old babushka is saying, I still finish the day happy. I know that is because of the Atonement and the hope that I feel from knowing that I have a loving Father in heaven and that he sent His son for me! And for everyone! It's hard sometimes to explain the Atonement to people and why they need a Savior. However, in learning how to do this, it has just strengthened my faith and made me realize the need we truly do have for Jesus Christ. I just want everyone to know that!

A few funny things that happened this week:

1) There is a man from Ukraine that we had been visiting and every time we went, his father-in-law would sit there and argue with us and tell us that we were breaking the 2nd commandment because we had a picture of Jesus (which was ironic because he had a painting of Jesus hanging up on his wall...) but anyways we went over at the beginning of the week and had a good conversation because the father-in-law wasn't there and it was awesome. However, we were leaving and we found that he had just gotten back and thought that we didn't see him and he was totally making a beeline right for us! So we started running and I had to back Sister Orr really quickly out of the parking space and jump in the car all without making it toooooo obvious that we were running away! It was so funny and we were both laughing so hard. In all the haste, I accidentally called Elder Peterson, one of the senior missionaries and he was laughing with us. (the Petersons are an awesome couple who served a mission a few years ago in Russia and are here helping with the Russian work in Washington now).

There is a miracle that is directly related to this story though! So the father-in-law was really argumentative and didn't agree with anything we had said. However, we went back again and his demeanor had completely changed! Now he wants to learn! He wants to be baptized! It is sooo amazing to see how his heart was softened. It doesn't even seem like he is the same man as before. We are so excited about continuing to teach them!

2) My mom sent me glasses and I was wearing them for the frist time and we went to go meet people and one kept saying the Russian words for "Oh it's a new sister." We tried to explain that it was still me, but he didn't seem to understand and so now he thinks that I am a new sister. pretty funny experience. 

3) We shared the gospel with a random guy from Walmart who texted us. We had a short conversation trying to figure out who he was and then found out that he was looking for someone else, but we replied saying that we were missionaries and told him that we could tell him about God if he wanted us to and he didn't reply. No surprise there. Oh well, we planted the seed.

4) We saw an investigator holding a sign on the side of the road that said "Jesus is the answer." Let's just say that he's pretty comfortable in his own church...

5) Another man that we were meeting with tried to hug Sister Orr and then got really offended when we said that it wasn't allowed. We tried to explain that it's a rule for safety reasons. He didn't understand and every time we tried to teach something he would just bring it back to how offended he was. For example, I said something about following commandments from God and he was like "You don't follow the commandment that we must love one another" so basically he was calling us bad people. It was so weird and ridiculous. We laughed about it afterwards haha

Wow, a lot of funny things happened this week I guess! A lot of spiritual things also happened. I learned that when you change your heart, your actions really do change in return. I think that's why the teaching of Jesus Christ are so incredible! He teaches us to have a true change of heart and truly forsake the things that are bad in this world. I know that it takes time to change a habit, but wow I promise that if you try our hardest, you can do it! I have seen it a million times already. Instead of changing your behavior and hoping that eventually your heart will change, try changing your heart first.

It's so cold here! It's humid and wet and it rains a lot and I have been wearing tights and a jacket every day! A little bit worried for the winter, haha. We were sketchily in west Seattle the other night and it was dark and wet and no one was answering their doors and wow I really wanted to just go sit by a warm toasty fire or something! It's still summer in Alabama haha. Things are different here for sure, but I'm grateful to not be in Siberia like some people I know ;)

A quote I loved from my studies this week of Jesus the Christ, written by James E Talmage:

Treasures of Earth and of Heavenb

The transitory character of worldly wealth was next contrasted with the enduring riches of eternity. Many there were and many there are whose principal effort in life has been that of amassing treasures of earth, the mere possession of which entails responsibility, care, and disturbing anxiety. Some kinds of wealth are endangered by the ravages of moths, such as silks and velvets, satins and furs; some are destroyed by corrosion and rust—silver and copper and steel; while these and others are not infrequently made the booty of thieves. Infinitely more precious are the treasures of a life well spent, the wealth of good deeds, the account of which is kept in heaven, where the riches of righteous achievement are safe from moth, rust, and robbers. Then followed the trenchant lesson: “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

We had some awesome experiences this week and continue to have awesome experiences. I am so grateful to be here! Everyone please send me your address because I want to write letters to people! I love writing letters, it's kind of like a therapy for me. I don't have a ton of time to write lengthy ones, but I love sending notes to everyone :) Love all of you SO much! Remember that if you love your problems, you will love life as well.

LOVE,

Sister Jenne"

Sister Jenne is so awesome!! I'm so proud, y'all.

We Should Be Homesick (Week 12)

And here is this week's email (:

"I heard about the disasters that happened in Lousiana recently and the cleanup that is happening as I type. I encourage everyone to pray for those affected by this! I know I do. Something very profound that I learned this past Sunday was the phrase: "We should be homesick. We should be homesick to return to live with our Heavenly Father because we will do anything that we can to return home when we are homesick and that's the attitude that we should have in this life about going home to God." I love that so much that I wanted to share it with everyone! At the same time, the speaker said something about how if we really love someone we won't ask them to do something that we know they don't want to do. I think that's really important! We need to serve others and respect them at all times. Another thing about making mistakes. Sometimes it takes a pinch of hurt to make the right decision next time. That comes from a story about a girl who wanted these pretty red shoes, but they were a half size too small and she bought them anyways! Her mom knew better and bought the brown ones in the right size and then a few days later the girl happily accepted the brown shoes because the other ones were pinching her feet! Hence: "sometimes it takes a pinch of hurt to make the right decision" and it's totally okay if we make mistakes! That's why we are here right? To learn from our mistakes :)

A couple funny things from this week:

1) The Portuguese nose

We went to a food bank in Seattle this week. There were a lot of people who spoke Russian and a lot who spoke Chinese (can't help those ones, but luckily there was a volunteer who spoke Mandarin). One of the people who happened to actually speak English kept telling me (not asking) that I was from Portugal. He said that my nose is definitely from a Portuguese ancestor. Now, I'm pretty sure that my family isn't from Portugal, but he was sure. He wouldn't give up so I eventually just agreed with him.

2) Elder K

So we have a Ukrainian Elder in our Zone who is learning English. (He's very helpful because he speaks Russian) But, anyways, he doesn't know any of the idiomatic phrases in English yet because he is just trying to get conversational English down right now. I know how he feels. Anyways, we texted him to let him know that we were going to go to Sports Day with a different zone so that we wouldn't have to drive an hour up to Bothell. Then we said "sorry we are party poopers." He responded back really confused because he doesn't know what that means but he knows what party and poop mean. It was so funny and we will definitely make fun of him mercilessly for that.

Sometime awesome that happened yesterday was we saw this really tall man! So we were like let's go talk to him. He was super open and we even set up a return appointment for him! Turns out he is a retired NBA player! Cool right? He is 6'10"! such an awesome and nice guy.'

 I had an idea this week as I was eating my morning oatmeal. I decided to put peaches and cinnamon in it. LET ME TELL YOU it was the best decision I have made in a while. I highly suggest this. IT is so good and surprisingly the peaches here are really wonderful. I want someone to try making peach cinnamon rolls and lemme know how that goes please. I would make them, but no time. I think it would be so good like a peach cobbler but as a cinnamon roll.

It's really hard only going to the store on Mondays. We always forget everything. This week it was ziploc bags to take our lunches that we have to eat on the road in. So we started washing ziploc bags. It's pretty funny that we are that desperate, but it all works out! I think it's getting to us a little bit having to eat in the car so much because we kept "forgetting" to pack dinners this week and then ended up having to go to Cafe Rio and Chipotle. I think I ate burritos 4 times this week but it's fine we don't have a Mexican food problem at all.....

We went to a Ukranian man's house this week and when we got there he had totallyu fixed us a bunch of desserts and bought a ton of Russian candy for us to eat. And he expected us to eat it all! It was so funny that we just couldn't stop laughing long enough to teach him about God. We were there for so long because he kept getting distracted and going on tangents. And THEN he saw an ice cream truck and bought us ice cream. Super nice guy, but really wants to make us fat or something. Russian food is actually pretty amazing. They make really good bread and the candy is so good. The desserts are always a gamble because a lot of them aren't super sweet and so they taste a little bit weird. I'm willing to try it though!

We went to a Ukranian festival! Actually sooo Overwhelming because everyone there spoke Russian! We went with Sister Allred and Truax and then Elder Karpunkho and Piekarski. Elder Piekarski knows very very little Russian. So I think he would just say hello and then let his Ukrainian companion do the rest. The food there was SO amazing and it smelled so good! We were only able to try the crepes, but one day I'm gonna try all the Ukrainian food. Everyone was wearing these cool shirts that are apparently a Ukrainian thing. All of the women and girls were wearing beautiful floral dresses and a lot of embroidery. It was amazing. They also had these pretty flowers braided into their hair. It made me want to go there and it also made me realized just how many Russian speaking people there are here! I mean there were thousands of people there just wandering around in their Ukrainian gear speaking Russian to one another! Wow! What a cool experience. We met a bunch of awesome, faithful people that were all coming together to pray for Ukraine and the challenges that are happening with the people there at this moment. People either think I'm Ukrainian or tell me I don't look Ukrainian at all so I don't know what to think. I've never typed the word "Ukrainian" so many times in my life.

The weather here is amazing at the moment. It's perfect tights and cardigan weather. Fall comes early here, the trees are already turning colors. Everyday I notice more and more orange trees and I can't wait to send pictures when fall is in full swing! It will be beautiful. One of my favorite sights during the day is Mount Rainier. There are often clouds covering it when it's rainy, but on the sunny days it stands out against the sky. It doesn't even seem real it's so amazing. I'm a little worried that it's going to get colder than I thought it would. I'll survive though, at least I'm not in actual Russia, right? It could definitely be a lot worse. I could be in negative 50 degree weather this winter.

Anyways, I am grateful for everything and everyone! I miss and love all of you so much and can't wait to see what this week holds. I love hearing from everyone :)

Love,

Cectpa Jenne"

Goodness I'm so proud of this sister of mine. <3