March 31, 2014

Our internet place's power went out, and so that's why I'm sending this a little bit later. :)

Anyways, it's WINTER. AGAIN. So crazy!! Everything was super warm and hot, and all the apricot trees were blossoming (pictures below), and everything was green. And then sunday hit. A storm rolled in and temperatures dropped. The power went out for all of Artashat, and it was SNOWING! WHat???!!! Am I in Idaho?? (Haha Just kidding.) On top of that, we had super powerful gushes of wind. Looking outside, there would be these giant gusts of wind, sweeping up the snow from the ground. Snow filled wind?? Brrrr!!!!!

So we went to church, and the church didn't have any power either. So the church was freezing. So we had sacrament meeting, and then the Bishop told us to go home and get warm.

The thing that is just too bad is that it probably snowed at the worst time possible. All of those apricot trees?? They're probably not going to grow very many, if at all. It is SO sad, because everybody lives off of those. They can like CRAZY all of their apricots, and any fruit, so that they can eat during the winter.

Okay, enough with all this depressing stuff. There's a lot of really great things that have happened this week!!

All of us missionaries here in Artashat (2 of us Elders, our senior missionary couple, and us) organized an activity for the youth. We thought that they should be able to have spiritual night but also have a lot of fun. (Like mutual back at home.) So we invited all of the youth, we had a spiritual thought, and then we played all sorts of games! Afterwards, the L's (the senior couple) made scones for the refreshments (they were so good). The youth had a blast!! They loved it so much!! It was so successful, and when we told them that we would have another activity in two weeks (we want to have an activity twice a month) they were so excited. Now we are going to try to help the Young Men's and Young Women's president to start organizing them.

So with N and Y, our investigators, we are SO excited for them! I am really hoping that they will be able to pass their interviews. Y is wonderful. She's N's mom, just as a reminder. She just soaks everything in and is super faithful. She has come to church every week ever since she came that first time. And, she is reading the Book of Mormon like CRAZY! When we last met with her she was in Mormon!! And she's only been reading for like 2 and a half weeks!! She is amazing! She is definitely going to finish the Book of Mormon before her baptism. She is SO prepared!! Super excited to see what will happen this week with her.

With N, I just wanna say that I love her so much! She is so wonderful. I think it is such a blessing that I have been priveleged to stay in Artashat for this transfer. If anything, I was able to stay for her. This has been such a rewarding transfer. There has been so much joy when she makes those little steps of improvement here and there--joys for when she tries to read, when we helped her get her marriage license, when she started to come to come to church, when she learned how to read her own name. Despite all the opposition against her, she continued to fight forward with faith. It has been slow-going but if you are there with her you can see the little steps of improvement that she has made, and now, after all this time, she will be able to baptized this week. Yayyyy!!! She is wonderful. I have definitely felt like the Lord has definitely prepared N to be baptized.

And what a wonderful blessing it is to be working with Y now too! Y has already been a wonderful support to N. She calls her up on sunday to remind her to come to church. They see each other nearly every day. They are so happy that they will be able to be baptized together. =) I just hope that everything goes as planned and that they both pass their baptismal interviews this week!!

By the way, I am super psyched because we're going to be getting a mini missionary this week!! Woohoo! I am so excited. She's coming from Malatia. When I went there on splits, she was our member present. Sometime during the end of the lesson, she slipped me a postcard saying how well I spoke the language and how much she loved me. It melted my heart. It was SO sweet. =) So I am super excited to have her serve with us. =) It's gonna be so good!! She'll be meeting up with us at our zone conference tomorrow in Yerevan, and then we'll be headed back to Artashat.

Some of our other investigators are falling through the cracks--saying that they're busy or that they don't have time. We are going to try to work even harder to retain them this week. Plus, we are going to try to work harder to find new investigators, because we are starting to really run low!!

Oh, one more SUPER funny story. So we started a Book of Mormon class every Wednesday. The first one was this past week. Not very many people knew about it, and so only two people came--an old lady in the ward, and the former branch president. Anyways, this old lady is HILARIOUS. And she's always trying to get the sister missionaries in the ward to marry her grandson, K, who is like 30. We're always like, "No, no, we'll be getting married later after our missions." Anyways, this old lady is really trying to convince Sister T. to marry him while we're in our Book of Mormon class. And Sister T. is like, "No, thanks!!" Anyways, this little old lady says, "Hey...but he's got a really hairy chest!! Really comfortable!" P, our old branch president, said, "Okay, you are DONE!" And then we all just started dying laughing. Oh my word. We were on the floor. SO Funny.

Well, I'm out of time. Hajoh! (Meaning, "bye!).
Love, Sister Fielding

1. Me outside our apartment. In light of the winter spirit, we sang "Joy to the World" for companion study. Haha It seriously feels like December now. SO cold!

2. Me with an apricot tree a few days before it snowed. :)

3. Us on our way to Narek, a village where two new converts live. There are SO many apricot trees!!!