September 15, 2014

Hello family and Friends and all who are included in my contact list,

Most exciting news of the day: G got baptized!!! Yay! He is the cutest kid ever. He and his little brothers are all in love with us. The baptism was really touching. At one point, Narine, his mom, was up front after his baptism. And when she was up there, she was expressing how meaningful that it was that G was able to be baptized because they had to wait until his dad agreed for him to be baptized. And then she gave him his own Book of Mormon and bore her testimony of it. Gurgen's mouth just dropped when he realized he was getting his own Book of Mormon. Haha It was super cute. (We probably should have given him his own Book of Mormon, but it was also so much more meaningful this way. Plus, things are a little different for kids...) It was a powerful baptism though. :)

Hey, the sunday before last, we were walking down the street, and we saw this giant banner that said, "Toumanyan Fairy Tale week". Or something to that extent. We went and checked it out. Just for some background, Toumanyan is like the Brothers' Grimm but for Armenia and this part of the world. We went in and found out that they would be doing these puppet plays and stuff like that. Plus, there were all sorts of carnival-type things (like COTTON CANDY--never seen THAT in Armenia. P.S. The cotton candy bigger than my head was literally only 25 cents. Worth it? I think so!)

Anyways, we came the next day and the play going on was called "The power of the Lullaby". Sounds corny, but it was the coolest thing ever! It turned out to be this really awesome group from Georgia of puppeteers, and they puppeted these 2 feet long puppets that seemed alive. That group was so talented. I got pictures! It had the coolest effects ever!! So artistic and awesome. It was in Georgian, so I didn't understand a word of it, but they told us the story beforehand, and so we knew what was going on. However, when we initially came in, we felt kinda silly because the only people in the theater were kids and their parents. Here we were, a group of six missionaries, and a senior missionary couple. Not embarrassing at all. Haha After that, everybody got sick on the carnival rides. (WHY did we do the spinning one???!) 

Hey, so anyone who's been to Armenia knows that all of the sidewalks, except for the main road ones, are as uneven as they come. They're broken up because they have cheap quality cement, with tree roots underneath, and all that. Anyways, we were walking down one of these sidewalks, and my foot landed on a ridge...and buckled, which killed my foot. We were still only in the middle of the day, so I was limping all day. We called our foot doctor that night, and he said that I hurt a certain tendon in my foot. :( WHY do I keep hurting my feet/ankles?

He said it would get better in about 3 days though. Surprising because after the phone call, I couldn't walk on it. I literally dragged myself to my bed backwards--just like how soldiers do in those war movies when their leg is injured. Hah But hey, it got exponentially better every day, and now it's all better! Yay!

Two more short stories, and then I've gotta head out! 

So this sunday was a super sunday. As in, two small buses of members from Alaverdi came in to church, and so the church was madness!! SO CRAZY! Just imagine us running around trying to get things as orderly as possible, that was us. All of Alaverdi, and all of the Vanadzor ward. It was quite busy. They came in because the stake presidency came up.

During the second hour, I was sitting next to this little girl. I gave her my gospel art book to look at so that she wouldn't get bored. When she was done with that, I handed her my family pictures. Anyways, this lady from a little bit away, sees the little girl looking through my pictures, gets excited, and runs over to us.

She asked, "Are those your pictures?! Can I go through them too?" Bear in mind, this lady's in her 40's-ish.

    

A little taken-aback, I said, "Uh, yeah. Sure." So I handed her my pictures, and then focused on the speaker. A little while later, she got my attention and said, "I LOVE this picture." It was the picture of Pancake and Maple. (Those are our bulldogs back home, for those who don't know.)

I said, "Yeah, it's cute."
"Can I have it?? I REALLY want it."

"Uh..." How do you really respond to that? "Yeah, sure." I should get props for keeping a straight face. 

I took out the picture and handed it to her, but she said, "Wait! You should write on the back."

"Okay." So I took it back, and took out a pen, "So what's your name?" She told me.

So I wrote, "A, I hope you enjoy this picture. I love these dogs very much. It was a pleasure. Sincerely, Sister Fielding"

Bahaha It was the wierdest thing EVER. 

SHe was super happy with the note and picture, and she promptly hopped up and went back to her seat.  It was...quite strange.

The two Elder P'S behind me (think of J.K. Rowling's main character) were all like, "Wait, why'd she take that?"

"Uh..she really wanted it??" It was way funny.

Anyways, I had the cutest thing happen. We visited G and his family yesterday night. And man, those boys LOVE us. We were doing a small lesson when suddenly the youngest, D, wraps his arms around my neck and said, "Yes shat em sirum! Yes shat em sirum!" Which translates to "I love you SO much! I love you SO much!" It was adorable!! They are the cutest, most faithful family EVER!

Well, I should go. Sorry that this is a novel. :) So many good things happened though!!

Hajoh! (Bye!)

Sister Fielding