Claire's Mission in Armenia: "Dream a little dream of me"
Dearest loved ones,
I love you all so much! Let me just say. your love and support for the past 15 months has been the thing that has kept me going and I just love it! A million thank yous
I would like to describe this week in a few funny experiences. First. We have some very, very old investigators whose names are Hamlet and Juliet. I'm not kidding. haha. I was really sad that the wife wasn't Ophelia since that is a common name here, but I guess those two tragic characters from Shakespeare just aren't destined to be together in literature or reality. haha. Anyways. Juliet basically cannot hear and one day this week we were there and Sister F was saying the closing prayer and Juliet had her head bowed and hands folded and when sis F finished with Amen, we both looked up and Juliet was still bowed. So I said "Amen" a little louder. nothing happened. Then sister F did, nothing. We looked at each other and together shouted "AMEN" and Juliet, nice as can be, looked up and said "Amen" like it was the most normal thing in the world. haha.
Story two. There is a lady in our ward who lives in a little tiny village about 20 minutes from us. We went to pay her a visit and as we got there she started to open a bottle of her personally canned compot, or fruit juice. We drink lots and lots of that so we weren't worried about that, it was the fact that the top of the bottle broke off as she was opening it. She said, oh nothing to worry and pulled out an old curtain and poured the juice through it. I was still a wee bit nervous, so I didn't touch it, waiting for some inspiration to come. the next moment the member was heading into the other room and I looked at Sis F and said, "Now's our chance." So I cleared my throat and made whatever normal sounds I could and Sis F put the untouched juice back in the container. Phew. No one was the wiser and I successfully escaped glass-laden juice.
Story two. There is a lady in our ward who lives in a little tiny village about 20 minutes from us. We went to pay her a visit and as we got there she started to open a bottle of her personally canned compot, or fruit juice. We drink lots and lots of that so we weren't worried about that, it was the fact that the top of the bottle broke off as she was opening it. She said, oh nothing to worry and pulled out an old curtain and poured the juice through it. I was still a wee bit nervous, so I didn't touch it, waiting for some inspiration to come. the next moment the member was heading into the other room and I looked at Sis F and said, "Now's our chance." So I cleared my throat and made whatever normal sounds I could and Sis F put the untouched juice back in the container. Phew. No one was the wiser and I successfully escaped glass-laden juice.
Story three: One of our lightbulbs burned out and we couldn't get it out so we called our high counselor that lives next store to come and help us. I was trying to explain that we needed some pliers and so I grabbed my trusty dictionary and looked up the word for pliers, as I called him and told him to bring his pliers, (using my recently found new vocab word) he said, "I have no idea what your talking about. I'm coming over." haha. he brought the right tools, so it was all okay.
We had an investigator move to Spain this week to marry her Skype boyfriend. We are praying hard for her that it all works out but the words of Napolean Dynamite kept playing in my mind, I mean isn't she a little T-O'd that she hasn't even seen a fully body shot yet? haha. Really though, I wish her the best.
New investigators have been dropping from the sky this week. Okay not really, but miracles have been happening and not just once in a while. we are really so blessed. One is having a little bit of trouble. Being a former wine-bibber, he is having some trouble with the Word of Wisdom, but we brought the Area 70 to our last meeting and the Spirit was strong, so I have faith that his progress will continue.
One of my favorite people in all of Armenia is a 75 year old man who is Armenian but from Azerbaijan. (I will tell you all about how that is that way, some day) Anyways, he is the husband of a member and I adore him. We went there the other day and he declared to me that he was the Azerbaijan version of the soccer star "Pele" when he was younger. But not now apparently. Though he was very proud of the fact that his knees still move without pain. pretty impressive.
I was reading the masterful talk by Elder Oakes from last conference and I was thinking a lot about the question, "What is our ultimate priority?" I mean we live lives that are full of all sorts of priorities, but what is first in our lives. Of course the answer needs to be God. So if it's not, what to we need to do? Ponder on that this week. I testify that blessings will come as you do. I love you all. I love this work and I know it's true. This has been the most amazing 15 months of my life and I love it will every fiber of who i am.
xoxox
Sister Claire Haynie
The Azerbaijan "Pele"'s fur hat. very toasty.
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