Claire's Mission in Armenia: "Fall has fallen and new friends have been found"

Dearest Dear ones, 

May I just begin by announcing that I just love Armenia with my whole heart!! It is an amazing place with amazing people and as I approach my year mark next week, I just am filled with gratitude that this funny little country on the borders of the middle east, has become such a big part of who I am. 

Fall is here and the leaves are falling, along with the occasional raindrop. The weather is cooler and the sweaters and scarves are out, much to my delight!! One of the best things about fall here is the dried fruit! OH MY GOODNESS. it is just about the best thing you have ever eaten. Dried under the beautiful armenian sun, it tastes like a piece of heaven. A few personal favs-dried/candied pears and hazelnut stuffed dried cherries. too yummy for words. 

One of my favorite parts of being a missionary is the amazing missionaries with which we get to interact. This week was sister splits and so I went off to Artashat, a little town south of Yerevan, that is incidentally 5 kms from the Iranian border and 10 km from Turkey. It's a cute little town and where they grow a lot of the produce for the country. I loved it, but the best thing was that I got to be with Sister S (Sorry I can't use full names or send pictures of anyone other than myself) Anways Sister S is a brand new sister just 6 weeks in country. Just barely turned 19 in May, she is an amazing girl, so fun and such a determined, fearless missionary! I am just crossing my fingers that I get to serve with her one day, just from our 24 hours together I feel like I found a kindred spirit and learned so much about being a missionary without worrying about awkwardness or fear. When we remove fear, we truly become filled with faith. 

Incidentally, we had a taxi driver to Artashat who told us that he was going to live for 200 years because of 5 simple exercises that he repeats 21 times each. Anyways, I have his number and he offered to come over and show us the exercises, free of charge. amazing. 

Also another plus of sister splits was that Sister S had the new Vocalpoint CD on her ipod. OH MY, i was transported. It was such a relief after the same music for almost a year, and especially since my little ipod shuffle has just bitten the dust. (Mom and sisters, can you send me some CDs? each apartment has a cd player so I would love to have some to listen to!!) Oh how I love music and oh how I miss it. 

With training a new missionary there is a new program, church-wide, of how to deal with stress. It is a great little booklet and Sister B and I have the funnest time reading out of it, one of the gems we have found, "If you are feeling lonely, write in your journal, it at least feels nice to be understood by yourself." haha. perhaps funny, but definitely true. 

This week we had to make some hard decisions. There are souls that we are working with and the time is just not right, so we place them back in the Lord's hands. The Lord can work with them in ways that we can't and He knows when the time will be right for them to receive the fulness of the joy He has waiting for them. One such man has read until Helaman chapter 14 and yet he still doesn't get that he needs to be baptized by the correct priesthood authority. It is interesting to me that someone could read that amazing book and still not fully understand. We can try and try as missionaries but until their hearts are ready, the Lord has more work to do with them. 

The Lord is so good! This work is amazing! I love you all so much!!

xoxoxo Sister Claire Haynie

Last P day it was super rainy so we decided to go on a carousel. fun fun.