Claire's Mission in Armenia: "I can see Turkey from my house!"

Well, not quite, but if you moved the building right in front of us, we would have a perfect view of Mt. Ararat which, should belong to Armenia, but is actually in turkey.

So the big news is I have been transferred! I am now in the big city, Yerevan, in an area called Malatia. It is lovely and sunny with no mud in sight! The Hunters have been put away as well as the down jacket. next will be tights, though I may hang on to those for the next few weeks. But everything is wonderful here! Sister Bobzien and I whitewashed in and are living in an old Elders area, with lots of work to do and a branch that has been begging for sisters for the last 6 months. So everyone was super happy to see us on Sunday. (They were all just SO HAPPY to see me) haha.

But truly, I am so happy. It was hard to see Sister Arslanian go, and to leave Gyumri which I have come to love so much, but there is work all over the country that needs doing, so I'll go where Im wanted to go. and thus it is. Sister Bobzien is my new comp, a lovely girl, from California, vegetarian and such a good missionary. We are getting along swimmingly and she reminds me a lot of my dear friend Lena, so things are good. It is still hard getting used to a new person, but exciting as well. Such an adventure we are living!

So a little about the new area. The apartment is nice, not as nice as my old one but there is hot water and a washing machine, so what else could you really need? but really its fine, and I have yet to see any bugs, so I sleep soundly. The branch takes in the whole area of Malatia, which is about the size of Magnolia probably, and then it also takes in Edgmiatzine, which is the central headquarters and holiest city of the Armenian Apostolic Church, we have one family of members there and an investigator, so though it is about 30 minutes away, we plan on going there often. And it will make for some fun P-day adventures! The work of the Lord is really progressing here. The big push in Armenia right now is to establish a stake here, and Malatia branch has been chosen to become one of the wards, so we have work to do, it has been growing steadily so we just have to help it keep going! Our branch president is lovely, such a devoted man, and there is just so much love in this branch, everyone is so concerned for everyone, it really is amazing. We have one set of elders in our branch with us and the Humanitarian Senior couple as well, they are super fun, and Mimi, Sister Stone is an amazing crafter! I can't wait to tell you all about the amazing things she is going to teach us how to make.

Incidentally, Malatia is the center for the Jehovah Witnesses and the Evangelical churches of Armenia. To say the least, we have some interesting conversations on the street, I am sure that will be a feature of many of my emails in the future.

Well we have only been here four days but already we have seen a miracle. We were walking for about 4 hours yesterday in the craziest wind I have ever seen. We were just walking through a bunch of buildings and we saw a woman just standing watching her grandchildren play in the park nearby. We approached her to talk and she invited us to come and talk more with her inside. So we went into her apartment, sat down and we gave the whole first lesson, and she has accepted to be baptized on May 4th! She is seriously the most prepared woman I have ever seen, all of her comments and questions are exactly those kind of things that the Gospel can answer. The whole time I just had the biggest smile on my face and I was just filled, filled with love for her and love for the Gospel. I am so excited because the future for our new friend Luda, is very bright.

I love this work, every day is a new adventure. I love you all and wish you a Happy, Happy Easter. I just love easter. Its the key to everything. Christ rose on the third day, and because of that, we can all be resurrected one day. Amazing.

xoxoxoxo Sister Claire Haynie

Ps. Thank you so much to mom and grammy for the amazing packages!
also can you believe that I am going to 22 in less than a month? weird.

pps. Liv I got your letter! So amazing! where should i send the reply?
ppss. Elder Debry, got your letter, a reply will be coming soon!


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