Claire's Mission in Armenia: "raindrops keep fallin on my head..."

Hello Hello from Yerevan!

Well with one more day left before I turn 22, I thought I would say something silly from this week as my last 21 year old action. This week we went to read the Book of Mormon with our cute Marine and Narek (for an update on them read below). Narek is 9 and we were reading in 1 Nephi when it is descibing the church of the devil and it uses the words, "whore of all the earth" cute, innocent little narek started reading his verse and as soon as he read that phrase he just was so embarrassed that he put his head down on the table, over come with shame. We all just bust up laughing for about 5 minutes. Oh so funny.

This week began with one of the most beautiful baptismal services I have ever been to. Elder Arshakyan, is an Armenian from Yerevan who was called to serve his mission in Armenia. He was in my district up in Gyumri and I just loved getting to know him. He has such spiritual strength. He was the only member in his family and it was really hard for him to leave them to serve, but he did and has been amazing. Anyways, via emails each week he has been teaching his mother about the gospel. The elders who live near her then began meeting with her and last Tuesday, Elder Arshakyan came down from Gyumri to baptize her. The Spirit was so strong and the love in that room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Pure, total joy. I was asked to sing "I stand All Amazed" in Armenian and as I was singing I just felt the Spirit testify to me in a way that I had never before felt, of the majesty of the love of God, in sacrificing His only Begotten Son for us, for His children. I truly stand all amazed.

Our Area Seventy, Elder Minasyan, came to our missionary coordination meeting this week and it was filled with such great counsel and love. He shared something that I had heard before somewhere but I can't think of where, anyways it has changed my attitude about how important attitude is. He said, "Enthusiasm means God is with us" I love that. When we are enthusiastic and full of joy it is evidence of the prescence of the Lord in our lives. As hard as this work may be, as we strive to be enthusiastic we truly manifest the fact that God will be with His children.

Despite so many good things, this week was super hard. It has been raining without ceasing for about 6 days and the cold has come back and no one, i repeat, no one is on the street to talk to, and if they are, they certainly do not want to talk to us. Super hard. I pulled the hunters out of storage and the feet are dry and as of yet my umbrella is still in working order. Anyways, yesterday was not a banner day. It rained all the live long day and church was sparse in attendance and the 1st counselor of the Relief Society got angry at Sister Bobzien and I for giving the lesson in R.S. oh dear. She has hair like Cruella de Ville and loves to tell long-winded, off topic stories that are usually about modesty, we're not quite sure why. Anyways the lesson yesterday was supposed to be Teaching of the Prophet: Lorenzo Snow chapter 7, which is AMAZING!! Its all about going through trials with faith and why we have trials, etc. Anyways, perfect for Armenia. she had forgotten to prepare and so we volunteered to give it and she decided to be offended at that. oh dear. It turned out to be a great lesson and we let her say her peace, and hopefully we will be able to mend things with her a bit. Organization is the genius of the Church and it we let that go then important things start to be left by the wayside. Sister Bobzien and I have decided that we are going to make a concerted effort to help the members better understand how to live the Gospel. So, hard morning at church. Then we had our first appointment cancel because her husband won't let us come over because he said we were from a "cult" then as we were walking in the rain we got the worst phone call. Marine had decided, and we have no idea why, that she never wanted to see us again, we are forbidden to call her, go to her house, or ever talk to her. We have been working with her for over a month and all of a sudden she decides to completely drop us. We were absolutely heart broken. This family that we love so much, without any explanation has decided to pull the plug. We were devastated. Then the family that we were going to visit in the evening told us that we were not allowed to come. Goodness, what is going on!!!! The hard thing is that people say such horrible things about us here, and people, no matter how wonderful they have felt with us, no matter how true they know this to message to be, all at once they will believe the horrible, untrue things that their neighbors say. AHHHHHHHH. So sad!!!!! But the sun came out this morning, my birthday is tomorrow (Sister B is going to make me a chocolate cake and the Senior couple are having us over for lunch today), and there are lots of kitties around, and even if I can't pet them (don't worry dad, I don't) they still bring joy to my heart.

On a lighter note, I was asked to sing at a wedding last week. I sang "That's All" you know that one Michael Buble sings, anyways, they loved it. There was a balloon arch and super salty peanuts and carrot cake, courtesy of the Senior couples who put the wedding on for one of the single adults-this was by no means your typical Armenian wedding, but still fun.

I love you all. I love this work and these people and it grieves my soul how hard it is for them to accept the Gospel. Herein lies the most amazing fulness of joy, the peace of the Prince of Peace, the love of the Good Shepherd, and the hope of the Rock of our Salvation. As hard as this is, "we press forward having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of God and of all men."

I love you all!!

Sincerely,

Your favorite one-day-away-from-being-22, Armenian Sister Missionary, Sister Claire Margaret Haynie