Claire's Mission in Armenia: "Summer is HOT when you live a few miles from the Middle East!"

Dearest friends and family, 

This week was swell. Filled with meetings and sweet things to eat and windy evenings and good news. 

First of all though, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWELL LITTLE SISTER CAMILLE!!!!!! 18, that is too weird. 

But, back to Armenia. First off all, mum asked a few weeks ago how it is that we find people to teach. Well. there are a variety of tactics we use, all honorable (as preach my gospel suggests) and we have found that just being our smiley, friendly selves, really works wonders. Usually we hope to meet investigators through members. that is the very best way because for people here one BIG worry is that is their friends or family find out they are Mormon they will categorically reject them. So if they have a friend that is a member, no matter what happens they still have at least one friend. So we try to visit members, active and less active, and as my old mission pres suggested, we work in "family circles" trying to close gaps and help families prepare to be sealed for eternity. We have found several investigators this way and it really is the best. Another way is walking. We walk in parks and on the street and just simply all over. Seriously as a missionary you get to know every inch of your area. Many people are kind and will talk a bit with us, but usually they just ignore us, but that's okay, we just smile, say Barev and go on our way. So that is armenian missionary finding in a nutshell. 

This week was amazing in that we got to do service for one of our investigators! We were meeting with her one night and she was lamenting the fact that she needed to clean her house. Sister Kellis and I didn't have to even look at each other, we were already on the same wavelength and we exclaimed, when can we come and help!!! So we went over and scrubbed floors and walls and it was just great. sometimes manual labor just feels so good. 

We found a little place that we wish we wouldn't have. Its called Mary Bakery and it has chocolate croissants and cinnamon rolls and strawberry tarts and it is a slice of heaven. it is also tragically close to our branch building. those 15 pounds I have lost may be creeping back sooner than I thought...

People sometimes just stand and stare at us. They especially love Sister Kellis's hair and often call her  sunshine. haha. One of our investigators, Anush, who is incidentally also meeting with the JWs right now, told us how when the JWs found out that she was meeting with us they just went off for like an hour about how beautiful they think the Mormon missionaries are. haha. 

An update on my dear Mara and Rita and George ( the greek family baptized when I was in Malatia) they are living in Frankfurt, Germany and they are attending a ward there! Sister B found out from our BP in Malatia and so she called me. I was just so happy to hear that they were still holding strong! 

Perhaps this email is a little scattered but I just wanted to give you a little glimpse of my day to day life. We live in a little apartment building in a little neighborhood south of downtown, and everytime we walk home there are about 15 people sitting on their porches or hanging up their wash and they greet us in the kindest way. It is beautiful. We went to visit with one of our neighbors' family last night, and they just told us how the whole neighborhood just loves us and they see us as their daughters. It was lovely to hear that. People everywhere observe us more than we think and it is good to know that they think well of us. 

Well my loved ones. I am happy and tan and drinking lots of water and eating lots of yummy things. We met with our dear recent convert Greta this week and she wanted to sing a song for us before we left and all it was was the words, "God is Kind, Hallelujah" over and over. I loved it. It's true. God is Kind. so kind. we can see it everywhere we look. His kindness is everlasting. 

Love you all, in an ever-expanding way!!!

Sincerely, 

Sister Claire Margaret Haynie

apricot ice cream from the Marriott!! Too yum!! 

Greta, love her so much. (this is our relief society room at church)