MERRY CHRISTMAS!

MY DEAR WONDERFUL FAMILY!

MERRY MERRY CHRISTMAS!

This email will be shorter than usually for several reasons. 1. I GET TO SEE YOU IN JUST A FEW DAYS. I can't tell you how excited and thrilled I am to SKYPE home. Again, I will be skyping at 11am (YOUR TIME) on Christmas Morning. I will be skyping from Devymac92. I will be skyping dad's account. If you forgot the password then have someone else add my account before Christmas morning. Then if Shea gets permission (MOM, PLEASE make sure you find out from her before we skype), I will be skyping her at 9 am her time. I can't believe it is already Christmas time. Wow, time is flying by SO incredibly fast. SPEAKING of time, this week I started my diet to my "six months to sexy"--it happened to be in a lot different diet than I wanted. I got the FLU. Needless to say, I wasnt keeping anything in. I dropped weight FAST. We were stuck inside half of Thursday, all of Friday and Saturday, and all of Sunday except a few hours for church because our great investigator Mesha was coming for the first time, and I was determined to go.

Needless to say, Sister Jensen and I have grown SO close together. I mean how can we not after be stuck in the same room for 4 days. I am surprised we still get along, but really between all the horrible runs to the bathroom, we watched our fun 5 movie selection over 5-10 times each. Those movies include: The Testaments, The Legacy, The District 2, The Last Leaf, and The Restoration. Then on Saturday, our Elders gave us The Work and The Glory. I tell you what, I love that movie and want the 2nd and the 3rd movies now! Anyone willing to send me it?! haha. Yep, we watched that sucker like 10 times already. Not returning it to the Elders anytime soon :). I am feeling much better, and we will be working hard this next week. I miss Sister Erekson still, but I love Sister Jensen very dearly. It is incredible to be a trainer and to see the quick improvement of your young little trainees. It has been amazing to receive answers on how I can help her and better her experience. I feel that it is by my example and hardwork that I can help her grow. It's hard work, but I am getting use to it!

I thank my Father in Heaven for this sacred privelege to serve Him and to serve His children. Of course, I am imperfect (ISN'T EVERYONE), I fall short often. I don't always talk to as many people, I don't always do all correctly, but I am trying VERY hard. This week I am very thankful for the Atonement of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I feel like this was a PERFECT focus for me this cycle. Many times on my mission, especially this week, Satan has tried to whisper that past mistakes--small or big--- are making me not good enough. I know that he is wrong. I repent nightly for a reason. I work hard, yes, i fall at times, but then I get back up, repent, and work even harder. I am thankful for a loving Savior, WHO died for me. What a great message we have to share to the people of Russia who are racked with regret, sorrow, and pain. I wanted everyone to know of the joy and peace that I feel because of the great and beautiful atonement.

This week hasn't been exciting because I was awfully sick with the flu for more than half of it, but I wanted to share with you a cool experience that I had and another great testimony that God is truly listening to His children. I was having a rough day feeling weak and sick, but I kept pushing forward. As we were walking the empty streets, I tried to focus on others and not pain or sickness so I decided to pray. I pled with our Father to give Mesha, one of our investigators ready for baptism, a powerful experience as he read the Book of Mormon today. I asked Heavenly Father to give him a CLEAR answer if the Book of Mormon was true. Do you know what happened? Several hours later, I received a call--YEAH, he called us-- He told me that he just read 1st Nephi 4 about Laban. He told me that he felt something powerful, and he just new that Nephi was called of God. He knew it was true. God is so good. He truly loves these people. I know that he loves me so much. He knows me, and He helps me. He is willing to answer our prayers, even the small ones.

Okay, this was actually a long one. OOOOOPPS :) I LOVE YOU ALL

Mom, thanks for the 30 extra bucks. We are going to Mcdonalds! I am soooo excited!

PRAYING FOR YOU ALL.

CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOUR CUTE FACES ON WEDNESDAY,

MUCH LOVE

Sister Devynn McCartt

HAPPY 7TH CYCLE :)

Hey family!

I can't believe that it is ALMOST Christmas. I will be skyping you on Christmas day at 8 pm our time which means that it will be early for you, but NOT too bad like 11am. I will be skyping from Devymac92! I need your account name! We also found out that we were given ten minutes to SKYPE siblings on missions. That means that I can skype Shea at 9 pm my time. That would be 9 am her time? Shea, please let me know if you can do this or if another time will work better for you. I feel like this is the only time that would work for us because of the 12 hours time difference. I also need your skype name. SO mom and dad, be ready 15 minutes before 11 am to skype me. Shea, if you can let me know when you read this if it will be a possibility. I am sure you can get permission from your Mission President. My district leader said to me today, "She is in America! Everything is possible there."


  Now for the other fun news. My sweet companion, Sister Erekson and I got separated this week. I have wandered around like a lost puppy who lost her best friend. I will admit that this has been one of my HARDEST transfers, but that means that I will grow a lot. My new companion is Sister Jensen. She is from TEXAS, my first companion NOT from Utah. CRAZY. We get along great. It is just WAY different than my past few cycles. She has been a little down about the language, but it is always hard at first. I am just trying to keep her afloat these first few weeks. I know ALL will work out and she will do great things here in Russia!


We have been teaching a young man that Sister Erekson and I found a few weeks ago. He is SO close to baptism. I always mention baptism to him, and  then he always replies, "I know, Sister McCartt, I need to do it so I can prepare to be baptized." He loves us. He is praying about the 18th of January. This past week, he told us a story about how he felt when he first saw us on the street. He said, "I saw you two ahead of me, coming towards me, and I knew I had to talk with you. My heart started pounding because I didn't know how I would start a conversation, BUT then you started talking to me." I know Heavenly Father answered this 24 year old young man's prayers because we both felt pushed to talk with him. I am thankful for the guidance of the Spirit, AND I am grateful that we acted on that prompting. He always tells me, "You and Sister Erekson have changed my life." He is reading the Book of Mormon and LOVING IT.

I know that I am here to teach him. I am thankful for this great opportunity.


Titus FINALLY came to church again. Life had been super busy for him and he got way behind with school. He is reading the Book of Mormon and progressing GREATLY! He told me yesterday that he is still fervently praying about the need for him to be baptized.


I know that our prayers of faith will soften and change the hearts of the people here. I know that we have a Savior, who we can TRULY cast our burdens to Him. There are many times on my mission, where the strength I had was only from Him. I am thankful for my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Thanks for your letters of love. I love you all and pray for you everyday,

LOVE TRULY,

your missionary in Russia

Sister Devynn McCartt

HAPPY TRANSFERS :)

Hello!
Short letter this week because my time is already dwindling down. It is transfers week. and GUESS WHAT?!?! I am expecting another baby. I will be training once again. I am sad to leave Sister Erekson because we have not only become great companions, but we have become best friends. I know that this next cycle will be challenging, but I will grow and I will become more and more of who the Lord needs me to be. I am thankful for this chance to help someone began their journey in Russia. AND GUESS WHAT?! My first trainee will also be training. I remember my first day in Russia, my trainer, Sister Young looked at me and said, "I train people to train". I said that same thing to Sister Herikson, and now look at her! I am so proud.


 I am surprisingly enough starting to love snow more and more. It is getting SO cold here! Yesterday, my hair froze! Snow has been coming down nonstop. I love preaching the gospel, and I am here in Russia doing just that. I love my mission. It is WAY hard, but it is exactly where I need to be. Everytime I go out on the streets to testify to these people of our Lord's restored gospel-- I feel that same joy. There is a reason why I trudge through feet and feet of snow to share this great message. There is a reason why I talk to everyone on the street and turn my cheek when someone mocks me or laughs at me. It is all because of my love for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that every soul truly is great in the site of God. That is why I do what I do everyday.


I can't wait to get my little trainee, and help her find this great joy in preaching the gospel to these Russian people.


I can't wait to skype home! It is coming SOOOO fast. I love you all. Have a great week, and enjoy the ice ;)


Love your favorite freezing Russian Sister,
Sister Devynn McCartt


                                                     Russian Orthodox church

                                                    Adventures in the woods

                                              Just doing some missionary work

                              Spotting my prey! I really wanted to knock this house

Then the old woman that lived there came out and we shared out message with her. She loved us and I love her!

                                                                  Random trash pile

                                           Thanksgiving cooking :) We made a feast

                                                                  Our feast

                                                                Russian tort

                                                             TITUS AND US :)

                                      FIRST SNOW. AND IT HASN'T STOPPED YET

                                             Regina's baptism

                                    Random cart that we found. had to capture it!

                                                        EMMA :)

                                                                 COLD

                                                        SNOW ANGELS

                                                         BEING SNEAKY

                                                       Our young women :)

                             
                                                  Saying goodbyes to Sister Scoville!

                                                       CUTEST LITTLE GIRL

                                                       So much snow

                                                      The beautiful Volga

                                                Preaching the gospel to everyone!

WITH LOVE from Russia

Hey family,

I hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. I knew it was a successful day when I completely hated myself for how much I ate. After makng an incredible Thaksgiving feast with Sister Erikson, I unknowningly volunteered myself to be in a food eating contest. Thankfully, we just had to shove down two cans of corn. I won :).

Other than that, this week hasn't been so eventful. Just a lot of contacting on the blizzardy roads. Did I mention? It is getting COLD. It has been snowing for days now. I am in for a treat. We took lots of fun pictures, but I will send them next week. It is not working this week. The longer you wait, the better it is anyway :)

This week, my companion and I experienced something life changing. I know that thanks to this experience, I know even more that Satan is real. His influence is real. He is working very hard to stop this work. I know for a fact that he knows us. He unlike us, remembers life before this life. He knows how to tempt us and how to hurt us. BUT he will never win. We have someone on our side with much greater power. Don't be afraid to call upon the powers of heaven to help you. Prayer is so powerful. I know that Heavenly Father is on the other side listening and ready to send support. He did for us. In short, we were on the street contacting, when we stopped a woman. Immediately, the Spirit fled. We should have left sooner, but we had some hope that we could help this woman come unto Christ. After many warnings by the Spirit, we departed paths. We felt so strongly the influence of Satan around us. I felt so weighed down and dirty. My heart was heavy. I turned to Sister Erekson and said, "Please, we need to pray". We found a secluded bench, and I started to pray. I had to cast Satan away from us several times. I pleaded with our Father in Heaven to send us peace and comforted. I can't express to you the comfort and peace that He immediately sent to us. I know that He is watching over each of us. He loves us. Never hesitate to pray. He is listening. Never doubt, for our Father in Heaven always answers. It may take days, months, OR  a year and a half. Sometimes, He answers in ways you don't expect or sometimes it is not the answer we want, BUT without a doubt--He answers. I am thankful for the relationship that I have with my Heavenly Father. I can't imagine going throughout this journey without Him. I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. He is my anchor and my rock. 

I love you and I am pray for you,

Sister Devynn McCartt

HAPPY THANKSGIVI​NG TO ALL

Hello there family :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!
Oh baby, it's COOOOLLLLLLDDD outside. The tempature is dropping. We'll be on the streets FREEZING, and we'll ask a Russian if it is cold to them and they always say with a chuckle, "No, it's still warm. Just wait for the winter". So yes, I am freezing my tail off, but I am having the time of my life. We are working so hard, and miracles are occurring. I was thinking on our way over what I would share with you this week, and I can hardly remember what happened this week. The Lord is truly blessing us to find His children who he is preparing. Remember that referral from the old grandmother last week? Well, her grandson is incredible. He is so open to learning and reading. He is so determined to find the truth.

Something very dear to my heart happened this week. I'm not sure if I every shared this with anyone, but before I received my call to Russia, I really was hoping I would get called to somewhere in Africa.The people there are so inspiring to me. They have such great faith in our Savior, Jesus Christ. They are humble and ready to learn. In the area I am living right now, we have a member who is from Nigeria named Martins. There are many young people from Africa that come here to study for school. They speak English and are learning Russian. Well, we met with Martins, and we asked him to bring his friend, Titus to church on Sunday. He agreed. (I had met Titus on the street a couple weeks back with Sister Angelos). Yesterday as Sacrament meeting was starting, Martins AND Titus came to church. I quickly ran over and sat next to them. After church, we found a room to teach the first lesson with him. The spirit quickly filled the room as he testified of the spirit that he felt there in church. He told us that he knows that this is the Lord's home. We taught the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and wow, the Holy Ghost was testifying to each one of us about the truthfulness of our message. He said, "I know this is where I need to be, but what if I have already beenbaptized in a different church. What does that mean?" I couldn't help but start to cry as I testified of the truthfulness of this Gospel and the power of God to baptize that exists in our Church, and then I asked him to be baptized on the 17th of December. Unknown to me that the 17th is a Monday not a Saturday. He said, "Yes, I will. I must do my homework and pray about it. I will be ready to be baptized on the 7th of December". I was a little thrown off, but the spirit testified to us that he truly would be ready in just over two weeks to enter the waters of baptism. He has such a beautiful testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is excited to read the Book of Mormon and increase his knowledge of the Savior. I know that he will be making the right steps to returning home to his Father in Heaven. As we sat there in the meeting, I was overwhelmed by the feeling that God had sent me to Titus to help him make his first covenant with his Father in Heaven, which is Baptism, BUT I also felt that Heavenly Father had Titus to me to show me that He is truly aware of His children. I know Heavenly Father knew that I wanted to serve in a place like Africa, and He truly has given me this opportunity to teach Titus. I am thankful for this blessing to serve my Father's children. It is no easy task. Not everyone is as prepared or as kind as Titus. Sometimes, it takes a lot of prayer to love the people that yelled at me or called me names, but I love these people. I love this work. I am thankful for the chance I have to be a representative of my Savior. I love Him with my whole heart. Through my hardships, I have grown closer to Him. I am so grateful for His strength and love. He keeps me going!

Titus and Martins are teaching me pidgin English. It is English mixed with their native tongue! We also need to get Titus' baptismal date approved by President Schwab since it is SO fast.

I love you. I want you to know that I am just SO thankful. I am truly blessed. Yes mom, everything I wrote to you about how awesome you are is true. I am so blessed to have a mother and father like you-- who truly put the Lord first, who serve with theirwhole heart and mind, and who love us so much. Heavenly Father blessed me when he sent me to you all. Thanks for being so fabulous :). I'll be missing you this Thanksgiving. It's weird not being home, but our ward is having a day of thanksgiving too. Apparently we, missionaries will be doing a skit. Oh boy!

I love you all so much.

You are in my prayers

Until next week,

yours truly

Sister Devynn McCartt

                                                       random photo sister e snapped

                                                        US SISTERS IN THE WARD

                                                 LOOK CLOSE ITS FROZEN WATER.

 

                                                                   just having a ride

                                                                view from house

 In this ward, we go to young womens. we did an activity this week. she cut out pictures and gave us our income of our future family and we had to budget our money. so fun. this is apparently my future family. FOUR BOYS. OH FUN :)

                                                                 just having a ride!

WORK WORK WORK. THAT IS WHAT WE DO.

Hey there wonderful family,

I miss you tons! The weather is getting colder, but wow oh wow have the miracles been flowing. I made a promise with Heavenly Father last week that no matter how sick I felt, I would get out of my bed at 6:25am, get on my knees to plead with Him to help us to help His children, and then get up and go to work. I promised Him that no matter how sick I felt or how cold it was I would work my BUTT off to find those that are ready to listen. All I asked was that he fill in the rest were I can't fill. Since that fervent prayer, I have felt the powers of Heaven pour out on this area. People have been coming up to us asking about what we are sharing. In two days we found over 10 people interested in learning more. One cold day, a lady walked up to us and began telling me that her grandparents and parents had attended our church. She loved that our church was centered on families. We will be meeting with her this week. We had a group of friends who called us over begging us to tell them where their friend was who had just passed away. I had the wonderful blessing to testify that there is life after death. He is home and he is not lost. We have had other men and women approaching us asking us about our message and how it can help their lives. We have met with wonderful families who desire to strengthen their faith and their families. Crazy enough, after making a goal to ask EVERYONE for a referral, we received one. Yes, we had to ask hundreds and hundreds of people, BUT we got one and he is GOLDEN. We felt impressed to chase this older lady who had passed us as we were talking to someone. We approached her and she just loved us. She wasn't believing, and after a wonderful conversation--we asked her if she knew someone who would be interested to listening and learning more about our message. She stopped and thought for a second..then she said, actually my grandson. He is 21 years old. His dad passed away, and he wanted to know if he'd ever see him again. She was quite terrified to give us his number, but GUESS WHAT--he is so excited to meet with us and learn more.
This week I truly felt the joy of the work as I gave my all and testified that our Savior lives. I thought back to the chance I had to share my testimony with Ryan. I feel that same joy that I felt when I shared the gospel with Ryan. This joy is remarkable. You can feel it EVERYDAY just like I am. Share the gospel with your friends and those around you. I promise you that you will find a joy that you never imagined. I have never loved so many people in my life. My heart hurts for them when they don't accept our message because I know how special they are and how much this gospel will change their lives. I have never been so exhausted in my life, but it is all worth it.
I know that my Savior lives. I know that He suffered and died for each of us. I know that through His atonement we can find peace and receive forgiveness. Never forget the power of the Atonement. There is great joy in relying on our Savior when times are harder than you can bear. He calls, "Come unto Me”. He will give you peace and strength. I love my Savior. I know that because of His sacrifice for me, I can return home to my Heavenly Father and live with my family for eternity. This is our great message. I am thankful for the chance I have to share it. I am working to not waste a minute because this time is VERY sacred and very limited.
I love you. I pray for you all. I can't wait to hear from you. Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I am SO blessed to have a loving and caring family who loves me and supports me. I am thankful for the best parents in the world who work to give me an amazing life. I am thankful for crazy yet extraordinary siblings. I love you all. EACH OF YOU.
Until next week,
Your favorite FREEZING Russian Missionary
Sister Devynn McCartt



                                 Some cool shoes i found and had to get. i wanted european shoes :)

HALLOWEEN: I DRESSED UP AS ME AND SISTER ANGELOS DRESSED UP AS A "SEXY BEAST" HAHAHA. IT WAS FUN. WE SPENT THE DAY PLANNING AND THEN GOT DRESSED AND WENT TO WORK

                                                       

                                             

                                                                      sister a and i

                                                             HALLOWEEN PIZZA

                                                                       Our district

                                                             Sister Moffatt and i

                                                                      russian temple

 

                                                                  some cool statue

                                                              our cute little church building

                                                    sister erekson and i (my new comp)

                                                        oh baby its cold outside

                                                                EXCHANGES

                                                Sister angelos and i on our last day together