Week SIX in Russia!!!

HELLO :)Well if you think you have ever had language troubles try asking a man for directions, but instead telling him to take you home to be his concubine. Yeah..that totally happened to me. Luckily, he was semi-moral man! For some reason we have acquired many stalkers. They love American girls. They feel that we are exotic. We have been asked on SO many dates, and we always have to tell them that we have boyfriends AND that we are here as Missionaries! I think it is hilarious how persistent they are to get us to go out with them! One guy called us over 10 times in one day. It's crazy! We are nothing too special, but they sure do like Americans.
        I had a tough yet wonderful week. We had an investigator that decided he didn't have the desire to read the Book of Mormon and learn anymore about our church. He said he enjoyed our friendship, but he just wasn't interested in learning more. My heart literally shattered. The missionaries have been teaching him for 4 months, and we have taught them since I got here. I have grown to really love his family, and it was hard hearing that. At dinner, Sister Young said, " I feel like I was just broken up with..don't you?" I kind of sat there in silence. I am so thankful for Ryan never breaking up with me! I told her, "I've been hurt and have broken hearts before, but I've never experienced pain like this.. Ryan always told me, 'I will never break up with you because I know I am suppose to be with you'." Thanks for shielding my heart, Ry! I just wish I would have been as wise as you always! Sorry :). I am sure I will experience many heartbreaks or "break ups", but I am thankful for the support of my family, my friends, Ry, and my Father in Heaven.
      When we are diligent, we see the fruits of our labor. I sure saw that this week. I was feeling really sick. I tried to push through, but sometimes I couldn't. I believe Heavenly Father saw our desire to deserve him. Last week, I had the blessing of asking one of our investigators to be baptized.Her name is Tatiana. We have been teaching her for about a month and a half. She has been praying to know what she needs to do. She knows the Book of Mormon is true and she knows Joseph Smith was a prophet. She just feels she needs to pray about it more! I know she will receive an answer. She is a wonderful women. She says she continually feels pulled to our church, but she wants to make sure she does the right thing. I know she is getting closer and closer to receiving her clear answer. We had a wonderful lesson with Tatiana on Saturday. We talked about the Plan of Salvation. We promised her that if she came to church she would feel a confirmation that this plan is true. She said she wasn't going to be able to come because Sunday is a big Russian Orthodox holiday. So I thought nothing of her coming, but kept praying she would. I heard our named being called, and I turned around to see Tatiana standing in OUR church. I almost cried. I gave her the biggest hug. All Sunday, the focus was the plan of salvation. She loved it! Tatiana coming to church was wonderful blessing! I know she received answers and felt God's love! She told us she could stay for only one hour, but each hour she was drawn to staying longer and longer. She ended up staying the whole time, receiving a blessing for her foot, and bearing her testimony in Relief Society. She says she knows our church is true, I just know she is having a hard time leaving her church behind.

I love this work. The language is hard, but I love Russia! I love being a missionary! I am so grateful for your love :)

LOVE YOU,
dev

One month down!!

To my wonderful family,
Oh how I love you. What a wonderful treat to be able to see your beautiful and loving faces. I must say, I am SO blessed to have a family that loves and supports me. Being a member in Russia is VERY challenging. There is a lot of hatred for our church here in Russia. There are many members who have family members who are against the church. They are such a wonderful example to me. I know that it is hard, but they still push through and give their all to be their best because they know it is worth it. There is one lady who wants more than anything to get baptized. She follows EVERYTHING, but her husband told her, "If you want to get baptized, either you divorce me or kill me." She is having such difficult challenges, yet she still comes to church and knows that Heavenly Father will bless her as she keeps working hard. I feel so much love for the people here. I know that Heavenly Father loves them. I know that this gospel will help bless their lives because it has blessed my life and my family's life! Time is just flying by! I hit my one mark in Russia this week, and then in two weeks we have transfers! This thought is unbelievable to me! Time is just rushing by! I have so much work to do with such little time! I am very grateful for the chance to be here, and the chance I have to serve my Father in Heaven. This week was a great week, but LONG!! I got pretty sick with flu like symptoms, and I was out for two days! Luckily one of the days was a "Lock Down" day where we couldn't leave the apartment all day. Other than not being sick, I had a wonderful week. I am slowly but surely adapting to the lifestyle here! I hit my one month mark THIS week! I received a blessing last Sunday. In the blessing I was blessed with the gift of tongues. I thought that the gift of tongues just meant speaking Russian well, but I was wrong. I had a wonderful to have the Spirit work through me and testify to one of the investigators how much Heavenly Father loves her and wants to help her. I know that it wasn't me speaking. It wasn't my words. My Russian wasn't superb or perfect, but the Spirit was there and it filled each of our hearts. I am grateful to be here to experience and see hardships. I am grateful to be the Lord's representative! I am grateful to be a messenger  of my Father in Heaven. I am truly carrying a wonderful message! I want to share it with the World. I want to tell you more about my week, but I am out of time! I love you all and pray for you everyday. Always remember how much your Father in Heaven loves you. He wants to help you and he will.
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY mom. You are the best mom in the whole world. I am so blessed to have dad and you in my life. I am the luckiest girl in the world. I have such an incredible family, an extraordinary and loving boyfriend, and wonderful friends. I also have a Father in Heaven who loves me!

I love you all,
Much love,
Sister Devynn McCartt

Sister Young and I being crazy!!

 

Our gypsy friends!!

On my mountain/hill! I love it!!

View of Russia from my hill!!

Week 12!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW, what a week. That is pretty much all I can say. Russia is a challenging mission. Baptisms are possible, but they are rare. It is often said for the Russia mission that you need to find the people who are ready to hear the Gospel out of the holes in the rocks (Jeremiah 16:16). I have found that this is extremely true. We are all sons and daughter of our Heavenly Father, but not everyone is ready to hear about this gospel. Finding is hard, you have to search through a lot of coal and experience a lot of pain to find the diamonds. I am really starting to feel and experience this. My lows are very low, but my highs are higher than I have ever imagined. I am constantly exhausted, but yet I am always happy. (Well for the most part!) I get frustrated with myself because I feel so much love for the people in our ward and in Russia, but I can never say that to them in Russian. I often have to do it by my body language. I can't speak well nor can I understand well, but I love them so incredibly much. All I want to do is help them.


Since I can't understand everything, I really have to focus on the Spirit and what it is guiding me to say and do. I had a wonderful experience with on of our investigators named Katya. She has been having a hard time with life. Satan has really been working on her. Earlier that day at dinner I was feeling kind of down, so I opened one of Ryan's letters that I received at the MTC. In the letter, he shared a scripture, 3rd Nephi 13:33-34. It talks about seeking God first and all things will be taken care of. As we were leaving the house to go to Katya's home, I felt a strong need to bring the letter. As we were teaching, I knew why I needed to bring that letter. I shared with her the scriptures and bore testimony to her. She told us, " It is not by chance that you shared that scripture with me. I really needed it". The Holy Ghost is incredible. Miracles like this have happened all week. We have received so many blessings. Our goal as a district was to find 5 new investigators between all of us--this week Sister Young and I found 5 JUST in our companionship. The Lord's work is hastening. I hope to see one of our investigators enter the gate to repentance and baptism. I know the Lord will help us. I love this work. I am grateful to be here.


I LOVE YOU ALL.
daddy, i loved the talks you sent. They both made me cry. thank you for sending them and typing them up.


This week I received a blessing. It was incredible. I was told that long ago, I was given the strength and the talents that I would need here. All that I am learning while I am here is a special gift and will be something that I will need in my future.I am grateful for this "special gift" to be here. I love it.


Love always,
D
Cectpa Makapt! (Sister McCartt)

Last Days in the MTC

Last day at the MTC

Last day at the MTC

Russia!!!

The weather is SO fickle. One day it is HOT HOT HOT and the next day it is COLD. I love it though haha

Last night at the MTC!

Week 11!

What a week it has been. My goodness. I don't think I have worked so hard in my life. I got up this morning in complete exhaustion. The work is tiring, but it is amazing. It is amazing to me to think, I am a representative of Jesus Christ. I am doing the work he would if he were here. We have been working so hard this week. I feel like we literally gave our all. Unfortunately, Satan knows that we are working hard because we have been faced with a ton of opposition. This hasn't decreased out faith though! Sister Young met with one of our investigators named Evan. He wasn't progressing so we were praying about whether or not we should stop meeting with him. We decided to meet with him one last time. We felt strongly that we needed to talk about the restoration. It was an incredible lesson. As I recited Joseph Smith's vision, the Spirit surrounded us. At first, he was hesitant to pray, but after the lesson he was much more willing. The next day, HE called us to ask when we could meet. It was awesome! I hope that he continues to have that desire to learn more. He would make an incredible Priesthood Holder.

I also experienced my first knocking this week. It was challenging because you have only 20 seconds to really help them feel the Spirit before they decide to slam the door. These are some of the moments that I am grateful that I don't understand all that they are saying because I can really testify without being hurt or offended. We have been called many unkind things, but I just simply turn the other cheek because I know that there are people hear in Russia that need to hear the message we are bringing, like Irena. She is our blessing this week. Last night, we just had a long week. We were tired, but we decided to really pray about where we were going to knock. We decided to go to "my hill". (I always stare about our kitchen window of this mountain of houses. so we call it my hill). We walked and chatted with the people outside. There was one lady that really stood out to us. We approached her and ended up praying and teaching her a lesson. She has two beautiful children and one on the way. I know that our message will help her. I pray she will continue to be receptive to our message.


Some funny interesting things that happened this week:
1. We were riding on a bus and all of a sudden our bus driver held us a round object that looked like our steering wheel. IT WAS~! I steering wheel had broke off! We all got off. I personally was freaking out, but everyone acted like it was nothing!
2. The next day I witnessed a car accident. No one even looked to see if everyone was okay. They just went on about their business. Super normal here.
3. We witnessed a crazy fight!


All this craziness happens, but my love just continues to grow more and more for Russia! The work is tough, but I love it!


To answer some of your questions mom:
What is the name of your companion?
Sister Young. She is awesome!
Where is she from and how long has she been out?
She is from Utah! She just hit her year mark!
What were your initial feelings when you arrived in Russia? Into your mission apartment?
I realized how bless I was to grow up in America. Russia is very poor, but I just love it here. I love all the people. My apartment is awesome! Not all of them are as nice as ours!
What was your first day like?
We arrived in Russia and I was EXHAUSTED. We ate and did a welcome thing. I was so glad to sleep.
What is a typical day like?
We wake up at 630. Work out for 30 min. Get ready and eat until 8. We then do an hour of personal study, an hour of companionship study, hour of language, and then an hour of training.
What is church like?
My branch apparently has the most American like feel. I love it even though I can't understand anything. Maybe around 30 to 40 people!
Have you had the chance to teach, tract, or go into a home?
WE have done them all :)
How are you sleeping?
I never feel like I get enough! BUT I sleep like a rock.


I LOVE YOU. WRITE ME :) I also go Shelbys dear elder here. I can get them so send them :).


love,
Sister Devynn McCartt

Pictures of Penza