с новым годом

с новым годом! That means Happy New Year in Russian! And what a happy new year it's going to be. I COME HOME THIS YEAR. That's crazy to think about. In just five months, the MTC travel agents will be calling you to arrange my plane flights home. Crazzzzzzzzzzy. Also, in the next calendar week, I hit my seven months on a mission mark and also my fivemonths in country mark. My, how time flies!

Well, Skyping was great, and I feel like I have run out of things to say! This week is kind of crazy because Tuesday and Wednesday are "in" days, but we get to have a missionary party in the church on Tuesday during the day. It's understandable that the area authorities don't want us to experience the "typical" new year celebrations around here. I've already seen a little bit of the...well, drunkeness, and it makes me never want to drink alcohol ever! Huzzah for the Word of Wisdom! Our plans are to make (American!) pancakes at the church, watch "It's a Wonderful Life" (authorized by our awesome mission president!), and then play ping-pong/Uno and eat more food for a couple hours as a zone. Then we all go home and sleep straight to January 2nd! Wahoo. I'm about halfway done with the Book of Mormon in Russian, and I hope that I can finish it sometime this week with all this extra time that we'll be having.

We've been doing a lot of work with less-actives in our area. I know I always say this, but sometimes it shocks me why people are inactive. One family is inactive because they hate the "noise" at church and think people aren't reverent enough there. I think that's a lame excuse for not coming to church, but that's what they said! Also, we had kind of a funny (and sad) experience yesterday. We were doing "stop-bys" -- which basically just means we show up unannounced-- and we went to this apartment that I've gone to like 80 times and they never answer, but they answered! A guy opened the door, looked at me, looked at my companion, then waved "bye" and shut the door. Kind of snotty, but kind of funny. It's just sad though because we literally have no information about why he and his family have become inactive. Do they want to leave the church? Does that family not even live there anymore? I think my number one pet peeve in life has always been being irked when people just don't communicate. The most understandings in life happen because of lack of communication or miscommunication.

I don't know how many times I can say this, but I love Russia. I love the people here. I love (and sometimes don't love!) the culture. I love the food. I love the language. I love everything.

Although I never would've chosen Russia, I'm glad that God chose it for me!

Sometimes I wonder if God sent me to Russia because my brain is so overactive that I would've quickly become bored with any other language. Russian is a challenge everyday, so I'm sooo thankful that I'm able to communicate and get around.

Have a fantastic New Year! And just remember, whenever you feel cold and want to say "brrr.....it's cold!" just remember Sister Brown up in the North Pole and say a little prayer for her. :)

I love you! Thanks for all you've done for me, all you do for me, and all that you keep doing for me. I really love all of you, and I pray for you by name every day!

Love always,
Sister Brown

p.s. A lot of people believe about Jesus Christ, this week I've been thinking what the different is between that and believing in Jesus Christ. What do you think? I was reading in Mosiah 15 and faith leads to action. It's not just enough to have faith. That's what the difference is to me.