September

Hi Family!!

 Its great to here from you.  Dad, keep working hard and fixing that house, I know that you will see way awesome blessings b/c of your service.  Mom, lucky duck...that's all I have to say. haha  This week for me was AWESOME!!  So about a month ago we met an 18 yr old named Artur and well, long story short, he is WAY prepared for the Gospel.  His baptism is on Saturday!!  My comp on a split contacted into him on the street and well, now he will be a member of the Church on Sunday...BOO YAA!!  Its been such a cool experience to see the change that has come into his life ever since learning about this way awesome Plan of Happiness that God has prepared for all of us!  Artur came to another activity and was just such an awesome help with putting things away and is just always ready to help someone.  He's a great example to me to always look for things to do to help.  Also, thanks to Mom, somehow I attract ALL middle easterners here.  Were at McDonald's the other day and this guy came and sat RIGHT next to me. and started speaking English to us.  His name is Yasir, and he's from Iraq and his family lives currently in Iran.  Yea...we hit it off. He is only 19 and looks like he's 27 b/c he always has a beard...even after he shaves. but he is SO AWESOME!  He came to an activity at the branch for "Harvest".  Its pretty much Thanksgiving for Ukraine..but I think they started celebrating it this year b/c I've never heard about it and it definitely did not happen last year haha.  But we ate a TON of borscht and Ukrainian dishes (most of which I will not miss after my mission haha).  Yasip later that night called to thank us and then asked if he could come to church and bring a friend...yea......we told him no....haha  Honestly I don't think I've ever heard those words on my mission and it as too beautiful to describe.   He makes me really appreciate people who go out of there way to say thanks and makes me want to be a better person.  The sad news is that we have to pass him to our other missionaries b/c he doesn't live in our area :(  But as long as he gets taught the gospel, that's all that matters!  We've seen a ton of miracles lately and Its been so great to have our eyes opened to the power of God.  I love being a missionary.  It has been way hard lately but I learning from my experiences and I know that they will bless my life.  I have such a love for the scriptures and have big plans for studying them after my mission.  I've learned how important scripture study is and I hope that I never lose this drive to continually read and think about eternal principles that will bless my life. I had a way awesome experience again with prayer on Saturday.  We had free time at night so we decided to go find this Less-Active guy named Yuri who is 31 I'm pretty sure.  Last time we went, he was drunk and just not doing well.  I've only met him one time and so we were hoping to get actual lesson with him.  So we said a very specific prayer that mentioned getting there, being let into the apt bldg (b/c if you don't have a key to these bldgs...you don't go in.  so you have to wait for someone to come out and not get mad at you as you try to swiftly move inside the bldg or call to someone to let you in, and people don't like Americans a lot of the time.), him being home, him letting us in and us giving a lesson to him.  So we set off in faith and hope that we were doing the will of the Lord and that everything would work out. And it did.  And to top off the night, Yuri's mom was there from Russia and is also less active.  It was so cool and we just felt so blessed to see everything work out and to see the mom who actually was excited that we showed up.  God loves all of His children.  It was a very insightful experience and I'm grateful that God allowed me to experience that.    Anyways, I'm doing great.  Bug bites here and there and scabies shows up every once in a while but for the most part, my heath is great.  The seasons are changing and Its way weird to be in the place I was a year ago, everything is so familiar.  Same place just different branch.  Thanks for all the love and support that you all give me.  keep working hard and doing the little things that bring joy to you life. 

 

- Старейшина Руни