Hey family!
Thanks for the wonderful updates with everything. I'm doing really well right now. We have a ton of investigators and are currently leading the mission in lessons taught and it’s all due to meaningful planning and the grace of God. I'll chapter 8 of PMG. When Don R. Clark of the 70 came to our mission, he stressed heavily the principles taught in chapter 8 ad I have tried to apply its teachings in our missionary work here and it’s done WONDERS! The other night I called one of my friends who is an outstanding missionary and asked him how to put someone on a baptismal date b/c he is the leading baptizer in this mission. And when you see something is working for someone else, it just makes sense to apply what they're applying...so I called him and asked him how he does it. Then after hearing his method, I turned around and applied it (w/ my comp of course). We were able to have 4 investigators at church yesterday and we now have 3 people that should get baptized here before the end of the transfer!! We're so pumped! I have gained such a testimony of obedience and working hard with the correct motives. I was able to have an interview with my mission president! It’s my last one until the big one at the end where I'll be told to go home and get married haha. I can't believe how fast things have gone. Guys....I'm stinking NERVOUS! Anyways, I came into Ukraine one week before my mission President, and we went to Armenia together...We have a wonderful relationship. I look up to him so much and It was just great to meet and talk about my future goals in the mission and also afterwards. I wish you all could meet him, I'm sure ever missionary says that about their mission president but I'm serious...this man is so awesome! OK, funny story time that was not funny at the time but looking back at it...it was funny. So, yesterday as we were getting ready for church, we were super busy and we hadn't even left our apt yet. We had to get all the translation equipment ready to go, change our water filters (the water filters that make it so my children don't come out with missing or additional limbs...b/c of radiation in the water), and do everything we usually do to get ready for church...so I turned to water filter on and let the water run to flush out any gunk that comes from a brand new filters...for example, when we first turned the water on, the water was black hahaha....so we left the water running as we are supposed to for about 7 min while we were getting ready to go to church. Then my companion goes into the kitchen and says..."Uhh I think there is a leak". I was a little confused b/c he walked back into the room I was in and didn't do anything at first. I asked him if he was going to fix it b/c usually when there is a leak, if you don't get on it right away, it can make a mess. His reply was.."I need my shoes." Now super confused, I got up to go see what happened....Yes, there was about a half inch of water that spread over our kitchen floor!!! It then made sense as to why he wanted his shoes haha. So as we were about to leave...we were surprised with the lake the formed with in the few minutes that the water was going...that was really fun to clean up :) but its ok, b/c we got to church and we had a wonderful time.
Actually, Sundays and the most stressful days for me, b/c we don't run the branch but we pretty much run the branch. Especially b/c our Brothas need to communicate somehow with our branch President and they don't speak Russian and He speaks very little English. On Saturday night, we had a lesson in a Hostel with our boys Theddy, Toosin, Chookumah, and Jay. There was another friend there but that we technically could count as a new investigator, but I'm not sure he was super into. Anyways, It was fun to teach 5 Brothas at once and Its SO COOL to see that 4 out of the 5 of them had BoMs in hand. Brothas have so much faith. They teach me a lot about how to pray and how to really use your heart when doing so. My studies have been super fun, I have been studying about faith lately and my mind just gets blown. I'm sure I'll never master the principle (and attribute as Joseph Smith calls it) of faith but I know that I'm going to learn as much of it as possible. OHHHH!!! I had one of the coolest experiences of my life! I read in the scriptures that we are supposed to mourn for those who have no hope in a resurrection more than over death. And there is a woman who is in her 70's who comes to church every Sunday and every time we go visit her, she tells us how she is so unhappy. She is the only left in her family and she just says that she has no hope. We call her Blind Sveta b/c she has terrible vision but she is an Angel. I have a really strong relationship with her b/c I was going through the same things that she was going through so I was able to help her out. Well, I know that scripture study is essential to our salvation and peace in this life. So the branch was working for 2 YEARS to get her a Book of Mormon on cd so that she could listen to the scriptures at least. But they slacked HARD b/c they finally got all the Mp3s ready for her and her cd player didn't accept them...so they didn't know what to do...so I was shocked that it took 2 years for this woman to be able to The BoM and then it didn't even work. So I promised her that we would do it for her. So we called our mission office and had them put the BOM on CDs that were compatible for her CD player, then got then sent up here, we got them and took them to her...Her face LIT up. We taught her how to use the CD player and gave a wonderful lesson on scripture study giving us hope. She was ALL SMILES, I was grateful to be able to be instrument in God's hands to be able to get that done. Then before she left, she told us how she decided to go to the temple in February...no big deal, I was so happy walking out of there. It was really sad b/c the branch just forgot about her, her home teacher too...SO moral of the story...we are ALL children of God no matter how old we are or what our circumstance. Don't let anyone slip through the cracks. Everyone deserves brownies at their door step.
Have a great week!!! I love you all
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