Dear family and friends,
Well I have finally entered the
Motherland! Our plane ride to Russia was quite the experience, I was sitting
next to a very Jewish man from Israel who only spoke Hebrew, but I tried to
have a decent conversation with him by pointing at my bible maps and using his
translator. But there was a Babushka sitting by my companion so we talked to
her for practically the whole flight from NY to Moscow and we were able to
bring the discussion over to the gospel, and we tried giving her a BOM. She was
interested but wouldn't take it, but I might've slipped a little mormon.org card
with a note in her bag. At Moscow we drove through the city to the American
embassy; it was quite the experiance. It was so cold and windy and I didn't
have a coat yet, but I was so excited it didn't matter. Russia is even cooler
than I imagined, all the buildings are so tall and gray, and everyone drives so
crazy (like our bus just started drifting today and nobody was phased) and
everything is so dirty and depressing, and so cold and humid that it pierces
your clothes, and the winds are insane!
We got to Rostov and met our mission
President and his wife. I love them. They are great! The next day I met my
trainers, I have 2 trainers. One has been here for less than a year and is from
Pennsylvania. He's awesome. His name is Elder Sweeney! My other trainer is a
Russian! He is the coolest person ever and he is super friendly and fun. He is
25 and he is also engaged, haha. His fiancee is also on a mission and he baptized
her. Missionaries met his mom on the streets when he was 2 years old. This is
his last transfer but I'm so lucky to have him. I love both of my companions so
much!
I am seving in East Rostov, the city
is really big. Our apartment is on the top floor of a typical Russian apartment
building. We are on a hill and have an awesome view of the city. People light
fireworks ALL the time, and it's always the loud ones, so we always have a
show. The best part though is that all the cars have alarms, and they all get
set off at the same time, it's so funny. There are also a ton of stray cats and
dogs all over the place. And the dogs bark all night. We walk or do public
transportation. We usually take the thing called a Marshrootka, which is like a
super ghetto van that is stuffed with people to the max, and they drive
crazy. It's really fun. It's so true that nobody smiles are talks, unless they
are asking for a cigarette or change, but I still always say hi to everyone and
try to say a little convo or phrase in Russian. It smells like sewer and is
really muddy. Nobody takes care of anything, and the water tastes like dirt
here. And in case your wondering, people do wear the fur hats here and all the
babushkas practically wear a bear. The winter is finally starting up in Rostov;
there was few days with good snow, but it's really starting to pick up
today.
The members here are amazing! Our
little branch has a little over 20 active members. They are all converts, and
they are all so faithful. The branch president and his councilor both have 2
little children. I've found that Russian children are the cutest there is, the
woman are beautiful, and the men are tough and scary looking. On Sunday I gave
my first talk and introduced myself to the ward. My trainors already built up a
good trust with the ward, so that's helpful. We also had 7 investigators at
church so that was awesome! We have 6 investigators with baptismal date! We are
currently teaching an amazing single mom with 4 children who are all over 8, they
are the golden investigator family who always goes to church. They are all
planning to get baptized. This is quite a miracle because baptisms are first
quite rare in Russia as you can imagine, and when somebody gets baptized, they
are usually the only one in their family. So the fact that there is a whole family
is miraculous. Our other investigator is a older man. He was suppose to get baptized
this Saturday but he hasn't gone to church since my trainers have been here so
we are pushing it back. He is amazing though, he is the most loving man. He has
been talking to the missionaries for a while but his wife wouldn't let him get
baptized and thinks he is foolish. His wife died a month ago and after that he
threw his BOM out and was done, but something happened very recently where he
came back to the missionaries and now wants to be baptized. We have another
investigator who is an English teacher, so we talk quite a lot, but he tries to
question everything. But he always shows up to church, but we are working with
him, I love him and I know that he knows these things are true but he won't
come to it. I think he is afraid. We actually had 15 lessons this past week
which is the most my trainers have ever had, we usually only get 8-10, so we
never had any time to do any finding yet, besides starting up conversations on
the bus. It's really hard to find here. No one really knows what to do since
you can't just talk to people about the church, so we have to be creative and
invite people to play ping pong with us at the church or so fourth, I'm still
not so sure but I can promise you we will come up with some ways how to do it,
because with God's help we will find the people he has prepared and bring them
home.
This is an amazing mission. I love it
here. It is quite an adventure. You can see the difference of happiness between
the people with the gospel and without. I love the people; they are so great.
(they have found all of the 12 tribes just in all mission alone, it's crazy!)
God's work will press forward no matter the obstacle, it is truly amazing to
see it here in its full work and glory. God doesn't abandon any of his
children.
старейшина ВанБускирк
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