Well
crazy week, not as in missionary work though...
-So
our mission president has informed us that we now longer can just give people
who come to the branch a BOM and show them a church video, and invite them to
learn more even if they are inside the branch building, because now that counts
as proselytizing. So we can't teach or give them anything unless they ask about
it themselves. I had a feeling that something like this would be coming up
soon, because I feel like it's been a while since they tried cracking down on
us some more. Right when we started to figure it out. But I know that the Lord has
His hand in this work and I believe He knows what is best. It will really count
on us to listen to the guidance of the Holy Ghost and it will really really
teach us to call for Him in prayer. It reminds me of this story in the Old
Testament. In Judges 7 it tells about Gideon and his men, how they had 32,000
men but the Lord wanted them to know that it was God who would deliver Israel
not the men, so they kept cutting down the men and went with only 300 of their
bravest men, there were at least 135,000 enemy troops against Gideon’s 300
soldiers. But of course in the end God was victorious and won in a miraculous
way and showed the great power of God to those who have faith in Him. Sometimes
I feel like we are a lot like that here in Russia, I look around and see that Satan
has such a grasp on this country and how they seem to be cutting down the
volunteers and putting more rules and laws on the members and volunteers but
the Lord’s small army will come off conqueror at the end. I am confident in it,
no matter what else may come in the future. The members had a conference this
week and talked about how the temple is already here, that the prophet had
announced it, so the Lord sees the temple here, but the members just have to
prepare themselves so that the temple can be built physically. It still amazes
me how the prophet got that revelation the night before and announced it, not
even the Eastern Europe General Authority President knew about it until GC. I
don't know how it will be done it seems impossible living here, but I know that
nothing is impossible when you are in the 300 army of God.
-Went
on a night train to Astrahan a city by Kazahkstan that took over 10 hours to
get there. So I they bought me out 4 beds so I had this whole compartment to
myself, because I was by myself, and the church started buying out the whole
room so some wack strangers don't have a chance of sleeping in the same train
room with you. SO the conductors thought I looked very suspicious, because I'm
from America, my Russian sucks, and I just bought out a whole room to go to a
random city in Russia. When they finally let me in, this military officer for
transport safety or something like that came into my room and started interrogating
me, but I knew this guy was only a few years older than me and I thought I
would interrogate him to see if he would be ready for eternal salvation (well
not really because that is totally illegal to talk about the church or
religion at all) but I started shooting some jolly banter at the military
officer, and in minutes he put away his serious face and we started having a
good time, I even got his number! He came in later to talk to me and I took
some pictures with the guy and made a video for my twin Elder VanBuskirk of the
land of Dominican Republic. So that was a way funny experience.
-The
visa trip was sweet once we got to the city. We got in a van with some of the
other elders from our zone and some guy drove us to the border and back, the
countryside was wild. We had to go through 3 checkpoints on each side, and
the military officers would come into the vans with their big guns which looked
so old I doubt they even work, and started going though all of our bags, and
they found the Book of Mormon, and would look so confused. They would be going
through all the pages, and be like “who is Mormon?” hahaha. And of course out
of all the volunteers they decided to stop me and be yelling and asking me like
why are we here? I mean I have to give it to them, it's a van full of Americans
who go to some little side border in the middle of no where. The whole time I
was just thinking “what even is life?” Well Kazakshtan was fun as it lasted,
the officers had us take 3 steps into their country and said we could come back
haha. Well as we were crossing the bridge and as the last guards I thought I
could pull a quick one and take a quick pic of them because they looked so cool
and intimidating over the river, so I took a quick pic as we were driving away,
and apparently they saw because they started yelling and chasing after our van,
telling us to stop, and I was like ohhhh nooo, not today! So I deleted the
photo so fast and when they got on the van and commanded us to delete the
photo, so you better believe that I told him I already did.
-Well
we had an extra 9 hours in Astrahan so we saw a sweet cremlin, like a Russian fort,
and walked around the city. It sucks that there were no missionaries there
because we felt like we were useless and just wasted a missionary day, because
it's not like we can just go finding on the streets and try to pass out BOM are
anything. Well we got back to the train way late at night and I was really glad
I had 3 sisters with me so they could protect me because there was a lot of
sketchy people and they would bang on our door and try to get us to open it.
-Well
my companion hasn't come yet, but he should come any day now, so I've been with
Elder Williams and we will send him off home tomorrow! And besides that we have
been trying to figure out all the apartments and stuff for the new senior
couple coming and new set of Elders, so we really haven't got a ton of work,
but we got some good finding time and lessons where we could.
-Played
cricket with some random Indians.
-Some
some more guys fighting and wrestling with some bad technique on the street,
while a girl screaming out on the top of a limo drove by...where even am I?
Sorry
I haven't been able to send any pics. Got some crazy ones but someone sent me
this so here you go mom;)
Awe man, I’m way jealous of Johan surfing in Indonesia!
Thanks mom! I
love you so much! I feel to be
doing fine, it’s always har, but it helps me grow closer to my Savior. I don’t really know what I could ask
advice for, but I’ll keep it in mind!
I had a harder time earlier and I still have hard times, but now I just
want to work hard, so I’m fine.
Don’t worry about me. But
Derek’s email was awesome, I’m so jealous; that is such a cool experience. Love you! And I can’t believe Schryver got engaged!
Gosh, I love elder Bassett, He’s my favorite!
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