Ladies and Gentlemen
This week has been insane!!! I'll give you some
highlights!
-Went on some bus finding to random parts of he
city and I was standing right in front of a guy that was sitting on a bench and
I just felt the need to stand there. Then this guy looked at me and was like “I
know you”, and apparently it was the same guy I met in a store like a week ago
in totally another part of the city!
-Went on a midnight train to Saratov 8 hrs. (you
know, where that kidnap movie was) and went there for splits with the ZL's and
picked my trainee from the smallest most ghetto airport and had the craziest
ZC!
-On splits, we went finding and no one wanted to
talk to us. I saw a guy across the street walking my direction and I felt I
needed to talk to him, and it all happened so fast. I stopped him right when he
was passing me, but I didn't have enough time to think of a question or why I
was stopping him, and I seemed to forget any Russian I knew. But as I panickingly
spoke gibberish his whole gang of 8 came around him all quick, and they didn't
look like they were with him. Anyways, ZL Weenig saved the day and asked a
question . They looked like a bunch of punks but they actually were really
respectful and they wanted to walk with us, so we walked and talked for about 2
hours, and got all of their numbers.
-Splits again. We are sitting at a food court
waiting for a potential to come and this guy looks at us and ask why we are
speaking Russian with each other if we weren't from Russia. We told him how we
were church volunteers and had a 3 min convo. He then gets up, asks if we will
be staying there a bit, and leaves. He comes back 20 min later and drops 3
Provaslavnic Charm necklaces with Mary and baby Jesus on it on our table and
says “best of luck to you” and leaves. We were shocked. All he knew was that we
were church volunteers and he bought us all together over $30 from the jewelry
store!
-Zone conference was something else. Our zone
right now is incredible; everyone here in diligent and obedient, and I feel
blessed to be part of such a powerful group of volunteers.
-I had my interview with President on my year
mark and he let me know the pressure of training Elder Grover. He said that he
was the only elder who came in this transfer and we won't have any others
coming in for a while. He said that we have a whole mission full of elders who
could train, and that I wasn't the most convenient option to have me train, and
he doesn't know why he wants me, but that my named popped up in his head.
I really felt the pressure then. But I'm excited. Elder Grover is going to do
great things.
-We went on Elder Grover’s first finding grind
and he stepped in the flooded street and a drunk guy followed us so you can say
it was a success!
-We rushed back to Volgograd and had a talent
show! We did a skit where the volunteers got ready for the day, so we had
our comps sit in a chair and we would sit behind them with our arms as their
arms and we were blind folded. So you better guess that I shoved that whole banana
down my comp’s throat and slapped that shaving cream on him.
-Church was insanely good! In the Russian
meeting, the branch President just had us have a special meeting on hymns and
different people came up and talked about the favorite hymn and why, and then we
would all sing the 1st verse. There was also a temple fireside and WOW! So they
all went on a temple trip to Ukraine for the past 2 weeks. These people's faith
is amazing they are the pioneers of Russia, I wish you could all hear their
testimonies and the things they go through. They want this temple so bad, and
if the rest Russia would want it as much as the leaders in Volgograd do, I have
no doubt that the Lord would just drop a temple from the heavens this instant
on Russia.
9 For in that day, for my sake shall the
Father work a work, which shall be a great and a marvelous work among them; and
there shall be among them those who will not believe it, although a man shall
declare it unto them.
10 But behold, the life of my servant shall be
in my hand; therefore they shall not hurt him, although he shall be marred
because of them. Yet I will heal him, for I will show unto them that my wisdom
is greater than the cunning of the devil.
I love this scripture! This really is a great
and marvelous work we are doing! I feel the excitement of the work in my soul
and it makes me want to work harder and just proclaim it to everyone! I find
myself in a strange state: we have absolutely no investigators because we gave
any we had to the sisters, and it is getting cold and dark, and I feel
like any person with the right state of mind would be discouraged at the
current status, but I feel far from that. I feel so good and confident about
the work, and feel that it is all in the Lord's hands and he has some great
miracles coming our way! I feel like as it gets colder and the work gets harder
it makes me want to rise up against it even more. It's crazy to me because I don't
feel any confidence in myself, because I learned that I can't do any of
this work by myself, that I am to weak. But I feel so good about it and
confident and I know that it is confidence in the Lord because His wisdom is
greater than all! I just love my mission, even though it's seems as though we
are just wandering through the woods (the Russian woods), but I feel so
strongly that the Lord has his hand in it, and we will see some marvelous works
and wonders, and that makes me want to work so hard and gives me strength not
of my own!
Elder VanBuskirk
This is your favorite son. No way! So he made varsity in wrestling!! That’s awesome! He can learn a lot form Troy. Does Troy
remember me? He’s going to do so good!
That’s a hard weight class!
I only weigh 165 right now.
I’m going to try to pack on that muscle through so I can wrestle Caleb
when I get back!
It was supposed to be, but they are changing a transfer
from 6 to 3 weeks so we can be on the same time with the other missions. so I
don't know if I'll be later are earlier. I hope later!
That’s cool. Thanks mom. You are a sweetheart. I love you so much. Less than a year
and I’ll be home and you will have the whole family together!
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