Saltovka - Week 7

Privet family!

This past week was awesome. The Lord has truly blessed us as we have been working hard to find His elect people here in Ukraine. Do you remember our investigator named Akbar? We met with him three times this past week, Sunday, Monday, and Thursday. He grew up Muslim but because of the government in Iran he decided that he didn't like it anymore because of all the violence and started to seek to know more about Christ. We started off teaching him the Plan of Salvation and then left off on Jesus Christ and His role. Then Thursday we talked all about Christ and His life, Atonement, Resurrection, and how to repent and so forth. He really loved the lesson and he has a sincere desire to change and repent of his past mistakes in life. We then talked about baptism with him and explained the significance of it, like how we're forgiven of sins when we're baptized and can have the Holy Ghost to always be with us. He's been praying everyday since we started to meet and he says that he feels a huge difference in his life. We told him that this was the Spirit. We talked for a little while longer and the Spirit was very present in the lesson. We asked him to be baptized and he said Yes! We have set a date for May 19! We are so excited to be working with him and teaching him. He has been prepared for the gospel. He came to Ukraine to study and learn Russian and has been here for 4 years already. But he told us that he really believes that we are the real reason he came here. He doesn't work or anything, just studies Russian so he has tons of free time all day. He's 35 and single as of right now. He came to Church yesterday for the first time and absolutely loved it! The members were amazing and all introduced themselves to him and he met tons of them. I heard from the sisters he was the talk of the relief society haha. So this week he doesn't have any school so we're meeting everyday. We have a lot to teach him, especially coming from a Muslim background, but we know that he will be prepared for baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost. Preach My Gospel has an excellent section all about teaching investigators without a Christian background so we've been studying and following that a ton. He's awesome! He calls us "his dear brothers that God sent to him." And get this, in the Saltovka branch we found a Persian Book of Mormon for him, which was the only copy in the whole branch. (They have foreign language BOMs because there's lots of different people here) So he's been reading in Persian and English and is just soakin it up. The Persian BOM isn't the full version though we found out. Apparently the Church thought it was a good idea to just translate the more important parts of the BOM in harder languages to save time or something so his book just has basically the highlights. But it's perfect though. And he also came to English Institute with us on Saturday. The Bailey's teach it and their topic of discussion is Book of Mormon right now. He loved that! And this Saturday in Saltovka there will be a baptism of an eight year old that we're going to as well so that he can see what happens at a baptism. It's going to be awesome!!

This past week we did two service projects. The first one was on a huge plot of land with hundreds of gardens. I guess people just buy a portion of the land and then go and work there in the summer on their personal garden. So we helped a family in the branch get their garden ready by turning the dirt for them. It was really cool, I had no idea that things like that existed in Ukraine. The family said they work there like four times a week so we could go back and help them again if we wanted. It's a huge garden, probably 20 times bigger than ours at home. And for lunch there we just ate stuff they had grown already. There was a sourish spinach that was really tasty, as well as green onions. And then our other service project was basically the same, only at our branch mission leader's dacha. A dacha is a little private cottage that lots of Ukrainians own. You could say it's like a cabin kind of. So we went there and tore out tons of dead trees and also got his garden started doing the same thing with the dirt. And after we had a BBQ and then explored the land behind the dacha. It was really beautiful.

Also this past week we had another specialized training district meeting where President Campero comes with the APs and he does a 2 hour meeting with our district and then sits in on our district meeting. We talked about how we can work better with the members here. It was a great meeting. We also talked about obedience and how the mission can be more obedient. Everyone added great insights, but President basically just said "You all are going to be leaders of this Church. So if you can't be obedient with trivial things here on the mission then how can you expect to lead the Church?" We talked about tons more but it's hard to just sum it all up in an email haha. President Campero is truly an inspired man of God. He holds the keys to this mission.

And now for some comments/tidbits. Thanks so much for your package! I loved it very much, especially the easter basket from home. It was very thoughtful. Everything was great in it, especially the American foods! And I'm glad to hear that my package got to you alright. Sounds like everyone enjoyed their Armenia gifts. I talked to my Zone Leaders today and SKYPE will be happening on May 14! I want to talk to you all at 9 AM here, which is Midnight for you at home. Hopefully that works, just tell me next week. I'm excited to see you all! But my request is that we keep it to an hour this time. It might be hard but it'll be worth it. And I want to talk to each one of you individually for like 15 min and then I'll talk to everyone at the end for 15 min, OK? I can't wait! I'm also wondering if you can send me a banana bread recipe next week? We made a recipe I got from Elder Frandsen this week that was awesome but I remember ours tasting better. And this is still blowing my mind but yesterday was my 10 month mark here on the mission! I've hit the double digits! The time has gone by quickly but I'm learning tons and am so grateful to be here. I love my Savior and I love these people. The Church is true, I know it with all my heart.

I love you all so much! Have a great week and keep on keepin' on!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

End of Transfer 5, Start of 6!

Privet cemya, tvoi ryccki yazik ochen horosho!

This past week has been good, Elder Lambert and I have been working hard finding on the streets and trying to get investigators progressing. Here's a little bit about investigators- We have a new investigator that we met last week but met with him this week. His name is Akbar. He's from Iran and knows pretty good English. I don't think I talked about this yet but English club is back in the mission and every week we are allowed to hold a club and speak English with people for half an hour and then do half an hour of spiritual english. So he came to English on Friday and loved it and stayed for the spiritual thought so now we're meeting with him. He grew up Muslim and he doesn't know too much about Jesus Christ so we're going to basically teach him who Christ is and why He's so important. Muslims actually believe very similar things to us, which is cool. They believe in the same Plan of Salvation but just that Christ was only a prophet, not a redeemer. It will interesting to teach him. He's way cool though and super nice. Immanuel has started to read the Book of Mormon. We met with him last night and had a lesson all about the Priesthood and how authority is needed to baptize. He still doesn't understand this concept. So as we were teaching him he said that he agreed with everything and whatnot, so at the end of the lesson it all built up to asking him to be baptized. He said "My brothers, I'm already baptized. I already have the authority." So we explained it again and committed him to pray about it. We don't know how much he's understanding. We have a lesson with him again on Tuesday so we'll see how that goes. And Cody. We taught Cody on Thursday this week and did the Plan of Salvation with him. He agreed with some parts of the plan, but not all. He doesn't think it's right that the gospel is preached again in the spirit world. He sees it as a second chance and so his main concern was "Why accept it here if we can accept it there?" We tried to explain this a little but it's a hard question to answer. He also sees the Terrestrial Kingdom as a middle ground and therefore not necessary. He has some interesting opinions. We don't know what to do with him. He seems like he just wants to know the doctrine but not really do anything about it. We're going to have a keep or drop lesson this week with him. After our lesson we went to his apartment for a dinner. His team was there and we just talked about lots of things haha. But not really about doctrine so much, just about how we do missionary work. Their mission is basically just volunteer work. They don't have a schedule, they go out to movies, talk to their family whenever, play xbox, etc, and then now and then have Bible studies/sermons and teach people. They also don't really study Russian at all, there are just translators in their church who know good English so yeah. We talked a little about our daily schedule and they couldn't believe some things that we do, like only talk to family twice a year. They said that they experience the same trial we do though, like people not being open to meeting and changing their lives. This led us to talk a bit about modern-day revelation and how apostles have prophesied about this area of the world exploding haha. It was a very interesting, eye opening night. They were really nice people but it was just so obvious like something was missing. And of course that is the gospel. But we gave them a good example of missionaries though so maybe in the future they will remember the Church.

We had a crazy experience this weekend. I don't know what to think of it yet. So Saturday night we had a lesson set up with Immanuel. We got to his house and he dogged us, so we decided to just find people around that area. We talked with the first man we saw and he was a little crazy. We didn't really understand him at all and so we kept walking. I had a feeling that we were going to find someone amazing. We kept walking and in the distance we saw an older guy walking with crutches. We got to him, stopped him and started to talk. His name is Volodia. We asked him if he believed in God and he said "Of course. I'm standing because of Him." Then he told us a story about how his doctor told him he'd never walk but that he proved the doctor wrong and was walking with the help of crutches. It was awesome. So then we talked a little about the Church and asked him if he read the Bible. He said yes. We asked him if he had heard of the Book of Mormon at all and he said no. So we talked a little about it and asked him if he heard about Christ appearing on other continents after His Resurrection. He said "Yeah, I read about that happening. I believe it" And then I said "There's an account of Christ appearing on the american continent in this book. The Bible also talks about it happening. I know it's true." I felt the Spirit testify of this truthfulness as I said these words. And I know he felt it right there on the street. We talked after that about the Restoration and how we have a prophet and apostles, just like the Church that Christ organized. He said that he felt that was true. We gave him the Book of Mormon and he said he would start reading it that night and that he wanted to read the whole thing. We asked him if he wanted to meet and talk more and he said we could meet the next day (Sunday) So we wrote down his address and confirmed everything. So then yesterday we showed up to his apartment building but the number he told us he lived in doesn't exist! We went into a few of the floors and knocked doors and asked if anyone knew him but no one did. We searched around the apartment for a long time but we weren't able to find him. I don't know what to think of this! This man was prepared to meet us and now we can't find him. This week we're going to spend time every night around his apartment and see if we see him again. I pray that we'll find him somehow. If not, then I guess that he'll come in contact with missionaries again or something. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Also this week we did a service project with the branch. Every several months there is a Helping Hands service project that is through the Church and happens everywhere in Ukraine. Each branch does their own so it's pretty cool. Our project was cleaning up a road littered with trash. We were there for three hours and took out like 50 bags of trash, it was crazy. I sent some pics from that. It was kind of funny because there's a warning painted on the fence of the road that says "Fine for throwing trash is 1000 grieven" Welcome to Ukraine.

Now for comments/tidbits. I sent a package home last Tuesday. I really hope it gets to you okay haha. I always wish this but this time they sent it Russian style, wrapped in paper. So keep an eye out for that. It is gifts from Armenia and some posters that I bought here. I put everything inside of a bag that I bought in Armenia including a note so just read that when you get it. I also received your package! but I haven't opened it yet. It was in Center, and then the sisters picked it up and haven't brought it to me yet so their supposed to bring it today. So I'll tell you how everything is next week. Thanks in advance though for everything in it!

I love you all and hope that all is well. Have a great week and I'll talk to you next Monday!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

Stayin' 6 More in Saltovka

Privet family, kak dela?

This past week has been good, it was a busy week as usual but I wouldn't have it any other way! To start off we had a lesson with a brother named Immanuel. He is from Camaroon and is a contact passed to us from some other elders. He also attends the Church of Christ but is interested in the gospel. We met with him and had a good first lesson. We asked him what it means if the Book of Mormon is true and he said "It means I've gotta be baptized and follow the Mormons!" We were hoping to meet with him again later on in the week but he was too busy so we're meeting him again this week. We have had a lot of investigators but many of them are not progressing so we have dropped them. We are really trying to find new people to meet with because many investigators we have right now aren't really going anywhere unfortunately. We keep meeting with Cody but we don't know where it's going. He seems to be interested in our doctrines only, not in being baptized. He invited us over for dinner this upcoming week so we're going to go over there and eat with his "team" so that will be interesting. They seem to be interested in what Mormon missionaries are and how they act so I'll tell you how that plays out. We do have another investigator though who is kind of progressing. His name is Ivan and Elder Lambert met him with his trainer. He comes to Church like every week, he's seriously been like over 10 times and he came to conference but he doesn't want to be baptized. But he's not against baptism so he's hard to figure out. He's about 60 years old. We just want to find new people to meet with because it seems like the same old with some of our investigators right now. We're grateful for them of course but it's just hard to figure out how to help them progress when they haven't been for a long time now.

Transfer calls came out last Friday but Elder Lambert and I didn't receive any so we are staying together for another transfer! I'm pretty excited, he's my first companion since Elder Schoen that will be with me for more than one. We have been doing good work and I'm happy that we get to serve with each other again. He's awesome and teaches me a lot every day. My district is staying the exact same as well, except that Sister Ward finished her mission and went home so we will be getting a new sister. And we already know who it is and her name is Sister Lobonova from Rostov, Russia. She is really cool, she actually already served in Saltovka but has been called back. So my district has basically three Russians in it now- Elder Efoshkin, Elder Tadevosyan (he's from Armenia but knows like perfect Russian) and now Sister Lobonova. It will be a blessing to have so many natives around! This past week we had a final district meeting with everyone and it was awesome. We talked about success and then I had Sister Ward give her final speech of her mission and what she learned. I really liked how she said this, she learned to "accept the Lord's will humbly and cheerfully" Sister missionaries are the best missionaries hands down haha. And any sister who serves in this mission is seriously the best of the best. I only knew Sister Ward for a transfer but she was awesome, probably the best missionary in the whole mission! I'm grateful that she was in my district. There's a whole group of sisters going home this week, as well as the Burr's going home. Sister Watts is also in Sister Ward's group so maybe you'll see her sometime.

Also this past week we went on another split with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Solin. He is from St. Petersburg and has two more transfers left of his mission. It was a great split. He has a cool conversion story. I don't remember if I already wrote about this or not but missionaries tracted into his house when he was young and his family was golden and got baptized within 2 months. He went less-active but because of friends he got active again and has now basically served his whole mission. And because of his mission his older less-active brother has gotten active again and is going to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood soon. So awesome! I love seeing how the Church changes lives in this part of the world. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Elder Solin has learned English on his mission just from missionaries so it's way cool to talk with him in English and help him and then talk in Russian and receive help. We taught three lessons on our split, one of which we put a 9 year old boy on date for baptism in May. The Zone Leaders are having two baptisms in May so that will be awesome.

Elder Lambert got me sick this week so that was no fun. I woke up Thursday with a sore throat and cough and then Friday was just awful. I'm pretty much over it now, just have a runny nose. It sucks being sick on the mission. But on a better note, conference was great! We got together yesterday and watched it in English. We watched Sunday Morning, Priesthood, and most of Sunday Afternoon. Unfortunately the last two talks didn't work because we were watching on Elder Bailey's iPad and the connection was just really bad. But its all good though. I really enjoyed everyone's talks, they were awesome. I learned a lot. But I'd probably say that President Uchtdorf's talk about forgiveness was my favorite though. Everything he said just answered my prayers. I also liked Elder Bednar's talk in Priesthood session about how if we really have the proper authority on earth to act in God's name then why doesn't everyone act like it? It was very good. I think that the theme of conference though was raising a righteous family. The stats that Elder Ballard shared were crazy. 1/2 of kids born are born out of wed-lock and 1/2 of marriages end in divorce. Only through the gospel can we be happy in life. Thank you Mom and Dad for raising us in the gospel!! From being on my mission thus far I've really learned the truthfulness of this.

Now for some tidbits/comments. I'm glad that you all enjoyed conference. I'm excited to watch it with all of you when I get back. But that's not for a while so don't be getting too ahead of yourselves haha. I got a paper to do an absentee ballot already from Elder Frandsen. I have to fill it out and then send it in to Salt Lake. Tomorrow I'm sending home a package with many different things in it. There are gifts from Armenia and some of my things that I don't need anymore/don't want to carry around on my mission. So it should get to you in a few weeks. I haven't got your package yet, I'm hoping I can get it this week when the transfer bus comes up from Donetsk. I'll tell you when I get it. That's good you're cheering for the Thunder. You'll have to keep me posted on any games you're able to see. Basketball isn't very big here unfortunately. I miss it a lot. I've been playing on a hoop around our apartment in the mornings for exercise but it's just not the same as home haha. And I have a future request for a package- rootbeer extracts and instant oatmeal. Those would be awesome!

Well, I best be getting on with my day. Thanks for your email and love as always. I love all of you and hope that all is going well. Have a great week and keep on keepin' on! Mother's Day is around the corner. I'll tell you when I get details about skyping again and whatnot. I can't wait! Talk to you later!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

ps- pics this week- the district, elder solin and I and how we watched conference!

Spring has Sprung

Privet family!

Христос воскрес! (That means Christ is Risen in Russian and is what everyone says to you on the street for Easter.) Thanks for your emails, they were great. It sounds like you had a pretty good week so I'm glad. My week was awesome. Crazy of course but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'll start from the beginning. So last Monday we had a lesson with Roman at a member family's house. We started to teach the Plan of Salvation and like five minutes into the lesson he was like "Hey by the way I'm leaving tomorrow to go to Italy for two months." It turns out that his family lives there and he goes there every year for two months to visit them and whatnot. So unfortunately Roman has left us. But he wants to meet again for sure when he gets back so I'm faithful we'll meet up again. As long as I don't get transferred anytime soon I'll still be here so that'll be cool. He's a great kid. We had a lesson with one of our brother investigators on Tuesday. I can't remember if I've talked about brothers or not. It is just a term we use for the black brothers that are here for school from Africa. So we have an investigator named Richy who is a brother. He doesn't like the BOM because he found tons of anti stuff online so he only likes us to teach him with the Bible. So we taught the Restoration to him using the Bible and then at the end worked in the BOM. It was really an awesome lesson. Everything just fit together perfectly and I know he felt the Spirit. He still wants to stick to the Bible but we committed him to pray whenever he's ready to know the truth. And we also had a lesson with Cody, the Church of Christ missionary. We had Elder and Sister Bailey (a senior couple here) with us on the lesson because not very members know English. We answered some of his questions, mainly why God has a body and how we know that He does and how the Priesthood works and how it was restored. I thought it was a good lesson. He understands our views on things but he just believes differently because that's how he grew up and that's what he reads in the Bible. But he wants to keep meeting with us though which is great. He is reading the BOM and asked a few questions about it as well. He thinks it's really cool how the only way for him to know if it's true is through prayer. He said that he had no idea what to expect from meeting with us but that this really surprised him. He has a positive view about Mormons and just wants to know about our doctrine. It would be awesome if he got baptized no doubt. I don't know what would happen after though haha. We'd probably just tell him go back to California, find your nearest building, talk with the bishop and get going haha. He's a great guy.

This past week we also had Zone Conference. It was a great conference. I received many answers to prayer and learned ways that I can improve. President Campero is amazing. We're so blessed to have him as our mission president. My favorite part of conference though was being taught by the senior couples. They are awesome! The Burr's gave their final talk as they are going home next week. They are troopers, they've been in country for 23 months because they only had to do 1 month at the MTC. So they've been here longer than anyone. I feel very blessed to have known them and to have started my mission right next door to them. Elder and Sister Bailey taught us an awesome lesson from 1 Nephi 2-5 though. Elder Bailey used to be a math teacher so he made a graph with Time on the x-axis and difficulty of the task on the y-axis. And starting at the very bottom point was 1 Nephi 2:16. Nephi received a change of heart through prayer and faith in the Lord and THEN was able to receive the plates. Elder Bailey mapped out the process and showed how each thing Nephi and his brothers did was harder than the previous but helped them to grow and eventually get the plates. We then applied this to our mission goal of 300 baptisms this year. As of right now there have been 8 this year. President asked us if we knew this goal was the Lord's or not and if we didn't that we should pray about it. I've been doing some studying on a change of heart and I see it as wanting to truly serve the Lord with all of your heart, might, mind, and strength without receiving anything in return. It is evaluating yourself at the end of the day and striving to reach your potential. I know that 300 is the Lord's goal and that through a change of heart and doing the Lord's will we can achieve it. It won't be easy but it will be possible. So in summary Zone Conference was awesome. They happen every three months and it just puts us back on track. I love it.

On Saturday this week we got together and watched General Conference in English. We saw both Saturday sessions and they were great. I loved several talks from it, mainly President Packer's, Donald L. Hallstrom's, President Eyring's, Elder Holland's, and Elder Scott's. There isn't time to talk about them all haha. We will finish conference next Sunday and I can't wait. My attitude towards conference has changed 180 degrees since before my mission. I've gone from watching a few talks here and there to not getting enough of it haha. Conference is good stuff. We're blessed to have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today. And yesterday was Easter as you know. Church was normal except that they did everything reverse order so Sacrament was last. Members gave talks about the Atonement as well. I learned a lot from them. I know that Christ lives and that through His Atonement we can repent and become more like Him. We will all be resurrected and be able to return back to Heavenly Father. He is my Savior and yours. He loves us more than we can imagine.

The Saltovka Branch Presidency got changed yesterday as well which was a big surprise to everyone. The new president is like 24 or 25 with a pretty old first counselor and Vitali (the one that served in Cold Mountain in our district) as the second counselor. Saltovka is on its way to getting stronger. It's a good branch. After Church our district got permission to do a little Easter lunch so we had hard-boiled egg sandwiches and funeral potatoes. It was pretty tasty. And then we had interviews with President. My interview was great, I learned so much and received answers and guidance from President Campero. He knows each one of us like a son and knows how to help us. I love him.

And now for some tidbits/answering to emails. The weather has been amazing this week. Spring is coming soon I'm pretty sure. We've been wearing short sleeves. It feels so weird because I've been wearing a hat, scarf, and coat everyday for the last four months haha but it's great though. Elder Lambert and I have received several contacts from other missionaries and still have lots of people to call to meet so we're hoping that this week we can get some new investigators. Also this Friday transfer calls are coming out again. I swear they just came out! So it's possible that I could be going somewhere new soon but I doubt it. I do think though that Elder Lambert's out but we'll see. I'm excited to get your package! I'll most likely receive it when transfers happen because that's the next time that things will be brought up to Kharkov from Donetsk. And as far as I know we will be skyping for Mother's Day. I don't know when though. I'll tell you as that gets closer. I can't believe it's almost Mother's Day. Christmas was last week!

I love you all and hope you have a good week. Stay strong and keep on keepin' on!

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

 

Saltovka - Week 4

Privet family!

This past week was great here in Saltovka. The Lord blessed us with two new investigators. The first new investigator is Cody, the missionary from the Church of Christ. We met with him on Thursday and had a good lesson. He has several concerns that we're hoping to clear up next time: God having a body of flesh and bone, Priesthood authority/baptism, and Lehi leaving Jerusalem. He also said that all of the lesson just sounded really random to him but that he's all about praying to know if this is for him or not. From what I've heard the Church of Christ is a break off from the Baptist Church and he was explaining to us that there are different levels of the church or something. We are going to meet with him with Elder Bailey next time, who is here on a senior couple mission right now. He's been a bishop and will be our member on lessons with Cody. I think that he could end up getting baptized but at the same time it would be crazy if he did since he's here on a mission from his church. We'll see! And our other new investigator this week is named Roman. He is a contact that the sisters passed to us and is 15 years old. They found him and his mom at a bus stop and got their number. They wanted to meet with them together but Roman ended up calling the sisters and setting up a time to meet. So they met on Wednesday after district meeting and Roman brought chocolates and roses for the sisters haha. So he got passed to us. We met with Roman on Friday and had an AWESOME lesson with him! He understood everything we talked about and especially liked the fact that we have a living Prophet and Apostles on the earth today. At the end of the lesson we felt impressed to ask him to be baptized. He said that he was already baptized and therefore didn't understand the need to do it again. So we explained the authority of the restored Priesthood again and he understood. He said that it is a very serious decision but that he will pray and keep reading the Book of Mormon to find out. He's so cool. He also came to Church yesterday for all 3 hours and was at the end of 2 Nephi in his reading! We're meeting with him tonight with a member family as part of their FHE and teaching the Plan of Salvation. I really hope it's a good lesson. There aren't many youth in Saltovka so him joining the Church at this stage of his life would be awesome. Since he is under 18 his mom has to give us a written and signed paper that it is OK to teach him because that is Ukraine and Russian law. We're really blessed to be teaching Roman.

Also this week the sisters passed us another investigator. His name is Fyodor. He and his wife Loodmilla have been taught almost everything over the past six months but they don't feel ready for baptism yet. A quote from Fyodor on a previous lesson was "It's not a question of IF I get baptized, it's when" However, Fyodor is very prideful and wants his baptism to be some huge event. Loodmilla on the other hand is ready but she doesn't believe it. She prays and reads her scriptures which her husband doesn't do, but she wants to be baptized with Fyodor. So this past week we had a lesson with them and got to know them a bit. They are in their mid-60s. Fyodor had to leave halfway through so we talked to Loodmilla for the end of the lesson. She knows she needs to get baptized but doesn't want to choose a date without Fyodor. So we have made a goal to help them get on date this month. And a man in the district presidency will be with us on lessons so we'll see how this all turns out. The Lord is blessing us with several awesome people to meet with in our area. It's amazing!

On Tuesday last week we went on splits with the Zone Leaders. Our Zone Leaders are Elder Smith from California and Elder Solin from St. Petersburg, Russia. They are awesome. My split was with Elder Smith. We did some tracting and witnessed several miracles. We found an apartment building and started from the top knocking/ringing doors. We got about halfway down and rung a door. An older lady answered and we started to talk to her. She didn't understand anything we were saying. She called her daughter to come and talk to us in English because she thought we were speaking English, not Russian. Her daughter came out for a few seconds and looked at us then went back to her room. So we tried talking to the lady again and she understood a little but not really anything. Then to both of our surprises she said "Come in, sit down and we'll talk." I've never heard of anyone getting let into a house from tracting. This was the first miracle. So we came in and she asked us "What's the difference between your Church and all the other ones?" So we basically just dove into the first lesson with her and talked about the Book of Mormon. However, within like five minutes she didn't want to talk to us anymore and was about ready to kick us out. She said that she'd learned what she wanted to. But then Elder Smith said "To be honest, the difference is that our Church is true." And then something changed. She wanted to know more and allowed us to keep talking. So we continued the lesson and got talking about prophets and apostles and Priesthood. She found it hard to believe these things but then saw on the back of a paper we had given her the Articles of Faith. She started to read them outloud and ask us about them. She got to "we believe in the gift of tongues" and said something like "How is this true? You can understand me but I can't understand you." I didn't know how to answer that question so Elder Smith said "Well we haven't been here that long but it's a miracle that even though this language is hard you can understand our message and feel the Spirit." I was praying a lot during this visit that the Spirit would be there and that this lady would understand our purpose. Then she said "Wow. That's right. You truly have the gift of tongues. I want to know more about your Church. It's interesting. Can I come to Church? When can we meet again?" So we gave her the address and everything and got her number. This was an amazing experience. I learned from it how the Spirit changes people's hearts. This lady went from not understanding us to telling us we had to gift of tongues and wanting to come to Church and meet. I'm so grateful the Lord allowed us to find this lady. And did I mention that Tuesday night was the only night she was home at that time from work? The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Now for some little tidbits/comments. No I did not see conference yet. We get to see Priesthood and one Saturday session this Saturday and then the rest on April 15th because next Sunday is Easter. Sounds like it was awesome though. I'm excited to watch it! This past week I had my 9 month mark on the mission. I have had my first mission baby haha. And this is crazy, Elder Moss got a tapeworm maybe from Armenia and had to take the pills used for the end of our missions for killing off any worms early. He named it Charles. And Charles is now dead. But don't freak out or anything, I feel fine and can eat without making myself so I'm pretty sure I don't have any worms. Yet.

Have a great week! I love you all! Enjoy Spring Break and the crazy weather at home. Talk to you next Pday.

с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия

ps- pics are the KFC in Armenia, my new friend in Armenia, and pictures I got this week of the Saltovka building. enjoy