The Circle of Knowledge

Privet family!
 

This past week was pretty good, Elder Lambert and I have been working hard to find new investigators because we don't really have any doing progress right now. Basically besides Akbar we had nothing haha. We found three good contacts this week though so hopefully they turn into something good for us. We have been using one of our finding tools with the Book of Mormon and walking around with a box that says "Free book with a promise" (the same way that we found Akbar) and giving out the old translation. It's one of our most effective ways to find people on the street I think.
 

The main highlight of this week though was having a Zone Conference with President and Sister Lawrence. President Lawrence is the President of the Europe East Area and he and his wife served as mission presidents 10 years ago in the Novosibirsk Mission where President and Sister Gibbons are right now actually. He was then called two years ago to be a Seventy and preside over this area of the world. It was an amazing conference. He talked about what makes a mission successful and also talked about setting righteous goals. I haven't been the best at setting personal goals on my mission but he gave us some awesome advice and I'm excited to apply it! After the conference we had interviews with him and mine went well. He's coming back in a month with Ronald A. Rasband so I'm sure it will be another great conference. And his wife Sister Lawrence is basically a scriptorian and knows the scriptures inside and out, it was amazing. She taught us about the scattering and gathering of the Ten Tribes and I understood it much better than before. And then during interviews all of us just sat around her and asked questions about the gospel that we've been wondering and she just answered them one right after another with the scriptures and quotes from memory from apostles and prophets. It was insane, my mind was blown! I have several new topics that I want to study now. I was wondering as I listened to her answer questions and talk about the gospel how it must've been to learn from the Savior. Crazy to think about. After my mission I have so much stuff I want to study. I just hope I have time!
 

Also this past week there was a talent show in Saltovka Branch. I played a snare drum solo on my practice pad and they found some african drums so me and Elder Lambert played a little drum battle on them. I can't play drums anymore haha. I've lost my touch but it's all good because after mission I'll find it again.
 

And yesterday Akbar received the Aaronic Priesthood, it was awesome! He's doing good, really busy with his school right now but he comes to several activities each week and all of the members love him. To answer your question about having interview with General Authority or something, I've never heard of that and neither have any missionaries here. So it's probably just a rumor. If he was supposed to then it's a little too late now haha.
 

And now for some tidbits/comments. Dad if you haven't sent that package yet then I have one more request to put in it and that is a book called Russian Learner's Dictionary by Nicholas Brown. Elder Lambert has it right now and it's a good book to study out of. And this upcoming Friday is transfer calls so I'll tell you what happens here. I have a feeling I might get transferred but maybe not. We'll see!
 

I love you all very much and I hope you all have a great week! Keep on keepin' on and don't forget to pray!


с любовью,

старейшина каун

украинская донецкая миссия