I'm not sure where to start this week, lots has happened, lots to say. I'll start with Nadezhda. We met with her twice and everything has been going good on lessons. She knows everything but just isn't baptized. Friday we took Sister Irina with us (who works in the office) and had a great lesson with her. She said she'd be coming to Church on Sunday and that all would be in order with getting work off this weekend for the baptism. Sunday morning we got a text from her saying that her family is against her baptism and that she couldn't come to Church anymore but still wants to meet with us. So we have a lesson set up with her for this Thursday. I'm not really sure how we can help her and her family but we'll figure something out. If we can somehow work with her family and help them understand everything then she'll get baptized, no problems.
We got a new investigator this week named Mohammed. He is a contact we met on the street from Iran and is Muslim. I didn't meet with him because we were on a split with the APs but Elder Nuzman told me that he's never heard of the Bible or Jesus Christ ever in his life so it was an interesting lesson. We have another one set up with him for this Friday so we'll see how it goes. It's crazy that some people in the world have never heard of these things but that's why we have missionaries! We also got a new investigator last night named Alexander. He came to English a while back and we tried to meet with him and his wife but she always hung up the phone when we called so we kind of gave up on him but then he called us a few days ago and wanted to meet so we met last night. He is mainly interested in English but we talked about the Book of Mormon and he says he wants to read all of it so maybe he'll become interested in listening to more, we'll see. We have another meeting with him tonight so I'll tell how it goes.
The main event of this week was Elder Don R. Clarke coming to the mission. Elder Clarke was the mission president in Bolivia when President Campero served as a stake president and then he was the Area Seventy over all of Central America in Guatemala. And now he is in the second quorum of the Seventy. Saturday night he did a Priesthood session, Sunday was a District Conference, and yesterday as you know was Zone Conference in Donetsk. All were great meetings but yesterday was the best because it was for missionaries of course. We're all in the process of making this mission better and he gave us several things to start doing. There's always tons of ways that we can improve so he told us to choose a few and really start applying them. I don't have time to talk about everything but I'll just say that the mission is taking good strides forward. We are all good missionaries but the time is now to change the mission and future generations forever. That was basically the theme of conference. It won't happen all at once but in time it will. During the Priesthood meeting Elder Clarke called up new-convert Artour and asked him why he didn't have the Melchizedek Priesthood yet if he was 19. He said he only got baptized a week ago and to this Elder Clarke said "Wow, congratulations! Will you share your testimony tomorrow at the district conference?" He said yes (how could he say no to Elder Clarke?) So Sunday Artour got up in front of the whole Donetsk district and bore a very powerful testimony about how two missionaries found him on the street, invited him to meet, and how he ended up knowing that the Church is true and Joseph Smith is a Prophet. It was so awesome, words just can't describe how I felt! He is planning on serving a mission now and is already going to institute and stuff. Basically he was just prepared to meet the missionaries. This was definitely a highlight of conference and the week.
Now for some comments/tidbits. I guess first off, I got sick Thursday and am still kind of sick. Just a cough, sore throat, runny nose. Hopefully that goes away soon. We found out today that we will for sure be moving soon but we don't have an apartment to move into so we'll be moving in with the APs for an unknown amount of time. But hey, at least we're moving! President Campero has issued a challenge to the whole mission - read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year and blessings unknown will come to those who do. I'm currently reading in Russian almost done with Alma and will finish before the year but I think I will read in English for this challenge from President. You should all do it as well! Seven pages a day in Russian, six in English. I got my package with Dr. Pepper, thanks so much for that! Soon I'll have a fridge to store those in haha. Also I found out that the former Elder Schoen now Dallin is engaged. Sister Irina told me that she saw that on Fbook. Crazy stuff. I was sorry to hear about the BEAST breaking down but I think we all saw it coming sooner or later. That's crazy about Allyson's car breaking down on you too, that's no fun! I'm excited to see the new temple in Brigham City, it sounds awesome. The weather here is getting cool but not cold though. I'll tell you when it starts getting cold. And for the 3 Nephi question, I will need to research that for you. As far as I know, even in the Bible people got baptized before Christ because John the Baptist had authority so I think it's the same with Nephi. But I'll find an answer for you. And last but not least, transfer calls are coming out again this Friday! This transfer has flown by. I think I'll be leaving but I'm not sure where so we'll find out next Thursday!
Well I think that's about it for this week. I love you very much family! Have a great week and I'll hear from you again soon!
с любовью,
Старейшина Каун
Украинская Донецкая Миссия
Pictured L to R: Sister Irina, Elder Keown, and Nahezhda
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