DEFINITELY A MISSIONARY CENTERED WEEK

We had many missionary happenings this week. Most days we were either with the missionaries or they were in our home for discussions, emailing, printing documents, or having meetings.  That's the kind of week we love. There is nothing better than rubbing shoulders with the missionaries and feeling of their spirits. We agree with President Borders when he says, "the Lord sends only the best missionaries to Russia." It is a hard mission with a very hard language and the young men and women sent here have to be really strong in testimony and stamina. 

Elders Hoffman and Howard tuning in to

an all mission district leader's meeting

Our week began early Monday morning with two sets of elders coming to our home at 8:45 am for a meeting with all the district leaders in the mission. The mission has a new device that makes it possible to hold such a meeting on line. It seems to work better than skype or google.  When the meeting was over, Elders Hoffman and Knight stayed to email home for the week.  Later that afternoon, the International sisters, Sisters King and Miller, came by to email also.

We love how President Borders turns the conference over

to his young mission leaders and just sits back and enjoys.

Tuesday was Zone Conference for our West zone and the North zone. We are always so impressed with the wonderful training and inspiration presented by the President, the AP's and the Zone Leaders. The main thrust of this zone meeting was a new program the AP's presented entitled 'A Transfer of Miracles.'  They have set out a three week period, within this transfer time, to meet specific goals.  Each week focuses on something different, including what material to study in Preach My Gospel, as well as goals for investigators, working with the members, and baptismal dates. There will be a reporting system throughout the mission each night to check progress.  That is how this mission has attained previous big goals so it seems to work well.  It also inspires great unity within the mission when everyone is working toward the same specific goal or, in this case, goals. We will be excited to see what happens in the next three weeks.

One of the activities presented by our sisters.

After zone conference, Elders Shepherd and Burton brought Wally over for a discussion.  He is from Nigeria and speaks English, somewhat. He was very hard to understand but loved to make comments about what he was being taught.  We had to listen very intently to figure out what he was saying so we could keep the discussion going in the desired direction. We were so impressed with his desire to do God's will. 

Wednesday was the only day without contact with the missionaries.  It was our day to make our final preparations for our Institute lesson as we had to hold Institute and Pathway a day early due to another Russian holiday. Our lesson was on Christ's sermon to the Nephites. We especially focused on the Beatitudes being a pattern for Christ's life and steps for us to take toward a celestial life. We are loving teaching about the events of the Savior coming to the people in the Americas.  Four of the BYU students came to our lesson this week and added so much to the discussion.  We love having them in our midst.

We had some extra time before our class started so we finished this puzzle.

It is the last of the 1000 piece puzzles in the Institute cupboard. 

Now we will have to tackle the 1500 piece one.

Thursday was the Russian Independence day celebration and the only way we got involved was watching a fireworks display out our living room window that night. It was at 10:30 but the skies were still so light that the fireworks were more smoke than brilliant bursts of lights. One thing we did do on this day was to take the English Proficiency test that the Pathway students will have to pass before they can join the program. It is a new test so we thought we'd better know how difficult it was.  We both felt the questions were a little difficult as you had to decide the best answer out of 4 answers that could be right. The amount of time given to complete each section seemed to be a little short for a non-native English speaker. We will see next week as we give the first tests this coming Tuesday.

Paul concentrating hard to get the right answers on the test

In the afternoon, Sister King had to be on line exactly at 4:00, Moscow time, to register for classes at BYU Idaho for the Fall semester.  We were glad to make our computer available to her so she could do that. She is leaving in another transfer and so had to start making plans for school. It is really hard for these missionaries to have to start thinking about home when all they want to do is continue their dedicated service here.

Thursday night was our Senior Council meeting.  We love to get together as a group of senior couples especially when we are being taught by Sister Lawrence. She is the wife of the outgoing Area President.  She taught us about the three degrees of glory and had some very insightful information to share. It was a lesson Paul and I had heard before but repetition is good. 


We jammed a lot into our Friday. Our District Leader called in the early morning and asked if we could move district meeting to Monday instead of Tuesday. The AP's and office elders had to travel to another zone conference on Monday evening and would be out of town most of the week. Of course we said yes, but quickly had to make up a shopping list and do our weekly shop on Friday instead of Monday.  We came home and put groceries away just in time for one of two discussions with investigators. Elder Shepherd and Elder Burton brought our friend Justin over at 2:30. He is amazingly bright and understands the Bible with clarity. We loved the discussions with him and hope he will soon commit to baptism. He goes to church each week, reads the Book of Mormon, but wants to go through all the discussions before he sets a date.  At 3:30, the elders brought Henry to our home. He had been to our home once before. They presented a great discussion on the Plan of Salvation which Henry accepted readily.  He had a baptismal date for the 27th of this month.

At 4:00 we taught Isaac, our seminary student. I finished up the lesson with him while Paul got on line at 4:55 to try and book reservations at the WorldMark Resort in West Yellowstone. We want to hold a family reunion there in the summer of 2015 and needed 5 units. Paul was only partly successful, getting 6 units but 4 have only one bedroom and a pull out bed to sleep 4. That really won't work with the configuration of our families, but he booked them anyway just to have something. 

As soon as he got off line, we raced out the door to the metro.  We needed to travel an hour up north to the Piersons where we were going to have dinner before a performance of Riverdance at 8:00.  We made it to the Piersons by 6:30, ate quickly and then traveled, together with the Piersons and Milestrips, two metro stops south to the Crocus City concert hall just before it started.  The Riverdance performance was wonderful, of course, and a perfect ending to a very busy day. We got home around 11:30..tired but happy.

The enormous concert hall in

Crocus City

An impressive number performing a Russian folk dance

in the Riverdance style 

The finale

By the time Saturday came around, we were ready for a low key day.  We waited for a 2:00 discussion to happen with Elders Howard and Genys. Their investigator said he would meet them at the agreed upon time, but then didn't show. We did get some studying done for our Institute and Seminary lessons for this upcoming week while we waited. An interesting thing happened in the late afternoon. We went into our kitchen and there was a pigeon walking around on the floor. We shooed him out and 5 minutes later he came into our living room window and was on our coach. Our windows have no screens so he had free access into our apartment.  It will be really hot in our home if we have to keep the windows closed all summer because of pigeons.

Just come right on in......

Paul spent the late afternoon on line with World Mark, trying to rearrange dates for our family reunion. By starting a day later, he was able to get 2 more two bedroom units. Now we have the 4 two bedroom units and 1 one bedroom unit which is what we needed in the first place. Hopefully, it will all work by starting on a Tuesday instead of a Monday.


Sunday highlighted the whole week regarding missionary work. After church, Sister Hunter and Sister Taylor brought Tatianna and her son, Alexey, to our apartment. They have been attending church but haven't wanted to meet with the missionaries. The night before, the sisters had arranged with us to have Anya, an investigator, come over to watch the hour long movie on Joseph Smith after church. When she didn't come to church, and on a whim, Sister Taylor approached Tatianna and her son and asked if they would like to come to our home and watch a movie after church. Surprisingly, they accepted the invitation. They came at 1:30 and didn't leave until after 3. Tatianna told us her religious background and expressed her concern about offending God from whom she said she had received salvation and the Holy Ghost. We answered a few questions about what was different about our church and then watched the restoration movie. We sensed the spirit was present by the end of the movie as Tatianna was so much more receptive. After the movie, Tatianna had lots of questions which she directed more to Paul than the sisters. As a result, Paul did most of the teaching and testifying. By the end of the afternoon, Tatianna asked for a Book of Mormon and committed to read it (a big change from her previous 'questioning to prove us wrong' attitude). After Paul testified to her about it being the only way she would be able to know that the church was true, she said, "Well I guess I'd better read that book." She also committed to read it for understanding, not just for the plot, by pondering what she read.  We challenged her to pray about it and promised her that the spirit would testify to her of its truthfulness if she would pray with a sincere desire to know. It is amazing what the spirit can do to change a heart. Her son, Alexey, committed also to read the Book of Mormon.

....AND HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO PAUL

A wonderful day with the missionaries

 and a favorite dinner

made just for him....Hawaiian Chicken.

During the movie, the sisters got a text from Anya, who wanted to meet with them. She came over to our apartment just after Tatianna and Alexey left. We watched the hour long movie about Joseph Smith with her and another member, Luda. The movie helped Anya recognize that the prophet, Joseph Smith, was even willing to give up his life for the truth of the gospel. She was very touched by the movie and a good discussion followed. Anya has a baptismal date set for two weeks. What a wonderful way to spend Father's day and to end our missionary inspired week.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

Often while riding on the metro we see people trying to sell things to the riders. We have yet to see anyone buy anything. They move from car to car with each stop of the train. This man was selling a toy that spins up in the air when shot from a hand held device.  

Not a good picture, but we were

both moving when I snapped it.

We thought this man was very ingenious in figuring out a way to carry his purchases. He has his packages tied onto his back back in every place possible. Packages get very heavy when carrying them with our hands. We often wonder how people get their large amounts of groceries home from the store, as most of them do not own cars. There are always many taxis out in front of the store we shop at, so many people spend money to get home with their groceries.  Not this man though. We are always grateful for our bobcart.

The other day I looked over at one of the house plants we have in our apartment and noticed this most interesting bloom on it.  I have enjoyed watching it open up. It will be interesting to see how long it will last and if we will get more blooms. 

AND THUS ENDS OUR WEEK....AND A GREAT ONE IT WAS.