March 16, 2016

Dad and my talks were taken from the talks we gave at the farewell but changed. I mostly introduced us and the time we going so fast I skipped the next two pages and went to getting our mission call and told them about our Mission scripture, Alma 29:9,

Alma 29:9

I know that which the Lord has commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

Then I ended with Jeremiah 16:16.

Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

I told them that the missionaries are the fishers and hunters that God is sending out but that they were also the fishers and hunters that God is sending out to gather His people. I told them that they will help bring the world the Lord’s truth; that we can share the light and spirit of the gospel with our families, friends and neighbors as well as perfect strangers. Then I bore my testimony.

Dad basically told them why he is a Mormon, growing up with an inactive Mother and a non-member Dad who were good people and raised him right. He ended with telling them about being worried about leaving Sadie and hearing the song the Armies of Helaman and that being an answer to his prayer. That he knew she would be all right and about her guessing that we would be going to Russia. Dad had several spiritual quotes and scriptures. Everyone told us how much they enjoyed our talks.

The Branch President told us that the people love our stories and he likes them to see that we don’t come from a perfect world that we have some of the same problems they do. President and Sister Schwab were visiting our Branch so gave us a ride to and from church. They have a driver.  We have these head phones that we put on and Elder Peterson speaks quietly into a microphone and translates for us.  We were invited to Branch council meeting and at the end of it I was asked to say the closing prayer. I got flustered and started out in Russian okay but soon ran out of gas and had to finish in English except for In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen. One Elder told me that was a lot more than the last couple knew. 

As far as speaking Russian, mostly I use the few phrases I know well like, how are you doing, I’m fine, please, thank you and your welcome, yes and no, and very little Russian. We haven’t done a lot of language study yet; some but not a lot. We never had much trouble with being jet lagged but I’ve finally quite waking up at 3:00am.

It was kind of scary without the elders for me. I’ve come across some stuff I didn’t know. I’m in charge of typing in the baptism records which are in Russian. Elder Oldham challenged me to learn the Russian keyboard and improve my typing skills. He may just be my cross to bear. Just kidding he is very sweet and kind. The keyboard has both Russian and English letters. You hit the arrow and the alt key at the same time on the left to change the keyboard.

The Church is coming out with an Easter initiative in the form of a pass along card with a link to a Mormon video about Christ, it’s at followhimmormon.org. #hallelujah.  It is really well done and an awesome message. They anticipate lots more referrals so my job is going to get even busier.

Our Russian Dish Dryer.  Built over the sink!  Smart huh?!