Sunday, September 18, 2016

Well, this is a first for me, we ended church an hour early. There was no one there to teach Relief Society so the Branch President told us all to go home.

Things were quiet this week except for MLC on Thursday. We had lots of Elders and Sisters in for that. We got Papa John’s pizza for lunch!!!  I did a bunch of scanning and copying for Sister Ottesen.

We had district meeting on Friday in which the sisters didn’t come. They were on their way home and were still on the train. Dad was asked to give the training. We were supposed to start at 1:30 but Elder Smith couldn’t find his passport. A search took place but they still couldn’t find it. Then a couple came over by the office and asked if we had lost one. They made Elder Smith pay $1000 rubles to get it back. Dad ended up doing his training and it was really good, but that’s all we had time for.

On our P-day, Saturday, Dad and I went to the Samara Regional Art Museum. Most of the paintings we saw were done in the early 1900’s. This is what the internet says about it:

Description:

    Samara state museum is one of the biggest museums in Russian regions. It is situated in the historical center of Samara. The main building of the museum is on the street, Kuibyshev. Initially - the building of the Volga-Kama Commercial Bank, built in 1913 - 1915 by architect VI Yakunin in the neoclassical style. The building in its present form emerged in 1915 as a result of the superstructure and the complete redesign of the facade of the old two-story house, built in 1880 and belonged to a family of merchants, Curlin. Before 1912 it held a store for ready-made clothing "Dresden". The museum's collection was founded in 1897 by samara's artists, managed by Konstantin Golovkin. Now there are more than 16 thousand pieces of art in the collection. It houses the collection of Russian art of XVII - ХХ centuries, the collection of West-Europe and East art, unique collection of Russian Avant-garde and soviet and post-soviet art of XX century. In 1989, the building was given to the Samara Regional Art Museum.

We saw lots of paintings, beautiful furniture and some Jewelry of some sort, mostly worn by the men. The building itself was beautiful but kind of run down. I took enough pictures you might some this week and next.

After the museum we went to the KFC mini mall, Dad got a haircut, and I bought some makeup. You can’t find make up or anything but in a store for women’s make-up and hair stuff. Same thing with vitamins, asprin etc. you have to go to a pharmacy. After we did those things, we did go to KFC for lunch. We did all this while it was raining. It rained almost all day long. We stopped at the market on our way home.

Had the AP’s, elder’s Buchanan and Johnston as well as Elder’s LeBaron and Hemrick over for dinner. It was kind of a disaster. I tried to make bread sticks on Saturday night and they never rose. Then, since I was making chicken enchiladas I wanted to make Spanish rice. Well I found some instant rice, which was hard to find, and found what looked like salsa. The recipe said to brown the onions in oil, and then add chicken broth, salsa and the rice. As soon as I added the broth the flame under the pan kind of took off. I had to move the pan off for a minute. While I was working on something else I asked Dad to see if the salsa tasted okay. He said it was too sweet. He proceeded to doctor it up and try to help it. After it had to cooked for 20 minutes the moisture was gone. I went to stir it and a lot of it seemed to be stuck to the pan. The next thing to happen was that I had decided to use the green beans in my freezer but when I got them out they didn’t look good so I threw them away. I only had one can of corn for the 6 of us.

Well the dinner turned out to be better than I thought it would because the Elders almost ate everything I had made. Oh, I did make cupcakes, which were about ½ the size of normal. Oh well they tasted fine.

President Ottesen gave us some great advice in his weekly letter and I wanted to share it with you.

President Ottesen

Dear Elders and Sisters-

Today is a better day to repent than tomorrow. And you are wise to get into the habit of repenting every day. In fact, there is danger in delaying your daily repentance.

Sister Ottesen and I love India almost as much as we love Russia. There is no place on earth quite like it. We have traveled there many times on humanitarian trips to support leprosy screening programs among children in New Delhi and Chennai. Sister Ottesen and I have spent considerable time inside the hundreds of leper colonies in Southern India. And we have learned many things about leprosy.

In southern India, an estimated 2 people suffer from the debilitating effects of leprosy. Once a person contracts the disease, they become outcasts, forced to live in largely rural areas outside city limits in ramshackle slum communities. In this condition they are unclean or “untouchable”, under the Hindu caste system. As untouchables, they are unemployable and shunned. Their only means of income is begging. Children born in these colonies fare no better than their parents. As children of lepers, although initially born healthy, they carry the same untouchable sigma.

The beginning stages of the disease are very innocuous. Leprosy is caused by a strain of bacteria easily treated with antibiotics in its early stages. The disease cannot be contracted by a healthy person—only those with compromised immune systems or bodies already weakened by hunger are susceptible. The disease first appears in the form of raised white patches on the skin—most often appearing on the hands and feet. If treatment is delayed, the patches on the hands and feet spread and deepen. The disease first attacks the nerves in the hands and feet ultimately leaving the victim without the ability to feel. With no feeling in the hands and feet, cuts and scrapes are common. Infection of those undetected/untreated cuts occurs quietly and even more serious symptoms begin to set in. If treatment is further delayed, blindness is next. Without vision and the inability to feel feet and hands, the likelihood of falling increases—creating further injuries and complications. If the disease remains untreated, entire hands and feet are lost. Unlike a localized tumor which spreads from one spot, at this stage of delayed treatment, leprosy spreads from all parts of the body at the same time. The longer leprosy remains untreated, the more devastating it becomes to its victim—affecting every part of the body. Death for victims of leprosy is slow and painful.

The tragedy of this terrible disease lies in the fact that it is so easily treated in its early stages. In its initial stages, 3 simple doses of routine antibiotics will completely cure the disease. However, if treatment is delayed, the disease spreads quickly--producing life threatening complications.

So it can be for you. When you choose to delay repentance—you are also choosing to delay healing. Sin wounds your spirit and diminishes your faith. It diminishes your ability to see and hear spiritual things. It impairs your access to revelation. It steals happiness from you. The right time to be concerned about your sins is every day. Repenting once a week at branch sacrament meeting is not enough. Once a month could be spiritually fatal. Repentance is not an incidental or casual thing. King Benjamin spoke of “retaining a remission of your sins FROM DAY TO DAY.” (Mosiah 4:26) Every day. Even if you put it off and try to obtain forgiveness later, the Lord cannot restore the good effects your repentance today might have had on those you have been called to love and serve here in Russia.

So, where do you start? Your daily repentance starts with meaningful prayer. How about trying this question in your daily personal prayers: “What have I done today, or not done, which displeases Thee? If I can know, I will repent with all my heart without delay.” I believe that humble prayer will be answered. As the Lord told the Prophet Joseph: “I will forgive you of your sins with this commandment—that you remain steadfast in your minds in solemnity and the spirit of prayer.” (D&C 84:61.) It starts with prayer.

As a missionary in Germany, most of the apartments I stayed in unfortunately had no shower/bath facilities. That is probably hard for you to imagine but it is true. Consequently, once a week, on P-day, I would go the City Bath (Stadtbad) for my weekly shower. I cannot begin to describe how much i looked forward to that weekly shower--especially during summer months. I often counted down the hot, miserable summer days until my shower on Pday. It was absolute heaven to be clean. I wish I could have done it every day!

The temptation to delay daily repentance comes from Satan. He knows that you can never be truly happy unless you are clean. And he wants you to be miserable.

I testify that Alma’s words are true:

“And now, my brethren, I would that, after ye have received so many witnesses, seeing that the holy scriptures testify of these things, ye come forth and bring fruit unto repentance.

“Yea, I would that ye would come forth and harden not your hearts any longer; for behold, now is the time and the day of your salvation; and therefore, if ye will repent and harden not your hearts, immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto you.

“For behold, this life is the time for men to prepare to meet God; yea, behold the day of this life is the day for men to perform their labors.

“And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed.

“Ye cannot say, when ye are brought to that awful crisis, that I will repent, that I will return to my God. Nay, ye cannot say this; for that same spirit which doth possess your bodies at the time that ye go out of this life, that same spirit will have power to possess your body in that eternal world” (Alma 34:30–34).

Sister Ottesen and I love you!

President Ottesen

I love you all,

Mom