Sunday, August 28, 2016

Dear Family,

I had such a hard time writing last week. There were so many things happening. Last Sunday night we had a going away dinner for the volunteers going to another country and didn’t get home until late so I didn’t have time to write. Three left early Monday morning. I think they had to be at the airport by 4:00 am. President said the two elders were kind of dragging and Sister Hines was going up the stairs, with all her gear, two at a time.  Monday was hard thinking of them being gone.

With the transfers and the deportee’s our whole Avrora district has changed. Only one volunteer is left from the group that went through all of this turmoil with us. That volunteer is Sister Shumway who has been here since July 15. What a “welcome to your mission” statement for her.

There is a picture of Elder Oldham standing in front of a tank that was on KSL news the other night. His parents were interviewed for the news. He was one of the AP’s who is now serving in the Ukraine. Elder Worden, the other AP’s who went to Ukraine saw the written version of the article that Utah only cared about Utah missionaries because they referred to him as Drakes companion. Didn’t mention his name once J. Dad texted them this morning and they arrived safe and sound.

Last Wednesday we took Sister Thomas, who got transferred to Saratov and will be a Sister Training Leader, and Sister Warnick was in Samara to pick up her new Volunteer. She is going to be training, to lunch at Benjamins. It’s an American 50’s type of diner. 

Thursday Elder and Sister Kacher came. His is one of the counselors in the Area Presidency. They had a MLC meeting, which is Mission Leadership Committee. They both seem really nice. They left for Saratov right after that.  

Friday the AP’s got their fight information and found out that they were leaving Saturday morning. We had our district meeting that day and I made chocolate cupcakes for it. It was hard doing it with all new people. The new AP’s are Elder’s Johnston and Buchanan. Elder Johnston is the Elder that trained Dad. Elders Alley and Lytle from our NovoK branch are now in our district. Elder Alley is the District leader. He did a great job with the meeting. I guess Elder Alley is making Elder Lytle speak Russian 24/7 so he will forget and speak to us in Russian and we just look at him blankly. Then he remembers and says it again in English. Elder Alley tried to speak only Russian to us and we told him if he wanted any answers at all, he‘d have to use English.

Whenever I make something to bring I always share it with the Russians working in the office as well as the volunteers. They seem to love whatever I bring.

Dad got sick on Friday night. He had the chills and some intestinal problems. Saturday he was still sick when it was time to leave to the member meeting with Elder Kacher so I went without him. I took a bus there but they’ve been redoing the roads so I wasn’t sure of where to get off. Fortunately, I picked the correct one. Elder Kacher told us that he was the only one in his family to join the church. He was 19 at the time. The member meeting was to give the branches a little instruction on what their role will be with the volunteers after the new Law came into effect. It was really good and I hope the members went away with some ideas.

We have a zone conference with him on Monday and he is going to talk to the volunteers more about what they can and cannot do. It should be helpful.

Dad was still sick today so I took a taxi to church by myself. The taxi driver spoke a tiny bit of English and he let me know that if America chooses Trump that it would be like holding hands between America and Russia. If we elected Clinton, it would be like a fist to Russia’s face. The Elders wanted us (me) there early because they had a 20 minute walk to go pick up an investigator. They left me there alone. One sister came a half hour early and using the microphone on my Google translate we were able to communicate a little.

The past few weeks have been wild in the office. We’ve had all the Volunteers put up in hotels while the registration was being re-done. They were all in and out of the office. Then this week we got two new Volunteer’s in and so their trainers came in as well. Then on top of that it was Transfer week so that is always fun. I’m not kidding we had 10 volunteers in the office and other’s various places. I walked into our storage closet and there were suitcases lining the floor in there as well as in the hallway. Then Thursday was the MLC meeting so all the Zone Leaders and sister Training Leaders had to come in for that. By Friday, they were all gone. Elder’s Oldham and Worden did get to say goodbye to a good percentage of the Elders and Sisters.

Pres. O sent me a letter and asked me to send it out to all the volunteer’s parents. I pulled the files on all of our volunteers, which gave me the parents email addresses. Pres. O saw the stack of folders on my desk and wondered if we should just send it to the volunteers and ask them to forward it to the parents. I told him that I would create a group and once made it would be easy to maintain. Last time we sent something to be forwarded to parents, not all parents got it.  Anyway, he called me later that day and told me that I could take 2 or 3 days to do it. He felt bad about all the work. I was able to tell him, “It’s already been sent out.” He thinks I’m amazing. I’ve got him fooled.

I got a response from that letter to me personally from Elder Oldham’s mother. She thanked Dad and I for what we’ve done for their son and asked me to give him a hug. When he and Elder Worden came to say their final good byes, I gave him a hug from his mom and another one from me. I don’t normally get to hug the Elders, just the Sisters. Dad only gets to hug the Elders, but after he gave Sister Thomas a blessing, he gave her a hug.

There is a Russia Samara Facebook that you have to be approved to join. On there both Elder Oldham’s parents and Elder Worden’s parents thanked Dad and me. It was nice of them.

After the deportation orders came down President O sent this out for his weekly letter to the volunteers. I was so impressed by it I wanted to share it with you.

I have come to know that God will sooner strengthen you in your trials than he will completely rescue you from those trials---in order to show you his power and to help you grow in faith.

Think about the story of Daniel in the lions den where Daniel fervently begged the Lord for rescue from hungry lions. Instead of sending in a spiritual "seal team" to extract him from the den, the Lord instead left him right there and sent an angel "to shut the lions mouths". Have you ever wondered why the Lord would go to the trouble of sending an angel only to shut the lions mouths? --when that same angel could have easily extracted him from all danger by pulling him completely out of the dangerous den? I mean, the angel had the power to do it, right?

When you get into a serious crisis or life challenge-- whatever it happens to be-- isn't your first instinct almost always to call for some spiritual "seal team" to extract you from it, or take it all away?........

Back to Daniel-- so if Daniel was a man of great faith, and faith produces miracles, why didn't the angel just take him out of the lions' den?

Because if he did, Daniel would have missed the whole experience of being IN the lions' den but not being eaten alive. He would have known God's power to deliver him FROM difficulty, but he wouldn't have experienced God's power to deliver him IN difficulty. That's a whole different level of power and requires a whole different level of faith. What are the chances there was more than one lion in that den? What was the lighting like that night in the den? What frightening sounds do you think he had to listen to in that dark den all night? Did he ever sleep? Do you think there might have been old bones on the ground in that den to remind him of the reality of death there? I'm guessing there were actually many lions in that den --all ready to rip Daniel apart, but his faith was sufficient and God's power was sufficient that none of them tried to take a bite.

By the time you are old like me you will definitely be able to say that there were many times you felt like you were thrown to the lions--all of them ready to eat you. When you feel that way, I hope that instead of spending energy wondering why God wasn't taking you "out", you will step back and realize, "Hey, I'm not being eaten alive in here... even though I really should be--and hey--somehow I'm going to come out of this alive...." Then I hope you will look around and see God's angels are holding back your lions.

Sister Ottesen and I have only been in Russia 6 weeks. Today it feels longer than that. These have been busy weeks for us--full of just about everything you can possibly imagine (and then some!). I confess there have even been moments in the last month that I felt like we (along with you!) were in the lions' jaws. But here we are. We are still alive. So are you. You are still here. The work moves forward in a different way than we ever imagined. And we are stronger and more full of faith because of the blessings of the Lord. We are all witnesses of angels literally holding back the lions jaws in Samara. I wouldn't trade these past weeks with you for anything.

So, if you have them, I hope you will take another look at your Russian lions, and be grateful for them. When you experience deliverance in the lions' den, suddenly your faith and trust will rise to a whole new level, one that never would have been possible had you just been delivered FROM it.

Also, if you need anything else you can talk about to others this is the letter President had me send to all of the parents.

August 24, 2016

Dear Parents of our Samara Volunteers,

I want to reassure you that you that all of the Elders and Sisters in the Russia Samara Mission are completely safe and working diligently. They are the finest people we know and we love them as if they were our very own children. Sister Ottesen and I personally communicate with each of them regularly and I assure you they are doing well.

On August 5, officials in the City of Samara conducted a visa/registration check of several of our volunteers living closest to the mission office and thereafter claimed certain “technical problems” with their visa status.  To our surprise, these claimed technicalities ultimately resulted in an order that they needed to leave the country.  These alleged technical violations normally would not have resulted in this kind of extreme action. The departing volunteers have now been reassigned to a Russian-speaking mission in the Ukraine where they will finish their missions. We will miss them but I can assure you that they are in good spirits--enthusiastic and very anxious to continue serving the Lord in their new assignment. I believe the Lord’s hand is in their new assignment.

We are now in the process of amending all of the visa/registration documents for each volunteer in the mission in order to preempt any similar claimed technical violations from occurring again. As you can imagine, this process has been time consuming --but will be completed by Friday this week.

I also want to reassure you that, in general, our relations with Samara officials and the Russian government have always been proper, dignified, and correct during the nearly 25 years that the Church has operated here. While we occasionally have problems with local officials, they have been resolved quickly and cordially. We have never had a significant legal problem with the national government. Despite ups and downs in East-West relations, the Russian national government has supported the Church’s right of religious worship, and that of members, without fail throughout these 25 years.

Sister Ottesen and I love Russia. We are so glad to be here. We are so very glad to be here with these volunteers. They inspire us.

I’m sending you some pictures of our goodbyes with our AP’s, Sister’s Thomas and Warnick, our new NovoK elders, (elder Lytle forgot to pull his tie out of his shirt for pictures. They put them in their shirts so they don’t spill on them) and our two new AP’s, Elder’s Johnston and Buchanan.

I love you all,

Mom