Sunday,
November 20, 2016
Dear
Family,
Can
you believe another week has gone by!! We are down to 8 months and 25
days. I worked on my “How To” handbook
for the next office secretary this week. Since the law has changed I needed to
update things. Hopefully who ever follows Dad and I out here will be able to
follow our notes ok.
I
found marshmallows’ at a store in a mall on Saturday. I bought several bags. I
was hoping to make fudge for Christmas but I hadn’t seen marshmallows
anywhere. They don’t have Karo syrup
here either so toffee is going to be iffy. I did find a recipe for it on-line
so I’ll try a batch and see how it turns out.
We
welcomed two new volunteers this week and said goodbye to 4. It’s exciting to
have them come in but also so sad to have them leave.
Thursday
Ramon took Dad and me to Metro. We hadn’t been in a while so we had to stock
up. We ended up having to buy two new reusable bags for our stuff. Ramon helps
bring the bags upstairs and he carried 6 bags at a time. This guy is in his
50’s but is still in super good shape.
Friday
we had our district meeting and they all decided to make tacos afterwards. They
invited the sister’s investigator, Jonathan, over for it. Dad and I were in the
office working when all of a sudden the fire alarm went off. Apparently, Elder
Buchanan took a pan off the burner and put it on a hot pad. Then he put the pan
back on the burner but the hot pad was stuck to the bottom of the pan, and he
didn’t notice. The resulting smoke set off the fire alarm. Dad shut off the
alarm and then Sasha got a call from the fire department. He assures them that everything is fine.
We
had District Conference this week. It’s like Stake conference only for a
smaller group of people. To get ready for my Sunday dinner I fried a ton of
hamburger and onions on Friday night (I cook a lot so I can freeze some for
later). Saturday after conference I made chili and cornbread. Sunday I made
apple crisp. I had chips and grated cheese to go with it. I had a ton of food
and it turned out pretty good. Elder
Lytle was there for the first time so we gave him the princess cup.
On
Saturday we went to the conference, and I ran into Lyudmila from NovoK. She is
the sweetest little Babushka. We gave each other a huge hug and said at the
same time “I love you too,” in English. We do this almost every Sunday. I went
with the women to the women’s meeting while the priesthood had their meeting. I did go through 3 translators. I gave the
microphone to Sister Hofmann and she handed it off to Sister Palmer and she
handed it off to Sister Graham.
Sister
O ended that meeting talking about how to keep the feeling you get while
attending the temple with you every day. She said to 1. Feast on the word of
God everyday. She used the example of Mary and Martha.
2. Take time every day to serve someone. She
talked about her handicapped brother who almost drowned, as a young boy, in a neighbor’s
pool. The sisters in her ward worked together to help take care of her brother.
She said because of their great care her brother lived another 15 years.
3.
Make time to be grateful every day. She talked about the 10 leapers and how all
were healed and only one came back to thank Jesus. He received a blessing for
his gratitude.
Luke
17:19
19
And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole
It
was a great talk. In the main meeting on Sunday one Sister who is waiting for
her mission call (should be at the office on Monday), talked about how the
Savior is closer than you think he is. The next speaker talked about how we
(LDS) are not alone in Russia there are a lot of us. He talked about how life
changed when he came into contact with the church. Then he told us that when we
serve in the Temple we are saving our relatives.
The
Stake Relief Society President, Sister Zolitoff, spoke and she has been a
member for 20 years. She talked about the importance of Free Agency. How we are
free to choose but not free from the consequences.
Another
speaker talked about doing more than we are doing now and the cleansing power
of repentance and the Sacrament. Another speaker talked about Faith. How God
exists but some people don’t move toward him so they don’t find him.
Sister
Ottesen talked about being unified and President O talked about not being offended
and to go and find the Lords lost sheep.
It’s
so amazing in the Church, this could have been a conference held anywhere in
the world. We are all learning about the same things. I guess one thing was different;
we listened to a translation of all the talks through a headset.
It’s
been sunny out for over a week now but the temperature has dropped
dramatically. I guess we can have it warmer but overcast or sunny and freezing.
I’m
sending pictures of a Russian Orthodox Church. I thought it looked interesting
because of the skyscrapers behind it.
We
took a picture of a statue across from the Mega City mall. We went there on
Saturday for lunch and Dad bought an external hard drive, ours quit working.
This
is what the internet says about the man the statue is for;
Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov (/ˌlɒməˈnɔːsɔːf,
-sɒf/;[1] Russian: Михаи́л Васи́льевич Ломоно́сов; IPA: [mʲɪxɐˈil vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ
ləmɐˈnosəf] ( listen); November 19 [O.S. November 8] 1711 – April 15 [O.S.
April 4] 1765) was a Russian polymath, scientist and writer, who made important
contributions to literature, education, and science. Among his discoveries was
the atmosphere of Venus and the Law of Mass Conservation in chemical reactions.
His spheres of science were natural science, chemistry, physics, mineralogy,
history, art, philology, optical devices and others. Lomonosov was also a poet
and influenced the formation of the modern Russian literary language.
President
had a great letter this week. I’ll share a part of it with you:
For the past 10 years, I made monthly
business trips to China. Over the years, I learned to eat handily with
chopsticks and I met some incredible people. One lady I met told me a powerful
story. In the 1960s, China went through a terrible cultural revolution where
millions of Chinese farmers were starved by their government. Back then, she
was a small girl. She grew up in a family of 7 children where food was scarce.
The family only had enough money to afford 1 fish per day to share with the
entire family—usually only a carp. That is not much food. The little family of
7 was slowly starving. She described mealtime where he watched his mother
divide up the fish to be shared by all the children. Then just a young girl,
she remembered when the family sat down to the meal, the mother insisted on
taking the fish head as her portion. At the time, the young girl thought it was
odd his mother wanted to have the fish head. But she said the children were so
hungry they eagerly ate their small portion of fish and really didn't think
much of their mother stuck with the fish head. Why do you think this mother
chose the fish head over the better parts of the fish? I think you can guess.
While her children barely survived starvation, sadly the mother did not. It was
not until after she died that her children realized the sacrifice she had made
for all of them. I am guessing you have a mother who would do that very same
thing for you. What have you done for her lately to show her how much you
appreciate her?
This is to
Mom: MOM, I LOVE YOU. YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN SUCH A GOOD EXAMPLE OF MOTHERHOOD,
WIFEHOOD, FEELING CLOSE TO GOD, ALL WHILE HAVING A GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR AND
HAVING FUN IN LIFE. YOU’VE HAVE HELPED TO SHAPE THE PERSON I AM TODAY AND I
WILL BE FOREVER GRATEFUL THAT YOU AND DAD RAISED ME TO LOVE GOD AND TO LOVE MY
FAMILY. THANK YOU FOR NEVER GIVING UP ON ME AND ALWAYS LOVING ME AND MY
CHILDREN AND MY GRANDCHILDREN. LYNN AND I PRAY FOR YOU EVERY NIGHT.
What are you doing to try and
eliminate selfishness from your heart?
The Lord rebuked some leaders in His
restored Church for being selfish---for seeking the praise of the world and for
having their minds on the things of the earth more than on the things of the
Lord (D&C 30:2; 58:39). Those rebukes remind us that as his servants in
Russia, we are to act differently. Elder John A. Widtsoe said of latter day
missionaries like us, “We cannot walk as other men, or talk as other men, or do
as other men, for we have a different destiny, obligation, and responsibility
placed upon us, and we must fit ourselves [to it].”
C. S. Lewis explained this teaching
of the Savior: “The moment you have a self at all, there is a possibility of
putting yourself first—wanting to be the center—wanting to be God, in fact.
That was the sin of Satan: and that was the sin he taught the human race. Some
people think the fall of man had something to do with sex, but that is a
mistake. … What Satan put into the heads of our ancestors was the idea that
they could ‘be like gods’—could set up on their own as if they had created
themselves—be their own masters—invent some sort of happiness for themselves
outside God, apart from God. And out of that hopeless attempt has come … the
long terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will
make him happy.”
A selfish person is more interested
in pleasing himself—than in pleasing God.
A great example of unselfish service
is the late Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She gave herself to “wholehearted free
service to the poorest of the poor.” She taught that “one thing will always
secure heaven for us—the acts of charity and kindness with which we have filled
our lives. She said, “We can do no great things,” ---only small things with
great love
Love
you all
Mom
