Saturday, April 23, 2016

  One of the things I do is go out and look and see if we have any new missionaries coming. We did have a new one so I had to get is file ready. I was showing the picture of the new missionary to our AP’s and Elder Porter was shocked. He yelled “No Way”. Apparently he home taught this new missionary. The Elder was from his ward. Elder Porter is going home in June so he will be able to talk to this Missionary before he leaves for the MTC.

 We have about 7 new missionaries called now who will be in Russia on October 4^th. One of them is coming from Germany and another one of the new ones is from Brigham City, Utah. With the new missionaries, once I get an email from the church that they title “Recommend” which tells me about the missionary coming in I send these Sisters and Elders a welcome letter from President and Sister Schwab as well as a newsletter explaining things about our mission. 

  Our two new missionaries left for their assignments on Thursday after going through orientation for 2 days. They got into Samara on Tuesday night and came into the office at about 10:00 am. Wednesday morning. Boy did they look tired. They definitely were drooping by the end of that day. Dad and I were invited to have lunch with everyone. We had Box Masters from Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yum!! We asked Elder Anderson and Elder Ruesch what they thought when they opened their mission call and saw Russia. Elder Ruesch said he was shocked and that his mom was nervous for him. Elder Anderson said he knew before he got his call that he was going to go to Russia. He said he started praying that he would know where he was going. He felt a strong need to know. About two weeks before receiving his call he said he was prompted that he needed to learn Russian and then he was shown where, (an App), he could do that. Pretty amazing! 

  This week was transfer week. Every 6 weeks (missionaries term this a cycle) missionaries can be transferred from the area they are in to a new area. So we end up with an office full of missionaries coming and going. Along with that we had our new missionaries and then we had the Elders who were their trainers coming in. Dad and I are on our second cycle.

  Our District leader, Elder Kendell got a new companion, Elder Jarrett Anderson.  We had district meeting on Friday and got to meet the new missionaries in our area. Elder Anderson is from Layton and went to Layton high school where Dani attends. It’s a small world isn’t it; I come all the way to Russia and find someone that knows one of my granddaughters.

  Well the past two Wednesday’s I was supposed to go with the sister to meet an investigator. This is the 85 year old woman. It keeps falling through. I guess it’s on for this Wednesday. They will come and get me at 2:00 pm. I’m excited to go with them. I hope I can make a difference.