Sunday, September 11, 2016
Dear Family,
Well, we’re down to 11 months and 3 days. It is unbelievable
how fast the time is going, and no, we aren’t trunky. (A slang
term used amongst Mormon volunteers, describing a volunteer who is excited
about returning home as "trunky" as he has already packed his trunk).
9/11, what a day this is to remember. Dad and I
were on vacation in Oregon with Dick and Jolene Potter and Dennis and Muriel
Liggett when the twin towers came down. Dick was up early and called us to come
in and see what he was seeing. We came in and saw the 2nd tower
collapse. It felt like it was the beginning of the end of times. I remember we
were worried about even being able to fly home. The first thing I wanted to do
was call all my kids. I knew you were far away from all the trouble but I
couldn’t help but want to hear your voices.
The good news about this date is that it is also
Grandma and Grandpa Stewart’s wedding anniversary. What a great example they
were to all of us. I sure miss both of them.
The Ottesen’s were gone all last week to St.
Petersburg for a Mission Presidents Conference. They got back at about 2:30 am
this morning. They ended up coming to our NovoK branch. I was asked to give a
talk. I told the story of David and Goliath. I took my information from a Jan.
2002 conference talk given by President Hinckley. I was how we are all faced
with Goliath’s in our lives and through God; we all have the power to overcome
them.
Elder’s Alley and Lytle are the Elders at NovoK
now. I asked Elder Lytle to translate for me because he is a little more
animated that Elder Alley is. I wanted dramatic. He did great. Dad and the
Ottesen’s told me that I had them all on the edge of their seats.
Our freezer has been acting up for the past
several months. We were going to talk to the landlord about it but then all the
registration hassle happened and we decided to wait a while. The freezer is
continually thawing and freezing. Anyway, when we paid rent this month Dad told
him about the problem. He had someone come over the next day to fix it. It was
a button problem. Anyway, it’s nice not worrying about what’s in the freezer.
The AP’s invited Dad and I to their sports morning
on Saturday. We didn’t really want to go but ended up being glad we did. They
ended up with 12 volunteers and 3 members. They played soccer on half a field
because some kids were warming up on the other half of the field. President
Blinkov plays with them. He is 51 and quite a character. Elder Johnston was
telling us that President Blinkov would dive across the goal trying to prevent
a score. I’ll be sending a group picture and he will be the one the Elders are
carrying.
When the volunteers finished their game, Dad and I
took the bus to the reenik, which is the ultimate flea market. Dad was looking
for a jacket that would fit him. We entered the place right where the men’s
wear was. It reminded me of getting off the cruise ship in Mexico where you are
accosted on all sides by vendors trying to sell you something. As we walked by,
they would talk to us and try to get us in their store.
We did go into one coat store that looked like
they might have Dad’s size there. They were showing us coats and we were
finally able to communicate what we were looking for. They brought us what they
called a sports costume. It was a tracksuit. The jacket fit fine. It came with
pants too. The woman we were dealing with put a big piece of cardboard on the
ground and motioned for Dad to drop his drawers and try on the pants. No
dressing room. We told her we thought it would be fine.
Dad asked her Skolca, for how much. They told us
4000 rubles, which is about $60. Dad shook his head no. When they reached 3000
rubles, we decided to buy it. I have no idea if we were ripped off or not. I
told him at least it didn’t cost him $300, like my dress.
After the Renick, we stopped at City Park, the big
mall across from the Avrora Branch building. McDonalds was calling our name for
lunch. After we ate, we went to a grocery store in the mall. I needed a few
things for my Sunday dinner. When we got to the produce, Dad discovered you had
to weigh and then enter the number for the produce and it would print out a
label with the cost. So we did that and went to check out. As the clerk looked
at our produce, and said something to us, which we didn’t understand and then
put our cucumbers in a box to be put back. The same thing happened with our
tomatoes, and bell pepper. They only thing we got was the lettuce. I don’t know
what we did right or wrong. I just went to the market by our house and got what
I needed.
While in line at the other market, there was what
looked like, a tabloid. It had a woman on the cover. I could read what it said.
In Russian, it said “About husband Sergey and child Marsha”. I thought it was
cool that I could read it.
So, this morning after getting out of the shower I
asked Dad to trim my hair. The last time I got it cut, the woman made it the
same length all the way around. It just didn’t hang how I’m used to. I usually
get it in an A line cut. Dad warned me that I’d get what I get and I couldn’t
throw a fit. He actually did a good job, at least from the front view.
Nancy asked me what the Volunteers do now with
their time since the new law became active. It has really changed everything.
There is no more contacting. They can’t teach non-members in members’ homes.
They do their usual morning stuff, exercise, language study, personal study,
companion study. They take time to plan. They are contacting less active
members. They go to their homes and touch base with them but can’t really bring
up religion. They can invite them to activities the branch is having. They can do
a culture day or night for themselves where they go somewhere in Russia to
learn more about the culture. They do service for members, less actives and
non-members. A lot of the people here have Dochas, which is like a vacation
home but not as nice. The volunteers would help pull weeds, harvest food, and whatever
the member needed help with. One Sister recently asked for help it getting a
winters worth of woodcut. Our AP’s and Zone leaders did that for her.
The Volunteers are planning and carrying out more
activities such as Family Home Evening, Temple Preparation, Mission
preparation, game night, Family History, etc. They are trying to bring the
branches closer. For instance, our NovoK branch has over 100 people listed as
members. We don’t know if they still live around here or not. We normally
get 10 to 20 members, counting kids but not volunteers, every Sunday.
We are slowly seeing the results in a lot of our
branches as more and more less actives are coming back to church. It also helps
us keep the members we do have because they feel closer to each other. The
members always remembered the old days fondly, when the volunteers did
activities with them. Then it got to be that the volunteers only went out
tracting and didn’t go to branch activities. Some of the branch presidents told
the Area presidency in Moscow that the way we were doing missionary work
doesn’t work in Russia. The members needed to feel a connection with the
volunteers and that wasn’t happening. So it’s interesting, like the Lords hand
was at work, the changes in the law have made it so the volunteers are more a
part of their branches and wards.
Last week the President’s letter to the volunteers
really touched me and I wanted to share part of it with all of you:
My dear
Sisters and Elders!
I’m not a
military guy but for as long as I can remember, I have always loved reading
military history. In fact, if you are ever unlucky enough to be trapped in the
car with me on a long drive, be prepared to talk about military trivia and life
lessons to be gleaned from Custer’s defeat at the Battle of Little Bighorn, the
great WW2 tank battle at Kursk, or the Battle of Midway in the South Pacific.
There are plenty of life lessons in each of those battles. I have especially
loved US civil war history. In fact, at home in San Diego, I have a sizable
collection of rusty civil war swords, old cannon balls, and piles of spent
rifle bullets that have been excavated from the Gettysburg battlefield in
Pennsylvania. I should have brought some with me to Russia.
The Battle
of Gettysburg lasted 3 consecutive days in July 1863 and involved almost
100,000 soldiers from the North and the South. It was the pivotal battle of the
Civil War. The war was several years old when the North and South fought at
Gettysburg. Up until that time, the North had never won a major battle.
On the first
day of the battle, the two armies bumped into each other by accident just south
of the town of Gettysburg and fought there on several miles of broad, level
grassy farmland. All previous battles fought in the war had been on similar
flat ground. The Southern soldiers (aka Confederates) were experienced soldiers
and skilled marksman—and for that reason easily swept the Northern soldiers
(aka Union) from the field that first day. Unfortunately for the Union, they
were so inexperienced and outmatched by the skill of the Confederates, that on
day one they threw down their rifles in panic and simply ran from the field.
The Confederates celebrated enthusiastically. The beaten Union soldiers then
tried a new tactic—they took up defensive positions on the tops of large round
hills just outside of town. There they dug in and waited for battle the next
day. The Confederates received reinforcements after dark and now outnumbered
the Union soldiers.
On day two,
the Confederates saw the Union soldiers firmly dug in on top of the round
hills. Despite the steep grade up the hills, and despite the July heat, they
were certain their superior military skill would push the Union soldiers off
the hills. The Confederates, led by a fearless general from Texas (Gen. John
Hood), complained to the commanding general (Gen Robert E. Lee) that the steep
ground was too difficult to fight on ---but he was overuled and nonetheless
ordered to attack. All day long the Confederates sent waves of soldiers up the
well-defended hills without success. The smaller group of Union soldiers who
occupied the “HIGH GROUND” on top of the hills had the clear tactical advantage
of shooting down the hills as the Confederate soldiers who lumbered slowly up
the hill in the July heat. Finally, near the end of the day, the Union soldiers
on top of one particularly high hill (named “Little Round Top”) totally ran out
of ammunition. The Confederates were tired, but realized they now had their
first good chance to finally breach the Union line on top of the hill. So they
determined to come up the hill one last time. The Union soldiers had no bullets
to shoot with so, taking advantage of the HIGH GROUND on top of the hill, they
fixed bayonets and charged quickly down the hill just as the Confederates were
coming up. The maneuver so completely surprised the Confederates that they
surrendered. Although the armies fought one more day, the Confederates lost so
many soldiers trying to take the HIGH GROUND, the battle was essentially
decided that day. Military strategists have studied Gettysburg battle tactics
extensively. All agree the Confederates should have won that day---they had a
bigger army, more cannons, more experienced soldiers, and more experienced
commanding generals. What was the critical difference that day? It was the HIGH
GROUND they chose to fight on. The Union soldiers were wise enough to fight
from HIGH GROUND instead of the level terrain they had unsuccessfully fought on
in previous battles.
There is
something powerful about finding the HIGH GROUND in your life.
In the Book
of Mormon, we read in Alma 47 about how Lehonti and his men anticipated a
battle with treacherous Amalickiah. Lehonti wisely and strategically placed his
army on top of a mountain so he could fight the next day from the HIGH GROUND.
That night, Amalickiah urged Lehonti to "come down" and meet him in
the valley. At first Lehonti resisted, but ultimately weakened and left the
safety of the HIGH GROUND ---and you know what happened---he was poisoned
"by degrees" until he died. AS a result, Lehonti’s entire army fell
into Amalickiah’s hands.
Trust me,
your entire life long, people will urge you to leave the safety of HIGH GROUND.
What will you do? I can assure you that Satan has declared war on you. He is
experienced. He is fearless. He is used to winning. You have seen some of his
victories among our fellow brothers and sisters here in Russia. Please trust
me, if you try to fight Satan's power on ordinary “level ground”, you will lose
every time.
So, what can
you do to put yourself firmly on spiritual HIGH GROUND? What will you do?
Shortly
after our mission call to Samara last September, I was feeling overwhelmed. I
had a business to wrap up, a house to sell, and an endless “to do” list of
minutia that never seemed to shrink. I was well out pf my typical daily routine
of scripture study, and I felt my spirituality slipping. I then went to the
Lord with that same “HIGH GROUND” question. He helped me remember important
things. As I pondered the question, he reminded me of specific conversations I
had in church counseling sessions where I had someone in front of me who was in
spiritual distress. I was able to remember that every single person I ever
counselled who was having a crisis of faith, or who was having a spiritual
problem---was NOT reading the scriptures. It never failed. Not even once. The
Lord helped me see that if I wanted to find the HIGH GROUND in my own personal
life, I would need to go to the scriptures. I began to re-read the Book of
Mormon and the spirituality began to return to my life. President Kimball said
it much better:
“I find that
when I get casual in my relationships with divinity and when it seems that no
divine ear is listening to me and no divine voice is speaking to me, and I am
far, far away--- that if I immerse myself in the scriptures, the distance
narrows and the spirituality returns. And I find myself loving more intensely
those whom I must love.”
I urge you
ask the Lord what YOU need to do right now to find the HIGH GROUND in your
life. The most important commandment you need to work on right now is the one
you are having trouble keeping right now. The Lord will help. He is waiting for
your sincere request for revelation. Have you ever noticed how he expects you
to make the first move? You know the pattern. He says “draw near unto me and I
will draw near unto you” (who draws first?), “knock and it shall be opened”
(who knocks first?), “seek and ye shall find” (who seeks first?)
I invite you
to ask the Lord where he wants you to start. He knows exactly what YOU need to
do. He will help. If you ask in faith, He will help you with that question. I
believe that is a very important question to him. Ask Him.
I’m sending you pictures of Sports Morning and the
park, a picture of a picture of the food Shawma that I’ve told you about.
Keep those letters and phone calls coming.
Love,
Mom
