Many Are Called But Few Are Frozen: I've Been Here For Almost a Month!

Monday, September 14, 2015

I've Been Here For Almost a Month!

I can't really figure out pictures sorry! But hopefully I'll figure it out eventually. Fun week! Last P-Day we went to a Pravaslavni temple. They are big and there is absolutely no place to sit. There are a lot of cool paintings inside but they wouldn't allow us to take pictures inside. I got a lot of cool pictures of the outside though! We made salsa this week! Sadly it seems that all of our appointments have been falling through but so is missionary work I guess.

We meet a man named V'larry on the street the other day. He is an atheist but agreed to talk with us more and seemed like a really great guy. Hopefully we will be able to meet with him this week because we couldn't meet with him this past week. We found him in Center. Basically every Russian town (or at least the ones I have been in) has a place called Center where all the stores are and other important buildings and where the most people are. We go there a lot to contact. We take buses a whole lot but also walk a ton because we are trying to not spend a ton on buses. The buses we take to Irkutsk are about 80 rubles a person (I think the ruble is at 68 for every American dollar) and it is about an hour long ride but we get reimbursed for the long ones. They are pretty fun to ride!

I now know how to ask for referrals! And they actually understand me! It's really exciting when the people actually understand me! Especially when I say a whole statement! My average day is wake up at 6:30. Workout/shower/eat breakfast. Then 3 hours of study and sometimes an extra hour because of training. Then we eat lunch. After that we hit the streets and either teach or contact til usually 5. Eat dinner than go contact and teach again until 9. Then planning and that's my average day. On Tuesday we have service which is usually Hari Krishna. Monday and Wednesday are institute which is taught by a member that we sometimes participate in. Friday is game night! And Saturday is sports night!

Ruselan wasn't baptized. He got a new job that makes him work from 7-10 everyday with no days off. We have to push back his baptismal date probably about a month until they finish with the project they are working on. It's sad but he says he reads the Book of Mormon every time he has a chance so we are we still really excited for his baptism to happen!

I was thinking about how my mission is the biggest mission in the world and I am as faraway as possible from the mission home. That means that me and Elder Lyman are the farthest missionaries away from the mission home in any mission in the whole world! Crazy that I am in Siberia right now! I hope I get to stay in Angarsk for the winter but who knows how it will all work out. We have zone conference this week and I'm excited for that!

Love,

Elder Wilding

PS sorry I didn't send this earlier, in an attempt to send pictures it somehow closed my email and wouldn't let me log back in.

1 comment:

UygurSeptember 15, 2015 at 8:59 PM
Angarsk is a good place.
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Who are you, boy? Poem to Missionaries from Russian Convert, circa 2000

Who are you boy? For a boy you are journeyed to this land of ours, this land where I've endured my days. And felt oppression kill my soul and force me into some tight mold. And teach me that I should not hope unless I care to smell the smoke of dreams that the Red Army tamed. Who are you boy, from this land of plenty, teaching God, if there is any. You have all; we have none. Do you know what that feels like, son? And yet, you ask me to believe in something that I cannot see; some force you say will bring me joy. Do you know what that feels like, boy? Where you're from, faith is free, but it has a price for me. When I have pain, I have my bottle. Hurt dies quick when you down it with Vodka. That's enough to warm my soul. I work, I sleep, the days go by--I'm waiting for the day I die. You don't understand this place. You say believe, obey, have faith, live life well, serve and give. Here in Russia, we just live. Who are you, boy? Why did you come? To save a soul who once was numb. To teach a wretched, hateful, man who cursed your help, refused your hand. I thought that we were worlds apart. So how is it that you knew my heart? A fraction my age, you calmed my rage; mercy paid my generous wage. I should have been left behind. It is hard to love my kind. Hope in your heart, power in your hands, why did you come to this distant land? I know now, it was for me. The Red Curtain fell, but I was not free. Until a boy from nations away brought me my Lord, I bless the day. He led me to weep at my Master's feet, the American boy I met on the street--new and naive, still in his teens, with a message to bring the world to its knees. I thought that the truth would come from another--I did not know this boy was my brother.