Many Are Called But Few Are Frozen: SHARK FORCE

Mom, you can finally relax. I bought my coat. To say it is warm would be an understatement. It is a shark force. That is the name of it. It is probably the best name I have ever heard! On the inside are these words that make no sense haha. I'll send a picture. Time keeps on flying so fast. How am I almost already done with training? I honestly don't know. It feels like yesterday I was at home chilling with Mr. Cat.

This week was another week of miracles. This man we met on the streets a few weeks ago is named Yuri. He loves life! He is just a happy person who finds everything funny and everything brings him joy even though he is very poor. He knows English very good as well. And he loves the word "yup" haha. Well, a few weeks ago we got his number and told him to come to English practice but English practice came and went and Yuri wasn't there. We called him but he was always native stupen (which means their phone is either off or they didn't pay their bill so their phone is shut down) like everyone else in Russia. We were sad because he was really interested and we really wanted to meet with him. Well then at Hari Krishna, our service project where we serve food to the poor and homeless, he showed up! Right when he saw us he said, "It's Destiny" He would look up to the sky every time he said it too. He said the reason he wasn't answering his phone is because he had it on a lanyard around his neck and his cat hit it into some water. He kept on saying it was destiny that we met again. We invited him to English practice again and he came this time. After the practice we taught him the first lesson. He said, "I already believe all this". When we asked him to be baptized he said, "When and where?". He is so solid and so prepared. We set up another time to meet with him but he didn't come. We were bummed again because of how golden he is. Yesterday we were contacting just like we always do and we saw him, waiting at a bus stop! We went up and talked to him and he apologized for not coming to our meeting. He said he was working and couldn't make it. His job is to shovel snow and there is a lot of it now. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and we are going to meet with him tonight.

It snowed a few inches this week. Everything is ice now. To get rid of the ice they have the workers with shovels of course, but they also have these tractors that have on the front of them these huge brushes the size of a side walk in length that are made up of spin trim wires. They work like a lawn edger does and just completely obliterate the ice. They look like a lot of fun. Might want to get one of them for home haha!

I am going to Korea this week! To renew my visa. SO excited, I get to sleep in the grounds of the temple and do a session or 2 in the temple! Then I will be in Vald for like 3 weeks. We are having a mission conference (our whole mission). We don't have that many missionaries but that is completely nuts because of how spread out we are. So it wouldn't be very smart for me to fly to Korea, and come back to Angarsk for only like a week or 2. So I will be serving with the AP's for a little while which is going to be awesome!

The mission really makes you appreciate everything you took for granted when you were at home! Thanks for giving me a great life!

Elder Wilding