President's Visit

Hello everyone.  I am fresh from the hair-cutters and feel amazing.

Lepa brought her kids to family night and really really liked it.  She won in Uno!  And one of her daughters brought a friend.  They both have the same name of Hastiya which is very common for that to happen in Russia because there are only a certain number of names.  Anyways Hastiya's (the friend) mom kept on calling Lepa and making sure everything was OK.  Lepa eventually told her that she should just come down and see for herself and that everything was great.  It was awesome to see investigators inviting their friends!  Unfortunately we haven't been able to meet with Lepa or her friend since that night and we were actually worried that we lost her because she wasn't answering but she answered two nights ago and said that she has been in Vlad and has been very busy (she is a taxi driver) but would come to church.  She never came to church but for some reason I feel like everything will eventually work out with her and that she will find the peace she is searching for in our message.

We found another golden investigator out of our area book.  Those things are magic.  His name is Vlad and he is 19.  We called him up and simply asked him if he wanted to play ping pong.  President's letter this week was focused on using normal ways to get to meet people and show that we genuinely care about them and then share our message with them.  He talked about how if we looked at the members that have lasted and have done more than just the ordinance of baptism and then never come to church again.  But the active older members were all found through those means and very few were found through contacting.  So we tried doing the natural approach and when he got there we started playing and could see that he wasn't really into the ping pong so we decided to have a normal lesson.  We sat down and prayed and then found out some things about him.  He believes that this church is true!  He believes it all and is so ready!  There is only one down side.  His parents are way against him joining the church and even meeting with us.  He actually told us that he had to lie to his parents just so that he could come and meet with us.  So we are going to try and work more with him and find some way to help with his parents.  But he is an awesome kid.

I learned this week that when we receive revelation that we may not even know it till far after the fact.  When I got to our apartment in Ussuriysk it was really dirty.  The past couple of days I have been cleaning up most of it.  President Perkinson called us Saturday night and said that tomorrow he would be coming in the morning and checking our apartment and then would also be in sacrament meeting.  If we hadn't been cleaning our apartment for the couple of days before that we would have been doomed.  But it was already clean and we didn't have to worry!  

The AP's came down and spent a day with us!  Elder Lyman and Elder Cluff came.  It was really good to see Elder Lyman again and really good to serve with him again.  And also Elder Cluff. I spent about a week or so with him when I was in Vlad.  We went over to Vlodiyas house who is our crazy investigator who always grabs us and stuff.  He is a funny guy.  We went with Elder Clufff because he was in this city before and had taught him before.  The lesson was pretty good and then at the end of it as we always do we asked him to pray.  He usually won't answer our question or says that he will just listen to our prayers and try everything he can to not pray.  But this time Cluff said it was his last time he would ever see him and he was a little more calm than usual and he actually prayed!! Missionaries have been meeting with him for I think a year now and he never did before.  It was a miracle! 

I received the package you sent when President came.  Thank you so much I will try my best to not open the wrapped presents until the 22, we'll see. :)  And tell Daisy Steed thanks for the letter she sent me!  

We went over to President Zagooroni's house last night and read a chapter of the Book of Mormon in English with him.  Well, he actually came and picked us up and we thought we were going to his son's house who is a less active member.  But what he actually said to us is that we will go over to his son's old house which is now his and read.  Haha he speaks too fast.  Something I have noticed about most of the Branch President's that I have met so far is that they are very classy dressing men.  And always really funny.  They are all great guys!

Well that's all I can remember from this past week.  I forgot my book where I write down what happened.  But I think I got most of it.

I love you all!

Love Elder Wilding