We Are All Enlisted

Thanks everyone for wishing me happy birthday! 

As I said zone conference fell on the 22nd and I got surprised with a big chocolate cake and the whole zone sang me happy birthday.  I was in the kitchen getting food ready for zone conference and then Sister Perkinson grabs my arm and drags me to the front of the room where we were having zone conference, turns a white board that was next to me around and there was written "Happy Birthday Elder Wilding". Then everyone proceeded to sing but then did an arrangement that I have never heard before where they sing the three birthday songs but it sounds like just one. Needless to say it was a fantastic birthday that I won't forget about for a long time. 

Zone conference went great! As I said I was in charge of the food and the company that we hired to deliver lunch showed up more than a hour late which sucked but we ended up just having a cake and ice cream break, went back to zone conference and started up with that again until the food came and then we took another break. You never know how much goes into these things until you have to do it, and I had a relatively small part and it made me be more grateful for the other zone conferences that I have had. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and the Gathering of Israel and Mastering Ourselves. We even had a Russian branch member come and teach us pronunciation which as I have said before is the hardest part of the language. I came off wanting to be better and try my hardest.  President Perkinson always is good at getting us motivated.

I met a couple of guys who study at the university on Russian Island. There was three of them and one was from Iraq, the other from Syria and the last from Yemen. I have never met anyone from those countries before. They spoke great English and were super cool and nice. Just another reason why missions are SO COOL! You meet so many people that you never would have met before. I'm having a blast out here still!

On Tuesday we have an activity called Culinary Night were we usually prepare food and explain how we do it in English and it gets a lot of people to come, like 30-40. This week because of construction going on in the church Elder De Sandre showed how to do 1st Aid because he was a medic back at home. It was a riot, he is hilarious! He got ketchup to symbolize blood and used the crowd as his volunteers to show how to act in a variety of solutions. If I came out with anything form his training it is how to remove gloves that have blood/ketchup on them.

Then on Thursday I went and did splits with Elder De Sandre and it was just like the good old days back in Angarsk. At night we were going through the pictures he took in Angarsk when we were together and I really started to miss those times. Back when it was me, him, Lyman and Sumner in the same apartment. Those are some of the funnest times I have ever had in my life.

On Saturday we were able to play basketball at a indoor court. I started out pretty bad missing lay up after lay up but by the end I was draining 3's to my surprise. Then on Sunday we took the sacrament to a old lady who has 7 pets, 5 cats and 2 dogs. Her place actually wasn't all that bad and she was super nice.

The work continues, we don't have any super solid investigators as of the second but we have K that we are working with and once it gets a little warmer we will be hitting the streets playing basketball and doing other things in order to find new people to teach.

-Love

Elder Wilding

From Sister Perkinson:

Dear Brother and Sister Wilding

It is warming up a bit here in Vladivostok and was the perfect day for the East Zone Conference. It was our last Zone Conference in that very room and in the building that we have known to be "our Vladivostok Branch Building". We will soon be in a temporary location until our new building (which is in the final stages of construction) is completed--we are hoping to be attending church there by January 2018!

Our visual was a triangle of *Russian Language pronunciation at the top, *The Plan of Salvation and *The Gathering of Israel at the base of the triangle. Sister Perkinson taught the Plan of Salvation, Andrei -- a Russian English teacher helped with our pronunciation! 

Then we surprised Elder Wilding who was conducting the meeting, with singing "Happy Birthday Trifecta" to him and splurged with cake and ice cream before lunch!

Then Elder Gee did an amazing job teaching us what he had learned about the Gathering of Israel! It was very well done! We had beautiful musical numbers a Medley by Elder Barr on the violin and a quartet by Elder Gee, Elder Barr, Elder Lawrence and Elder Baugh. Well done!

Opportunities were given to share ideas of great conversations with our friends about the Book of Mormon, The First Vision and the need to pray, Study scriptures and attend Sacrament weekly. Elder Gee organized a buzz session down the halls of the building! President concluded with a topic on turning knowledge to intelligence. The spirit spoke to each of us individually and the opportunity to share what we learned benefited all who were present!

We are grateful for the knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that guides us in our lives and we are grateful for your prayers as we diligently seek for daily guidance to Do The Lord's Work here in our perspective areas in the Vladivostok Mission! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the source of our light!

Sincerely,

President and Sister Perkinson

Vladivostok Russia

Elder Wilding did a great job conducting the Zone Conference meeting. He is also our Vladivostok District Leader! Today we took a picture too!

Birthday Cake for McKay made by Sister Perkinson

With Elder De Sandre

The sign on the building says Eat Drink and Dance (be merry)