Happy Woman's Day

Already more than a full week in Vlad.  I still don't know the names of as many members as I want, but the city is starting to become less of a puzzle. That is not to say that I no longer get lost because that literally happened on Saturday, late at night and we had to call a taxi, but a mental map is starting to be made in the brain.  

We had a busy week.  Every Monday in Vlad they hold a family night at the Crookston's (a senior couple) apartment.  They have a spiritual thought and have us translate.  I had translated this time and it went well.  There are some phrases that Elder Crookston said that were really hard to translate and so I took a long round about way to convey the idea.  Then we had food and played a game.  We met a guy there who is a piano teacher and he sounded interested in meeting!  Then on Tuesday we have culinary night which is an activity where a companionship teaches how to make some dish and when they finish showing how they pull the pre-made finished product out of the oven.  It is basically a cooking show.  And at the activity we speak in English.  We had 38 attend last week!  It was nuts!

The 8th of March was Woman's Day and our branch presidency had the idea of doing hand made cards for all the sisters in our branch.  So we helped make those and they ended up looking like the ones I made when i was in 1st grade but it's the thought that counts!  Then on Sunday before we gave them out we sang Love At Home for them.  It was fun. The branch is awesome here!

One of the returning members that we are working with told us about a discount that was going on for the Aquarium on Russian Island.  We got in for half the price.  The aquarium was stunning!  We also got to watch a dolphin show which not only included dolphins but a walrus doing sit ups.  The place was huge and they had a lot of animals.  We all went down as a district.  We also got to help one of our members remove a cabinet in their house.  The cabinet was too big to fit through the door, we kept on jiggling it and trying to force it through with little success.  Then they brought us a hatchet and told us to go to work!!!  You should have seen it, me and Bacon in an apartment staircase wailing on this huge cabinet with a mini ax.  We kept all of our fingers and toes but the cabinet took a pretty bad beating. 

The AP's came on splits with us this week and ended up sleeping over for 2 nights. While on the split a crazy generous member took us out to a little coffee shop and bought us so much food. Then he drove us home. We didn't even ask him to do any of these things, he is just that kind. 

We were also able to attend an American football practice!  You heard me right football in Russia.  They are the only team in this city and probably aren't much better than a average high school team but they are the champions of the east of Russia.  They kept on asking us for advice and thought it was sick that we played in high school.

It has been a very eventful week!

 

Love,

Elder Wilding

4 Elders!

The AP's came down this week. Having 4 in one apartment makes everything more fun! It is was like I was back in Angarsk again!  They arrived Wednesday morning and left Sunday after church.  They came to have a conference with us where we watched a new training for all volunteers.  The conference was pretty great and now we finally have our new schedule.  The major changes are that now we have more time on P-days (3 hours!!!!) and we plan in the morning instead of the night. 

We went to a chess club and got a nice old man's number, his name is S and he is going to teach me how to play chess better.  He is a Baptist and I think would be open to our message.  We almost had service at the zoo but when we called back they said that it wouldn't work out because we need some special license or something to be around live animals.

We went over to a member who is from the Netherlands and had really good dinner!  And a 8 year old girl just got baptized on Saturday by her dad!

They was basically my week (according to my memory) .  Sorry that it is kinda small. Thanks for all the support!

Elder Wilding

Russian Thanksgiving

Dear my family and friends,

A lot has happened, it is amazing how much more when I write on Saturdays.  Right after I wrote you, we got a ton of snow!  Everyone was shocked because it is still November and this much doesn't usually come until late December early January.  An American member who has been here 10 years said he hasn't seen this much snow this early ever.  Needless to say I am counting my many blessings.

Then the anticipated trip of the AP's coming.  They arrived on Sunday night and they ended up knocking on our next door neighbor's door instead of ours.  Somehow we forgot to tell them we moved ;).  I was with Crabb on the split and it was just like good old times!  We went to 3 people and by the end of our trip Elder Crabb was wishing he served here on his mission!  He denies it but we are in that place.  I convinced both of them to buy fox pelts before they got on their plane back to Vlad.

My Thanksgiving this year was quite different than last.  I actually celebrated it this year.  The Americans invited us over!  They bought the turkey in Japan and somehow transported it here.  It was massive!  We had everything and more, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pie and all the goods.  It was a day to be remembered.

At church an inactive member brought in his friend and we are going to be teaching him on Wednesday.  I taught in Elders Quorum.  And we are our branch president's home teaching companions now!  He is an amazing man, the elect are here!​

Love you!  Elder Wilding

 THANKSGIVING RUSSIAN STYLE at the AMERICANS

 Shoveling snow like a boss

 The tree going up

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

My Time In Korea

Wow this week has been crazy.

I spent 2 or 3 days in Angarsk but right now I am in Vlad.  This is my travels, I took a bus from Angarsk to Irkutsk and then from there jumped on a plane and flew to Kharbarosk.  Had a long layover there and actually slept on the bench seats in the airport.  After the layover finally ended I flew Vladivostok.  Was in Vlad for a very short period of time and from there I flew to Korea.  Once I got in Korea I took a bus to the center of the town and ran to the temple.  The bus drivers in Korea wear suits.  Completely different from Angarsk. After we got off the bus we ran up this hill and couldn't really see anything but all of a sudden the angel Moroni pops out and it is completely stunning.  Korea itself is absolutely amazing.  It is basically futuretown.  Big buildings. Flashy neon lights.  I felt like I was on a different planet.  Once we arrived in the temple we just immediately did a session.  We would have gone and got McDonald's but we just had no time for it.  It actually turned out to be quite fine though because when we were just sitting in our rooms (in the temple, it isn't in the actually temple temple but it is connected to it) and one of the workers brings to us pound cake and milk.  Korean people are so nice.  I love bowing down to everyone because they always do it back.  And Korean sounds so cool!  Walking the streets of Korea is so cool!  It was so warm there.  Then after all of that we woke and took a bus to the airport again.  I stood in a line in the airport for about 2 hours, then jumped on another plane and now I'm in Vlad.  It was so much traveling in just 2 or 3 days.  I was so tried and jet lagged.  But it was so fun!

I love Vlad!  I didn't know if I would like the big city feeling of it but I do.  There are always people to talk to on the street and it is not as cold as it is in the west.  I was walking the other day with one of the AP's to go check out a hotel for the new elders that are coming in and on our way there we saw a black guy on the street.  That alone was pretty surprising because he is the 2nd black person I have seen on my whole mission, so of course we talked to him.  He spoke no Russian.  We asked him what he was doing in Russia.  He told us that he was bringing football to Russia and he coaches a team here.  He also told us he played in the NFL.  He played for a couple of teams but the only one I can remember is the green bay packers.   His name is Bobby Rome.  I have never heard of him before but I'm sure if I looked him up I would find him.  He pulled his hand out of his pocket and on his hand he had 3 rings that looked like Superbowl rings and a really expensive diamond watch.  He isn't very smart walking around in Russia with that on but he could probably fend for himself just fine.

I met a man from North Korea in Vlad.  It has been a really fun and exciting week!

I love you all!

Elder Wilding

On Korean bus with Elder Brower

Korean Temple