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)

Дорогие семьи и друзья

Дорогие семьи и друзья,

Tell Grandpa Jo I say happy birthday.  

What a week.  Since I basically shaved my head about a month and 1/2 ago I finally had another hair cut last Monday.  They took off the sides only.  It looks much better but I still have to be patient until it grows back to where it was.  Also last Monday we have legit smores and roasted marshmallows!  One of the missionaries who served here and ended his mission about the time I was about 4 months in, came back and we had a campfire with him and some of the members!  He is Russian so I don't know how he got the marshmallows and chocolate and graham crackers or the starbursts but I didn't care it was so delicious.  I think I was actually the one who enjoyed it most out of everyone haha,  Actually most of the members didn't like it and said that it was too sweet. I just felt like I was back home in the backyard roasting mellows.  Speaking of good food, watermelon season has hit Russia!  That reminds me of when I first got in country and me and Elder Lyman would buy at least one every week and absolutely love the watermelon.  They are dirt cheap at the store just across from our house.  Oh yeah, I don't think I ever said, at our new house a grocery store is right across the street an makes shopping fast.  

Vl from Angarsk called me this week haha.  He wanted me to send him pictures and was telling me how Angarsk was and everything.  Haha it was awesome!  We met with this guy this week who called at us in English when we were in Burger King.  He took us to his home and played some songs he wrote by himself.  They weren't that bad, he is pretty talented but I have been thinking of remixes to his songs this whole week.

With the new law, we cannot talk about the gospel or anything of that sort outside of the church.  The only exception is that we are allowed to teach members in their homes.  Until last week, even if we were in the church with a non-member we couldn't talk about the gospel until the person signed a paper noting that they agreed to this and that they were a follower of the church.  But that has been thrown out now and as long as we are in the church we can talk with anyone about gospel topics.  We still can't directly invite non-members to activities in the church but we can let them know what time the activity will be as long as there is no invitation extended.    Lately Elder Staiger and I have been inviting people to a store near the church and then walk with them to the church to play ping pong or some other activity.  I hope that makes sense.  If I forgot to add something or if there are still questions please let me know.

After Institute we played "Book of Mormon bingo".  On the bingo card is Book of Mormon characters names.  I put the names in google translate trying to be more efficient becasue it takes me a long time to type in Russian because I haven't memorized where the letters on the keyboard are.  I thought google would have translated them over exactly how they were in the Book of Mormon for some reason but I was so wrong.  Hagoth the viking ship builder in the Book of Mormon got translated over as Xagoth.  All it changed was the h to an x.  "G" isn't even a Russian letter.  Wherever they pulled out his name they just said viking haha.

The spin trimmer was taken by President Zag and that which was broken is now fixed!  The blade on the end that was no where near the center is now centered which stops the problem that we had where it shakes until your hands bleed.  We cut for a couple of hours at the "green island" and got a good chunk of the field cut down to size.  It only died once on us and it was somewhat of a miracle.  If I haven't said it before I will say it now, at least one person gets married in Ussuriysk or at least that is what it seems like.  They put flowers and ribbons on their cars and drive around the city honking as they drive past you.  Anyways we had brought a soccer ball with us and we see a woman in a wedding dress and a small group of people with her.  They come over and ask if they can use our ball for their wedding pictures (he was in the goal and the bride pretended to kick the ball).  We happily told them yes. If only I would have brought my camera with me I would have had some great pictures.  Their friend afterwards said that he plays basketball more than soccer and Elder Staiger told him I was from America and play basketball too and the guy freaked out when he heard we spoke English and that I was from America - he loved it.  He started talking to us in English that he learned in school and invited us over to his house as guests!  And throughout the rest of the night he kept on calling us haha.

Well, I hope that feels you in on what happened. Looking forward to another good week!  Hopefully we can find some more service.  If anyone has any suggestions on what we could do I would love to hear them.  Zone Conference is next week and Elder Martino of the 70 comes.  He replaced Kl as the 1st counselor for our region.

Much Love

Elder Wilding

Korea Trip Approaching

Tell Grammy and Grampy happy birthday for me!  

This week flew by!  Wow I am already emailing again.  Thanks everyone for their letters!  I love reading them!  This week was great just as always!  But the next one should be even better because I get to go stay in the House of the Lord!

The Korea trip is fun for a lot of reasons.  We get to go and eat at McDonald's or another American place.  We get to see everyone we were in the MTC with.  But by far the best part of it is the temple.  The other things really don't even compare with the peace in that Holy house.  It almost seems that in 3 months we get worn down.  Luckily for this mission we get to go the temple every three months.  And it kind of lifts us back up and gets up ready to go for the next 3 months.  I remember the last time I was there.  I had the burden of having to train right after my training got finished.  I felt completely inadequate and very worried.  I remember feeling this all the way on the plane and then on the bus ride there.  But once we did a session in the temple.  I just felt peace.  Sublime peace and I knew everything would be ok.  And look it was.  The temple is a beautiful place.

Our hari kriushna investigator E gained a friend this week!  We went to the church to eat dinner and we saw that President Lapin was playing ping pong with one of his friends.  We knew E loves to play ping pong because he plays it with us often so we called him and he came and played with President Lapin and his friend. Well President Lapin's friend had to go not long after E arrived there and so it was just him and E playing while we were eating dinner.   When we walked in they were exchanging numbers and telling each other that when ever they have free time to call and play.  It is so great because now President Lapin can help us on lessons and it isn't just a random guy he doesn't know, but his friend.

I think I have talked about Y the other Elder's investigator who me and Elder Lyman found.  We had a lesson with him this week where we read 3 Nephi 11 and 12.  In the part in 12 where is say "say no more than yea yea or nay nay" I was a little worried that Y would be thrown off by that.  Because it is a little strange.  But after when we were talking about the chapter and what we read he choose that verse as one of the verses he really liked!  I learned a valuable lesson about the words of Christ.  They are powerful and I shouldn't worry about what it might be, the spirit will testify of those words even if I think it is strange.  The scriptures are such a blessing and I love the hour I get to read them everyday!

This week started off warmer but it snowed a little bit.  But Dad sent me some pictures of the snow in Brigham and I think that you have more than us.  I said it started off warm.  It got super cold again somewhere around -35.  But even that is a lot warmer compared to what it was a week or two ago.

Me and Elder De Sandre were contacting and he had a Book of Mormon firmly in his hands.  We stopped this man and asked him if he believed in God.  He looked at us then at our Book of Mormon and then grabbed it and took off.  We followed him for a little while and he never threw it away so I guess that means he is going to read it!     

I went tracting for the first time in my entire mission yesterday.  It was a good experience.  We have only done street contacting.  But Elder De Sandre thought we should try it out so we did.  We went to the domaphone and hoped for someone to let up his because it is locked until someone inside opens it or someone outside has a magnite key thing to open it.  We barely called the first phone when someone came out of the building and opened it for us.  We went to the top floor and worked our way down.  The first guy we talked to was so cool!  He was interested and said that maybe we could meet some other time.  The rest we didn't have much success but it was still really fun.  It is exciting to see who is on the other side of the door.

I hope everyone one has a great week back home and when I write next I should be in a different area. I also can't wait to hear the news of my Panthers first Superbowl victory!

Elder Wilding 

With Elder De Sandre

a

Dragon

Stray dogs

Wilderness

The things we find in the Siberian wilderness

Mom note:
We received this letter (and photos) from his Mission President and wife: 

  
Dear Brother and Sister Wilding 
Our wonderful West Zone Missionaries gathered together in the Irkutsk Branch Building for Zone Conference. We had 20 missionaries in attendance. These missionaries were so thoughtful to present to us 3 red roses, peanut brittle and notes of gratitude! It was so nice! 

In our companionship study, we discussed at length the topic of "Grace" and the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ and the need for each one of us to repent daily. We also discussed the need to teach repentance to everyone as we serve as disciples of Jesus Christ. We talked about every member being a missionary and the need for each of us to continue this pattern through out our lives.  

Of course, Sister Perkinson loves to take pictures of the missionaries during our lunch break because I know that I can get them to smile big for me! All missionaries know that food makes us happier! 

We were grateful to view the proceedings of the World wide Missionary Training from Salt Lake. We were able to discuss the messages given from Apostles of The Lord! We are to teach REPENTANCE and baptize CONVERTS! We are truly blessed to be here serving The Lord in this part of His vineyard! 

We are grateful for Elder Wilding in his service with the members of Angarsk. We are grateful for the many years of gospel training taught in your own home! Thank you for carrying on the work of the Lord there also as you share the Gospel among your family and friends! 

Sincerely, President and Sister Perkinson Vladivostok Russia Mission

It was -40 Fahrenheit this week. Wait, I mean -40 degrees Celsius. Wait, they are exactly the same temperature!!!

We finally made it!  This week we reached the magical number of -40 where the Fahrenheit (farengate in Russian) and Celsius meet.  To celebrate we boiled water and threw it out our window and unsuspecting victims.  I just joking, it actually evaporated right before our eyes and was mind boggling.  

My zipper on my boot broke this week. Good thing I am in Russia where they have pemonts (repairs) on every corner,  I just took my boot in and they fixed it for way cheap and finished it pretty fast.  The same thing happened with my bag except it was my strap that broke and I took it in and they fixed the broken side and re-enforced the other side without more charge.  I love this place!  

We visit the R family this week.  They have kind of a interesting story.  So Brother R is a Mexican and was born and raised there and Sister R is Russian and she was born and raised there.  They met online and she flew to Mexico and they got married there.  They lived there for a couple of years and then they decided to move back to the hometown of Sister R.  I bet that situation could only be said of this family in all of history.  Anyways they are so cool and were definitely sent back to Russia because God needed them here.  They both served missions and want to help us missionaries so bad!  They have so many good ideas and it is a miracle they are here.  We really need them!

Some of the Russian's here are too tough.  It was -30 the other day and we talked to this girl who was only in a super small coat, jeans and normal shoes.  No shopka, not even a beanie.  No gloves, no boots.  We asked her if she was cold and she said no.  It is definitely a different breed.  It is kinda funny.  A lot of Russian's will lie to us and tell us it isn't cold when it is in the high negatives.  But then when we want to talk to them on the street they will say it is much too cold to talk right now.  They're good people though.

The few days I was without my boots I was basically skiing everywhere.  One time I grabbed onto Elder Lyman's shoulders and he ran and I glided the whole time and drifted when he turned corners.

The others Elders are teaching a guy that me and Elder Lyman found when we were companions but then he just kind of dropped off.  I think I talked about a little bit last letter.  He has been meeting with them everyday now.  He has nothing but he clothes on his back.  He is so cool.  He said before he met the missionaries he was smoking 2 packs of cigarettes a day.  Then in one week he was down to 3 cigarettes a day.  Then yesterday he told us that he was thinking about it last night and he said he is done smoking completely.  It is amazing was Heavenly Father can do with someone when they are in the depths of humility with a willing heart.  It also strengthened my testimony of no effort wasted.  When me and Elder Lyman taught him, after the second lesson he stopped picking up his phone.  We could have considered that time wasted meeting with him.  But it wasn't.  He showed up at the church last Sunday because he felt something when he was with us.  And also because he had nowhere else to turn but we were able to see that even though it didn't pan out the way we wanted it to the first time we started meeting with him.  God has a perfect plan for everything and it just wasn't the right time for him.  We are praying that this time is.

It was a really good week and made even better by the fact that my Panthers are in the super bowl.  It is so amazing.  I can only imagine what it would be like if I was home.  But I have been thinking.  This time out here in this frozen land when I get to serve with these people is much more worth it than being home to watch my Panthers win their first super bowl.  I wouldn't change my decision to serve my mission or change my mission to another year or another time even if I could.    What is really important is made so much clearer to me out here.  There is not so much stuff to blur my vision.   I wouldn't go back and change it for anything.

That being said, I am still going watch all the game when I get home but that can wait.

I had a really good week.

I love and miss all of you

Elder Wilding

мне холодно

Frost

PROOF

 (If you look close enough you can see his eyelashes are frozen.)

You Could Say That It's Cold

Good Day Everyone!

It has been another successful and fun week.  I'm so glad I am still in Angarsk.  The language it still a struggle but it is coming!  Thanks everyone for the letters, it is a delight to read them all!

This week we had some sick elders.  On Monday Elder De Sandre got sick.  On Tuesday Elder Sumner got sick.  And on Wednesday Elder Lyman got sick.  Luckily, actually by the grace and mercy of God I was spared from the sickness.  Just like I was in the MTC when everyone got sick who was in my room.  Heavenly Father has truly blessed me with good health like I was promised.  It's a huge testimony builder for me and a miracle.  Even with everyone sick I only had to stay in on Monday.  That was okay though because it was only for 3 hours that we would have been proselyting and I got a lot of Russian studies in.  I went out with Elder Lyman on Tuesday and it just like the old days.  On Wednesday Elder De Sandre was healthy again so we went out when the other elders recovered.  Everyone is healthy now and going to work.

I don't know it was kinda weird this week we talked with so many Jehovah Witnesses.  I have been surprised by how many I have met in Russia.  We were walking home with a member and I asked them if they have fallen this winter and it was like magic, right when I said that the member fell haha.  

The temperature dial right before we left the house was between -38 and -39.  When I go out my shopka and scarf just freeze up way bad and I'll try to take a picture and send it next week because it is pretty cool looking.  About every time I go out this week my eye lashes have froze.  It is a really cool feeling.  But right when we go inside everything melts.  My guess is that it got -40 Celsius in the night and that is actually -40 Fahrenheit as well.  It's good though.  I can say I know what cold is.  But honestly when we layer up we are perfectly warm.  We just have to go in stores or others places every once in while.

We had a really good lesson with Egor this week.  He came to the church and we simply read a chapter of the Book of Mormon and bore our testimony of the truthfulness and expounded on the chapter a little bit.  He told us he would read everyday.  He is a really special guy going through some hard things right now and could use the good news of the gospel.  We are lucky to be teaching him.

OK, I know I said this last week but I am actually going to send a ton of pictures this week!

I love this mission of mine!

Love Elder Wilding

Your son at Lake Baikal

Welcome to the throne

Hotel in Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

Beautiful Blue Lake Baikal

Lake Baikal

Beautiful blue Lake Baikal and my way nice hat

Lake Baikal

Me just loving Baikal

Me and Elder Lyman at Lake Baikal

Just a taste of what it gets like getting gains in the frozen tundra

In center or в центр

In center or в центр

Approaching Santa's ice sleigh reindeer from the front and frozen trees

Tell Bryce I say, "peace"...

New Years

Our way nice set up

Nesting dolls