Goodbye Sakhalin

Hate to say it but I am leaving the island.  I have enjoyed every second of my time here and would have liked to stay longer but it seemed like a transfer was imminent and I wasn't wrong.  I guess all good things must come to an end, at least in this life. I'm going to miss the mountains. I will be now serving in Vladivostok, the big city, the city the mission was named after.  My new companion is Elder Bacon who came in the same time as Elder Roosa, I've met him when he first got in and maybe once after that.  I looking forward to serve in Vlad.  I may go broke very quickly though because of the Sharma.  I was already there for 3 weeks over a year ago and enjoyed my time.  I am going to be serving in Churkin or as I hear people call it Churkin hood.  We are going to be whitewashed in, which just means that neither I or Elder Bacon has served there.  He is coming from Irkutsk and I from here.  I will be flying there on Wednesday and then to Korea and the temple and by Friday evening I should be in my new apartment.

On Saturday our investigator and also chess teacher S agreed to come to the church and teach our members which were interested who to improve their chess game.  He is an absolute genius when it comes to chess and loves the game.  Two  of our young men came and it was a good activity!  One of our young men plays really good and it was interesting to watch him play against S.  He plans to come back every Saturday and do the same kind of activity, hopefully more people will come and so that he can meet some more members.  I have a good feeling about Sergei, I think he'll find that this is the true church.

At just about exactly the same time I am leaving so is an American couple that has been here for 10 years.  The Severukins have left to continue their mission in a new city and a different American couple is leaving in about a month.  The branch is losing so many people so rapidly!  There was a going away party for the Jones and for part of it, me and Sister Kaprolova (who is also leaving) had to go up and do some game where they would say a normal object and we would relate it to the gospel. We had a friend of ours come.  Either this week or last we had an awesome miracle!  We had an activity going on at the church and a lady walks in who used to come to things.  She had moved away because of work and just got back.  We got her number and she asked us to invite her to activities!  

We had our last mini MTC and district meeting with the Severukins, like I said before they and now serving in a different city and will not return for 10 months.  They are awesome!  I am going to miss them, but there is a chance that I will serve with them again if I stay in Vlad for the rest of my mission.  They are planning to serve there in approximately 4 months.

I gave my parting testimony and said all my goodbyes on Sunday.  These are good people, I will miss them.  I made a ton of good memories here.  The future looks bright though! 

Love,

Elder Wilding

Salutations From the Island

Salutations from the Island,

Moving is.. at last.. 100% complete.  The agreement is signed, the rent is paid, and all has been moved over and put in it's proper place.  I would say that Elder King and I, are at high standings with our landlord who is no rookie in the field of cheese storing.  Until Monday night our fridge was the harbor of 12 pie-sized containers of cheese.  But it is gone now and we sleep better.  Our humble abode is quite the place, my mattress got upgraded from top bunk twin to normal level queen. We are living like Kings! (pun intended)

As for the rest of my week, our good member/friend M (who built his own house) asked if we could come over and help him with some of the exterior work.  Which meant roof work and making scaffolding (on and off the roof).  My drill skills have never been better after that fateful day of service.  Or more exactly my unscrewing skills.  You just have to line it up on the line.   They fed us fish soup before we got started, salmon to be exact.  To the shock of myself and all others I did not want throw up and die but actually found it quite normal.  Then for dinner we had fried rice with squid in it, game changer.  Somebody better tell Scott.  

We played LEXICO (language learning game) with our pal P on Friday at game night.  He is actually the only one who came but that didn't hinder our fun!  We were dying laughing the whole game.  The game has three levels of hardness and P took the top level every time.  Me and King had to go on level 2.  

We also taught L the gospel of Jesus Christ because her parents want her to have all the lessons before she gets baptized (she is already eight and her parents are active members).  And then had family night with them.  I love their family! 

Besides that, the rest of our week was dedicated to an assignment president gave us.    We are trying to find which less actives would most likely come back and put them on a list in order to see who we should work with first, more or less.

I love the Island.  I read out of the Liahona and found a thought I really liked:  The more we do the things we know we should, reading scriptures, praying, serving, etc.  We become more like God.  Thus increasing our capacity to experience the joy he feels.  And God is number 1 in the world of happiness.  The more we are like him the happier we will be.  It just makes sense.

Love you!

Elder Wilding

 

In the Hollow of my Hand

My beloved family and friends,

Life on a mission is like a train that takes a long time to get going but once it picks up speed there is no stopping it. But time on Sakhalin (I have been spelling it wrong this whole time) is like that train except that train grew space ship wings and is now moving at the speed of light.  I love it here!!!

"What even happened this week?" is what me and King always ask each other before we come.  I hope I can remember more this week.  So Monday we bought groceries, wrote home and then we went home and cleaned our house. You might say it was revelation because our landlords came over and told us we have to move.  Their house is getting repaired or redone and they are going to live in our house.  We spent a good chunk of time on the internet searching for new apartments.  We are hoping to be out in 2 weeks.

We had Russian practice and I learned that in English we used to have the ты (informal word for you) which is thee but the language changed and nobody uses it anymore.  Who knew?  We also got interviewed by one of our local Russian leaders and the whole thing was in Russian.  Speaking of Russian we traveled to a Russian Orthodox temple to see if we could serve with them.  We got the number of Father V, but due to one thing or another we haven't got to call him yet.

We had the chance to do a little home teaching.  We found like 10 museums we could go to and ask for service.  We also found a chess club and even some volleyball courts.  We went to one of the museums.  They didn't really have service but we might come back with a member and it will go better.  Then we had institute and I was the object lesson.  I was tied to a chair to represent the fall.  During the lesson however I managed to untie myself unawares to the others. Plus our teacher made cinnamon rolls after!  

On Friday we went on a beautiful hike with a investigator and some of the members.  We hike up a ski resort that had a gondola.  Even though there is no snow they still ran it but we didn't take it on the way up.  We hiked passed it and almost got lost in the forest that had many fallen trees until we reached the top of a different mountain then we had originally planned haha.  The peak was amazing!  We sat at the top and ate sunflower seeds because Russians love them.  We ended the day with sport's night.

We had a great fast Sunday and strengthened our relationships with the members.  Conference will be shown next week but I was able to hear about half of the women's general session including Elder Uchtdorf's talk.    

It was a good week!  I love it on the island!  

Love

Elder Wilding  

Temple in Sakhalin

 The hike

 With Elder King

 Gondola

In the cabin you can get fresh clean water.  Gondola

The hike

A Sobaka, the temple

Giant nesting doll

Possible new apartment for you mom