"Well that was unexpected" [McKay's Last Mission Email]

***Hello family and friends of Elder Wilding.  There have been some big changes the past couple of days concerning our son McKay and the Vladivostok Mission. We received a phone call from Salt Lake on Saturday informing us that McKay would be returning home in four days instead of 46.  We got a phone call today informing us he will be coming home even sooner.  He arrives on Tuesday May 23 at 7:45 pm on Delta Air 311  His mission has been dissolved and is merging with the Novosibirsk Mission which is directly west of his. The official church press release from the First Presidency is below.  We are so grateful for your support of him through these past two years and have faith that the Lord's servants have been guided in this change.  We will be grateful to get him back on American soil! Our prayers are with the other volunteers as well as his Mission President for their obedience and faith in doing what they have been asked to do, as well as with the Russian saints who will feel a great loss from this change. 

Thank you again for your support!  

Jodi  

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What's Up! 

I'm coming home!

This week was crazy, probably the craziest week on the mission. It all started back on Friday night when we were on a lesson with Konctantin. We didn't even start the lesson yet and got a call from the AP's saying that we need to come to Artyom with the 1st River Elders either that night or in the morning. They told us that we would be having a meeting with President Perkinson tomorrow at 8 in the morning and that we should be praying to accept the will of the Lord. Well, right at first we are freaking out having no idea what is going on or what will happen. We don't know if it is just us or the whole mission. So we ended up just reading the testimony of the 3 witnesses with Konctantin, saying a quick prayer and ran back home. We took a taxi (because of how late it was the buses had stopped running). We get there and find out (to our relief) that the whole mission will be on this meeting and not just the two of us. That night we spent there, I didn't sleep much. Not because I was nervous but because everyone was talking forever and I couldn't fall asleep. So the next day we go to the Artyom church building and see President his wife and Elder Samaykin of the 70. Before we start our meeting we had to get the rest of the mission there through Skype. They just told us that Elder Samaykin was here on assignment from the 1st Presidency and that last Thursday while in the temple they received revelation regarding us. He told us that your mission (the biggest mission in the world) and the Novosibirsk mission (the 2nd biggest mission in the world) are getting combined. And that a new mission president would be coming in about a month to preside over these combined missions and that due to the fact that it is now one mission it doesn't need two mission presidents and that the Perkinsons will be going home. Along with 4 elders who would of ended their missions in 6 weeks but now will be going home this week. And that 10 Elders who would have gone home in 3 months will be reassigned to stateside missions to finish their labors. It was a shock. It was a complete shock. Then the Perkinsons talked to us for a little bit and bore their testimonies. A lot of people were crying, mostly the ones going to the states. After the meeting president gave me Barr and Perry our departing interviews. It was really good, unexpected but good. I received the news that we need to move out of our apartment as soon as possible and that we would be closing the area. They said we would learn when our planes leave as time goes on. 

So that's basically the story. I am going to miss Russia a lot... But I'm going back to America! I can't wait to see all of you! It has just happened so fast! I love you all! The mission was the best decision of my life! I have loved every second out here! It has been sooooooo fun! It has changed me! I love the Russian people! I love to be a missionary! It has been the best time of my life.

See you soon

-Elder Wilding

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First Presidency Announces Mission Merge in Russia

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released the following statement Saturday regarding the merging of two missions in Russia:

The First Presidency announces that effective July 1, the Russia Vladivostok Mission will merge with the Russia Novosibirsk Mission. Doing so requires fewer volunteers to staff the combined mission. In anticipation of this change, volunteers from the Vladivostok mission who were to be released in July will return home in late May, and volunteers who would have returned home in August will be reassigned and complete their service in missions in the United States.

President and Sister Perkinson, who have presided over the Russia Vladivostok Mission for the past two years, have been released. We are grateful for their years of faithful service. The Europe East Area Presidency will supervise the combining of the two missions.

Happy Happy Mothers Day! С Днём Матери!!!

Привет) -- (that is how the Russians do smiley faces, without eyes)

I wish all the mothers and especially my own mother a very happy and rewarding Mother's Day. None of us would be here without you, thank you for all you do and all you have done! A mission is a perfect place to be on Mother's Day because you come to realize just how much your mother really does do you for. Skyping home today was happiness! 

President Martino of the 70 and Elder Drachov (also from the 70) came and visited our mission this week. We had an awesome zone conference about how we can improve our work and had principles taught that will bless me not only on my mission but forever. The invitation to act is always the most important part. That is the only way we will become. Elder Martino taught the difference between a follower and a disciple...a disciple wants to become like who he is following. And not only wants to but works to. Elder Drachov is so so funny! He is from the neighboring mission and really had good experiences with missionary work that he shared with us. And he has 6 kids! That is almost unheard of in Russia. He told me that I looked like President Monson! I don't know if I agree, but of course I was flattered.

A lot of members flew in from Sakhalin for the District conference that was held the following day and it was good to see some familiar faces. We had the great opportunity of taking Вася (a 17 yr old from Sakh) on splits with us into the work! All of our plans worked out which in itself was a huge miracle! He is a great teacher and a exceptional young man. He will be an outstanding missionary!

On Victory Day we were able to see the parade and take in a little of the Russian spirit of this special day. They had so many casualties from WW2.  We were able to see the posterity of those who died carry a picture of their ancestors on a stick during the parade. The crowd was as it seemed numberless and it seemed that there was no end in sight of all those hosting a picture. There was also many cool military vehicles. We were able to meet with our friend from Zambia who brought his friend from South Africa. While we were together we ran into people from India (they area lot darker than the movies show) Brazil and a few other countries. All these people are at college at the university on Russian Island. When we were walking around by then it was amazing and funny at the amount of people that asked to take pictures with them. They say it happens everywhere they go. And someone joked that they should charge 50 rubles for every picture. If they did they would be loaded in no time.

I know this is God's work. He leads and guides His church through His living prophet Thomas S. Monson (who apparently I kinda look like). I love when the members of the 70 come. They are proof of what happens to a person when they live a Christ centered life.

Love,

-Elder Wilding

 SKYPE ON MOTHER'S DAY!

Emergency blankets for emergency situations

uhhh.. that is a big podezd...

Xpam

Look at our stairs

One of the elders got pooped on by a bird!

Letter from his Mission Pres and wife:
Dear Brother and Sister Wilding

This weekend has been a wonderful uplifting and spiritual gathering for the members of the church here in Vladivostok! 

Saturday morning we were early in our seats prepared to greet the Europe East Area President Martino and the Area Seventy Of East Russia Gracho for a marvelous spiritual feast! We were encouraged to build the foundations of the branches where ever we serve! We were invited to prepare a 3-5 minute talk on Diligence. Elder Sanders and Sister Arrington were called upon to deliver.

We reviewed Images of Christ and read brief reviews of what the Apostles taught about Christ at our last General Conference. We were encouraged to ponder these messages and seek for more personal revelation each time we study the words of Christ.

We were encouraged to read the white handbook as to the opportunity to talk to our mothers on this Mother's Day. We do hope that you enjoyed you Mother's Day phone call and we honor you with good choices! Thank you for your prayers in behalf of the work of The Lord!

Sincerely,

President and Sister Perkinson

Vladivostok Russia

Service With the Nuns!

Gracious Greetings!

I actually took notes in my planner this week of what happened so now I don't have the excuse that I don't know what happened. I wish I would have done this sooner, it takes like 2 minutes to do it but it is the difference if I will remember my mission or not. Also because of this my journal writing has gotten better! What a awesome week we just had. 

To start it off we had a radical family home evening with a recently married couple who has a frenzy for Farkle. We discussed the beautifully simple truths of the doctrine of Christ and they feed us some tasty pastries. Later in the week they called us over to help them do a pemont (repair) on their house. We pulled up the roll out floor lining in one room and then helped them lay down a new floor. My allergies were going nuts the whole time. Speaking of service we officially are out of the old church building. We had one last sweep of the building. After that we were asked to transport around 30-40 suitcases from the 4th floor to an apartment that is just a block or two away.  The suitcases belong to all the elders and sisters who brought two to their mission (you usually have one and keep one in storage). It went fast because all 9 of the volunteers was there to help.

On Tuesday we helped our investigator K get started on his family history. Before we started he showed me pictures of the outside of a zoo that he went to. He let his kids go in but he wouldn't go. He said it was because it was too dangerous haha. Then on the way home that night on the bus I got a phone call from an Elder in Artyom and two 30 year old women got very excited when they heard me speaking English. They always think that we're Brits!

On Wednesday we met with a tall less active that is involved in a pyramid scheme. I spent basically the whole time trying to convince him that he was in pyramid scheme to no avail. Poor guy. And Elder Bacon found this guy from San Diego in the same cafe we were in. After that we went and met with our friend J from Zambia and he had with him his friend from South Africa. They showed us their campus and we saw how cool it was. 

We had service with the nun's! There are two nun's living in Vladivostok who are from America and they called us up to see if we could come and help them clear out their attic. The house they live in used to belong to someone else and there was SO much junk in there. Let me list a few of the things we found: a dog's skull, a mouse caught in a trap who had been there for probably 5 years already and so many fish movies. I was on the wheel barrow the whole time and when they brought things down from the attic, I wheeled it over to the dump that was a football field away. We moved a lot of stuff and put some of the things in the wrong area and had to move it again. Then nun's also fed us lunch! We had chicken with rice with some amazing jam! We were able to hear what they believe and we told them what we believe. 

I love this work! Hopefully we can start teaching more in the future!

Elder Wilding

Dear Brother and Sister Wilding

It truly is a blessing to serve The Lord and His children here in Vladivostok where the Church is stronger and the people are so friendly! The opportunity to meet together as a Vladivostok District once a week and review names and talk about spiritual matters is a wonderful blessing! 

We welcome Sister Jossie from the West and realize that this is her last transfer before her 18 months come to an end. We also welcome Elders Gee and Elder Barr from Artyom who travel far to get here and are always welcome. Elder Wilding invited us to prepare for Zone Conference with the Martino's by reading Alma 4-7.  Elder DeSandre offered a prayer and led us in the Mission Statement. 

Our topic of spiritual discussion was from the Preach My Gospel, chapter 3, lesson 2 second half of the lesson where it talks about the Atonement of Jesus Christ for as we rely on the Atonement of Jesus Christ, He can help us endure our trials, sicknesses, and pain. We can be filled with joy, peace, and consolation. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We talked about the spirit world and judgement day and the three degrees of glory and how we are truly blessed to have this knowledge! It gives us even more reason to be urgent and diligent in our desires to share this Gospel of Jesus Christ!

We humbly kneel together as a District before the Lord to plead to know how best we can accomplish His work among His people. We are grateful for your prayers and support as we strive to do our best daily.

Sincerely,

President & Sister Perkinson

Vladivostok Russia

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)

Churikinhood Living

At the start of this week I said all of my goodbyes and wrote in a few members transfer journals.  We went over to a sweet families house on Monday for FHE and gave them one of my name-tags.  The mother has a tree that she made out of name-tags with probably already around 20-30 names.  I was honored to leave it there.  That leaves me down to my last and final name-tag that is magnetic.  I don't know what happened to my others, but maybe they will turn up one day.  Then the next day we taught R the Plan of Salvation (which went good) and ended up going to another family's house for dinner.  I played one of the kids in chess that almost feels like a little brother to me and he beat me, it wasn't even close.  I beat him last time and was planning on leaving with that winning streak but he insisted we played.  Serving with Elder Lawrence these last 2 transfers I consider some of the funnest of my whole mission.  It never really hit me that I was leaving until I was already gone.  I really miss Sakhalin.  

We flew in to Artyom on Wednesday day and traveled to Vlad to try and meet with a man that Elder Lawrence met on his plane to Russia.  He wasn't there unfortunately but we had Sharma so I was happy.  Then we flew to Korea the next morning and were able to get into two sessions and perform baptisms and confirmations. Actually, that was the first time I have ever baptized anyone. It was excellent being in the temple. It always gets me ready for what is coming next.  It is a great feeling.  The next morning the Nielsons (senior missionaries there who are from Brigham City) took us up to a little outside work out area.  It was a great trip!

We made it back the next day to the motherland safe and sound.  We finally made it to our apartment Thursday night.  We are in the area of Churkin also now as Churkinhood.  It is a good place.  Kinda away from the center of town.  It takes 40 min. by bus to drive to the church. The city is HUGE.  We take a lot of buses and a lot of our money goes to those bus drivers.  The city is super hilly and extremely windy.  I get sore just from walking around and it is much colder than Sakhalin.  The branch is amazing!  So many cool and nice people live here.  Apparently the activities we have get huge attendance.  I have heard a lot about his city and whether or not they are true only time will tell.  I'm happy to be here.  Being whitewashed is a little bit of a struggle.  We don't know any of the members or investigators and sometimes when we call they are a little confused.  Getting to know the city is a fun adventure.  We haven't got lost yet! Elder Bacon is great!  He is from Arizona and has been on the mission a little over a year.  He is a wiz with directions and only needs to be somewhere once in order to know how to get there again.  It is 100% thanks to him that we haven't got lost yet.

I love you guys!  

Elder Wilding

***The photos below are from McKay's Mission President's wife along with this note:

Here is our new Vladivostok District: Chapman, Gee, Barr, Carlson, Jameson, Wilding, DeSandre, Williams, Burningham and Bacon. 

We want to thank you for your part in preparing Elder Wilding to serve the Lord here with us! 

He is a good Elder and is now serving as the District Leader here. 

We thank you for your many prayers in our behalf! 

*(2nd photo)-Saturday we discovered a little secret! Several Vladivostok Priesthood Brethren were gathered at the church doing 

some secret crafts! We are not sure what they are for, but we have a hunch because in Russia "Women's Day" is soon!

Sincerely,
President and Sister Perkinson
Vladivostok Russia

These are from McKay: 

*I had to crop out the Russian

President's Visit

 Dear Family and Friends,

It is great to write to all of you again after another successful week.  I have been winning the battle with my journal for a few weeks now for whether or not I will write in it.  I might be gaining massive amount of weight because we are back to eating chum chum for a crazy amount of meals.  Only time will tell.  Promised blizzards have been phonies, it just has got colder.  Maybe in the future will we finally get those promised snow storms of which I heard so much about.

We have been getting out early in the morning to try and catch less actives with good success!  Many promises of church attendance.  Many times we have prayed over specific people to be home when we go over and our prayers have been answered!  

One of our less actives works as a seamstress and I had some pants that needed sewing and we went over to her with a member and were able to meet her and also get my pants fixed.  

From Wednesday to Sunday President and Sister Perkinson came down to visit us on Sakhalin.  We went to many members houses with both of them and had interviews with President.  It was good to see them.  Simply being around them we get so much wisdom and knowledge.  Spiritual and temporal.  At one such visit we had dinner with a family consisting of the parents and two young daughters.  One of the daughters who is 5 years old really likes blonde hair and blue eyes and throughout the entire night was giving me drawings she had made haha.  

During President's talk on Sunday he gave a talk where he told Elder King he sent him a talk that he was supposed to print off and give it to all the men in the church.  We spent all of 2nd hour printing and self stapling because we couldn't find a stapler. Turned out a lot better than I thought.

It was a good week as always.  President really wants us to focus on service and getting to know the people of the community.

Love Elder Wilding

Letter from Mission President and wife with photos below:

Dear Brother and Sister Wilding,

We have been blessed to be able to visit the Sakhalin Branch this week. The members are blessed with strong branch leaders and influence of American strong members of the church! 

We are also very grateful for the strength of our young volunteers as they strive to uplift and give support to the branch members. 

The District met at the church early on Thursday. Afterwards we attended Institute.  We met with A wonderful young family that we were able to visit and teach and feel of their desire to return to full fellowship in the gospel inspire of difficult circumstances.

Friday President had Interviews lined up with the Elders and Sisters!

Saturday it started snowing! But that didn't stop us at all! 

We were able to visit a few more families and feel of their goodness and help them find joy in living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Sakhalin Branch Building was filled with light and goodness this Sunday as each Elder and Sister took part in supporting and serving the members.

We are very grateful for your love and support! Thank you for your prayers in behalf of this mission and these wonderful Russian Saints!

Sincerely,

President and Sister Perkinson

Vladivostok Russia

Another great memory: check out this purple cake that was as delicious as it was beautiful!

Zone Conference

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Let me start this email with a disclaimer: due to my allergies which have for some reason taken over me today I took a Benadryl which has weakened my capacity to think clear becasue of how tired I am now.  Nevertheless I will strive to write you all a report of what has happened in this past week with as many details as I can remember.

Might as well start of with our amazing zone conference which was presided over by Elder Martino of the 70.  What an outstanding teacher!  He was if not the most powerful teacher I have ever witnessed in person, at least the second.  We learned so much from his teachings on revelation and other important topics.  He opened up the scriptures to us, he encouraged us to be more sincere and to think outside of the box so far that no one has ever tried the approach we choose to take.  I was quite uplifted by his presence.  I have noticed from the general authorities that have come and taught us that their remarks and their general conference talks usually are a part of what they teach to us.  But I don't realize that until after they come when I read their talks.

We also experienced an amazing miracle while looking for service.  We heard that other volunteers have had some success with talking with other churches and serving with them, so we decided to give it  a try.  We first went to the Russian Orthodox church and asked the nice lady in their store outside the temple if we could serve with them.  She kindly told us that in order to serve with them we would need to be baptized in their faith and she even agreed to arrange the whole thing with one of their priests at no charge to us.  Thanks but no.  The next church we went to was the Bible church which was remarkably hard to get to and the entrance to the church was covered with overgrown grape vines and we even thought that maybe it wasn't a church anymore because we saw wet laundry drying on the grounds.  We yelled "allo" and a very nice Korean lady came out and said that yes indeed they are still a church but no indeed they have no service.  2 strikes.  We started our next task of finding the Korean church of the Peace Church.  We asked around and were led down many wrong paths until a large man who we saw earlier that day told us where the Peace Church was.  And this is when the miracle begins.  We walked in and immediately comes a 25-30 year old man down the stairs of the upper building and asked if he could help us.  We told what we wanted and he said follow me.  We went to the back of the church and there was four tables covered with people eating plove (Russian dish with rice and pork) all laughing and enjoying themselves.  We come in and he introduces us and sits us down and offers us food (which we turned down becasue we had just barely eaten) and started asking us a million questions and the whole time everyone was laughing and cracking jokes.  They are the nicest people and as fate would have it they had service planned that exact day in 30 minutes.  We talked to them for a little while longer and then a man who teaches karate to children came and picked us up (me and Staiger with a few members of their church) and we went and washed mats that his students play karate on.  There were endless piles of these mats and we had to leave after about 3 hours and probably didn't even get halfway done.  When people ask about the church and we can't tell them, it's sad because we know this message can change their life.  Like for example the dude that took us to the back when we first got there asked us after learning that we were Mormons how we know that our church is true.  I wanted to testify that moment about the Book of Mormon.  So there are some challenges with the new law but we are actually making better friendships now and before the law there is no way we would have gone to those churches to look for service.  There's good and bad.

I bought a miniature dolphin ice globe when we went to that dolphin show with Elder Roosa and I brought it to Vlad to put it in storage but I forgot to take it out of my bag and on the way home it broke and the water inside destroyed my planner.  What are you going to do?

I might take a nap until P-day is over.  Word of advice, never take a Benadryl in the morning.

 

I love you all so much!

Elder Wilding

Area Presidency President Martino.

From President and Sister Perkinson:

Dear Brother and Sister Wilding,

We want to share with you a little bit about our East Zone Conference.

The East Zone met together on Saturday August 27, 2016 with Our new Area Presidency member President and Sister Martino. 

It is always exciting to come together and prepare to exchange ideas and be spiritually uplifted! The counseling comes to each of us especially from the spirit! 

Our topic for this conference was on personal revelation and many were assigned to study and prepare to teach one another. 

It was a wonderful day together with the Volunteers from Sakhalin, Khabarovsk, Ussuriysk, Nakhodka, Artyom and Vladivostok!

We are grateful for the opportunity to serve the Lord and His children here. We are grateful for the power that come thru the many prayers in our behalf. We sincerely thank you for your support of love and faith!

Sincerely,

President and Sister Perkinson

Vladivostok Russia

Happy Fathers Day or in Russia Ascension Day

Good Monday everyone!  I'm staying in Ussuriysk!!! Elder Roosa Is bouncing to the west like a Siberian tiger and is companions with Elder Butler who served here.  Every elder who serves here either goes to Vlad or Irkutsk, it has it has been that way ever since I arrived in the mission and even a little before.  And there are no exceptions either.  It's nuts!

My life just got cooler by not having an American comp!  His name is Elder Staiger and he was born and raised in Germany.  He has been on the mission one transfer less than me and speaks good English.  It should be a outstanding transfer coming up!

I have memorized a "pushkin" poem thanks to K our Russian teacher.  He is the best poet Russia has ever known and they love him for it.  They just finished a statue of him and put it on the corner of a street named after him.  It should help us gain some respect from these people.

Mr. W is still pushing away and reading and loving the gospel like anyone could ever wish for but is in China for 1/2 a month.  That means no contact, not even phone calls until he gets back.  He is going to the church there and ask them some questions about the Book of Mormon so we pray that everything will be well with him.

I started on writing my letter home at least a month ago and still haven't got to finishing it.  The paper I choose is so huge I never realized until I got started so I need to do something so I can get it sent this week.  Also went to a dolphin show which was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.  He rode the dolphins like a surfboard! And that wasn't even the coolest thing.

For my year mark we burned a white shirt.  It was one of the ones that I came in with with the way huge neck.  I was happy to get rid of it!  It was fun to burn and think about all the good times.  I really have had some good good times!  We had sushi to celebrate and it was better this time than last time I ate it so maybe one day I will come to love it.  Elder Sieboch bought me a delicious chocolate cake!

President Perkinson came to the branch on Sunday by surprise.  It is always good to talk to him.  He somehow always inspires us by just talking to us and not even saying things that I would say to get people inspired.  We are lucky to have him!

Well that's all for this week.  I am going to Korea next week on Monday so I might write a little early next week.  I only went 6 weeks ago but they are trying to get us all on the same schedule.  

Love you all, have a good week!

Elder Wilding

Some tidbits from McKay's companion's letter:

-We took a taxi ride and the driver gave us some free lighters as a promotion. We bought a million incense sticks and lit a bunch of them on fire at once to make a very nice smelling torch. We also burnt Elder Wilding's shirt on his one year mark. We didn't have a great place to do it so we went out on the balcony and put it inside of a pot. Elder Wilding kept holding onto the shirt forever and i thought he was gonna burn himself, but he was able to get it into the pot at the last minute. Overall it was nice to have a little campfire, no matter how strange the circumstances. The lighter finally ran out and I think I will avoid buying more.

-We met a guy who's job is just to spammed instagram with useless information to try and break down the site, kind of like a DDOS attack I think. I'm not sure why someone was paying him to do this but he acted like it was a completely normal job.

-We were teaching a guy and he was complaining about how many drunks there are in Russia. I tried to say "That's not just in Russia, that's in America, in the whole world" but he thought I said "America is the whole world". He got a bit offended but my buddy Elder Wilding was able to explain it before he got too mad.

Letter from his mission President and wife (with photos):
Today is Sunday, and if we were in the United States we would be celebrating "Father's Day. So Happy Father's Day to you. So today we met at the Ussuryisk Branch and enjoyed a wonderful Sacrament meeting with these great missionaries.

Elder Wilding led the music. Elder Roosa and Elder Seibach gave beautiful testimonies of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And Elder Hess sang a beautiful solo, "Abide With Me 'Tis Eventide" that he had pre recorded of himself accompanying. 

We had 36 in attendance at Church. Three branch members spoke about the blessings of the Temple, Charity and the Law of Chastity. Then President Perkinson had the missionaries stand and recite the Vladivostok Mission Statement, which the branch enjoyed very much. 

Sometimes the members have a mixed emotions about transfer week, because some of their current missionaries are being transferred to other cities. Above all, the Ussuriysk Branch members are grateful for the service of these fine missionaries! 

Thank you for your support, your prayers and your testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Thank you for doing your part to share the "good word" there at home.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Perkinson

Vladivostok Russia Mission