"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.

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

From Colorado to Germany and then to Korea

Quite a busy week we just had at us, with all this transfer business (so many goodbyes and new companions), and all of our lessons miraculously lining up, we've been struggling to find time to eat!  

Spring is still in the air here in beautiful Ussuriysk!  With May showers that have continued into June (which look like they will be stretching into the coming month as well) and a light sometimes overpowering breeze, I couldn't ask for better weather!  It is going to get so bloody hot soon I am trying to enjoy it while I can.  There were a few days this week when it rained the whole day and the whole night and my new rain coat I just bought got put to the test.  Basically nobody was on the streets though so contacting was pointless.  It was nice to be in the rain though!

On Tuesday night the Nielsons (senior couple from the Novosibirsk mission) came and did a fireside in the church on the 12 step addiction program.  They are from Shelly Idaho.  Anyways they don't speak any Russian basically and needed a translator so we invited our friend S to come and help them out.  He is our investigator and isn't really interested in the gospel yet but he came to the church and did a really good job translating for them.  The next day we dropped Elder Roosa off in Artyom.   It was a blast serving with Elder Roosa!  He is a great elder who will have a lot of success on his mission.  I am going to miss serving with him. While we waited for Elder Staiger (my new comp) to arrive, we ate at "Noodle House",  really good place!  I got some noodle thing I don't remember the name of now but it was tasty.  Then he got there and we took a bus back to Ussurisyk and made it to institute.  Elder Staiger is from Germany about an hour away from Berlin.  He is a gifted soccer player and speaks Russian very well.  He speaks English completely fluent and I think we are going to get along really good!  He is a funny guy and good to work with!

O is progressing fast!  He always comes to the church, he probably checks the church door 30 times a day or something because whenever we are there he comes in.  It is way convenient because we don't have to call him for a lesson, he just shows up!  Mr. W is still in China but we believe he is still reading everyday and praying.

Yesterday night a weird thing happened.  We met a 14 year old kid from Canada.  He was visiting his grandparents and spoke both English and Russian perfectly.  He was just chilling in the play ground with all these other Russian boys when he talked to us.  

It is nice not having companions form Utah haha. Elder Roosa was from Colorado and now I've got Germany.  Everybody just assumes we are all from Utah (90% of the time true) and when you have a comp from somewhere else they are always surprised.  

We have been in a trio for the past half week with Elder Hess.  He has trouble sleeping sometimes and on Thursday he made blini in the middle of the night due to the fact that he couldn't sleep and when we woke up in the morning we  looked in the fridge and there they were haha!  They were so good!  

Love you all!  Have week!  

Elder Wilding

PS:  I am going to Korea today in like 5 hours!  They are opening the baptismal font specifically for the missionaries!

Happy Russian Easter

Dear Everyone,

Good week.  We were super busy.  That always make the week go by fast.  

Yesterday was Easter!  Ee-soos vas-kress, Poe-istinoo vas-kress.  That is what is heard in Russia on that day.  It means Jesus is resurrected, Yea surely He is resurrected.  You say the first part to someone and they have to respond with the second.  Easter is a big holiday here. They make giant cupcakes for it every year and everyone gets together with their families and either colors eggs or eats them haha, I asked a taxi driver and wasn't really sure what he said but I know it involves eggs!  The cupcakes look great at first and tasty but right when you bite into it you realize this is not a cupcake at all.  Just bread with frosting on the top.  It is quite deceiving.  

They got the fountains going.  That is fun to see everyday now on our way to church.  Russians flock like sheep to this park by our house.  It would be great contacting just it is in front of a government building.  I saw my first Russian cemetery during service at K's!  Imagine our cemeteries, and our grave stones, stick a picture of the person who died on the front of the stone and you've got a Russian cemetery.  It is so cool to see.  The picture is part of the stone and really pops.  I am considering doing that when I die.  I'll try to get some pictures next time to show you because it is awesome.  On our bus home from that same service i lost our phone on the bus.  I got off not realizing anything until we crossed the street and I started feeling my pockets.  I asked Elder Roosa if he had the phone.  Nothing, I looked down the road and the bus was already half a block down the road. I started running as fast as I could down after that bus.  Luckily Elder Hess came running right by my side but he got tied up with this tiny dog that wouldn't stop chasing him.  We were no match for the bus, it was out of sight before long.  I figured we had lost it and started slowing down but Elder Hess came running from behind me and kept on running and that encouraged me and miraculously we made it to the bus at a stop far down the road and I grabbed the phone.  We would have lost all of our contacts and would have had to buy a new phone and new SIM card.  I am so grateful we didn't lose it.

There are so many kids in here playing Call of Duty or something on the computers and they are losing their minds.  They are slamming their hands on the table screaming as loud as they can.  There are so crazy.

On another note, at church this week we had 3 investigators!  That is the most I have ever had I think.  We have this man named Mr. W.  He's Chinese and is trying really hard to learn English.  He has such a thick accent though that I can't ever understand him unless I focus really hard and even them it's like 50 %.  It's so funny listening to him but I can't laugh too hard because that is exactly how it is for us with Russian.  I never thought about the phonetics part of learning a language.  And I think that is the hardest part.  Pronouncing words how they do it so foreign.  Another investigator we have is named G.  The first time he has been was yesterday, we talked to him after and he really liked it but we had to have this mini meeting with our visa clerk lady and we told him we will be back in 2 min.  We came back out and he bounced.  But he called me later that night and apologized for leaving and said he wants to become a member of our church haha!  The Lord works in mysterious ways!

In Artyom we had a joint district meeting.  Basically a zone conference.  We learned a lot about  becoming friends with people first and then teaching them and doing a normal approach but still using our agency wisely and being representatives of Jesus Christ.  The new approach works way better and we are making a lot of friends and getting lessons!

Another week in the books.  Looking forward to what we have ahead.

Love Elder Wilding

Happy Easter

Dear everyone,  

This week was awesome!  It started off by me buying a way stylish hat from a store nearby.  I don't know how to describe it other then by a movie I have never seen but all the other missionaries call it this.  A "newsies" hat.  Or like a golfing hat.  It is great.  So many people wear them down here.  I got a gray one to match my suit.  Apparently it makes me look English though.  We went back to the hospital this week to try to speak with the doctor.  And when his nurse was talking to him she said that two English men want to talk to him haha.  We went in to see him and he asked us what we wanted to know and stuff.  But we were only planning on setting an appointment so that we could come back later with planned written down questions but he wanted it now so I asked how he became a doctor and he said something like 6 years of school and then something online and then he told us that until I was studying that anything he told me would be of no use to me because I wouldn't be using it and then we left.  Even though it didn't go how we planned, we learned something.  You have to go with prepared questions or they will kick you out.  We are going to try a different hospital next week.  

While going through the area book we came to a mans name and this is what it said "АКОП" but the last letter was written to look like n. And we thought it might possibly be the singer.  So I called him and said "Hello, is Akon there" haha.  Turns out his name is A_ _ _ and he is mostly from yzbakistan or something because that is not a Russian name.  There are a lot of people like that here.

Lesson with V_ _ _ _ _ _ was pretty good.  We said that God was his Heavenly Father which he kinda struggles with understanding.  And he also prayed!  But the shocker is when he arrived to church for sacrament meeting!  He came right after the sacrament was administered but he still came!  This is huge - he has never come before!  Elder Crabb called him and told him it was his last Sunday in this city.  Speaking of that we got transfers this week.  Elder Crabb is going to Vlad to be with Elder Lyman and I am staying in Ussuriyisk and will be training again.  My new Trainee's name is Elder Roosa.  I know nothing about him besides the picture that I have seen on the transfer paper.  He looks like a great guy though.  I am excited to train again but this came as a huge surprise.  I thought for sure me and Elder Crabb were going to be together another 6.  I am going to miss him.  I have been immensely blessed with great companions on my whole mission.  Training is fun but the fact that I will be the one with the most Russian is always a little daunting.  But I have learned that the Lord qualifies those he calls.  A promise that I am the uttermost thankful for.  I couldn't have made it this far without that promise.  God is good.  Elder Roosa arrives is a few days and I will take a bus down to Vlad with Elder Crabb and then he will go on his visa trip and I will spend a day or two in Artyom with Elder Gardner until Elder Roosa arrives and then I think we are going to get a ride back in a van.  Logistics for this mission are crazy.  I don't know how they do it.  

On our weekly service this week for Brother Constantine.  The other elders found 3,200 rubles on the ground in the middle of the street.  They picked it up figuring it was ours and then came and did service and then after when they realized that it wasn't ours we didn't know what to do.  So we prayed that God would inspire or give us revelation to whose money it was.  After the prayer we still didn't know, so then we knocked on doors.  We went door to door asking if anyone had lost money.  We didn't want to do this at first because we figured that everyone would just say yes and then try to guess the amount but to my surprise and pleasure everyone was honest and actually tried to help us find the right person.  It might have just been because we were four Americans in a tiny little farm land place but the word got around and people started popping out of their houses to come watch us.  We went to this Asian lady's house and rang the bell and she came out and said that she lost nothing.  So we headed back out to the street when she comes running out of the house with her son and asks how much we found and we said we wouldn't tell her and then she said was it 3,200?  And we were surprised and said yes and gave her the money.  It turns out her grandson was walking home and it fell out of his pocket.  It was a miracle for God to answer our prayer that fast and directing us where to go.  Then after on the way home we all stopped and had a prayer of gratitude for the help.

Thank you so much for the birthday package it was awesome!  Somehow I manged to wait until my birthday to open the presents.  I love the presents!  Also Sister Perkinson called me and wished me happy birthday which was so nice!  I had a great birthday.  I didn't really do anything but Elder Crabb gave me a jar of peanut butter which was much better than a cake!

Thanks for all the letters and support.  I love serving out here!  

Love,

Elder Wilding

My birthday presents

My way nice hat and birthday Panther pajamas and socks

Our way nice meal

Tiger of Ussuriysk

My district

 

A Week of Traveling

Dear Beloved Family and Friends,

I have been on many buses this past week.  I went with my zone leader to all the areas in the zone.  We went on splits with the elders there.  We traveled to Vlad on a 2 hour bus, then took an hour long taxi to Artyom, slept there and woke up and went on splits with Elder Gardiner and Elder Sebach, slept there one more night and then woke up early in the morning and took 3 hour bus to Nahodka, went on a split there with Elder King and Bates.  Slept there that night and then took a straight shot bus home to Ussuriysk that was 4 and a half hours long.  It was really really fun seeing all the elders and seeing their beautiful cities.  Especially Nahodka.   A city on a bay.  I think it is the biggest port in all of Russia.  It was really pretty there but the whole time I was there It rained a lot and I found out I had a hole in my boot.  But I brought extra shoes so it was fine.

In Ussuriysk twice a week we have Russian practice.  That's right I said Russian practice.  We get to sit down and one of the recent converts who speaks no English teaches us Russian.  IT IS SO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!  I learn so much!  This is what I needed so much.  To be taught Russian from a native Russian.  We get to ask questions and it is all coming together.

One of the other elder's investigators lives next to us.  We communicate with him through the windows by turning on lights.  He is honestly the coolest man I have ever met.  He does the Olympic ski jump thing where the jump is way long through the sky.  Also he told the elders he had to run to Vlad to buy a suit so that he could come to church.

OK I planned bad, sorry.  The highlights of this week were, I have a cake by an awesome member with peanut butter in it.  I learned a lot on the trips!  I read our heritage and feel lucky they had it so much harder than us and we have so many more advantages than them.  

I am so sorry I am out of time!

I love you all!

Elder Wilding

SUNSET

Nahodka

Nahodka

Chinese New Year

Hari Krishna