SAKHALIN

Hello!

What a week...  I was taken for the pilot of our plane to Sakhalin when we got off.  I was wearing my way nice winter coat and had my military Russian bag on and apparently I looked legit. 

We had so many flights!  When we went to Zone Conference I stayed at the AP's apartment and had a joyful reunion with Elder Crabb if I have ever seen one.  We got new materials to keep us better organized and more focused on our goals and Zone Conference was of the chain as usual.  While I was in Vlad I had three sharmas which still doesn't seem quite enough. We went to Korea and got three sessions in, a trip to Ashley's, dinner with the senior couple from Brigham City and McDonald's breakfast.  I have never been more effective in Korea in my entire life!  The flights were pretty fun.

After Korea I spent a night in the AP Elder's apartment and had some delicious breakfast cake Elder Hess made at my request and got to know a few of the Elders in the mission I didn't know that well.   Elder Bodily goes home this transfer and then I won't have anyone from my same city in the mission.  We got up at like 4 or 5 in the morning (I don't remember which, it was so early) and took a flight to Sakhalin and landed at 9:35 a.m. and on the island (Sakhalin) church starts at 10.  We rushed to the church and made it for sacrament and I gave my testimony in church.  This branch is huge!  Like 60-70 people and it is three hours long which I haven't had my whole mission.  So many people here speak English.  At least half the branch.  Oh man, it is beautiful here.  I feel like I am in Alaska.  Especially when one of the American families who is here working for Exxon invited us over for dinner and we went into their gated community which literally looks exactly like Alaska and is incredibly nice.  We had such a good dinner there and I kinda of understand now what it is like to serve in a state's mission.  Sakhalin is sick and I know it is going to get better and better!

I love you all!

Have a great week I will send pictures next week!

Elder Wilding

Apartment Swap

Welcome!

Might as well start off with transfers.  Elder Nielson and Hess have left the city and me and Elder Staiger are moving to their old apartment, while our sisters take our nice, freshly clean and large apartment.  Serving without sisters for 6 months definitely had some benefits. 

I don't remember if I told you or not but last week we bought a spin trimmer from the Renik.  I think I may have said how the grab broke off after only a few minutes.  The machine shakes so violently in your hands that it made one of our members hands bleed from using it after only a short time.  I tried for myself this week (with gloves) and it about shook me out of those gloves.  It cannot be adequately described in words how forceful it shakes. Just thinking about it amazes me.  

Elder Hess asked me to speak in sacrament again.  Only strange thing about it was that he didn't give me any topic to speak on. And that he let me know about it 5 seconds before I should speak.  It happened again, asked to speak in sacrament meeting over the pulpit.  My mind went searching once again for a topic, anything that I could speak about and I didn't really get much back from my that search.  I could only remember what I had studied that morning.  Which was a talk in the Liahona by Elder Bednar which by the way is an amazing talk.  I spoke a little bit about Tyson and I think I took around 10 minutes again.  It went well with a lot of Russian mistakes.

We deep cleaned our apartment.  We thought we were having sisters moving in on Thursday so we packed up all of our books and I shrink wrapped my clothes and was about ready to go to the other apartment when we found out that the sisters would only be there for one night less than 14 hours and that we could have just left all of our stuff there with out shrink wrapping anything.  That's just life.

We have taught Mr. W everyday for about 10 days and he is progressing marvelously!  The Chinese pamphlets came and it is much easier to teach him now!  He always works on Sundays so it is hard to get him to church.  And he goes back to a city 3 hours out of town in 1 day.  We can't call him and teach him due to the new laws.  It is just a minor setback.  He will be baptized eventually of that I know.

Well that just about fills you in.  It was good to read all the emails and hear everything is going good.  I'm glad to be staying here with Elder Staiger!  I love you all!

 Elder Wilding

I'm a Volunteer

Привет Привет Привет!

It is so good to write home again.  Having a normal workday on Monday was the weirdest feeling ever.  And not writing until today got us all mixed up.  Therefore I am happy to end the confusion.  

My new suit is........... BLUE!  She is beautiful,  I had to get the legs tailored a little shorter because apparently my legs don't agree with my arms.  I was hoping to grow a few inches out here but for as much as i can tell it is not happening.  This transfer has gone faster than any one I have ever experienced.  It feels like I have been with Elder Staiger for 1 day tops.  As of now the prophecy that the last year goes immensely faster is being fulfilled.  We have to move out of the apartment that I have called home for 5+ months.  7 new sisters come in (or 6 I don't know) and they get our apartment and we get to go live with the other elders in their apartment in Slabada.  The changes are to a much smaller apartment and about 20 more minutes away from the church.  But that is a small sacrifice to make to be able to live with 4 elders again.  It is a blast!

Mr. W.  I am so blessed to be able to teach him.  He loves the gospel and reminds me of why I am out here and that I truly do bring glorious news of happiness.  He believes and is happy.  Every time I talk to him he says something in his Chinese accent in broken English very profound and simple about the gospel and I can't help but laugh and smile.  The gospel is joy and he understands that.

We had splits again in Vlad.  I was with Elder Grey and Elder Memmott.  We met with a kid who knows English and can hear any song and then play it on the guitar or piano right after or that is how it seemed.  The next day multiple districts came up to Vlad for a joint district meeting where we talked about the new law and what we could do and what we couldn't do.  We are going to be spending more time in the church now.  Yesterday me and Elder Staiger started to organize the library while we waited to see if anyone would come in.  It was such a mess and we are still not finished.  3 guys came in and we played ping pong with them because for 2 weeks we can't talk about the gospel with anyone besides members.  That is of course unless they sign a paper stating that they are a "follower" interested in learning more about our church.  We set up a soccer game with them on Friday.

I called Vl who me and Elder Lyman taught in Angarsk haha... he is super funny.  He always yells when he gets excited "OOOH OOOH" haha.  He knows some English but usually a word or two and then the rest is all in Russian. In Angarsk I could not understand anything he was saying but when I called him it all was clear.  But that's not saying much because I knew like no Russian when I first got in country it feels like.

We found a big set up poster of Joseph Smith while cleaning out the library.  We put it out in the front where people can see him when they pass by the church.  I'll send a picture of me by it!  

I love you all and am very grateful for all you do!  If you have any questions or more stuff you want me to include in my email just let me know.

Elder Wilding

Change is in the Wind

Дорогая моя семья и друзья

It is good to write to you again!  Many exciting things and changes have taken place this week.  As for the Siberian tiger watch, none have yet been spotted, and we are starting to believe they are not out here.  I was informed last week that America celebrated Shark Week, to all those who were able to watch that consider yourselves lucky.   

A few facts were learned this week as well:

1) My hair should not be cut to 1/2 inch

2) Some German chocolate contains alcohol

3) President Zagorpodnee is an Italian at heart

4) It is possible to sneeze all your energy away

5) Hair takes a lot longer to grow back than I thought

We played some soccer with a bunch of big Russians.  By the velocity of their voice and the look on their faces you would have thought they all hated each other.  That is how they show their love for each other I guess.  After the game we met one of their brothers who lived in Illinois for a year as an exchange student.  He said when he first got there everybody thought he was and because he wasn't always smiling.  Haha completely different cultures.  We got his number and planned to go take a tour of the fire station in town with him.  Turns out it is not allowed so we didn't end up going.  

Me and Elder Hess were on splits on Tuesday.  We made it over to K's.  He has the nicest and was wearing way nice flannel.  He always has some kind of idea of how we can grow the church.  Then he pulled out his accordion and went to work!  He didn't really know how to play but we loved watching him.  

I had a cool experience while teaching a lady who wants to quit smoking and drinking.  Her name is O.  Previous to this experience I was reading about light and how people can see it in your eyes and we talked a little bit about it at zone conference.  I heard tons of stories about other missionaries having people saying that they see light in their eyes.  But that has never happened to me.  And then when we were teaching her she told us she didn't know what it was but we just have something in our eyes.  It was a big testimony builder to me that the church is true and people can see our light.

On Saturday we played soccer and my allergies overtook me and I couldn't stop sneezing the whole time.  It got so bad that my face was covered in sweat and tears.  Sweat from the soccer and tears from the allergies.   I couldn't do anything about it, it was awful.  I think i am going to get rid of my allergies when I get home even if that means I have to get a ton of shots.

As most of you have probably already heard, Russia just passed a new law that makes it illegal to talk about the gospel outside of the church building.  We received instruction from President to get as many new investigators as we can before the 20th when it becomes official law.  But besides that we don't know what we are going to do.  Me and Elder Staiger think we will go around serving people like crazy and play soccer with a ton of people and then somehow try to get them in the church so that we can talk about the gospel.  Basically my whole mission as I knew it is going to change I think.  But I am excited!  It has got to be the better path or else the Lord wouldn't have let this happen.  We'll see how this goes but until then pray for the members over here so that they can stay strong.  Russia in general could really use your prayers.

I am going to buy a new suit today! I don't know what color yet but I'm think gray or blue.   Love you all,

Elder Wilding

Letter from Pres. Perkinson:

Dear Loved Ones,

As we continue to assist the Lord in his Work and Hastening, I request your assistance as follows as it relates to your support of the young and valiant volunteers from your families who are here in Far East Russia.

GOING FORWARD:

In ALL of your correspondence please refer to your sons, daughters, grandchildren, friends, nieces, nephews and cousins as a VOLUNTEER. That designation will be their full time assignment until the end of their service when they return home to you. This also applies to all of your Social Media involvement including private Blogs. Again, remember VOLUNTEER! Volunteer Service, Volunteer Efforts. They will be designated as a Volunteer so please refer to them as a Volunteer, which is different than you have referred to them to this point. Please eliminate Missionary and Proselyting from your methods of communications and posts.

Please, as I have requested before with limited success. Be only positive in your posts in social media and your communication. The Russian People are wonderful, and your sons daughters and loved ones are doing every thing possible to serve and help them in their Volunteer services.

All will be Well! The Lord is in Charge. You should all be proud of your sons and daughters. We love serving with them and love them dearly. Please encourage them to be obedient with exactness.
There is no need for fear, we will bring to pass great miracles through our faith, diligence and hard work!

Sincerely,
John William Perkinson, Vladivostok President

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!

Year Mark Pending: 5 Days

Dear my fantastic family and my good friends,

If I had forgotten that my year mark is almost here, mom definitely reminded me by sending me a lot of hump day camel pictures haha.  It is almost here and it is incredibly weird.  I don't feel like it has been that long, not even close, maybe a few months and that's all.  But I look back and I guess it has been almost a year.  I have had many fun times, happy times, sad times, home-sick times, laughing times and of course spiritual times.  It is true what they told me, when I look back at the first year I only remember the good times.  I'm glad I decided to serve and to be among these wonderful people in Russia.  I'm grateful for all the things I've learned and all the things that have happened which have changed the person I am.  I know it has made me a much better person to serve.  It is amazing how much we receive when we serve.  Almost always it seems to be more than what we give.

The reason I am writing a little later than normal is because we just climbed a mountain with our good pal S!  He is a investigator who told us he knows this forest and he wanted to take us to it.  It was awesome!  We got some good pictures even!  We hiked to the top through this forest!  It was awesome to be in nature! I miss camping so much!  The air was fresh and it wasn't too hot.  We found a tiny river bed and climbed down that and then went to the biggest river in Ussuriysk and sat down and relaxed.  The river reminded me of Alaska when we go and fish in our waders.  The water was low and there was a little rock beach in the middle.

An interesting thing happened on Tuesday.  I met a computer spammer.  He said he spams Instagram and takes everything he uses from America. He was a kind of a weird dude.  Also we had splits and me and Elder Hess were together.  For lunch we decided to have Burger King.  It was good. I haven't had fast food in a while and that was normal, but later that day we met with our taxi driver friend who we befriended not too long ago.  After talking for a little he says, "Let's go to Burger King". We didn't want to but we did anyways. Our cashier worker had tattoos everywhere and maybe the strangest tattoo I have ever seen.  His lower left arm from his wrist to his elbow was just black. The whole thing was black covered in ink.  Anyways to make a long story short, I order two sandwiches and he gave me three and now I never want to eat Burger King again. I felt like throwing up.

I almost forgot, last Monday we made real Borsch with Sister R!  It was delicious and tasty and we loaded it with mayo!  The Russians know how to eat!  We just got some thunder today and it was wonderful!  Thanks again for all you do and for your example and for the support.  I love what I am doing and I love all of you!

Elder Wilding

Shaurma and a Taxi, plus Boris

Dear Dad, Mom bros and everybody else,

It has probably been our most effective week together.  Lessons were lining up and we were having fun having a good time living life in Russia preaching the gospel teaching new investigators, even eating some apple pie. I love being out here!  Russia has been good to us this last week!  And also how could I forget I even got some wood!

So to start off this past week we had a good P-day when I cut Elder Hess's hair.  I think I did a pretty good job!  Then after that we had family night and played Yahtzee card style and the ward enjoyed it and B came who showed up on church the day before and he loved the game and then we had an awesome lesson with B after with Sister P!  

On Tuesday we went to service at K's and cut a ton of wood!  And then headed down to Vlad to be on splits with the APs.  We slept there and had a really good time with them!  The next day I was with my hometown missionary Elder Bodily and we had a great day where I finally got a Bible in Russian, got some more stuff out of storage and had a lesson with a girl named H who is progressing great! I ate two Shaurma's and was in heaven. I traded my tie to Elder Gray for his.  We then went home on a way nice bus for like an hour and a half.  Buses are super fun!  The next day we had district meeting and painted a room in a kindergarten school place!  I got paint all over my hands trying to paint behind this coat rack type thing. Then we met again with B and found out that he works everyday besides Monday through Friday so it will be hard for him to come to church again.  But it was still a good lesson! Our taxi driver was cool on the way over and he gave us his number and we met with him the next day and he brought his girlfriend.  He isn't super interested in the gospel right now but he is really nice.  He took us to a hill over the town and we overlooked Ussuriysk.

On Saturday we had sports night and I got to throw around a football which is something I haven't done for a long time.  It was great!  We played soccer and again I tried to cross it and it went in the goal!

Then on Sunday we went over to S's and he made us a homemade apple pie!  And we met with this guy who came in the church whose name is O.

Love,

Elder Wilding

Doing splits with my hometown boy Elder Bodily

Russia

Dinner

 

Dear family and friends,

I've got my salmon colored tie on with a red pen in my shirt pocket and am ready to write this thing.

To increase my effectiveness in the mornings and nights I made a schedule of all the things I would do in that set time and set the time of how long they would all take and I planned it out perfectly.  They first test that came was the next morning when I woke up and completely didn't follow the schedule at all.  Well at least I tried but by the second day it is as if I never made one.  Planning is fun and easy, but doing that is much harder.  

This week started with me seeing the beautiful streak of lightning across the sky.  Marking my first lightning seeing in the large kingdom of Russia and also the quickest rain storm in all of history.  It was awesome! I just had told Sister P the day earlier that I wished it would thunder and lightning here because it never does and then was blessed with that.  But it did end amazingly quick.  We went out with our heaviest coats and then regretted the decision 5 minutes later.  We played basketball again with Ev and his friend from China came this time.  A, our neighbor, and the other Elder's investigator is going to a boat show in Vlad soon.  Apparently there are going to be boats from all around the world.

We had an outstanding lesson with G.  I met him with Elder Crabb but it has been hard meeting with him so this was our first official lesson with him.  We taught the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was great! Sister P was on it and she really helped us out so much.  That lesson was completely changed by the fact that she was there.  Members are so great!  We had some good conversations with people on the streets in the short time we were able to be on the streets.  I saw a girl that looked just like a girl I went to high school with just a little more Russian.  

At C's house we didn't get to do any service because he took us around his green fields and showed us this little pond and this big tree that we all climbed on.  Unfortunately we had to leave a little early because we had lessons to go to.  He just got a fresh load of logs just waiting to be cut.  Next week!

Sports Night began this last week.  We planned on having a ton of people show but we ended up only having about 8.  But that was ok because me and Elder Sieboch went and played soccer with Muslims from many different countries who spoke many different dialects.  I don't know about he others, but one of them spoke 7 languages including English.  He was from Kazakhstan.  They were pretty good and some were wearing Real Madrid jerseys.  I had the ball one time and tried to do a cross to my fellow team mates for them to head it in but the ball just ended up going through the goal instead haha!  

Church was good.  A couple of our speakers showed up late.  So you know what that means.  Yep you guessed it that means that the missionaries get to speak.  Elder Hess got up first and gave a talk on humility.  I thought I was safe because I was the farthest Elder away from the stand and that distance gave me comfort.  But after Elder Hess's remarks we sang a hymn and I am the branch's conductor.  So I come up and conduct the song and then on the way back to my seat I see that it would be difficult to make it back so I sit on one of the empty chairs on the 2nd row.  Big mistake.  Elder Hess then gets up and announces that I would be the next speaker.  I had about 3 seconds from the time I found out I was to speak and the actual speaking part.  I decided to speak on service.  It went a lot better than expected and I think I took about 10 minutes or so.  I was amazed how most of the Russian seems to come out.  So all in all it was a great experience.  I was actually thinking the other day that something like this hasn't happened to me on my mission yet and then it happened.

Me and Elder Roosa were taking the trash out of the church and on our way to the trash can we heard and saw this little red thing hit the ground.  Somebody threw a strawberry at us and failed to hit their target.  We looked up and saw somebody draw away from the window.  Me and Elder Roosa both wish that it would have hit us and that it would have been more than one strawberry, but what do you do?

At home in our kitchen the stove that we have is an elements stove which means it doesn't have an open flame, it's like Grandpa and Grandma Jo's.  Well Saturday morning that element stove top became a fire burning stove.  I woke up and went and threw some eggs on the frying pan and made way nice eggs  I took the pan off the stove to wash it and I hear the sound of a flame.  I look behind me and the stove top is on fire.  The flame is about as tall as 2 or 3 pencils stacked on each other.  Luckily, it went out super quick but I was prepared, I got a wet rag and threw it over the stove.  Elder Roosa made french fries the night before and I didn't even realize that there was still oil all over the stove.  Crisis averted.  

Last story, my allergies have been going off like never before on my mission.  I sneezed probably 200 times in one day or more and it was awful.  At game night a sister in the ward asked if she could help me.  I wasn't sure what to expect but said yes.  She put her hand on my shoulder and starred at me in the eyes and as I started to walk away after a little bit, she took her and off and said that soon I would be better.  Haha it has been a pretty crazy week!

Love,

Elder Wilding

Service at C's

My study socks - my study face

Eternal Flame, Circus, Russia,  ?

I taped the brethren on the wall and the 1st presidency on the TV

Temple at night

Love It Here

My dear family and friends,

How great is it that I can be here in Russia!  It is absolutely wonderful!  I am so lucky to get called here

To start I have good and bad news,  We played basketball with week! But the bad news is that I am incredibly out of shape.  I was running around about as fast as I could go for the first 10 minutes and then after that my body seemed to shut down.  But the basketball was really fun nevertheless!  We had to pay 80 rubles to play and we played with me and Elder Hess and Elder Sieboch on my team vs Elder Roosa and Evgenni and Vlastik.  They were actually pretty good.  We are going to play again tomorrow!  This whole game was a wake up call for me.  I have committed to eat so much healthier and drink water like there's no tomorrow!  So I need to know what I could eat that is really healthy!

In our weekly English practice we asked for what people want for upcoming English practice.  We got a few answers but the best one was from our friend Mr. Eugene who asked if we would base an English practice on "The History of Kitchens" haha!  And then another person who knows English pretty well said this way weird complicated sentence of big words jumbled together to show off his English.  Good thing we didn't make any promises that we would do the things they suggested or we would be in trouble.

V has been sick and no meetings with him.  Egor our new investigator came to game night and picked up UNO faster than any Russian I've ever seen.  That may sound weird but it takes a while for them to pick it up.  

I thought I would get out of planting potatoes this year because I am about as far away from the garden as I could be.  But the job followed me here, at C's we planted his huge field full of potatoes.  He is going to have the greatest harvest!

Elder Hess's visa came to an end so he jumped on a plane to Korea and we had a trio for a little bit with Elder Sieboch.  Being with more elders is always loads of fun!  We went over to Casha's from English and he fed us apple pie!

We really haven't had any time on the street this week.  It's really good but when I feel like a missionary the most is when I am street contacting and when our schedule is full with meeting people and going to meetings, which is the ideal.  It sometimes feels like we aren't working as hard.  Of course, it's great what were doing it just feels like that.

We had 4 less actives at church yesterday!  For 2 of them all we did was call and for the other we meet with her and her grandson.  It takes only an invitation sometimes to get people back.

In studies I am reading the New Testament about Christ and his ministry and my goal is to finish the whole thing.  

I didn't keep good notes this week of what happened but next week I will!

Love you!  Thanks for the support and love!

Elder Wilding

РОССИЯ

Welcome to the world of Chum Chum

The famous Ashley's

Korea from the air

KOREA

Streets of Korea

Korean Temple Grounds

Korean Temple

 Korean Temple and Temple Grounds

 

Happy Victory Day!

Also Happy Mother's Day all who are mothers.

What a crazy week.  I was probably away from Elder Roosa this week more than I was with him.  With the visa trip, and 2 times being on splits, that will do it.

I was getting butterflies before my trip to Korea and the temple.  It was so great there!   It was just me, Elder Perry and Sisters Merrill and Young.  They rest of our group was in the west and went to Mongolia.  Who knows, one day I might be in the west again and go to Mongolia just like I predicted so long ago in that one game of risk at the cabin.  The temple was beautiful!  We were able to attend one session.  Sister Young met a girl she went to high school with.  Small world.  (She was a missionary too.)  There was also an American couple down there to pick up their daughter who finished her mission.  Me and Elder Perry had some time in the morning to go around the grounds and take pictures.  The weather was perfect and the flowers were in bloom.  Every time I'm there I think of how lucky the Korean missionaries are to serve there but then I think of how cool Russia is and think they should be jealous.  I was glad I don't have to learn Korea.  We went to eat at Ashley's (a buffet), and I covered just about everything I ate in melted cheese and somehow Elder Perry ate a mini octopus.    It was a legendary night.  And I came to 2 conclusions.  Koreans are the super nice and their children are adorable.  The airport has been rated number 1 for 11 years in a row.  It is so clean.  We saw so many American soldiers in line and talked to a lot of people from the states.  It went fast though, we were out in 24 hours or less.  

The Russian's celebrate Victory Day super hard.  I have never seen so many people on the streets.  Den pa-bed-ee, as they say.  They had a parade and there are military men everywhere in their uniforms. I have seen sooo many soldiers this week.  I saw some people doing the Andrus knee dance.  I need to learn!  In the center square there are concerts or performances going on throughout the whole day.  We can't be proselyting after 6.  We are going to the circus in an hour and then have a meeting with our new investigator E at 7:30 so we will be out, but only to get to places.

Splits were fun! I was first with Elder Sieboch and then Hess.  Me and Elder Hess found D and went in the church and played ping pong with him and his girlfriend.  He is way cool and told us if anyone ever tries to mess with us to just call him.  We are making friends left and right now.  Everyday it seems that we see someone we have already talked with and became friends with and it's cool to talk with them.  PS: if this letter sucks it is because the keyboard I am typing on is the worst.  We actually had this guy being annoying today and D saw us on the road and told him to leave.  There is a lot of alcohol consumed on this day.

Sorry this is short - it took so much effort to even type this much because of that keyboard.  But all was well this week!

Love you all!

Elder Wilding

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