Sakhalin: Transfer 3

Добрый День  

I'M STAYING!!!  Elder Lawrence from St. George is flying here after zone conference with me and our sisters.  Sister Arrington is staying and Sister Kapralova who is Russian!! is coming.  And also serving on Sakhalin is a senior couple named the Severookin's who are also Russian!  They will start their mission in a few weeks in the eastern half of our mission.  They live here and I have already known them for a while.  So that means that district meetings are going to be held in Russian!!  How exciting and that a lot of papers are going to have to be translated from the advanced English of our leaders into Russian.  I'm excited!

I don't know why and I don't know how, but we haven't gone grocery shopping for like 2 weeks maybe 3 now and we still have food.  We should probably go today but we'll make it even if we don't.  We are leaving Monday (hence why I am writing today) and are returning Thursday night.  9 volunteers are going home on the 7th. This zone conference a ton of time is going to have to be devoted to departing testimonies.  Elder Crabb who I served with in Ussirysk is one of those returning, when we were together he had a little more then I have right now.  Life's crazy.

I got my hair cut.  She told me she was going to try something new and I really had no say... and now I have find of a fo-hawk. 

 As you could see in the pictures when the construction crew was constructing that massive Christmas tree, one of their trucks popped on its side haha, besides that I haven't heard of any other accidents.

We met with an most interesting man - Ки.  His name was in our phone so we gave him a call and finally got to meet.  He was just in Moscow and had a meeting with Putin.  He showed us pictures.  He works in politics and is a very funny guy. 

Last night was the going away party for Sister Bouwhiss and Elder King, talk about a try out!  The place was packed with people.  My sisters that I came in with are in the group that is going home.  Luckily they go early and me late!  

The snow keeps on coming down!  The future looks good.

Elder Wilding

 The tree going up

Haircut

Russian Thanksgiving

Dear my family and friends,

A lot has happened, it is amazing how much more when I write on Saturdays.  Right after I wrote you, we got a ton of snow!  Everyone was shocked because it is still November and this much doesn't usually come until late December early January.  An American member who has been here 10 years said he hasn't seen this much snow this early ever.  Needless to say I am counting my many blessings.

Then the anticipated trip of the AP's coming.  They arrived on Sunday night and they ended up knocking on our next door neighbor's door instead of ours.  Somehow we forgot to tell them we moved ;).  I was with Crabb on the split and it was just like good old times!  We went to 3 people and by the end of our trip Elder Crabb was wishing he served here on his mission!  He denies it but we are in that place.  I convinced both of them to buy fox pelts before they got on their plane back to Vlad.

My Thanksgiving this year was quite different than last.  I actually celebrated it this year.  The Americans invited us over!  They bought the turkey in Japan and somehow transported it here.  It was massive!  We had everything and more, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pie and all the goods.  It was a day to be remembered.

At church an inactive member brought in his friend and we are going to be teaching him on Wednesday.  I taught in Elders Quorum.  And we are our branch president's home teaching companions now!  He is an amazing man, the elect are here!​

Love you!  Elder Wilding

 THANKSGIVING RUSSIAN STYLE at the AMERICANS

 Shoveling snow like a boss

 The tree going up

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!

Sakhalin State of Mind

My dear family and friends,

I am delighted once again at the opportunity to write to you.  I'm greatly blessed by all your prayers and letters for which I am truly grateful.   Also thanks for the package Mom and Dad.  I was informed that I couldn't open it until Christmas so it has been sitting in a corner for a week now but thanks to the use of modern technology, I have been found that I have been living underneath my privileges and actually can open them.  How lucky we are to have email.

I am pleased to say that I am the owner of a fox pelt.  Bought off the Renik for not too much.  She is a beautiful orange color.  I also bought a Shopka that makes it so that my ears will never be cold again.  But I can't wear it outside yet because I would get some strange looks.  It isn't cold enough yet.

We set up for the branch Halloween party but weren't able to attend due to a lot of things I don't want to get into.  We had some awesome snow storms when it was just pouring on us and we thought within a few hours it would be above our heads.  That isn't exactly what happened but maybe sometime soon!  Turns out there is a chess club on Sakhalin and when we went it it was only filled with guys 60 and up.  And when we sat down a man said to his friend, "I thought you said the youth don't play.",  and he may be right in my case because I got destroyed.

We had a cool experience where we went to visit a less active but had no way into her apartment building but on our way there one of our friends who lives there saw us and let us in.  The Lord prepares a way!  She wasn't home unfortunately, but we left a Liahona with an Asian man who opened the door.

While getting haircuts at our members hair cutting studio, her co-worker was there and we started to talk to her.  She was very interested in why we were here and what church we are from  and because a member of the church was there she was able to explain the things that we couldn't!  We are seeing miracles everyday!  Also a miracle we did a service project a little while ago at an orphanage called House of Hope.  While on the streets we met a man we met there who said that ever since that night he couldn't stop thinking about us and was so sad we didn't switch numbers!

And on Sunday we had a marvelous fast and testimony meeting.  A family who has been in America for about a month and a half just returned (they were even in Brigham City) and they all bore their testimonies of the temple becasue they went to many in America.  And the mother said that in the scriptures you read how America is a holy land but when she got there everything was the same as Russia she said.  But she noticed that everyone smiled and that there were a lot of believing people and that she absolutely loved that.

I am so lucky to be serving right now!  I love my time out here and am beyond blessed.

Love Elder Wilding

Pik Chekova

Hello one and all,

Oh man, I put this off to the end again, sorry!  Even more snow has gathered on the ground since the last time I wrote you.  My winter clothes from last year.  I just need boots and I'll be set.

A few church members took us hiking to Pik Chekova, a famous mountain on Sakhalin.  I for one reason or another did not bring enough warm clothes on the hike and everyone looked at me like I was crazy.  One of the members was nice enough to lend me his scarf.  It was pretty warm most of the hike considering there was snow all around us.  The only part that was bad was when we got to the top and it felt like we were on Everest -  the wind was blowing so fast.  We didn't stay there too long fortunately, and I still have all my fingers and toes.

During Russian Practice S our teacher told us a little about the history of Russia.  It sounded a whole lot like what happened in the Book of Mormon to me.  A lot of people denying the throne but instead of judges, imposters took power.

There was a representative of the institute program who visited and we have a conference with him.  Despite the meetings we played Floorball which is street hockey in a multi purpose room and we went bowling.

We had some more home teaching and had an awesome lesson with a member we went to last night.  He has had many experiences of when it was obvious that God's hand was in his life.  It really does seem that when people live righteous lives they end up having some really amazing things happen to them.

Good week!  I am still loving it!!!

Love Elder Wilding

Hike to Pik Chekova

 

Snow Is Upon Us

Dearest family and friends,

Snow is on the ground!  And that means that we are just that much closer until it is covering the cars.  We talked to a woman today that said you can go to sleep with not much snow out and then wake up and open your front door and only see white.  And then she proceeded to do swimming motions showing how see gets to work when it's that bad.

Transfers came and went without any changes on our end.  Me and the King are together another six.  I was nothing but glad.  I don't really have any desire to leave this place and am hoping to spend as much time here as possible.  The sisters stayed as well.  

We took a hike on Monday in a thick fog.  We didn't have much of a view when we reached the top.  You could say we were in the clouds.  I wish I would have had a jar on me to catch a cloud in.  I've always wanted to do that ever since I was a little kid.  We climbed to see an old crashed USSR airplane which everyone had heard about but no one had seen.  That remains the same to this day.  We couldn't find the thing.  It was a shame but alas, we had a good time.

In the coming week we may be participating in an English club at our local library.  We'll see where that goes, we might have to make some kind of power point.  I don't know. Anyways, my sisters that where in the MTC with me go home at the end of this transfer.  Talk about time flying.

A large part of our week was spent working on less active work and making lists and seeing who we can go visit and whose info is correct and whose isn't and so forth.  We got into 2 houses with positive people inside.  We are hoping to bring them back to the fold and I think we have a really good chance with one of them.  The work of this next week will be largely spent on going out to more people.

I taught priesthood in church.  We had a home teaching appointment.  We made a huge batch of chum chum that lasted us more than half the week.  President has us send him every night a miracle we saw that day.  We are truly blessed.   I would invite you do do the same.  Expect and record the miracles you see.  If you don't expect them they won't happen consistently.

Life is good!  I love the members and love it here.  

Elder Wilding

King's coat inside out

With statue of Lennin

That says Utah smoke, Soback

What a beauty - Sakhalin temple

What we built, smile rock, fog