May 14, 2012

From Elder Peterson:

Life here is indeed an adventure.  At times I compare it to my personal Zions camp.  There are days when I just “show up” and pray the Lord will give me the strength to get through the day.  Other days it is a run of little miracles and we can see the Lord’s hand in the work here.  And then an occasional Chuda. (miracle)  I am not nearly as patient as one needs to be here.  The people are learning, fighting, growing, more learning, increased fighting, hurt feelings, and bombarded with propaganda from years past that slows everything even more.  But after all this is said they make small steps in the right direction and rely on us and others who are stronger to pull them along.  Then to your great surprise one gains a testimony and becomes one of the pullers.  The church is indeed in its infancy compared to a well-running Utah Ward.
The strength will be with the youth!  We have organized a Young Adult group amongst the three neighboring  cities.  They love coming to Family Home Evening-FHE and other activities.  This week we had 8 investigators at FHE.  We also taught missionary lessons to three of them before FHE and then another one after FHE.  We ordained one of them an Elder (recent convert) two weeks ago.  He has fallen in love with a great young woman here.  This is the future.  We are working with four who will go on missions.  When they return we get the strength of their testimonies in our Branch.  Every week I am helping the District President establish new principles that will lead us forward.  We are reorganizing two of the three Branches and this will make a significant difference in the work going forward.  I am so involved in all of this that it is very consuming.  Finding and getting Melchezedek Priesthood holders to agree to serve sometimes is another miracle.  But the Lord always seems to provide. What I need out here for some balance is a person to occasionally speak English with.  We are getting better at the language but it is a constant battle.  People don’t understand us and often we don’t understand them and they aren’t interested in us slowing them down.   Yesterday I built a cement wall for 8 hours at a members home.  it felt good to be a different kind of tired. We are teaching lessons with the Elders and Sisters often.  This is my therapy.  They can benefit from our experience and when we help them understand how to include us, it makes a big difference.   We just barely finished a great lesson with a young person who is learning to open up and explore new ideas about God.  The Elders brought her to our home.  Those are our good moments!  I even felt a bit of the gift of tongues as she was very patient and I was able to communicate in complete sentences.  During the lesson I get phone calls from the Landlord, from other Elders, and Mission president who needs info on a boundary change.  Lots of balls to juggle.   We also have two solid investigators who we found and are doing our best to teach.  The Elders and Sisters help us with them.
The gospel is true and has been restored to the earth.  I know this more than I ever did prior to coming here.  God bless you all!

From Sister Peterson:

We actually turned on the A/C today, and I am grateful to even have it; many apartments do not.  It was 86 degrees today which felt good and hot!  I'm sure we'll experience much warmer than that before the season is over.  We went to the district president's "dacha" on Wednesday this last week.  Dachas are basically like people's backyards out in the country because most live in apartment buildings.  Dad helped President Zolotov build his sauna house, and I helped Sister Zolotov in the garden all day.  I told them it was great "missionary work!"  They have a dozen fruit trees, will plant many vegetables, and have bushes and flowers that were started in little egg cartons in her window sill that will flourish now that they are in the ground.  It was hard work, and we were tired and sore the next day!  The Russians talk fondly of their dachas and go at least once a week in the Spring and Summer to tend to their gardens.  It is the place where they "relax" and enjoy nature.  Personally, I think they are over-rated because it appeared to me to be nothing but hard work!  Not to mention an outhouse toilet facility, wood-planked floors inside the little home, no running water--basically, camping.  Oh well, it was good to experience the traditional dacha while we are here.  There were SWARMS of mosquitos once we were getting ready to leave in the evening.  I escaped with only a couple of bites, but not to be disappointed, I came home with over 60 bites after Sports Night the following evening.  I'm sending Elder Peterson on his own from now on!

Speaking of Sports Night, the missionaries invite investigators and all members who want to play to come to the park every Thursday night, and we play ultimate frisbee, volleyball, football catch.  The youth love it, and we get a good turn out every time.  It's been a good missionary tool.

We are working with an investigator, Svetlana, who has met with the missionaries since October last year.  This last week we talked about the Articles of Faith.  She has remembered most everything the missionaries have taught her and has noticed a significant improvement in her life since reading the Book of Mormon, praying, and coming to church.  She has some hangup about the baptism thing; we need to figure it out and work through it somehow.  She loves to meet with us, and her favorite thing to do is sing the hymns.  She feels the spirit most often through the hymns.  That gives me a thought, actually....maybe one time we should just sing hymns, and I'll strategically choose them.  Hmmm, I'll have to think about that.

Pictures:
1 - Standing in front of Zolotov's dacha
2 - Walking down the lane that lines dachas on both sides
3 - Overlooking the Volga
4 - Admiring our handiwork in the garden
5 - The "banna," or sauna being built.  If you look closely to the right of the banna, you can see the bathroom shack!