July 23, 2012

   Thought I'd start with telling you something good. Our Minute-to-Win-It activity Saturday night was a big success. We counted close to 15 investigators--our district missionaries are so awesome in calling from their area books and inviting people to come. We achieved our goal for investigators attending but missed the mark for ward members being there. We still had over 50 people there which was good. We had 10 different games for both young and old. The kids had a blast. Elder Peterson rigged up some fun music to play while the games were being played which made a huge difference to the party feel of the event. Each of the missionaries was a team leader and helped get everyone involved. I was too busy to take any pictures but hope to get some from some of the members who were snapping a few. Now we need to have another successful party maybe for Halloween, and the word will get out to the members that they will want to come and participate.
   Our FHE activity this last week was a water balloon festivity. After being in the 90's the past several days, the weather decided to turn rainy and cooler on the day of our activity--after we had spent over an hour filling water balloons. But the kids still decided to go ahead with the activity; we just didn't have the number of kids we were hoping for. We played water balloon volleyball where paired groups throw a water balloon over the net using a towel held between them and the opposite team catching it on their towel. The success of the activity was all our neighbors watching the fun. We had a couple little kids join in, and now they always say hi to us when they see us. We have a little playground right in front of our apartment building where we played. We have had an investigator here for a few weeks from Moscow visiting her Mom. Her name is Tanya, she's 34 years old, and is awesome. She has come to church every week she was here, every activity, every FHE. She wants to be baptized so we're hoping that happens when she returns to Moscow. She has really been involved and willing to "put herself out there." She even came to our apt. early
on her own last week before sports night to bring us vegetables from her dacha (they were delicious). She brought me a small gift to church today as a thank you for being her friend. We told her we would call her when we're in Moscow next month for the YSA Conference. She doesn't speak any English, but we'll at least be able to talk a little bit.
   We've also been meeting regularly with Arsini, a convert of over a year, who never really had a testimony and doesn't understand much of the doctrine of the church. He admires Elder Peterson and his knowledge of the gospel and is hopefully internalizing some of what he is learning. He is wanting to learn what the Holy Ghost feels like; we challenged him to pray before he reads the Book of Mormon this week, which he does
every morning but has never prayed about it. He is 32, the best example of service from members, speaks English somewhat, and seems to be making progress towards gaining a testimony.

1. Rada and Sister Upshaw
2. Elder Morris and Dima
3. Elder Peterson and Stas, Alisa and Valya
4. Tanya from Moscow and Sister Pearce