We
had an enjoyable District Conference this weekend. The Kiev Temple
President and his wife came and spoke. They are from Sugar City, ID,
and have been mission president in Novisibirsk, a mission couple in
Ukraine, and now temple president. That’s a lot of time in Eastern
Europe. President Galbraith speaks Russian somewhat. He served his
first mission in France. He gave a Saturday morning youth fireside
which was so good. One of the things I appreciated him talking about
was the valiancy of premortal spirits who knew of their destiny to come
to Russia, a country that would have to wait for a long time to realize
religious freedom. More and more, I realize the incredible challenge
and miracle of these dedicated Saints to be members of the Church under
difficult circumstances. I feel so humbled to serve amongst them!
President Galbraith also talked about how our spirit combined with our
mortal body makes up who we are here on the earth. Many of our
decisions in life require our spirits to overcome our natural man
tendencies in order to retain the integrity of our moral values. It is a
daily battle.
We also had a great meeting with our
investigator, Svetlana. She is probably in her 40’s. She has met with
the missionaries since October, but they don’t meet with her anymore
because they don’t believe she is progressing. So we have stepped in
because we know she is developing a testimony and will be baptized some
day. She just has a hard time making decisions and isn’t ready to
commit to baptism. This week she bore her soul and told of her change
of heart since she has been praying, reading the Book of Mormon, and
attending church. Her relationship with her husband, friends, neighbors
have changed drastically. She explained how she used to wake up angry
and have no desire to accomplish anything. Now she wakes up happy,
works hard all day accomplishing what she wants to get done, has civil
discussions with her husband. We are so happy for her and will meet
with her again this next week. We have been able to develop a
relationship of trust and admiration and continue to pray she will have
the courage to get baptized. We told her we wanted to come to her
“dacha” to help her work. Many, many Russians have summer homes called
dachas that have been in the family for years. They are located out of
town where the Russians grow fruit trees, vegetables, plant flowers and
bushes, etc. The disadvantage is that many use it as an excuse for not
coming to church.
1 - Elder Peterson in our front yard
2 - Investigator Svetlana
3 - President and Sister Galbraith, Rada, Arsini
4 - Sister Peterson in our front yard
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