We have had a good week. We were able to meet with a member family for FHE last Monday. The elders taught an object lesson of how God will provide a way for us to do hard things when we rely on Him (1 Nephi 3:7). The elders helped us fold an origami bird that really "flies." Just by looking at the finished product initially, we would not have been able to accomplish the task by starting with an unfolded piece of paper. We had to rely on our teacher to help us one step at a time towards achieving our task. The kids particularly enjoyed this activity, and I personally felt like a klutz! Patience is also a necessary attribute when we need to do hard things:)
We had Zone Conference in Samara which is always a treat. President Malm, second counselor in the Eastern Europe Area presidency, was touring the Russia Samara Mission and was presiding at the conference. In fact, he did most of the training. He and his wife are from Sweden where six of their eight children currently live within a couple-block radius from their home which they haven't lived in for several years because they were serving in Norway as the Mission President and then other church assignments as a member of the Quorum of Seventy. President Malm is a great instructor, speaks perfect English, and has a great way of involving the missionaries in the discussions. He taught the principle of the Plan of Salvation in a way that I loved thinking about. He portrayed a picture of someone standing on one end of the room holding a string and another person standing on the complete opposite side holding the other end of the string. In the middle of the string, he tied a small piece of ribbon into a knot. This small piece of ribbon represents our earthly life, the string to one side represents our premortal life, and the string extended to the other side represents our post-mortal life. We talked about the time we live on earth being so short compared to the time we lived before and will live after our earth life. We especially thought about how much learning and experience we must have had in our premortal life in order to prepare for our time on earth. That preparation was so important to our mission here on earth. Each of us has a mission to fulfill while we are here, and we have such a small amount of time to do it in. I like thinking about this concept because it motivates me to want to seek out and seize opportunities. We are still in the learning process and information-gathering stage of our existence that we need to learn all we can in order to add that learning onto what we already know but have just needed to set aside until we move on to the "other side of the string." Honestly, I'm not motivated to go back to school or anything crazy like that:) But I do want to prioritize my life to doing things that matter most, things that will benefit others and hopefully teach me things about myself along the way. President Malm assured each one of us that our mission calls to Russia came from the Lord. We prepared for them before we were born, and we can have confidence in the Lord to accomplish this part of our missions while we are here.
We loved hearing from Sister Malm, as well. She was baptized with her family when she was 14 years old. Sister missionaries knocked on their door in Sweden, and Sister Malm recognized one of the sisters as the "angel" she remembered coming to her in her dreams as a small child to calm her fears. This sister missionary explained her disappointment in having to remain in this particular city instead of being transferred as she had requested. This experience let her know why she was meant to stay in that city and find this family to teach. I know the Lord directs each of us to be where we need to be. We just need to have faith and then recognize and follow the promptings of the Spirit in order to be an instrument in His hands.
We missed Sister Sartori at our zone conference. Her 97-year old mother passed away just two days previous to the conference and so she flew back home to handle matters there. It is hard to be away from home at times like that.
Our opening social for Seminaries and Institute was Saturday night. Elder Peterson was asked to share an experience from seminary which he did, all in Russian. I am so proud of him! The members are amazed at his desire and ability to speak the language. We are the first American couple to serve in this area who have tried to speak Russian and, believe me, it's not that much and it's very bad! But we throw out what few words we know and maybe one of these days we'll be able to make some resemblance of a sentence. Until then, we smile, butcher the language, and nod in agreement :-)
We made it through the end-of-the-summer water pipe treatment, meaning no hot water this week. It's interesting that we adapt and just chalk it up to "that's just the way it is." We had running water, and it wasn't orange so it's all good.
The elders and sisters are helping us meet with the members as well as including us at investigator meetings. Even when I'm tired and don't feel like going one more place, the miracle of service takes over and somehow I feel energized and happy when I'm there. Our members here are so great, and we love getting to know them better each time we're with them.
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