September 3, 2012

We had great Fast and Testimony meeting today. Two little primary girls began with sharing their testimonies. I love listening to children bear their testimonies regardless of which language it is in. These two little girls were doing some serious coaxing trying to get their friend who they were sitting next to, to bear her testimony. Eventually, all three of them held hands together and went up to the pulpit. It was very cute! Dad also bore his testimony and had several compliments on his Russian. We are noticing that we understand a lot more than we used to also which is encouraging. A few of the YSA bore their testimonies and mentioned how much they enjoyed the Moscow conference. Generally, there was just a particularly good spirit about the meeting. One funny thing was watching Elder Bullough, a new missionary in the branch, trying not to crack up while he was leading the music because a wonderful brother was singing in his usual vigorous voice right up on the front row. The rest of us are accustomed to it, but Elder Bullough was experiencing it for the first time. One of those things where you had to be there, but it was pretty entertaining.

We're trying to gear up for a new year of Institute/YSA. Our family home evening last week was a room full of missionaries, one member, and one investigator. Everyone must have been recuperating from Moscow Conference or something. We put together a flyer and handed it out at church today trying to drum up some enthusiasm for a new start. Institute instructors were sustained in Sacrament Meeting, the opening social is this Saturday and then it's time to get going. It looks like we'll be studying Book of Mormon this year.

We visited Grandma Svetlana this week. She is the babushka who helps us with our Russian and listens to us read in the Book of Mormon. She helped us with a spiritual thought we had prepared. In the middle of our thought, she jumped up and went directly to the kitchen; apparently, she had left something in the oven and it had baked to a crisp! I hate when that happens! I do that a lot, too. We are always happier when we leave Svetlana's. She is such a wonderful person and is so kind to help us.

One of our investigators who the missionaries have been unable to reach for several weeks showed up at Sport's Night Thursday night. That was fabulous! He actually had a baptism date but things didn't come together and his work began to require most of his time. We were glad to know he hadn't forgotten about us and is still interested in the church. His time priorities have shifted and we hope he will be able to start up again where we left off.

We had a big district meeting Friday with 10 elders and another companionship via telephone. We love serving with these elders and sisters. They work hard and are good examples. They're getting wet these days, too, since it has been raining. Summer has gone. We are looking forward to Zone Conference this Tuesday because we will see many elders and sisters who we haven't seen in awhile. President Malm, second counselor in the Area Presidency, is touring the mission this week and will be conducting the conference. President Sartori has told all of us to look our best! So our P-day will be a shoe-shining, clothes-pressing, hair-cutting day!

We have been asked to study three different talks for our zone conference this week. One is about covenant making, another about learning by faith, and another about teaching. The common thread in all of them is that this gospel is a gospel of action. We can't just go along for the ride. As disciples of Christ, we need to exercise faith, fulfill callings, live the gospel. We are definitely anxiously engaged in a good cause, and I know the Lord will help us and enable us when we have faith to do things even when we don't know beforehand what we should do. It just requires moving and taking those couple of steps into the darkness, relying on the Lord to light our path. This is a great work! We are so happy to have a family who all strive to live lives as disciples of Christ. Have a great week!