Last night we went to see Sister Nina, the district RS president, and
her nonmember husband, Ramon. They will be leaving on December 3 to
visit their daughter who lives in Virginia and will be gone for five
months so we won't see them again before we leave. Sister Nina
presented us with one of her homemade crocheted place mats as a gift to
remember them by. That was so kind of her. She does so much for the
sisters here and will be sorely missed for the next few months.
We had District Conference this weekend which meant our mission
president and his wife were here, along with a visiting area authority,
Elder Gushin. I thought I'd just share a couple of things they talked
about that stood out to me. First, President Sartori asked us, "Where
is Zion? Salt Lake City? Missouri? Russia?" Zion is in each of our
hearts. In order to build "Zion," we each need to strengthen ourselves.
This is so important because regardless of how many church members are
in a particular location, if the members themselves do not have
testimonies or are not committed to serving the Lord, Zion cannot
flourish. The Russian Saints are wanting so badly to have stakes of
"Zion," but they first need to strengthen their own testimonies and
commitments before reaching towards other goals. This is applicable to
all of us, no matter where we live.
President Sartori also pleaded for members to help in missionary work.
Within our mission, only 2-3% of people who are taught from
missionaries contacting them on the street are baptized. 20-30% of
member referrals are baptized. Our district of three prior and now two
branches, has only had one baptism in the last year. The church wants
to send eight more missionaries to the mission and President is
wondering what areas to place them in and keep them busy. The area
presidency has not approved opening any new cities yet, so the
missionaries would need to be put in existing branches that already have
at least two sets of missionaries. Bottom line, they need people to
teach and are working so hard to make that happen. Member support is
critical to furthering the work.
Elder Gushin is from Novosibirsk. He actually knows Elder Ririe, a
missionary from our ward, as well as Sister Cropper, our MTC Russian tutor.
They have both served missions in Novosibirsk. He had many stories to
tell about his conversion and his family's experiences. He told the
story of him and his wife being stopped by sister missionaries on a
bitter cold day back in 1996 (can't remember the exact year for sure).
Back in that time, he said the missionaries were allowed to stay inside
if the temperatures were too cold. But on this day, these sister
missionaries felt like they needed to be out on the street. Elder
Gushin and his wife were the only people who stopped and talked to them
that day. Elder Gushin said he will be "infinitely" grateful for them
and that they listened to the spirit that day.
He also explained that the apartment in which they live is the same
apartment his wife grew up in and the building hasn't had any new
neighbors move in or out in many years. Finally, they had some new
neighbors move in and so they went to introduce themselves. Over the
next few months they became friends. After some time, the neighbor
mentioned to Elder Gushin that he noticed their family leaving the
building every Sunday morning very clean and dressed up. He couldn't
imagine where they would be going at such an early time in the morning.
Surely there weren't any theater productions at that time of day!
Elder Gushin explained that they were going to church. He gave his
neighbor a Liahona to read, and they have had more opportunities to talk
about the gospel since then. This story illustrates the power of
example! I remember when Elder Peterson and I were living in Oceanside
and Rachael and her family came to visit on the weekend. We all went to
church on Sunday, and our neighbor who we had become acquainted with
made a comment the next time we saw her that she saw all of us dressed
up and going to church. It really touched her to see a family attend
church together. She asked what church we went to and we were able to
talk with her about it. I love the thought that such a simple thing to
us is a huge example to others.
The last thought I have is what Elder Gushin said about taking offense,
which is a huge problem here. He said that if someone does something to
offend you, write down the offense on a piece of paper. In time the
paper will fade, be torn, or even thrown away. If someone does
something nice to you, write it on something sturdy that will last
forever like a stone. Basically, forget about the negative and focus on
the positive. Such a good lesson...
Then, finally, I loved the song we listened to on "Music and the Spoken
Word" last night: "If you're worried and you can't sleep, then count
your blessings instead of sheep and you'll fall asleep counting your
blessings." We have so many blessings, too many to even count. We are
so thankful to all of you, our family and friends, for your love and
support. We're thankful for a loving God who knows, loves and blesses
each one of us. We are thankful for missionaries. We are thankful for
the good news of the gospel and know it is true! We hope you have a
wonderful Thanksgiving week!
1 - Elder Malloy and Elder Gushin
2 - Elder Gushin and Brother Vagik
3 - Elder Gushin and Elder Bullough
4 - Alona, Yalena, Klimov's, Oshepkov's
