Hello America!!
We started out this week, well Tuesday, with Zone Conference. Elder Senkens of the 70 (from Latvia) and his wife were our guests! It was AMAZING! President and Sister Nechiporova spoke and the Zone Leaders and Assistants to the President! IT was SO wonderful! He told a story that I'd like to share with you. When their son was about 3 years old, he still wasn't able to speak. They took him to the doctor and the doctor said that everything was fine and that it was normal for boys to start talking at a later time. When he turned 5 he still wasn't talking. They took him in again, but this time the doctors said that he was mentally retarded and they couldn't do anything to help him. Not wanting to give up, Elder and sister Senkens did a lot of research and found a program not recognized by doctors that helped children like their son. The brain doesn't stop growing until the age of 8 (interesting that's the age of accountability when we're baptized huh?! :). So they work with these kids to get their neurons working properly. Elder Senkens and his wife went to a week long seminar in Philadelphia and were in classes every single day learning how they could help their son. At the end of the week they formulated a program that they could use to help him. I was able to talk with him for a little bit after the Zone Conference and he said that it was just a lot of movement, crawling, doing a ton of exercises all day to get their sons body working. He said that he literally saw the lame begin to walk and the blind to see! They returned home and looked at their 5 year old son lying on the floor. He wondered how he could ever help him understand everything that they had just learned, and why he would have to do these things everyday that were SO hard! They told their son, "your brother and sister have a job. They go to school everyday and study. I have a job and have to go to work, and your mom also does many things that are her jobs. Now you are going to have a job. If you do your job well, all will be well with you! "This is just like Heavenly Father's plan for us! We are his children and he loves us SO very much. HE also has a plan for us, and if we follow and do his plan, all will be with us. But we must trust Him, because ,"Verily, Verily, I say unto you, ye are little children, and ye have not as yet understood how great blessings the Father hath in his own hands and prepared for you." (D&C 78:17). We cannot understand all that God has in store for us, but as we trust Him and follow His plan for us, all will be well!
I felt frustrated this past week as I couldn't really talk to people and I couldn't share what means SO much to me! Russian has stresses on the words, so even if you say the word right, but you put the stress on the wrong consonant, people can't understand you. Elder Senkens also talked about light and truth. As we study and gain intelligence we gain this light. That light is from our Heavenly Father. We don't have to prove our message is true, we just need to bear testimony of the simple truths. I know that it's true because as I've tried to follow my Savior, I've come to know him personally. And I know that He loves me, he loves the missionaries, he loves every single person in Russia and wants them to know of His plan and follow Him because then all will be well with them. (I don't know if you want to share this next part I'll write in parentheses in the e-mail to everyone who isn't members but these are some quick thoughts/scriptures you should study)
(I studied more about what Elder Senkens said. It's really interesting and you should study them! d&C 93:36 and 93:24. Science can't define what light is, but we know that it's intelligence. That's why God is full of light, because He knows everything and has gained intelligence. And that's why the more intelligence we gain in this life, the greater advantage we have in the life to come D&C 130:18-19. As we gain intelligence we become more like Him and receive more of His light! And James 1:22-27. Our church isn't just a church. It's something we BECOME! It's a way we live and who we are! We strive to become like the Savior and do what He would do if he were here!)
This week we taught Alexander and told him that next time we will come prepared to start the quit smoking program with him. We asked him to read the Book of Mormon everyday and pray in order to prepare. We told him that we would be praying for him and I knew that many of you were also praying for him! Thank you SO much! His wife and he were very touched when I told them I knew that my family was praying for him! We called him the other day and he said that he had woken up that morning and read 3 chapters from the Book of Mormon. HE said that he hadn't smoked as much that day and was going to try not to smoke at
all the next day! He said he felt like our prayers were working! He is SO great! We fasted for him on Sunday and asked another family in the ward to also fast with us.
A miracle also happened this week! I have been able to understand more of what people say!! And if I can't understand, I can at least differentiate between the different words!! Thank you for your prayers!
We started knocking there little houses this week. I got my first sunburn because this lady talked to us for a good hour and the sun was right on me! Rostov is blooming and beautiful! Every once in a while Sister Undezjorova just like to stop and smell the flowers! But soon it will be SOOO hot!!
The other day we walked by a track and found out that it was free and open from 7-8 pm daily!!!! WE had to wait until P-day to go, but we went today and OH MY GOODNESS IT WAS THE BEST THING TO RUN FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 5 WEEKS!! My normal daily routine must help a little bit because I glad I was able to run 4 miles in a little under 32 minutes!!! yayaya!!! well... hopefully their track is the same size!! IT felt SO good! Just wanted to share the joy!!
Statue of the postman!
Jesus Christ is Risen!!
My sunburn... ouch!
Some of the beautiful flowers.
Sister Undezjorova and our friend Frisky!! He followed us around
town as we contacted for a good hour or so!! a little disruptive, but
a good friend to make us laugh!
town as we contacted for a good hour or so!! a little disruptive, but
a good friend to make us laugh!
This picture is for Martin! haha We don't know what happened to
our former investigator... haha
our former investigator... haha
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