Miracles and Celebratio​ns ~ November 14, 2011

Krasnodar has gotten COLD!!!

First off!!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BIG BROTHER AMMON THIS WEEK ON SATURDAY!!  I love you SO much and hope that you have a FANTASTIC day!!!
But I am now officially ready... I think!  Amy took me shopping and for the first time in my life I think I found EVERYTHING that I was looking for in one trip!  I got a coat, boots, and 2 hats.  Amy and I had wanted to get matching hats.  We had found the same style of hats but not in the same color.  Just as we were leaving, giving in to what we had found, I saw a part of the hat we liked under a big pile of hats!  It was another one of the hats \that we had found!  So, in the end we got our matching hats!  We were very excited!  This past Sunday we met the newly returned missionary for the first time.  He is way cool and wants to helps us with EVERYTHING in our work.  He even took a look at our area book--where we write all the records of members, investigators, in actives, etc. haha  We took him on a lesson with us this week to our Branch President's house.  Our Branch President is SO funny!  Once he gets talking you can't get him to stop!!  And he will literally like hold you captive at his house! haha  We had been wanting to have a lesson just with his wife that day but he had taken time off of work to be home, so we grabbed Oleg and dragged him along with us to keep the President distracted so that we could talk with his wife!  It was rather comical!
We met with Tatyana again this week, the older lady in our ward who wears really red lip stick.  I had read that day in the New Testament the parable of the lord who forgave his servant 1000 talents and then the servant went and would not forgive a man who owed him but cast him into prison.  We shared the parable and talked about forgiveness.  It was so cool as she shared a little bit of a problem that she was having right now with her neighbors and said that she had really needed that thought about forgiveness.  We also met with her a little later that day in order to help her know how to use the ATM!! haha  When we said goodbye she kissed me.  As we were walking down the street later sister zamorina turned to look at me and started laughing really hard as Tatyana had left a big bright red set of lipstick marks on my cheek!! haha

We had a mini birthday/thanksgiving party at District Meeting this week to celebrate Elder Hansen's and Sister Zamorina's birthdays.  We played the game where you tell part of a story go along in a circle each person telling a little bit of a story.  The theme was an assisted living place and there was one place where Elder Belnap had a line from Old Tom.  It won't make any sense, but he said, "Geraldine, your nylons are too tight!"  I started laughing SO hard that I couldn't stop and I started crying from laughter!! haha!  Elder Hansen ran and grabbed his camera to get me on video! haha!  Good times at District Meeting!  I love my district.

This week has been a good week and we have seen some miracles.  We have been trying to make some kind of daily contact with our investigator Raisa.  We usually drop of some kind of little snack with a scripture or something everyday. 

We went over to her house one night to drop something off quickly, but before we got there we got a call from Dima.  He asked us what our plans were for the night because he wanted to come and then could drive us in his car.  Because he came on our next lesson we were able to sit and talk with Raisa and give her a little spiritual thought.  It was small, but was a miracle that we got to talk with her for that little bit of time.  She is really hard to meet with and get in touch with.

Another miracle this week happened when we had headed to the church for a lesson that fell through. It had been a way rough morning and I was just really down emotionally.  As we walked to the church I was just crying.  For no particular reason, just really sad and worn out and down. That week we had tried to get in touch with our investigator Lubov.  She had lost her cell phone and then a man said that the home phone number that we had was not correct.  We didn't know what to do to get in touch with her again.  When we realized that our appointment had fallen through Sister Zamorina asked if we wanted to plan at the church and I could just talk or vent or do whatever I needed to do.  I said that we should get our hour of contacting done.  We headed out from the church to go contacting and there she was on a walk with her dog coming towards the church looking for us!!  We then had a lesson with her and set her baptismal date!  I'm so amazed how the Lord always makes everything work out in His timing.  Sad to have a lesson fall through, but we wouldn't have been at the church to meet Lubov if that hadn't happened.
Yesterday was Sister Zamorina'sLidya's that night.  I gave the spiritual thought that I remembered dad had done a long time ago for FHE where we right down something that we do that makes us "rebel against God" (from the story of the Anti-Nephi-Lehis where they buried their weapons of war.  At first they had just laid them aside but then when the lamatnites came against them to battle they did the next step and buried them so that they wouldn't even be laying around as a temptation for sin.  We all wrote something on a piece of paper and then buried our papers in the garden!  It was really fun! :)  Thanks dad for the idea! Well, I got food poisoning again... so hopefully I'll make it through the surprise party for sister Zamorina we're going to right after this!! I hope that you all have a GREAT week and that you know how very much I love you!!!
This morning I read a scripture from the Book of Mormon that I love.  It's Alma 26:12: "Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." 

We can't really do that much.  We just need to follow the rules and do what we're supposed to be doing when we're supposed to be doing it, then the Lord works all the miracles and can make us an instrument in His hands for good!

Love you all,
Cectpa Cunningham