Hello Hello! The dead of winter is here and it is getting colder! The snow piles around me are getting so high that they are taller than me! I am very excited for spring to come! But, the work of the Lord is still going forward! People are reluctant to talk to us, (I would be too it being this cold) but you gotta do what you gotta do. The coolest part of the week was when we were waiting in the branch for our investigator to come and then we got a call saying he couldn't come.. well our next meeting wasn't for two hours! So, we had two choices in front of us 1) stay inside where it is warm and take a bus to our next appointment or 2) Show our faith and man it up through the cold whether for a couple hours and walk to our next appointment. Well, after talking about it we knew what we had to do so we went outside and walked... it was freezing! The worst part of the whole thing was that God did bless us! Ya that is right I said that is the worst part of the whole thing because he blessed us with contacts! We talked to people and got contacts, but the last thing I wanted to do in the freezing cold was take off my gloves to write down their name and number of someone (because I can't write with gloves on)! I have never not wanted to get a contact before on my mission.. but that is what I was feeling at this point. Well, of course when everything was said and done and I was warm I was glad that we did what we did and I was grateful for the blessings.
The mission is great! I have still not talked to Sasha because I don't want to make things worse.. but I am just waiting for the right moment to talk to him to just keep in contact with him. We had an awesome lesson with one of our investigators from a neighboring city though! His name is Slava. He is 20 and is baptist. He has a really cool conversion story. When he was younger he got beat up at school and so his mom, to keep him away from those things, sent him to a Russian Orthodox school. He explain that the Russian Orthodox leaders taught and taught but they never opened the Bible. In fact, he said that they told him not to open the Bible and read it and that they were right. (which doesn't make sense because they claim that they believe in the Bible) But, he got skeptical so he read the Bible and then started asking them questions about why they do things contrary to what Jesus taught. They told him he sounded like a Baptist and to leave and never come back. So he did lol. He left and his life went downhill. He was smoking and drinking, but throughout this whole time he was still reading the Bible. Finally he came to the realization that what he was doing was not what God wanted for him. He got down on his knees and he prayed to God to take this addiction of smoking and drinking away from him.. he said he stood up and he was urged to read the Bible. He read the Bible and couldn't stop. From that day on he never had an urge to smoke and drink. He became a baptist and has read the Bible 16 times. He searched about our church and found the missionaries. (It was Elder Malanin my old companion in Kazakhstan) So they gave him a Book of Mormon and he read it. He really likes our church! So we met with him yesterday when he came into town and we had a great discussion about the Trinity! He said that he doesn't like how his church is not unified and that is what he likes about our church. We talked about the Book of Mormon and asked if he would be baptized if he came to the knowledge that The Book of Mormon was true and he answered of course. The spirit was very strong! I also asked if he had ever been to one of our Sunday Meetings and he said no. So I asked the Forsyths if he could sleep over at their house and then come to church the next day. They said yes of course and he came to church. I asked him how he felt after church and he said that he has not felt what he felt at our church in a very long time! Slava is great! He is a miracle! Now we just have to help him realize that God is telling him that everything is true! :)
Me and my comp are doing great! He is a funny guy! Or at least that is what people are telling me because I still don't understand his jokes! He is very experienced with small branches and how to help them become more unified and organized so he has brought a lot of help and knowledge with him that is really going to help this branch and it's members! :) Well I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing
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