Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Subject: More Baptisms and It Is a Small World!!!

Hello Family and Friends!

What another amazing week! Pavel was baptized on Saturday! Ya three baptisms in two weeks... at this rate we will be catching up with Brazil in no time! I felt really honored to have the opportunity to baptize him. The service was very spiritual! There are two amazing clips that you have to watch that we watched after the baptism... The Reflections of Christ, and Come See the Light! Wow! TALK ABOUT AMAZING! Pavel is doing amazing and he had a really great experience with the Holy Ghost the other day that I think is worth sharing. He was getting ready to walk out the door and come to the church for a meeting with us and he went to his car and realized he forgot his keys. He said that has never happened before. He went back inside and he found his keys and started going out the door and the keys just fell out of his hands and dropped on the floor and then he heard a voice tell him to not drive today. It is just a small experience and who knows what would have happened if he didn't listen to the voice.. but I thought that was a very impressing experience considering he just got baptized on Saturday! Pavel is amazing and was prepared to receive the gospel! He even told us an experience when he met missionaries in another city that he lived and while talking to them he realized that our church was too good and that he didn't deserve to become a member of such an amazing church. Haha it is so interesting how things work out!!

Now... IT IS A SMALL WORLD AFTER ALL! Elder Borodin and I were teaching an amazing member here. Her name is Sister Kyznetsova. Well I found out that her daughters live in Utah. Then she said that her oldest daughter lived in Herriman and then moved somewhere else. I said that is where I am from and she was really surprised! She explained that she has been there about 3 times in the past 5 years. She started asking what street I live on and I said that I live across from the "Prayer House" aka the church building. She said that is where her daughter lived! Her daughter and son in law is Craig a Elena and I forgot their last name but... I saw I picture and now I totally who they are! They were in our ward but moved a few years ago!! She started talking about Bishop Briggs and how when she was at our ward everyone was so nice and Bishop Briggs came and saw her after church and all this crazy stuff and I was just in awe and didn't know what to say... so I said the next thing that came to my mind, "I probably bless the sacrament that you took that Sunday!" Overall it was a really interesting experience and now I have found my favorite members of the church here in Voronezh... or so I thought...

So there is this old, stubborn, hardworking, loving man in our branch here named Boris... I hope that you already understand where I am going with this... He is grandpas twin! We went over and helped him move firewood and almost everything he did reminded me of grandpa! He had all of the work organized and set up with all of the tools and special carrying devices (which I am pretty sure he made by himself) and he would show us how we should do it and then let us try and then just say no no no let me show you how it is done right. IT WAS JUST A SIMPLE TASK OF MOVING FIREWOOD! Hahaha I felt like I was home working with grandpa again! All I could do everytime he said we weren't doing things right and he wanted to show us how to do it was about grandpa and all of the many working experiences with him. It just brought a smile to my face haha. So.. maybe Boris will be my favorite member :)

This past week we also had Zone Conference. President Wooley came to Voronezh to change the Branch President and his councilors so we had the conference here. We found out the departure date of my companion and he is leaving for sure on the tenth and that same day I will be getting another Greenie! So.. looks like I am going to be training again. but this time the kid is from America not from Ukraine! I think his name is Elder Eliason but I don't remember for sure. I am pumped! It is going to be so awesome! Greenies bring so much Spirit and Enthusiasm to the work!

Well, I guess that I will see you on skype Sunday night! Jordan said that he is skyping for 45 minutes so maybe I will call around 9:30 Utah time so that I can see him for about 15 min! Well you are all awesome! I love you! Remember who you are!

Elder Weihing :)