Yet another crazy week! I really don't even know where to start! Last weekend I went back to Yaroslavl for yet another baptism! It was BOMB! His name is Pavel. He is fifteen year old kid and was the last person that I found in Yaroslavl right before I left! He is going to be an amazing missionary someday! I had the privilege to confirm him a member and give him the priesthood. Coming back to Yaroslavl was like coming back home. Being in a bigger branch in Voronezh and then going back to a small branch in Yaroslavl has really made me realize how different the two places are! It was so awesome to be in Yaroslavl because the branch is growing so much and they are seeing so many miracles right now! I was able to see and talk to Sasha and Serdar and Pavel and see how they are doing. It was so humbling to see everyone and talk to them all... what an amazing place!
So, when I got back from Yaroslavl my companion wasn't in Voronezh. He got sent to another city to work another missionary who was also stuck all alone. (Actually he got sent to work with Elder Anisiforov, so if you didn't put 2 and 2 together that means that both of the people I had trained were serving together) So, I was stuck to work with another missionary in Voronezh who was all alone too. His name is Elder Fish. A great guy and missionary. We had the whole city of Voronezh to ourselves for about two days! We had some SWEET lessons! I will tell you about one lesson that we had last night...
We met with a guy named Denis. This man had approached Elder Eliason and one of the AP's when they were on splits one day and said that he was a past investigator and wanted to start meeting with us again. So, we started meeting with him. We soon found out why the elders had dropped him because he really doesn't do ANY progress. He is a great guy and fun but just doesn't DO anything. So Elder Eliason and I started talking about dropping him. We just started calling him less and stuff like that. Well, last week when I was on my way to Yaroslavl I got a call from him asking why we hadn't been calling him. We talked and I decided that we should meet with him when I got back. So last night we met with him. We invited a member who knows him pretty well and we met with the member about 30 minutes before the lesson to prep him on the lesson. Well, the member told us how Denis had approached him and talked about how he was having trials and depression because of his problems. (Normally here is where people say dang that sucks but as a missionary it is like HECK YES! We have the ultimate source of healing!) So we bagged the entire lesson that we had previously planned and started from scratch. We had an amazing lesson about repentance! It was completely focused on him! It was everything that he needed to hear and you could see in on his face! We showed a short clip from one of the movies that we often watch called together forever and while we were watching it I just had this huge prompting inside me to find a date for him to prepare to get baptized so I took out my phone and prayed inside and picked a date that I felt like he could prepare for. After the movie I looked at him and asked if he could start all over from the begginning would he want to. He of course said yes and then I was able to testify about the power of the Atonement and that because of Jesus Christ we can start over through Faith in Him, Repentance, Baptism, and Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and then I invited him to prepare to be baptized on the 9th of September. At first he said no but then we explained about how we know that the path will be hard but we are here to help him get ready for that day and he said yes. What an amazing experience and a huge wave of feelings and promptings of the Holy Ghost in an hours amount of time! The church is true! Jesus is the Christ! We do find peace and hope through Hisis Atonement! This is God's work and it is going forth in His glory! He is leading and guiding us, His servants, His missionaries! AMAZING! These are the experiences that make every hard day worth it! It is going to take a lot of work to help him get prepared but we are going to do everything that we can!
So Elder Eliason finally came back late last night. But, we found out that today he has to go to Moscow and then fly to Kiev because he has a visa trip so I will be stuck all by myself because the other Elder who is supposed to be working in Voronezh went to Moscow last night because he has a Greenie coming in AKA I will literally have the entire city to myself! Haha it is going to be awesome because we have a ton of lessons tonight, luckily we got them all set up with members so I wont be alone! Our mission is crazy! We have so many things to do and worry about that I don't think any mission in the world even thinks about!
I love you all! :) Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing
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