Hey Everyone! A lot of crazy and really weird stuff has happened this week!
Elder Eliason and I have been really worried about Igor because he has a desire to get baptized, but we are not sure why. He has a good friend in the branch and at first we thought he wanted to get baptized just for his friend. It is so tough to teach this guy because he is from Uzbekistan and does not speak Russian very well. He has such a lack of gospel knowledge that he does know who Christ is.... (ya I bet you thought that was impossible) and he has never heard of Adam and Eve! Wow start about having to start from the very beginning! So, while Elder Eliason and I were thinking about how to best teach him we came up with the idea (with help from the Spirit of course) to just load him up with all of our pamphlets and books and movies about Christ and the Restoration so that he could study a lot on his own outside of our lessons. Well.. when we went to our lesson before we even started teaching Igor started testifying to us about Christ and his Atonement and how thanks to Christ we can all repent and be baptized for Salvation! What an amazing Spirit! He has been reading and study everyday and has watched the Restoration movie 5 time (that is his favorite movie) and Finding Faith in Christ 3 times. He is doing great!
Now for the weird experience of the week... So last night we get home and are getting ready for bed when I get a call from a member. This member started out by telling me that the Spirit told her that she needed to call me and explain to me her problems... well before I could say much she just went right into a crazy story. Unfortunately, I can't tell you the exact problems that were going on but there was some pretty stressful stuff going on with her family and another member and how he was causing problems in their life and how they didn't want to talk to the branch president about it... (since me being a 21 year old missionary from America who barely knows Russian is going to be able to help)... but that is not even the weirdest part! Then she started going into another part of the story where she got really stressed out and wanted to give up in life and on God and on the Church and at that moment when that happened she got possessed by a demon! She said that she was screaming in a demon voice and had crazy strength and her husband came home and they got in a fight as he was trying to cast the demon out of her and some crazy stuff went down to where she was throwing him across the apartment and then at some point he was able to finally cast the demon out! She said she had been resting all day from the experience and started studying the scriptures when the Spirit told her to call and talk to me about all of this and get advise... the only advise I could give was that I don't have the proper keys and that she needs to talk to the Branch President and President Wooley and then I bore my testimony to her of the love of God and that was that.... WOW! Definitely not something that I was expecting to deal with this week!
WOW THE THINGS THAT YOU EXPERIENCE ON YOUR MISSION! GOTTA LOVE IT! :) Well I love you all! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Subject: Voronezh!
Another great week! Well Igor is still progressing well towards baptism! We have been teaching him a lot in the past week and he has an amazing desire and amount of faith! His baptismal date is set for the 18th of June, but I don't know if that will work out because though he knows the church is true and wants to be baptized he does not know all of the doctrine and completely understand it because he doesn't really speak and understand Russian very well. He is a great guy and will get baptized, but we just need more time to prepare him so that he understands everything! He already has friends in the branch so he has a fan club and some support!
We have other really great investigators that we are teaching. Two families, one older man from Armenia, one local doctor, a members younger brother, and a new man who we found from Africa who speaks French. Haha it is weird the people that you meet and teach on your mission! I never thought I would be in Russia teaching a person from Uzbekistan and Armenia and and African who speaks French! God really does lead us to those people whom he has prepared!
Well I don't really have too much more to say just that this work is great and I am having a blast! Russia is awesome and this work is awesome! Thanks for the letters and prayers! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Another great week! Well Igor is still progressing well towards baptism! We have been teaching him a lot in the past week and he has an amazing desire and amount of faith! His baptismal date is set for the 18th of June, but I don't know if that will work out because though he knows the church is true and wants to be baptized he does not know all of the doctrine and completely understand it because he doesn't really speak and understand Russian very well. He is a great guy and will get baptized, but we just need more time to prepare him so that he understands everything! He already has friends in the branch so he has a fan club and some support!
We have other really great investigators that we are teaching. Two families, one older man from Armenia, one local doctor, a members younger brother, and a new man who we found from Africa who speaks French. Haha it is weird the people that you meet and teach on your mission! I never thought I would be in Russia teaching a person from Uzbekistan and Armenia and and African who speaks French! God really does lead us to those people whom he has prepared!
Well I don't really have too much more to say just that this work is great and I am having a blast! Russia is awesome and this work is awesome! Thanks for the letters and prayers! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Subject: Life in Voronesh!
Well things have finally calmed down from all of the traveling! Elder Eliason and I have been working miracles like it is no bodies business! We have one baptismal date with a man named Igor from Uzbekistan and more coming up!
This last Sunday was an amazing day! It all started on Sunday A less active lady who is here as a student from Africa came to church and we happen to be her home teachers and were able to set up an appointment for later that day. (This lady is awesome! Her dad got the church started in her country and now they have a huge stake there) Well, she lives in the dorms and so when we go there she has to meet us at the door and the security takes our passports while we meet and talk with her. So when we get to her dorm we have to call her to have her met us at the door. Well, it turned out that we could not get a hold of her! We called and called and called and everytime the operator would just say that the phone is blocked or unavailable. So we decided to just contact around the building while we wait for a little bit longer and then head back to the branch for our next meeting. There was a moment when a guy was walking away from us and we ran him down and he immediately new we were American. He ended up being a professor at the school and speaks better english than I do!! He is even part of the American Mathematical Societ! I have no idea what that is or what it mean but obviously he is a genius! We had a great conversation with him and were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and give him a copy and he was very interested. So, we were pretty glad that we didn't completely waste our time in that area because we got a really good contact. So, we headed back to the branch. At this next lesson we were planning just to help a young couple with English. Well, it turned out that the husband barely knows english and the wife knows it great. So we started talking with the wife and then the husband just throws out all of these amazing questions! What is the Word of Wisdom? How do you pray? How do you know that God answers your prayers? What does it feel like to get an answer? What is the Book of Mormon? In short, the lesson turned very quick from practicing english to an intense gospel lesson! It is an amazing feeling to come away from a lesson knowing that God has prepared people and that is exactly what I felt at this point! They are an amazing young couple. Well, at this point it was time to go home so we started heading home pretty well pleased with what we happened but disappointed that we couldn't meet with the lady from Africa. Then we got a call from the lady and she was like where did you guys go? Why didn't you come? So we explained and she said that it didn't make sense that her phone would do that because she was sitting there waiting for us to call! (Basically at this point we took the not phone working as a sign that we had to contact and get the awesome contact that we got) but that is not all we found out from the lady that she needed us to come over and give her a blessing. She had come to church that day and when she left she said that she felt like she was forgetting something. Then she realized when she got home that she needed a blessing because she was going to be leaving to go to Moscow way late that same night when it is dangerous especially for strangers and then she realized that we were coming and could give her a blessing. So at this point we took it as another sign that God was trying to tell us that we need to help her and meet with her so we got permission to be home late and went to her house, gave a great blessing, and then came back home! What a day! throughout that day and I think throughout everyday many small things happen that we disregard or don't notice, but in reality God is leading and guiding us. He is blessing us and giving us the opportunity to bless his other children. We just have to recognize and act. This is what a felt and realized on that day. It was a great day full of man small and simple miracles and these small and simple miracles happen everyday and that is what makes a mission so amazing because for some reason you have the time to take a step back and look at how God is guiding your every step.
I love you all! Have a great week and remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Well things have finally calmed down from all of the traveling! Elder Eliason and I have been working miracles like it is no bodies business! We have one baptismal date with a man named Igor from Uzbekistan and more coming up!
This last Sunday was an amazing day! It all started on Sunday A less active lady who is here as a student from Africa came to church and we happen to be her home teachers and were able to set up an appointment for later that day. (This lady is awesome! Her dad got the church started in her country and now they have a huge stake there) Well, she lives in the dorms and so when we go there she has to meet us at the door and the security takes our passports while we meet and talk with her. So when we get to her dorm we have to call her to have her met us at the door. Well, it turned out that we could not get a hold of her! We called and called and called and everytime the operator would just say that the phone is blocked or unavailable. So we decided to just contact around the building while we wait for a little bit longer and then head back to the branch for our next meeting. There was a moment when a guy was walking away from us and we ran him down and he immediately new we were American. He ended up being a professor at the school and speaks better english than I do!! He is even part of the American Mathematical Societ! I have no idea what that is or what it mean but obviously he is a genius! We had a great conversation with him and were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and give him a copy and he was very interested. So, we were pretty glad that we didn't completely waste our time in that area because we got a really good contact. So, we headed back to the branch. At this next lesson we were planning just to help a young couple with English. Well, it turned out that the husband barely knows english and the wife knows it great. So we started talking with the wife and then the husband just throws out all of these amazing questions! What is the Word of Wisdom? How do you pray? How do you know that God answers your prayers? What does it feel like to get an answer? What is the Book of Mormon? In short, the lesson turned very quick from practicing english to an intense gospel lesson! It is an amazing feeling to come away from a lesson knowing that God has prepared people and that is exactly what I felt at this point! They are an amazing young couple. Well, at this point it was time to go home so we started heading home pretty well pleased with what we happened but disappointed that we couldn't meet with the lady from Africa. Then we got a call from the lady and she was like where did you guys go? Why didn't you come? So we explained and she said that it didn't make sense that her phone would do that because she was sitting there waiting for us to call! (Basically at this point we took the not phone working as a sign that we had to contact and get the awesome contact that we got) but that is not all we found out from the lady that she needed us to come over and give her a blessing. She had come to church that day and when she left she said that she felt like she was forgetting something. Then she realized when she got home that she needed a blessing because she was going to be leaving to go to Moscow way late that same night when it is dangerous especially for strangers and then she realized that we were coming and could give her a blessing. So at this point we took it as another sign that God was trying to tell us that we need to help her and meet with her so we got permission to be home late and went to her house, gave a great blessing, and then came back home! What a day! throughout that day and I think throughout everyday many small things happen that we disregard or don't notice, but in reality God is leading and guiding us. He is blessing us and giving us the opportunity to bless his other children. We just have to recognize and act. This is what a felt and realized on that day. It was a great day full of man small and simple miracles and these small and simple miracles happen everyday and that is what makes a mission so amazing because for some reason you have the time to take a step back and look at how God is guiding your every step.
I love you all! Have a great week and remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Friday, May 27, 2011
Subject: Long Time No Talk!
Well, I finally found time to e-mail you! Sorry it has been so long, I was in Moscow and then this last p-day I was in Kiev on a Visa Trip. Wow! A lot has happened!
First of all Kiev was amazing! We BARELY made it to the temple session on time! It is a long story how that happened... Elder Brown and Waite and I landed it Kiev and we had about two hours or so to get to the temple so we were no too worried about getting there on time. So we started searching for a taxi and there was one guy (like the head of all the taxis) from Kiev helping us, but no one wanted to take us because the temple is so far away! Well, he finally found us a taxi and we started driving out there. We started talking to the driver and soon we found out the he had no idea who the guy was (aka the leader guy of all the taxis helping us) and the guy just told him to take us to Kiev and not to the temple! That is only about half way to the temple and we still had to pay the full price to the temple! Well, we didn't have time to argue about what happened so we had to give him all of the money, get out, and take the Metro as close to the temple as we could get and then take another taxi the rest of the way! Well, thank goodness the next taxi driver was the man! He was weaving in and out of traffic like I used to before my mission and we got there right as the session was about to start! God really blessed us because I swear it was impossible to get there in time!! The temple was an amazing experience! It is a very beautiful temple and we ended up seeing a lot of the missionaries in the temple that we served with in the MTC so that was crazy!
The week before this past p-day we were in Moscow. It was a good time! We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and got permission from president to use our p-day in Moscow on Thursday so we went everywhere! It was awesome! We went to the Moscow Hard Rock Cafe, and had Duncan Donuts, and we went to the WW2 Museum which is gorgeous! It Is huge! We went to the market and I bought some sweet ties for 3 dollars each and I also bought some pretty sweet Shapkas which are those huge russian hats! I also found out that there is a guy in Moscow or somewhere that makes the little doll things that you guys want but he paints all of the modern day prophets from Joseph Smith and on on there! Sweet huh! So I ordered some of those for myself :)
Well we have a lot of awesome work right now in Voronesh! We are finally done with all of our traveling for a while and now we can relax and focus a lot more on the work and our investigators! We set a baptismal date with a friend of a member two days ago. He is from Uzbekistan and his name is Igor. He is awesome! He is going to get baptized in about a month. We are also going to try and set a baptismal date with a brother of a member, and his name is Losha, this week :) We have found a lot of new people and now we are excited to teach them! It is summer and people are out and happy and now is the time to find and teach and baptize! By the way I also found out when I was in Moscow that my coming home date probably got pushed back about one week or so so that is awesome! I think now I will be coming home sometime in the beginning of November! Oh and if you all don't know they are finally organizing a stake in Moscow! Elder Nelson is coming to Moscow in about a week or so to do it... so you know what that means! Mabye soon there will be a temple!!
Well I love you all! thanks for the love and support and all of the letters! It is great to hear from you all! :) Have a great week!
Elder Weihing
Well, I finally found time to e-mail you! Sorry it has been so long, I was in Moscow and then this last p-day I was in Kiev on a Visa Trip. Wow! A lot has happened!
First of all Kiev was amazing! We BARELY made it to the temple session on time! It is a long story how that happened... Elder Brown and Waite and I landed it Kiev and we had about two hours or so to get to the temple so we were no too worried about getting there on time. So we started searching for a taxi and there was one guy (like the head of all the taxis) from Kiev helping us, but no one wanted to take us because the temple is so far away! Well, he finally found us a taxi and we started driving out there. We started talking to the driver and soon we found out the he had no idea who the guy was (aka the leader guy of all the taxis helping us) and the guy just told him to take us to Kiev and not to the temple! That is only about half way to the temple and we still had to pay the full price to the temple! Well, we didn't have time to argue about what happened so we had to give him all of the money, get out, and take the Metro as close to the temple as we could get and then take another taxi the rest of the way! Well, thank goodness the next taxi driver was the man! He was weaving in and out of traffic like I used to before my mission and we got there right as the session was about to start! God really blessed us because I swear it was impossible to get there in time!! The temple was an amazing experience! It is a very beautiful temple and we ended up seeing a lot of the missionaries in the temple that we served with in the MTC so that was crazy!
The week before this past p-day we were in Moscow. It was a good time! We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and got permission from president to use our p-day in Moscow on Thursday so we went everywhere! It was awesome! We went to the Moscow Hard Rock Cafe, and had Duncan Donuts, and we went to the WW2 Museum which is gorgeous! It Is huge! We went to the market and I bought some sweet ties for 3 dollars each and I also bought some pretty sweet Shapkas which are those huge russian hats! I also found out that there is a guy in Moscow or somewhere that makes the little doll things that you guys want but he paints all of the modern day prophets from Joseph Smith and on on there! Sweet huh! So I ordered some of those for myself :)
Well we have a lot of awesome work right now in Voronesh! We are finally done with all of our traveling for a while and now we can relax and focus a lot more on the work and our investigators! We set a baptismal date with a friend of a member two days ago. He is from Uzbekistan and his name is Igor. He is awesome! He is going to get baptized in about a month. We are also going to try and set a baptismal date with a brother of a member, and his name is Losha, this week :) We have found a lot of new people and now we are excited to teach them! It is summer and people are out and happy and now is the time to find and teach and baptize! By the way I also found out when I was in Moscow that my coming home date probably got pushed back about one week or so so that is awesome! I think now I will be coming home sometime in the beginning of November! Oh and if you all don't know they are finally organizing a stake in Moscow! Elder Nelson is coming to Moscow in about a week or so to do it... so you know what that means! Mabye soon there will be a temple!!
Well I love you all! thanks for the love and support and all of the letters! It is great to hear from you all! :) Have a great week!
Elder Weihing
Thursday, May 12, 2011
We had a great Mother's Day conversation. The amazing part is the ability to Skype and have a 5 way conversation with Elder Kenneth, (Moscow) Elder Jordan, (England) KJ, (Phoenix) Richelle, (Herriman:in hospital) and with us, (Herriman). The big news was the boys got to see Richelle's new baby! (Kellan) Below is Kenneth's letter! We apprecaite all your support and prayers! May you all be blessed as we have been by having Son's who are serving! We love you all!
---Kam and Suzanne
Subject: A new companion!
Well it was great to see you all on Mother's Day! Was so excited to see Kellan! He is definitely a cutie! It was great to see the family and talk to everyone. I am so grateful for your love and support and all that you do for me.
Well I really don't have any time to write this week because we got home from Moscow this morning at eleven and we have SO MUCH to do this P-day to get my companion registered in the city so that they don't kick him out! So let you tell me about my companion. His name is Elder Eliason and he is from Lariamie Wyoming! He is awesome! We are gonna do some work up in here in Voronesh! It was sad to see Elder Borodin go home, but I know that he was ready. He was a great missionary and a good example.
This past week was also the 9th of May! Victory Day! This is a huge day in Russia! It is like the 4th of July in America! It was crazy! There were parades and we watched fireworks and watched a lot of small shows that they put on on the street. A crazy day where we were not aloud to wear our nametags and contact because a lot of people were drunk!!!
We had quite the trip to Moscow and back! Haha we missed our train back to Voronesh so we had to buy new tickets for a later train. We had quite an adventure getting back into town!! But things are going good and I am excited to get to work with my new comp! We are gonna do awesome1
Before I go I just want to share a small experience with you all. Elder Borodin and I were on a bus and I saw this guy staring at me and so of course we started talking. To be honest at first he was not very nice at all!! He was of course very skeptical and was wondering why some american was here and didn't hide the fact that he doesn't believe that God exists. But, we talked the entire bus ride and very soon his attitude changed. By the end of the conversation it had changed from, "you stupid american god doesn't exist" to "you know what I am really glad that you started talking to me because you have changed my mood around. I am really happy right now where as before I was really sad." It was just a small experience, but it was the kind of thing that missionaries look for everyday. We are here to help people feel God's love and to lift peoples spirit and I felt it and saw it when talking to this guy. This gospel is true. This is God's work. We have a calling to help his children and through small and simple things we are reaching our goal!
I love you all! Thank you for all that you do! Remember who you are! :)
Elder Weihing
---Kam and Suzanne
Subject: A new companion!
Well it was great to see you all on Mother's Day! Was so excited to see Kellan! He is definitely a cutie! It was great to see the family and talk to everyone. I am so grateful for your love and support and all that you do for me.
Well I really don't have any time to write this week because we got home from Moscow this morning at eleven and we have SO MUCH to do this P-day to get my companion registered in the city so that they don't kick him out! So let you tell me about my companion. His name is Elder Eliason and he is from Lariamie Wyoming! He is awesome! We are gonna do some work up in here in Voronesh! It was sad to see Elder Borodin go home, but I know that he was ready. He was a great missionary and a good example.
This past week was also the 9th of May! Victory Day! This is a huge day in Russia! It is like the 4th of July in America! It was crazy! There were parades and we watched fireworks and watched a lot of small shows that they put on on the street. A crazy day where we were not aloud to wear our nametags and contact because a lot of people were drunk!!!
We had quite the trip to Moscow and back! Haha we missed our train back to Voronesh so we had to buy new tickets for a later train. We had quite an adventure getting back into town!! But things are going good and I am excited to get to work with my new comp! We are gonna do awesome1
Before I go I just want to share a small experience with you all. Elder Borodin and I were on a bus and I saw this guy staring at me and so of course we started talking. To be honest at first he was not very nice at all!! He was of course very skeptical and was wondering why some american was here and didn't hide the fact that he doesn't believe that God exists. But, we talked the entire bus ride and very soon his attitude changed. By the end of the conversation it had changed from, "you stupid american god doesn't exist" to "you know what I am really glad that you started talking to me because you have changed my mood around. I am really happy right now where as before I was really sad." It was just a small experience, but it was the kind of thing that missionaries look for everyday. We are here to help people feel God's love and to lift peoples spirit and I felt it and saw it when talking to this guy. This gospel is true. This is God's work. We have a calling to help his children and through small and simple things we are reaching our goal!
I love you all! Thank you for all that you do! Remember who you are! :)
Elder Weihing
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 :)
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 :)
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Subject: A Baptism down and more the come!
Well! The big news... we traveled to Yaroslavl this past week and Sasha did get baptized! Finally! After his fourth baptismal date! Nothing short of a miracle! The Elders there rented a pool and there were two baptisms there (haha after the baptism the pool was still open so some of the members and the people that got baptized stayed to swim). The second person was a lady from Africa named Grace and one of our less actives was able to baptize her so that was even more amazing to see! The even better news is that there will definately be one more baptism coming up in Yaroslavl, Sergei (or as we call him short guy who has read the Bible and Koran, all the names are the same here so just saying Sergei brings up to many people!). That is not all of the baptisms, on Saturday is going to be yet another baptism but it will be here in Voronesh! Our Golden Investigator Pavel is going to get baptized!
So... to talk about Golden People who have been prepared for the Gospel! Pavel is about as close as it gets! Met him on the street, he called us, he came to english club and then to church, he had an amazing experience and church where the spirit was so strong, we taught him all of the lessons within two weeks, he accepted everything, and now he wants to get everything as soon as he can! He wants to get baptized, get the Gift of the Holy Ghost, get the priesthood, and he even is planning on the going to the temple as soon as he is able to! We had an amazing lesson about temples yesterday where he told us about his ancestors and how he really wants to do there work.. he told a story about his grandpa dying which obviously about made me bust out into tears.. the spirit was so strong I can't even explain the feeling! Just a peace and a silence! Usually Pavel is such a talker but he was quite the whole time and just was on the edge of his chair ready to hear what was coming next! He said that he wants to drive out the Kiev next week and do baptisms for the dead!! He is just amazing! I have not met anyone on my entire mission as prepared as Pavel has been!
The past two days have really been interesting! Elder Borodin and I have been meeting with missionaries and pastors from other churches! The day before yesterday we met with a missionary from the Russian Orthodox Church... man was the frustrating! He has the Doctrine and Covenants and Book of Mormon. He had one question... how do you know that your answer that this is true was from God and not from the Devil... well is answer to that I was prompted to go the D&C 9 where Oliver Cowdery is being counciled on prayer... before we could even get through with one answer he had 100 more questions and would not give as an opportunity to answer any of them.. to say the least I was not very impressed because he strategy was not to teach by the spirit but to teach by proof and control...
Then yesterday we met with a pastor from another church (sorry I do not know how it translates in English) basically they believe in a very interesting way in the Gift of Tongue... this is the process... in groups one of them prays in Russian and all of the others around that person start jabbering.... and this is what they believe to be the Gift of Tongues. So here we have the main person pronouncing the prayers... and about fifty other people going crazy raising their hands up and chanting in "a different language" which they themselves don't understand. This meeting was focused on the Book of Mormon and Joseph. We very clearly and boldly preached our message and told them how to know whether it was true. Then the pastor started asking how many moms I had and asked if we knew that Joseph Smith was mentally ill. Haha... yet another interesting experience! Although... the choir sang very beautifully :)
The weather is finally getting warm here! It is time to take off the jacket and the let the white shirt and tie and name tag shine! People are definately going to know who we are without a mistake!! We have a great and a marvelous work that we are doing! It is great! I love you all! Thank you for the prayers and support! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Well! The big news... we traveled to Yaroslavl this past week and Sasha did get baptized! Finally! After his fourth baptismal date! Nothing short of a miracle! The Elders there rented a pool and there were two baptisms there (haha after the baptism the pool was still open so some of the members and the people that got baptized stayed to swim). The second person was a lady from Africa named Grace and one of our less actives was able to baptize her so that was even more amazing to see! The even better news is that there will definately be one more baptism coming up in Yaroslavl, Sergei (or as we call him short guy who has read the Bible and Koran, all the names are the same here so just saying Sergei brings up to many people!). That is not all of the baptisms, on Saturday is going to be yet another baptism but it will be here in Voronesh! Our Golden Investigator Pavel is going to get baptized!
So... to talk about Golden People who have been prepared for the Gospel! Pavel is about as close as it gets! Met him on the street, he called us, he came to english club and then to church, he had an amazing experience and church where the spirit was so strong, we taught him all of the lessons within two weeks, he accepted everything, and now he wants to get everything as soon as he can! He wants to get baptized, get the Gift of the Holy Ghost, get the priesthood, and he even is planning on the going to the temple as soon as he is able to! We had an amazing lesson about temples yesterday where he told us about his ancestors and how he really wants to do there work.. he told a story about his grandpa dying which obviously about made me bust out into tears.. the spirit was so strong I can't even explain the feeling! Just a peace and a silence! Usually Pavel is such a talker but he was quite the whole time and just was on the edge of his chair ready to hear what was coming next! He said that he wants to drive out the Kiev next week and do baptisms for the dead!! He is just amazing! I have not met anyone on my entire mission as prepared as Pavel has been!
The past two days have really been interesting! Elder Borodin and I have been meeting with missionaries and pastors from other churches! The day before yesterday we met with a missionary from the Russian Orthodox Church... man was the frustrating! He has the Doctrine and Covenants and Book of Mormon. He had one question... how do you know that your answer that this is true was from God and not from the Devil... well is answer to that I was prompted to go the D&C 9 where Oliver Cowdery is being counciled on prayer... before we could even get through with one answer he had 100 more questions and would not give as an opportunity to answer any of them.. to say the least I was not very impressed because he strategy was not to teach by the spirit but to teach by proof and control...
Then yesterday we met with a pastor from another church (sorry I do not know how it translates in English) basically they believe in a very interesting way in the Gift of Tongue... this is the process... in groups one of them prays in Russian and all of the others around that person start jabbering.... and this is what they believe to be the Gift of Tongues. So here we have the main person pronouncing the prayers... and about fifty other people going crazy raising their hands up and chanting in "a different language" which they themselves don't understand. This meeting was focused on the Book of Mormon and Joseph. We very clearly and boldly preached our message and told them how to know whether it was true. Then the pastor started asking how many moms I had and asked if we knew that Joseph Smith was mentally ill. Haha... yet another interesting experience! Although... the choir sang very beautifully :)
The weather is finally getting warm here! It is time to take off the jacket and the let the white shirt and tie and name tag shine! People are definately going to know who we are without a mistake!! We have a great and a marvelous work that we are doing! It is great! I love you all! Thank you for the prayers and support! Remember who you are!
Elder Weihing :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)