Week 41: Mushroom Rain

Well everybody another sunny/rainy/super warm week has come and gone in Nikolaev and it's been good!
This week was a little quiet on the work side of things we had a bunch of meetings fall through but there we also tons and tons of tender mercies and miracles!

Finding in the Park
One of the days this week we looked ahead to the forecast and saw that rain was gonna be coming in at around noon so we decided to get out as fast as we could after this knowledge. Elder Trounce felt like we needed to go to this certain park and so that is what we did! We got there and we literally could not see anybody! But we had gotten a prompting and we knew that at least one person was in this park we needed to talk to. So we started searching looking for someone and in the far back corner of the park we found this middle aged man sitting on a bench! We had a super good conversation with him! It wasn't his time yet but it was a huge testimony builder about following promptings and faith!

Where is Nikolaev anyway?
Many different moments walking on the streets of Nikolaev I often ask myself the question, "What does this place look like?" In some places I feel like I'm in Western Europe, others I feel like I'm deep in the Soviet Union territory, other times I get dejavu of even more unexpected places. Such as Costa Rica, Mexico (where I have never been), A mountainless Utah and strangely enough this past week Lake Powell. It's actually super interesting all in all it makes up the great city of Nikolaev! So much character!

We met so many people from America/UK this week! The conversations varied in levels but we met a wide spectrum. We had Montana, Denver, Ireland, California, and Idaho. It's fun to see them all here haha. It also makes me realize that I don't really know how to do all my missionary skills in English which makes for some funny situations and bad grammatical statements. All in all some good convos!

Mushroom Rain
Apparently in Russian there is a name for rain, that rain when everywhere else around the sky is nice and blue but there is like one cloud just letting you have it! The sun is shining down super bright at warm still but all the same it's raining. Here in Ukraine they call that a mushroom rain (of course they say it in Russian though). This is because when it rains but is still sunny this is apparently super prime time for mushrooms to grow? Interesting!

One of the people we are teaching right now Tatyana has started to read the Book of Mormon which is amazing!! She's doing so well and beginning to progress very well!! It's such a blessing to see how the gospel is blessing her life!

I'll close out with a spiritual thought!

For this week I want to talk about Virtue!

In Preach My Gospel my favorite chapter is the one about Christlike attributes and one of the attributes it talks about is virtue! I was reading about virtue this week and a few things stood out to me that I want to share! 

"Virtue originates in your innermost thoughts and desires."
"Virtuous people are clean and pure spiritually."
"It is a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards."
"Since the Holy Ghost does not dwell in unclean tabernacles, virtue is prerequisite to receiving the Spirit's guidance."

As we strive to be virtuous in all that we do (our thoughts, desires, actions) we will find that the spirit can more fully dwell in us! It will be a great blessing as we fill our lives with things that are good, light, and true! The 13th article of faith says, "If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things."
I know we will find great strength as we lead clean, light, bright lives! There is so much joy in being different from the things of the world! 

I love you all and hope all is going well for you!!
до скорого
Elder Halls
My new tank

 Latin America? 

super awesome Doctrine and Covenants cake from seminary grad!

these trees are the best they just grow these berries and you can totally just eat them one minute you're contacting next you have a fruity snack! Blessings


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