Week 47 Trust the Lord

Hello everyone!! The weeks just cruise I feel like every other day I'm writing an email about the happenings. haha

Zakaria came to church!! 

Well first things first happy birthday to my dad!! Hope it's a great one! Love you so much and I'm so grateful for your wonderful example and all you do for me! 

Let me get into the dealings then! haha

Frisbee

SOO on Pday we took it out to the Stadium "Юнисть" with the other Elders and our branch mission leader Vova himself. And we were playing some ultimate frisbee! It was super fun. It was a grim reality of how out of shape I am haha. It's not that bad it's just not what I'm used to after all the years of running track and field. I got to get back into shape mayble we'll start going to the gym. But anyway we had a good time. We only had 5 people their so the running we needed to do was multiplied because 2 on 3 you've got to do a lot more moving to get open. But all in all it was super fun! I haven't just gotten out and played a sport for too long, so it was needed. We did have a minor accident that ended with Vova and Elder Croxall on the ground with 2 scraped hands and one scraped knee but everyone is healing well. But aparently blood makes me queasy who knew?

The Guantlet

One of the things that I kind of joke about a lot but is really true is that at the beginning of our contacting sessions on the street the first 30 minutes is always when our diligence and faith is tested. That's always when people are wanting to talk to us and they are grumpy, However, when we show our faith and push through the crucible for those 30 minutes by the end of our contacting there are always great miracles!! That little showing faith picture kind of described this week. At the beginning we didn't have very many meetings or anything until Friday so we spent about 8 hours just contacting most days and we had some good experiences and then by the end was when all those blessings rolled in.

An Amazing Lesson

Throughout my mission I've met many people in very hard circumstances. Our investigator right now Zakaria is also struggling he does have great health, he doesn't really have a stable job, he has absolutely no money things are really hard for him right now. Many of the people I've met in this kind of circumstance ask why this happens to them. They ask why God has allowed them to suffer. When they talk to us they ask us if this is fair, they have a hard time seeing it and understanding. This has been something I've thought about for a very long time on my mission and studied. I know God gives us all experiences for our good and betterment. Sometimes challenges come to help us to grow closer to our Heavenly Father and rely on him but sometimes it's hard for people to see and understand that. Zakaria's faith and trust in the Lord is a miracle to me and has made a big impact on me. Like all of these other people he has great reason to question and ask why but he continues forward nothing doubting and trusting in God. This week he even put off work, to come to church to put God first in his life despite the fact that he is absolutely broke. I'm amazed by his faith and all that he does. He's a wonderful example of following God and never turning from him. He is progressing well towards baptism and is still on date for August 17th. He recognizes how the Book of Mormon, Prayer and coming to church bring him great peace! 

New People!!

This week we began meeting with this younger man our age named Mitya he's a stud, we also have plans to meet with our new neighbors that just moved in their super cool and nice and also our marshrutka pal that we met last week Svetlana! Things are picking up for us and we are excited about what is to come!

Window Tag

Haha we have this younger member here Andrei we are working with. He's awesome! I love the kid. He is the only member in his family and doesn't have a lot of support but we've been trying to get him to church for the past little bit. We stop by his house and his house in one spot doesn't have a window. So we knock on the door and then come to the window and then usually someone will come up and be ready to talk to us. This week we talked with Andrei's dad and told him to tell Andrei we stopped by. We came back on Sunday and saw through the window/hole in the house that Andrei was sound asleep on the couch. We weren't sure what our best move was and we needed to be at the church in like 5 minutes so we through our church business card through the window and hoped and prayed for the best and MIRACLE he came!! It was super good to see him because he hasn't been for the past 2 months! 

Internationals

Who thought you would learn so much about other cultures and places all over the world from living in Nikolaev, Ukraine haha. This week and I guess even last week I met a Coloradoan, Italian, Turkish man, Floridan, Georgian, Egyptian, Chinese people. It's crazy! Especially because Nikolaev isn't really that big or famous or anything but something brings all these people in from all over the place 

SPIRITUAL THOUGHT!! 

34 Now the last words which are written by ^aEther are these: Whether the Lord will that I be translated, or that I suffer the will of the Lord in the flesh, it mattereth not, if it so be that I am ^bsaved in the kingdom of God. Amen.  

Ether 15:34 I love Ether's words here! With all the many things going on in the world it's easy to get distracted or casual about the Gospel. I love Ether's determination to always put the Lord first. No matter what lies ahead for him. We can do the same! We can read the scriptures and pray every day. The harder we will try to make Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ apart of our day the closer they will come to us!! I know that this church is true I know that we have a loving Heavenly Father. He is so ready to help us to learn and grow we just have to start! 

Love you all!! 

Elder Halls