Week 75: Frosty Forest

This week was super great!!!! Woohoo!

We had a lot of good things happen and a few fun moments as well! 

The forest

We've been trying to explore our area a little bit more and our excursion found us in the middle of our area in some forest at 5:00 p.m. which mean it's already dark. We heard some weird birds in the tree. Elder Payne got taken out by the snow on the ground mixed with the downhill slop. (In other words he fell) but he's doing good. It only hurt his pride.

The frost

This week the cold got us pretty good. I don't know where he came from but he really bites. We did a survey together as a district and we were standing around talking with people handing out cards and we about froze off our hands haha. I think the wind, humidity, temperature combo is a killer.

Бабушки

The Babushki or "Grandmas" all love us here. The ones in the branch the ones we meet on the street they all really love us. Because they love us they're not afraid to let us know what they think. If they ever catch you without a hat or a scarf or gloves or if you even look like you're cold they will yell at you a little bit. It's good to know that someone is looking out for us! 

The People 

This week we had some great lessons with those we are teaching and we were able to find some really promising new people to teach as well! 

We had 2 lessons with Dima we have been able to do a good job of keeping in good contact with him, almost daily. Our first lesson was on tuesday and we had planned a really good lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and as we were doing the lesson the spirit lead us in another direction and we talked a lot about faith in Jesus Christ specifically. Dima feels like he doesn't have super strong faith but we helped him to realize all the faith he has shown in praying, coming to church, and diligently studying. He's kept all our commitments and has really grown so much! The second lesson we did speak about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and challenged him to be baptized. He was really open to it but wanted to think about it. And we invited him to pray about it! On Sunday he had prayed and told us that he had a really great feeling about it! In our next lesson were going to set the date! Really excited for him! It's been a miracle to she how this has been the perfect time in his life for the Gospel and how everything has worked out the way it has.

This week we were walking on the street in a certain area and we ran into Zoya (Maksim's mother) and her older son Dmitry! It was a huge miracle! They talked about how they both want to be baptized and continue coming to church. They're a wonderful family with a great desire to learn more and to join the fold. It is a challenge because they travel a lot and at the time Maksim is in Poland but we got Dmitry's number and we will begin to teach him. We are still unsure exactly what we should do. That being wait for Maksim to come home and the whole family to be together and then have the baptism or if we should move forward and try to have their baptism soon. Zoya in expressing here desire said to a member that she'll be baptized when her son returns and when Nastya will also be in Kharkiv. It's exciting their desire we are just trying to figure out when and how this will all work out and right now it's not specifically clear.

On Saturday as we were waiting for our someone to come on a lesson we were waiting in front of the branch and doing some contacting. And along came this brother named Morel from Cameroon. We talked to him and found out that he had put in our church and Google maps and walked to it. It was literally just his 4th day in Kharkiv! They next day he came to church! And Elder and Sister Hong said that he really enjoyed it! We were very excited that he came and we'll start teaching him this week! Such a miracle! 

Dima, Dmirty and Morel all came to church and it was a really great Sunday! We also had 2 returning members who came! The work is really moving forward here and we are making strides with those we are teaching as well as the branch. There is lots more to do to help out members become more involved in missionary work and that is what we are discussing trying to help get them involved! 

Spiritual Thought 

This week I pondered the story that we read in the New Testament about the widow and the 2 mites. In Luke 21 or Mark 12. And I had the thought come to mind. Despite the others who cast into the treasury much more the Savior of her said,

 "that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all:

4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had."

The thought came to mind that we are all able to do a different amount of things. Maybe at the beginning of our missions our "all we can do" was a little smaller as were still learning and growing. As I read this I asked myself the question, "am I casting in all that I have?" I think I'm that moment i realized that there was more that i could do and more that i could give. But rather than feel sad that I realized my all or maximum hadn't been met. I felt empowered to be able to do more and to serve more greatly. There is always much to work on, but I am glad to have been able to notice what I must work on at this time! The Atonement of Jesus Christ makes us able to close that gap and accomplish what needs to be done! 

Love, 

Elder Halls 

ну, всё уж понятно

My new hat