Week 88: Jumbo письмо

This was a really great week! We saw some real promising progress from some of those whom we are teaching at the moment! I feel like I have also learned a lot as I've been studying and just having very many wonderful experiences this week!

Мои маски

So I have 2 маски if you haven't noticed by now one of them is blue and the other is white and every time I go outside I wear one маску of my маск. My blue-(ая) маска is light and fashionable and reminds me of the sky and is pretty breathable but not super effective if a crazy coughing man was gonna be attacking me. So most often I choose my durable white(ая) маска for the added protection factor. However not long ago the strings that keep её on my face broke and so I had to tie some new knots.

Честно я хотел написать о моих масках давно уже так, что надеюсь вас это интересует хотя бы немного.

Мої думки

One think I have thought about deeply is the blessing of humility! It's so important as a humble and ready learner and disciple can grow and progress from all of the words he hears. I listened to a talk about meekness and humility from Neal A. Maxwell and it really helped me to see what I can do to be more humble! It definitely is so important. Pride in many ways halts our progress and progression so it will always be critical for us in life to avoid it and remain humble. As I've tried to be more humble I see how it allows the Lord to teach and lift us up.

This week we had a couple of opportunities to serve and use the Priesthood of God to bless the lives of others! And more specifically the sisters serving here in our district. These opportunities have led me to reflect on the importance of the Priesthood. I pondered upon the words of the Lord to the prophet Joseph Smith who said, "they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof." Truly the power of God his Priesthood is only found in His Church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And that Priesthood power is so apparent as it is being exercised as we learn in the Doctrine and Covenants. That power is diminished and denied by many churches who claim to have power and authority they do not possess. They were great spiritual and sacred moments as we were able to dedicate there apartment as well as give one of the sisters a blessing. Which I hadn't had the opportunity to do for some time!

Another thought this week that has been on my mind is from a talk that I listened to not long ago. In this talk the speaker invited everyone to try to give 100% of their attention (heart, might, mind and strength) to the task at hand. He explained how much more we would accomplish in the day if we would always do so. Not becoming distracted by messages or other things. There was so much great advice in his words and I'm so grateful for all the resources and things the Lord has made available to us so that we can learn and grow as we listen to church leaders! Quite a blessing.

Катастрофа

Soooooooo yeah. Zoom exploded on us. We had planned to this activity like "meet the missionaries" and we all jumped on Zoom and everyone had joined in and it was a pretty good group not gonna lie! But we couldn't hear or see ANYONE!! AHHHHH haha so everyone was calling us and we're тут just scrambling not sure what to do exactly and the Sisters call us just say, "аххххх ё моё" and it was stressful. In the end we were able to get two people connected and we did a little mini activity. Not gonna врать it was stressful!

Наши Братья

This week we got back in touch with Sasha. We found him about a month ago now and had done the first three lessons when we lost contact with him for about a week and a half. We were able to have a lesson on Saturday that Dima (who was just called as our new branch missionary) was able to join on. The lesson went very well!! We learned that he had wondered why we hadn't been in contact for a while so there was some struggle there as we had tried to text and call but hadn't heard from him. Whatever happened we were happy to be reconnected. He has done anot of reading in the Book of Mormon and will soon finish 2 Nephi! He committed to reading and praying daily and coming to the branch sunday school meeting the next day! Which finally he was able to come to! It was a perfect lesson for him as we discussed together "come follow me" Mosiah 18-24 we talked together about Covenants and the church of God and Sasha even added a thought about why we need church! We plan to invite him to be baptized this week and feel that he is progressing really well! He also was welcomed warmly by the branch!

I mentioned that Dima was called as a branch missionary! He is doing really great and finished the Doctrine and Covenants recently and continues on to study the Pearl of Great Price. He wants to read and study all of the standard works in preparation for his mission. He received a couple of callings and also will soon begin the Melchezidek Priesthood lessons and should receive the Priesthood this fall with the District Conference and soon after he wants to go on a mission!! How great!!! The branch President has been talking with him to help get him prepared and so that he understood all the different things he'll need to do. And we are excited to invited him on many of our lessons.

We had a great lesson with Peter who was able to come to church for his first time this week!! He is a great and has began to really start to read the Book of Mormon. As we talked about it he mentioned how he believes it to be true! And that's why he is meeting with us and learning more! So that was such great news! We also want to invite him to be baptized this week and we are going to try and get Emmanuel on a lesson with him because we feel that would be very great!

Recently we passed someone we've been teaching over to them as we learned he lives nearby. This week they were able to give him (Stephen) a book of Mormon and on our exchange me and Elder Trounce were able to do a lesson with him! It went really great! We talked about the Restoration once more and this time it really clicked for Stephen about authority to baptize. We asked him to pray about baptism the previous lesson and he talked about how he felt he needed to receive the Holy Ghost. And we were able to talk about that! It was really great to see his desire to follow Christ and to learn! Hes a great brother and it was a good way to pass over his teaching to the Elders there.

There are many more brothers and sisters that we are finding and beginning to teach or continuing to teach. They are all at various levels of progress. One of them is Oleg! We have really good feelings about him and want to have a lesson with him in which Dima will also join us. Oleg has a very interesting story. Hes from very Russian Orthodox family but doesn't really think that their church could be true as he sees many things wrong. He is trying to find truth and standards and teaching that are true and right and he's really enjoyed what he's learned so far talking with us. He waited to start reading the Book of Mormon until our discussion this week because he knew we'd talk about the Restoration and he didn't want to jump ahead. So now he will begin to read and pray. He hasn't been able to join on Sunday because his family is against his investigation of different churches so hes had to kinda not tell them about speaking with us.

Things are going so well and we are seeing so many miracles. The Lord answers our prayers and helps us to find people whom we can teach and who are ready to keep their commitments and progress towards baptisms. It truly is all about them! And never about me. I'm happy that I can consecrate myself and my time and efforts at this time for them! We continue to work hard as there is so much work to do!

Духовна Думка

I want to talk today about an example I heard from Elder Mamajanyan while we were contacting one day on the street. He talked about 2 students one who believes in God and another who does not. As an upcoming exam came they both studied hard. And they both passed the exam. The one who believes in God prayed while he was preparing and before he took the exam while the other did not. He then asked the person what the difference was. I remember being excited to hear what difference Elder Mamajanyan said took place. And for the most part the difference was in the gratitude to God that the one student had that in turn filled his heart with love and peace while the other was proud of himself and didn't have those similar feelings. I related this to 2 missionaries. Both do the same work each day but one of them prayers to know what the Lord would have him do and as he goes about working he has faith that he is doing the will of the Lord as he follows the impressions that come to his mind. These small simple examples have encouraged deep thinking for me!!

Prayer is truly an act of faith! Each time we pray we invite God to lead and guide us! We allow him to become a more active part of our lives! I would challenged you all to pray often!!! Here are some of my favorite places to read about prayer!!

Alma 37:37

Alma 34

Enos 1

Thank you for your letters!!

Elder Halls