Jesus is a friend of mine pt 2

Well hey everyone. I have almost kind of gotten used to Rechnoi. It's weird having so many directions to take the work. Up to this point, I feel like I've been given an orange or two in each area, metaphorically speaking, and just had to squeeze as hard as I can. Now someone has set me in front of an orange tree and and I don't even know which oranges to pick. It's a really nice kind of stress.

Monday...Monday was not a very "missionary" day. We had to close down the apartment the other elders had been living in. We also went to Europe's largest mall, that had a 5 story aquarium.

Tuesday was MLC. We had a really good talk about obedience and leadership styles, and discussed the new zone conference farmat (boring, right?). After MLC, we met with a man named Vladimir Mikhailovich. He took us to this WAY fancy cafe called the Tchaikovsky Cafe and told us all about his work and his ties to religion. We walked away with the win, because he agreed to take the lessons.

The rest of the week was a blur. Friday I had a split with Elder VandenBerghe, and we taught ANOTHER NEW INVESTIGATOR! Nice. We also got in with a really nice less active lady who wants her husband and daughter to be baptized but doesn't want to attend church. Stay tuned.

Saturday we hit the stake gym again for some soccer with our potential investigators, Anna and Sasha (Sasha is a dude). They had a good time and told us they want to come to an activity every night. As it just so happens, there is an activity pretty much every night in Moscow.

So yeah. We also had ward council and got everyone fired up about missionary work. It was a 10/10 week.

Just wanted to throw in there that the Savior is there. He knows what you're feeling on a very personal level, and He's got your back. He never gives anyone something that won't make them stronger and more capable, if only they look to Him.

The book is blue, the gospel is true.

Elder Wilkins

Double Shotgun

Hey everyone, I'm still here in one piece.

So...transfers. Yeah. Elder Pacheco and I shotgunned two areas this week. They pulled four Elders out, and threw the two of us in, and then they assigned the sisters in Rechnoi to also cover the International ward, so we have plenty of things to be figuring out. We barely managed to get our feet under us, there is so much. But wow. Rechnoi. Perk number one, we live in the very center of Moscow. Like a short stroll from Red Square. Cool, right? Perk number two, our ward is the highest functioning unit in Russia, I'm pretty sure. We have a ward council, PEC, a full callings list, and an ACTIVE ward mission leader. With a ward mission plan. I cried real tears when I saw a ward mission plan.

So Monday, I came to the area while Elder Pacheco was on a visa trip. Tuesday, I spent the day getting briefed by the 4 elders who left. The rest of the week was a blur. We met with our bishop to figure out what he expects of us, and we started off strong. I think both at our meeting with him and at church on Sunday, we gave a really good impression, and the members understand we are here to do work, and we need their help. The other thing that's great is that a significant number of our members and young couples who are both RMs. Here we go!

We got a call one night from President McGhie, who got a call from a member of his ward. This member, Caesar, is friends with a man named Vartan who earlier investigated the church. Well, Vartan wanted to be baptized the following day. Instead of doing that, we met with him, taught the Restoration, and got him started on the path to conversion. It was awesome.

The book is blue, the gospel is true!

Elder Wilkins

Sorry, no pics this week. Tough luck

The most interesting week in the world...

Aloha!

Hola!

One thousand years will give you such a crick in the neck!

Привет дорогие!

After our somewhat challenging week last week, the Lord decided to keep us on our toes. I don't hesitate to say this was the most unusual week of my mission, as a whole. On Monday, I got re-registered in Moscow, and we said goodbye to Elder Knowles, who was reassigned to Seattle (see pics).

Tuesday we met again with Maxim. It was an interesting lesson about the Restoration. It was going by the text book, just ideal, until our recently reactivated member piped up. " Hey, but like if you're not ready now, that's ok. In fact, it might be better to wait a while until you are a little older and can understand spiritual truth. And who knows, maybe this isn't the church for you yet, and you have to join a few other churches before realizing this is the one for you." Facepalm. But he agreed to read the Book of Mormon and pray, and is interested in further discussion.

Wednesday and Thursday we had exchanges with Elder Webb and Elder Bushlaev. I got a text out of the blue from some guy named Vitalii, who wanted to meet. Turns out he is a former investigator, who wants to start the discussions again. So we taught him about faith, repentance, and baptism, and discussed why he hadn't received answers in the past. He agreed to try reading and praying again, this time with real intent instead of mild curiosity. Nice.

Later that night, I ate an entire pomegranate. Bad decision. Right before bed, my stomach started cramping, and when I went to bed, I just laid there in agony. Luckily, I made it to the bathroom before pomegranate-colored puke erupted from my face. After 20 minutes of that pleasant experience, I woke up my companion to give me a blessing. I continued for the rest of the night to sleep restlessly and go puke again. In the morning, we had to get up early and take a 2 hour metro ride up to MLC. That, too, was not the most pleasant, but we made it there, did our thing, and I went to bed when we got home.

Saturday night, we had another really good meeting with Marat and Ira. They still aren't ready to come to church, btu they are trying to get things in order so that they can in the future. We also got a text from Ilia saying his phone got stolen, otherwise he would have called earlier. He finished the Book of Mormon in a month and said it changed his life! We were so stoked to hear that from him.

We also got the transfer call that day. I am going to shotgun the Rechnoi Elders companionship with Elder Pacheco, who's been out about a year now. I leave later tonight, so at church I spent a lot of time saying goodbyes. It is always hard to leave areas, but this one has a special place in my heart.

The gospel is true, yo

Elder Wilkins

Some days are busier than others

I'll be the first one to tell you, missions are not easy. Especially missions where you can't just buckle in and go to work contacting. We do a lot of really good things here, but the reality is that when we don't have a meeting, we are just trying our best to follow the spirit and be effective. This was one of those weeks. Agency, as much as it is a blessing, can be a real pest. We had almost every single one of our appointments cancel this week with just a few hours notice. Sometimes there were legitimiate reasons, other times, someone "wasn't feeling it". It's on those days you have to get down on your knees, and ask the Lord what He wants you to learn from those experiences. That's not an easy thing either. You do your best, and when you fall short (as we all do every day) you trust the Savior's grace to carry you the rest of the way.

It was a bit of a slow week. On Tuesday, I was in Riga all day, getting my new documents. It was the last time I will get on a plane before going home. Thursday I had a split with the Voronezh district leader, Elder Beck, and met with a woman named Sveta. She is the ward family-history coordinator, so we wanted to talk to her about some opportunities to use family history as a resource to find people to teach. She also told us some cool stories from her mission (she was the first sister missionary from Russia). Friday we met with a potential investigator, Maxim, and gave him a tour of the ward building. He asked a ton of questions, and said he was really interested in what we believed. We are planning on beginning to teach him this week.

Saturday, there was a volleyball master class for the stake, so we took the opportunity to get some less actives and potential investigators there. Both Yegor and Vladimir Nastenko came, and we had a great time. That night, we went to a dinner appointment with the Smiths, and Russia's coolest family, the Shichini.

Sunday, Marat and Ilia both flaked on us for church. But Marat sent me a big long text about how he is ready to make some serious changes in his life, so I have high hopes. Ilia also asks when we are meeting every time I text him, so as soon as he has a day off, we'll meet and have a talk about the Sabbath day :)

All in all, it was not a bad week. We are just trying to see where we can improve in having opportunities to teach, and getting solid appointments that don't cancel every single week. Despite the challenges and setbacks, we aren't discouraged, but are using it as an opportunity to stretch our faith.

The book is blue, the Gospel is true!

Elder Wilkins

Also, check out this great pic of Elder Wilkins wearing his "study tie" and making pasta carbonara with stewed horse meat. Enjoy.

Old New Years

И одного ещё не хватало!

What's up friends and family? Christmas and New Years round two was pretty tame, compared with round 1.

Tuesday, Elder Richardson and I were with the assistants on exchanges. I was with Elder Kelly. We sat in on their district meeting, had a lesson, and had a long discussion about how to do effective less-active work. We sprinted out the door the next morning carrying about 10 water filters for the rest of our zone, to make it to the center of Moscow in time for our interviews with President. From there, we went to our own district meeting, and had a dinner appointment with two families, where we had a discussion about the power that comes from keeping covenants.

Thursday was a busy one. Our building was actually broken into on Monday, after someone tarred all the door handles on Sunday. So we had to go through this big long process of getting new keys for our new doors, and we barely made it to our evening appointment on time. We took Elder Smith with us to meet with the bishop's family. Since our bishop is from South America, he and Elder Smith just started going in Spanish. A gospel discussion in three languages has a really interesting dynamic, let me tell you. We closed our meeting asking the bishop to check out chapter 13 of PMG (Working with ward and stake leaders) and get back to us about how we can better combine our efforts with those of the ward.

Friday, the Tula/Kaluga Elders came in for exchanges, and I was with Elder Heywood. One of the cool things about being a zone leader and going on so many exchanges is you get to see what the gospel does not just for the people you teach, but for the other missionaries. It was a special opportunity to see how much Elder Heywood and I have both grown since we served together.

We were really looking forward to Sunday, since Ilia, Marat, and Ira were all supposed to be at church. To our disappointment, none of them were there. Marat had come down with some kind of bug, so he didn't bring Ira, and Ilia didn't even answer the phone. However, we did see a miracle in that a member used his only day off THIS MONTH to come to church. Andrei is a superstar.

In other new, the book is blue, the gospel is true. Keep it classy.

Elder Wilkins

Fireworks Round 17

So if you are out of the loop, I'll give a short explanation for the title. In Russia, there are two Christmases and two New Years. So the holidays extend from December 24 to January 14-three straight weeks of fireworks and drunks on the street. The fireworks don't stop during the day either, it's like a constant rumbling, almost as if we were in a war zone of something. Happy holidays, good luck sleeping as we carpet bomb your apartment block.

It was a really successful week. We met the non-member husband of one of our actives, and started building a friendship with him, so we can teach him. We also made huge headway with Ira, Marat's friend. Marat is finally on board with getting her to church and immersed in the gospel. At dinner on Friday, she agreed to come to church this coming Sunday! I'm super pumped to see how she likes it, since she seems so prepared. Hopefully, Marat's involvement in the process will lead him to being a little more active, and inviting more friends.

Wednesday we had MLC at the McGhie's home. We had really enlightening discussions about topics like humility, the power of honoring our agreements and covenants with God, and how to effectively plan each day. The last thing we talked about is how to reach our mission goal of 10 baptisms a month. We, as a council, decided to make it a matter of prayer and study, and we each agreed to read PMG in it's entirety in 10 days. That's a lot of reading hahaha.

The book is blue, the gospel is true!

Read your scriptures this morning.

-Elder Wilkins

New Year, New Me (Jan 1)

С Новым Годом!

Happy New Year's everyone! Since New Year's in Russia is as big as Christmas in the States, it was kind of a hectic week.

A new couple just moved into our ward from Kiev, so we were able to meet with them. Their names are Sasha and Lena, and they are hysterical. Sasha actually served a mission in Moscow a few years back, so we are hoping he has some ins to help us find some new people to teach here!

We found out on Friday that our investigator Ilya, ended up in the hospital. He was working so hard to finish his workload that he ran himself into the ground, had some extreme kind of fatigue in the muscles of his hand, and had to get surgery. So he spent the holiday by himself in a military hospital. Woohoo, right? But he told us he should be out of there early this week, so we are hoping and praying for the best.

Sunday by far was the best day. We went a met with the family of one of the counselors in the bishopric, the Schichinyi. We had a phenomenal lesson with them, and then we helped them and some of the youth and YSA of the stake prepare for the New Year's Party at their house. Pic attached.

All in all, not a bad week.

The book is blue, the gospel is true!

Elder Wilkins