Battle Ready Elf

Hey everyone!  This week I got to talk to a battle-ready elf on the metro.   How was your week?

Our companionship is so busy now that we are lucky to have three meals a day, and we are waking up half an hour early in order to get everything done!

Originally we thought this service coordinator assignment would be a breeze, but it's not.  The previous coordinators left quite the mess to clean up.  We are on the computer 1-2 hours a day working on it and making phone calls.  Sister Christensen, the official service coordinator, keeps us busy.

We were able to do a ton of service this week.  It feels like the members are beginning to realize that we are dependable and we want to help.  That's a good feeling.

Me and the Jensens.  They are heading home to Arizona

Elders Stevens and Atkinson are still living with us.  Talk about a unified district.  We did manage to finish redistributing the ward list to include them and get them some members to work with.  And we only managed to accidentally lock each other in the apartment twice this week.

I have 2 simple experiences that strengthened my testimony of prayer this week.  On Wednesday we had interviews with President.  I had made myself a promise that I would never be late to a meeting, but something happened which prevented us getting out the door on time.  We left 45 minutes before our interviews, and it is a 52 minute metro ride and a 5 minute walk.  The whole time I was praying, "Help us be on time, help us be on time."  We sprinted from the metro to the office, and made it there 1 minute before our interviews.  On top of that, President was behind, so we got to eat some cake and catch our breath before seeing him.

Another experience with prayer occurred on the metro.  Since we can't preach, it is really difficult to find motivation to talk to people on the street or metro, even though we're asked to (to help our language skills progress).  I could just never think of anything to say with my limited vocabulary.  So Saturday I prayed for courage to talk to people while on the metro.  I saw a man on his kindle, and started to talk to him about books.  He was so interested in the conversation he had us get off at his stop.  At the end of the conversation he gave us his business card and told us to call!

I know that this gospel is true.  I can say that with stronger, renewed conviction every day.  Christ is real and He is always there.  If we only reach towards Him, no matter how far from Him we are, He will pull us close and carry Him home.  I am so grateful for the sacred opportunity to spread that message.

An INVESTIGATOR!

Every week in the mission field is both harder, and consequently, more fulfilling. I don't think I've ever been expected to achieve things of the magnitude expected of me now.

Monday, Elder Morris and I went to the mall and got coats for the winter. It has dropped about 25 degrees in the last week and a half and is only getting colder. Then we went out to dinner with our kind of inactive ward mission leader. He's a young guy named Sergei and he just finished recording an album with his band. He's a stud, and now that we have a relationship with him, hopefully he will be more willing to work closely with us.

I ended up going to the home of Luba and Yuri for dinner with Elder Mugerian, our zone leader. I had the best borsch (beet soup) of my life there. It's legendary in the mission, and very few volunteers have managed to get the recipe. THe next day, I went to bishop's house and had a similar experience. Bishop Vlad is also Luba and Yuri's son. Yuri serves as his first counselor.

Then Elder Morris and I were called as the mission service coordinators. That's a big job, seeing as each volunteer should be doing an average of 15 hours of service a week, and it all needs to be tracked. We still have no idea what we are doing in that regard.

Thursday, Elder Morris had his visa trip to Riga (capital of Latvia). Russian law requires we renew our visas every three months, so we actually each have two passports. We fly to Riga, spend an hour there, and then fly home. I got to spend the day with Elder Bedke. Elder Bedke was in my MTC group and serves in Smolensk, which is the boonies. He wanted to see some things around Moscow, and our lessons fell through, so we went to Victory Park. Thursday was also the night Sokolniki's new companionship, Elder Stevens and Elder Atkinson, moved in with us. They'll be in our apartment until they find one.

Saturday, we attended another baptism. We also received a couch, microwave, and our dishwasher and water filter got fixed. We are now one of three apartments in the mission with a functioning dishwasher. The church is true!

Sunday I was asked to speak. I had time to write about 8 bullet points in English, 5 vocabulary words in Russian, and then I spoke for 15 minutes. It was a little rough, but I was very impressed with myself. The Spirit was definitely lending a helping hand. We had three meetings yesterday, two with inactives, and one with an INVESTIGATOR! I haven't seen one of those in 4 weeks. He basically showed up at the building when it was closed, called the area office, and we got his number. He came to sacrament and we taught him the first lesson. His name is Vitali and he is super eager to learn, though he's very quiet. He started reading the Book of Mormon as we walked him to the door.

This week I want to give a special shoutout to my dad. It's his birthday. Thanks for being one of my heroes dad!

Hope you all have a great week!

-- 

Elder Wilkins

Baking it up

Man, it has been a crazy week. Monday we had the opportunity to go to a flea market. It was an experience. We got swarmed by people as soon as we said we were looking for one thing and they wouldn't give up until we left or took off running away. They just passed us store to store. There was so much stuff there, it was ridiculous.

We finally got going on the home teaching and worked with some companionships. It's a lot of fun doing those lessons, because there is this Russian cultural thing where if you have never talked to each other before, you don't really want to start, so we sit in a room with them and they talk to us but not each other hahaha.

Thursday was a big day. We got stopped in the elevator by a guy who lives in our apartment building who asked who we were, and for our phone number. He wants to play basketball "with the Americans" but he also seemed interested in the church. Later that night, almost the same thing happened with a guy in an English group we work with! We had about an hour after there, where we just decided the Lord wanted us to do something with basketball that day. So we showed up at a court to play (we are now allowed to schedule time to meet people through sports) and met 4 guys who wanted our number, and seemed a little interested in the church! It was crazy how that worked out.

Friday I had an awesome opportunity to gauge my personal growth. Some stuff went on with our disrict, that 6 months ago, would have had me fuming and upset all day long, and I wouldn't have been able to think about anything else. I was still upset, understandably, but I was calm about it. I was able to let it go. The Atonement is real, and cover more than just sins! Later that night we went out to a city called Pooshkina and met with an inactive named Elena. She was super friendly and kept feeding us. We were able to commit her to coming into Moscow for a family history seminar this Saturday.

Saturday I attended a double baptism, and did some stopbys. We spent the night with the Perovo Elders (Eastern Moscow) to prepare for service Sunday morning. Tranfer calls came, and guess what?! I'm not going anywhere. Sokolniki is getting an additional companionship and splitting into two districts though. One of the office elders, Elder Stevens, will be our new district leader. We are pumped because Elder Stevens is a good time.

Sunday we had a special sacrament for volunteers participating in the service project, and then went to a big festival. We did a puppet show about alcohol and smoking for kids for a few hours. There were news crews and tons of people there, we were shocked. Then Elder Morris and I went home and baked. I tried to make my mom's berry rolls, and they turned out ok for not having measuring cups, a rolling pin, and only using Russian ingredients!

The language is coming along really well. I think this transfer I'll see a spike in improvement, personally. I love having time everyday to study the Gospel and learn about my Savior.  I love the Russian people and their culture.  This life is wonderful.  

With love,

Elder Wilkins

Moscow streets at night:

Puppet show:

 Making Mom's berry rolls:

Some fried chicken and mashed potatoes we made:

A park in central Moscow:

Update

It's been a doozy of a week. I've gotten steadily sicker after getting a little bit better, so it sounds like I may be put on antibiotics soon, if Doc Taylor gets his way. Luckily, we have senior couples who load us up with stuff. Every time we leave one of their apartments, we leave with a bag of goodies. Sister Jensen has given me probably 50 packets of Emergen-C and a ton of other stuff, including soup mixes.

The Jensens brought us these Coconut Slam cookies back from the Ukraine.  They are fabled in the mission.

Chai (herbal/fruit tea) really helps as well. It's a big cultural thing here to drink tea, so we always have raspberry or mint tea at the end of the day.

Me and Elder Hunt, departing AP

For preparation day last week, we took a nap. Elder Morris and I then went and did some pronunciation practice with a member, in preparation for her presentation at zone conference. Zone conference was Tuesday. Man, the spirit was so strong. I got to meet a lot of the other volunteers, and got a lot of impressions about improving member relationships.

Me and Elder Hayden, departing Zone Leader

That night, Elder Hawkins and Elder Miller stayed with us. We decided to make them earn their dinner by helping us move furniture. Elder Morris and I had already rebuilt the IKEA bunk bed (curse IKEA) but we needed to move two huge wardrobes through our skinny hall and into the study. They ended up being balanced on a chair held together by superglue and the kitchen counter as we removed the study door so they would fit.

Wednesday we had a trainer/trainee training. I think they were trying to assess everyone as they coped with the new way of doing the Lord's work. The majority of the companionships are having some big struggles. I'll be the first to say my group is not humble. The trainers say it's because we "didn't have the streets to destroy our confidence" haha.

Wednesday we picked out desks in one of the offices, went to the American Center, and started participating in this English group at the workplace of a member. We talked about traditions, both American and Russian, and they could not wrap their heads around the idea of parades, American football, and a ton of food on Thanksgiving.

the English group

Friday our power went out. So we went and dropped our food off at the sisters before going to KFC. We went and visited Izolda again, but her apartment was locked. She won't make it much longer if no one can get in there. We weekly planned when we got home. That was great. Our planning before had been kind of so-so, but this week we really sat down and spent a lot of time praying and discussing. The Lord blessed us with an awesome schedule with lots of member lessons and service.

Saturday the Taylors checked our apartment and took us to eat at Starlight Cafe, an American 50s diner. Then we spent the rest of the night preparing for and setting up for the institute kickoff. Each room was decorated like a different place in the Apostle Paul's travels. It was a huge success.

Starlight Diner with the Taylors

Sunday I went to ward council. There was an area 70 and 2nd counselor in the are presidency there, so the pressure was on. It was super mentally draining but did me a lot of good, I think.

I love Russia, and I love my mission. It is hard, but I see the Lord every day and I can feel that he is satisfied in the work I am doing, and the man I am becoming. I love the Gospel. The church is true, friends! Thanks for all the support and emails.

-- 

Elder Wilkins

Our Apartment: