My Head is Spinning...

Hey everyone. I was sad to see University go, but Kakhovski is a blast.

Tuesday night I said goodbye to Nick, Katya, and their cat (some of my favorite members in University). Wednesday I got to Kakhovski, went to district meeting, and spent about two hours getting acquainted with my companion Elder Heywood. He's 20, from Seattle, beatboxes like a champ, and just finished his training. He and another Elder in our district, Elder Carter, had visa trips, so I spent the next day with Elder Johnson.

Elder Johnson, the sisters, and I helped our new senior couple, the Smiths, move in and buy a few necessities for their apartment. Unfortunately, we got on the wrong train to get to the store, and got kicked off by an angry security lady.

Elder Heywood came back for a day, long enough to bring me more or less up to speed on the area and our work, before he and Elder Radle left for the city Ryazan. They will be the travelling elders in Ryazan every other weekend. So Elder Bedke and I got back together!

Sunday was quick. It has been almost a year since I have had three hours of church. I forgot how long that can be sometimes, especially on fast Sunday. Yikes. It was also the largest unit in Russia I have been to-we have almost 80 active members. It kind of was a blur of shaking hands and trying to learn names. But the Lord answered our prayers for new people to work with in a miraculous way- two investigators showed up to church unannounced!

The week just flew by, but I am really excited about the work that lays ahead of us. Also, no general conference spoilers, we have to wait until the translation comes out in the next week :)

The gospel is true, the book is blue. Say your prayers.

Elder Wilkins

Забавно, что вы еще не думали переводить эти

I wish I had something more original than "Hey everyone" to say, but this was the best I could do.

Elder Bushlaev and I had a killer week, and almost got back to where we were when the work in University had peaked. We met with our most promising investigator, Mikhail, 3 times this week. You can really see the difference the gospel is making in his life- he smiles and just looks cleaner. He has a baptismal date for Dec 3. We also had Kirill, one of our other investigators, at church (which is his biggest hold-up for baptism), so I could call it a successful week right there. But! We also met with a man named Anatolii, who was already familiar with the doctrine of the church. However, he said he could not join any church that was not actively taking a stance against loan sharks. In addition to his impeccably manicured nails, that made him the most interesting investigator I have had to date.

I had a split with Elder Lainhart on Tuesday, and we helped one of our teenage members prepare to give his friend a Book of Mormon. Friday, I went on a split with Elder Miller so we could meet with Oleg and introduce him to some of the other young people in the stake. Well, the other young people bailed. And Oleg told us he won't read the Book of Mormon anymore, which was pretty disappointing. At this point, we have done what we can do, and any further efforts are just going to push him farther away. It's in the Lord's hands now.

On Saturday, we met with a member's nonmember dad. This member is actually on her mission in Novosibirsk, but I knew her from my first area, and she asked Elder Bushlaev and I to meet with him. He was a way nice guy, and would be a phenomenal member someday. Later in the day, the transfer calls came in. I am leaving University, and going to the Kakhovski area, about 20 minutes away from where I now am. I'm pretty excited, because two other elders from my group, Elder Bedke and Elder Radle, are going to be serving in that district with me!

The book is blue, the Gospel is true. Keep it real out there, ya humble followers of Christ.

Elder Wilkins