Hi everyone!
We definitely saw miracles this week, even though we were gone for
three days while I had a visa renewal trip. Maybe this will be
miraculous March.
I think I talked about how we've been doing Prayerful March for the
children in our branch, and we've followed-up with several of them,
and they've all said they've been praying every day. It's so exciting
to hear that they're praying because we know that daily prayer is so
important.
It's snowing again today. A lot. Someone on the street wished us
Happy New Year's. I'm pretty sure Russia has spring. They have a
word for it, so it's going to come sometime. We were going to take a
bus to Vlad tonight for zone conference tomorrow, but now we're going to take a train (which is a lot better than a bus because there's
light we can use for studying and writing in our journals).
Yesterday at church, Blue came again at the end of Relief Society,
although she technically was an hour earlier than last week because we cut church down from three hours to two (to help relieve pressure from so many callings off of the members). We're going to have sacrament every week, and we'll rotate between Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood every other week. Blue said she hadn't read the Book of Mormon and that she reads only the Bible. It's great that she reads every day, but we shared a verse from the Book of Mormon about people who say they already have a Bible. We hope she reads this week.
Last night, SIster Watts and I found a former investigator. We
visited her apartment, and she let us right in and was super nice.
She had a beautiful home, especially compared to most apartments we
visit. She remembered a lot from her previous meetings with the
missionaries (she told us she remembered about Bryan Smith), and she had a bunch of questions about the Plan of Salvation for us that we're going to try to answer next time we visit. Also, crazy story. She
told us about a member she went to school with here in Nakhodka, and then she said that he moved to Lithuania and was married a few years ago. Well, guess who happened to be in Lithuania a few years ago and was there when that marriage happened? Sister Watts! She totally met the exact same person. The Mormon world is a small world!
Owl still has a baptismal date for the 28th. She didn't come to church the past two weeks, and she doesn't read the Book of Mormon on her own, but she seems to remember and understand more every time we meet with her. She needs to be at church the next two weeks in order to keep her baptismal date.
We took a bus to a small town about an hour out of the city called
Nefeetskaya to visit a less-active member and her grand-daughter (who hasn't been baptized). We had an awesome lesson on the Restoration. The grand-daughter is adorable and really crafy. She makes these gorgeous little trees out of beads. She's very stubborn, though, and doesn't want to be baptized even though the rest of her family is. She used to be the elder's investigator, but we've started teaching her, and we want her to gain a desire to be baptized.
Yesterday was Women's Day, which is what it sounds like. There were
flower stands all over selling tulips. Sister Watts baked cookies and
brought them to church for the women. We had an amazing six lessons yesterday, and it was an overall great day. I want to wish all the wonderful women at home a Happy Women's Day! (С днём восмово Марта = With day of the eighth of March.)
Hope you all have an awesome week, and I love being in Russia and I
love the Russian people!
Сестра Спрингер
Family Note: Ashlin got to go to Korea this past week to renew her visa. She didn't give us a lot of detail; everything seems to be "top secret," but here is what she wrote:
We left on Monday to travel to Artyom, where the airport is. We
caught a flight to Korea on Tuesday and came back on Wednesday. I
went with Sister Brayton, Elder Bodily, and Elder Lyman (so Sis. Watts did splits in Artyom with a different sister). We flew Aeroflot, and I didn't know I had to give them my frequent flyer number... Um...
Yeah. I have two passports, so one was getting a visa while I was in
Nakhodka, and I switched them, so now the old one is getting a new
visa. It was really cool and fun, and although I can't write
everything about it, I can't wait to tell you about it when I get home
and show you my pictures. I'm not sure exactly what I can share about it and what I can't, but it was great. :) Love you
We definitely saw miracles this week, even though we were gone for
three days while I had a visa renewal trip. Maybe this will be
miraculous March.
I think I talked about how we've been doing Prayerful March for the
children in our branch, and we've followed-up with several of them,
and they've all said they've been praying every day. It's so exciting
to hear that they're praying because we know that daily prayer is so
important.
It's snowing again today. A lot. Someone on the street wished us
Happy New Year's. I'm pretty sure Russia has spring. They have a
word for it, so it's going to come sometime. We were going to take a
bus to Vlad tonight for zone conference tomorrow, but now we're going to take a train (which is a lot better than a bus because there's
light we can use for studying and writing in our journals).
Yesterday at church, Blue came again at the end of Relief Society,
although she technically was an hour earlier than last week because we cut church down from three hours to two (to help relieve pressure from so many callings off of the members). We're going to have sacrament every week, and we'll rotate between Sunday School and Relief Society/Priesthood every other week. Blue said she hadn't read the Book of Mormon and that she reads only the Bible. It's great that she reads every day, but we shared a verse from the Book of Mormon about people who say they already have a Bible. We hope she reads this week.
Last night, SIster Watts and I found a former investigator. We
visited her apartment, and she let us right in and was super nice.
She had a beautiful home, especially compared to most apartments we
visit. She remembered a lot from her previous meetings with the
missionaries (she told us she remembered about Bryan Smith), and she had a bunch of questions about the Plan of Salvation for us that we're going to try to answer next time we visit. Also, crazy story. She
told us about a member she went to school with here in Nakhodka, and then she said that he moved to Lithuania and was married a few years ago. Well, guess who happened to be in Lithuania a few years ago and was there when that marriage happened? Sister Watts! She totally met the exact same person. The Mormon world is a small world!
Owl still has a baptismal date for the 28th. She didn't come to church the past two weeks, and she doesn't read the Book of Mormon on her own, but she seems to remember and understand more every time we meet with her. She needs to be at church the next two weeks in order to keep her baptismal date.
We took a bus to a small town about an hour out of the city called
Nefeetskaya to visit a less-active member and her grand-daughter (who hasn't been baptized). We had an awesome lesson on the Restoration. The grand-daughter is adorable and really crafy. She makes these gorgeous little trees out of beads. She's very stubborn, though, and doesn't want to be baptized even though the rest of her family is. She used to be the elder's investigator, but we've started teaching her, and we want her to gain a desire to be baptized.
Yesterday was Women's Day, which is what it sounds like. There were
flower stands all over selling tulips. Sister Watts baked cookies and
brought them to church for the women. We had an amazing six lessons yesterday, and it was an overall great day. I want to wish all the wonderful women at home a Happy Women's Day! (С днём восмово Марта = With day of the eighth of March.)
Hope you all have an awesome week, and I love being in Russia and I
love the Russian people!
Сестра Спрингер
Family Note: Ashlin got to go to Korea this past week to renew her visa. She didn't give us a lot of detail; everything seems to be "top secret," but here is what she wrote:
We left on Monday to travel to Artyom, where the airport is. We
caught a flight to Korea on Tuesday and came back on Wednesday. I
went with Sister Brayton, Elder Bodily, and Elder Lyman (so Sis. Watts did splits in Artyom with a different sister). We flew Aeroflot, and I didn't know I had to give them my frequent flyer number... Um...
Yeah. I have two passports, so one was getting a visa while I was in
Nakhodka, and I switched them, so now the old one is getting a new
visa. It was really cool and fun, and although I can't write
everything about it, I can't wait to tell you about it when I get home
and show you my pictures. I'm not sure exactly what I can share about it and what I can't, but it was great. :) Love you