Hi everyone,
We found Miracle Man! We found him on the street several nights ago, and he is so sincere. It was dark, and we considered just taking a bus home and walking around in that area, but instead we decided to walk home. As we were walking, we simply said "hi" to this man, and he stopped and talked with us. We invited him to call us and meet with us. As we were walking away, I thought that we should have given him a Book of Mormon, so we turned around and ran back yelling his name. He called us, we met, and he is amazing! We asked him what his expectations are, and he said that he wants to learn more about God and Jesus and change his life. He has family, but according to him, they're "sinners," and he doesn't want to be like them. He accepted a baptismal date on the first lesson and has been studying the Book of Mormon. In fact, he explained very well the chapter we gave him (2 Nephi 31) about entering on the narrow path. He even asked us for another chapter to study at the end of a lesson. He was going to come to church, but waited outside the building Sunday morning until the elders showed up to tell them that he had to help his family that day. Unfortunate, but we are so awed by this amazing man. He has been fully prepared to receive the Gospel. We can't get over how golden and amazing he is.
We also got a taxi ride from a man who has met lots of missionaries during his time as a taxi driver, and he worked in mines with coal as an engineer of some sort. He was pretty good English, so he was able to pull out the "spring" from "springer." The next time we needed a taxi, he told me he'd done some thinking about the "er" part, and he concluded that a "spring-er" would translate into Russian as "freckle" (веснушка - vesnooshka). His logic sort of made sense, so now I'm Sister Freckle! Sister Woodland still goes by Sister Forest because it's easier for the Russian's to say the Russian word for "forest" than it is to say "woodland."
We also were able to work with our stellar 15-year-old family history girl. She's found more information on her mom's death and on her grandma's relatives. In fact, we found out that there's a street in Moscow named after her great-great-grandpa's brother. She's super.
Those were some of the highlights for this week. Everything's bright and sunny today in good 'ol Artyom. (Really, the weather has been unusually warm. The Russians all comment about it.)
Сестра Спрингер
We found Miracle Man! We found him on the street several nights ago, and he is so sincere. It was dark, and we considered just taking a bus home and walking around in that area, but instead we decided to walk home. As we were walking, we simply said "hi" to this man, and he stopped and talked with us. We invited him to call us and meet with us. As we were walking away, I thought that we should have given him a Book of Mormon, so we turned around and ran back yelling his name. He called us, we met, and he is amazing! We asked him what his expectations are, and he said that he wants to learn more about God and Jesus and change his life. He has family, but according to him, they're "sinners," and he doesn't want to be like them. He accepted a baptismal date on the first lesson and has been studying the Book of Mormon. In fact, he explained very well the chapter we gave him (2 Nephi 31) about entering on the narrow path. He even asked us for another chapter to study at the end of a lesson. He was going to come to church, but waited outside the building Sunday morning until the elders showed up to tell them that he had to help his family that day. Unfortunate, but we are so awed by this amazing man. He has been fully prepared to receive the Gospel. We can't get over how golden and amazing he is.
We also got a taxi ride from a man who has met lots of missionaries during his time as a taxi driver, and he worked in mines with coal as an engineer of some sort. He was pretty good English, so he was able to pull out the "spring" from "springer." The next time we needed a taxi, he told me he'd done some thinking about the "er" part, and he concluded that a "spring-er" would translate into Russian as "freckle" (веснушка - vesnooshka). His logic sort of made sense, so now I'm Sister Freckle! Sister Woodland still goes by Sister Forest because it's easier for the Russian's to say the Russian word for "forest" than it is to say "woodland."
We also were able to work with our stellar 15-year-old family history girl. She's found more information on her mom's death and on her grandma's relatives. In fact, we found out that there's a street in Moscow named after her great-great-grandpa's brother. She's super.
Those were some of the highlights for this week. Everything's bright and sunny today in good 'ol Artyom. (Really, the weather has been unusually warm. The Russians all comment about it.)
Сестра Спрингер