I hope you had a delicious Pi day and a safe Ides of March.
Tomorrow's St. Patrick's Day, so we'll be sure to wear green. I love
celebrating holidays!
Last Monday feels like forever ago. So much happened this week, and I
really hope I can remember it all.
After emailing on Monday, Sister Watts and I went to the grocery store
to buy groceries, and at about 3:50, we received a call from the
elders that we needed to be at the bus stop at 4:30 to catch a bus
going to this city where we could catch a train to Aryom. (We had
been trying to figure out all day how to get to Artyom because the
snow put off a lot of traveling plans, so it looked like this was our
best chance to get there.) We were in the middle of buying groceries,
so we quickly finished, called a taxi, went home, dropped off our
groceries, PACKED (in 5 minutes, and we hadn't packed earlier because
we thought we were leaving later), then rode in the same taxi to the
bus station and made it in time to catch the bus. So that was crazy.
Then we rode the bus for about an hour to this city called Partizansk,
and when we got to the train station, we realized we had missed the
train to Artyom. We were kind of stuck there for several hours,
calling taxis and trying to find a way to get either to Artyom or back
to Nakhodka, and finally, at 10:00, a taxi showed up and took us to
Artyom. That was a crazy day!
Zone conference was the next day in Vladivostok, and it was really
good. We talked about lots of things we can do to be more obedient
and be led by the spirit. I wish I had my notes to share with you.
Several missionaries who are going home this transfer and next
transfer shared their testimonies with us, one of them being Sister
Watts. There was a great spirit there, and I loved seeing all the
missionaries there.
This week is transfers, and we got transfer calls Friday night. We
were surprised to hear that Sister Watts is leaving Nakhodka. She's
going to be serving in Ussyrisk (Ussurisk? How is that spelled in
English?) for her last transfer, she's finishing Sister Allen's
training, and she's going to be sister training leader. Isn't she
awesome? I was definitely blessed to have her as my trainer! I'll be
staying here in Nakhodka, and Sister Isaac will be my new companion.
Sister Isaac is a transfer older than I am, and we met in the MTC.
I'm excited to get to know her better, and although I'm a little
nervous about being in charge of the city, I know we'll have a great
time together.
Owl didn't come to church yesterday, so we had to reschedule her
baptismal date for April 4th. We're still seeing signs of progress,
but we would love to see more. We're also still finding people who
are ready to hear our message. We have several investigators who
could be baptized if they received permission from parents or if they
just gained a desire to be baptized. Please pray for them! We're
doing our best, trying to talk to as many people as we can, but this
work is definitely not what we want, it's what the Lord wants. We put
our trust and faith in Him, and He does everything in his own time.
Have an awesome week!
Cестра Спрингер
Mother's Note: I asked Ashlin some questions about her mission; I think you can understand what they were by her answers, but I thought it was interesting...
Life is good.
I don't know what you could do to help the branch. Pray for them, for
sure! I think the mission can take care of everything. I have played
piano, every other week usually (for the hymns), and at the Golden's
baptism (the Jon Schmidt baptism hymn). I'm definitely understanding
and speaking better, but I would love to understand more than I do
right now. Favorite thing... hard to say. I love when I'm on a
lesson, and someone's kept their commitments. It shows so much
humility, and I love that. Least favorite would probably be talking
to everyone (just because I get nervous and don't know what to stay
and am very introverted) and not having control of my time. It
doesn't matter if we have nothing planned from 8-9, we have to stay
on the street instead of going home and doing something more
productive like studying or cleaning or doing other projects. But
it's not my time, it's the Lord's time, and I do my best to be
obedient.