We really want Dima to have the blessing of the Holy Ghost

Elder Wells "maybe the goats will listen to us!"

Dima is awesome. We can meet with him pretty much when every we want. He is super open and last week even answerd some questions in Elders Quarum. He is making really good progress with his girlfriend. She says that she is amazed at the way he has been acting. This week we are going to try to set a date for everything to get done. We really want him to have the blessings of the Holy Ghost. It is such a powerful gift. But ya as far as he goes everything is going great. Speaking of Elders Quarum I gave the lesson yesterday on Eternal marriage. That topic is hard enough to talk about in English let alone Russian, but I think it went well... I hope.

So this week we found a really cool guy named Stepan. We ran into him at night and he said we could come by the next day. He gave us his address and his house phone. But when we went by he didn't answer. Then we went to the grocerystore to grab a couple of things. We got a call from him saying "Elders I'm so sorry I fell a sleep, please come over." That marlks the first time anyone has ever called us for a meeting. We went over and taught one of the bext first lessons we have taught together, The Spirit was so strong in the room. We only got through half of the first lesson because we had to go home but he wanted to know more about where the Book of Mormon came from. It was super cool. At the beginning of the lesson he offered us coffe and tea. We told him we can only drink Herbal tea. When we got back to our apartment that night he called us and said "Hey I'm at the grocery store what is your favorite tea?" It was so cool to hear him ask us that beacuse we had set up with him for the next day. Unfortunately he didn't come to church and he wasn't home when we went by. But maybe he was just asleep again.... But ya were definately going to keep tabs on him.

So let me just say this area has been such a growing experience. Since Elder Wells is the second counselor and Elder Gregory our branch President doesn't speak any Russian we got to help him during tithing settlement. It was seriously the coolest experience that I have had with tithing. I got to see these amaizing people with very little income declare that they were full tithe payers. I seriously love this branch. It is so cool to see how humble all of these people are, They all realize that they have to give tithing so that when somone needs food or something the branch can help out. They all have a super positive attitude towads helping each other. I love it.

out in the country where we serve 

This past week was Zone Conference. It was so amazing, I wish I could tell you everything about it but I'll just hit some of the highlights. He talked a lot about complaining. Now I don't call my self a complainer but when I first got here I was excited about having cockroaches beacsue "It's not a mission without cockroaches." But now I am really tired of them. My goal is to go back to what I was like that first week. Once we had our hot water shut off while showering and it got so cold that putting my head under for 2 seconds gave me a headache. But I laughed the whole time thinking about funny it was to be having a "real mission experience." I want to go back to that. Also he talked about receiving blessings. Just beacuse we prayed and fasted doesn't mean that the next day is going to be the best day in the world. Just look at the sons of Mosiah, after all of their tribulations they still had more before they had success. This mission is hard but I'm loving every minute of it. This week I hit my 5 month mark. That was really scary. I don't know how it feels to you but it's going by way too fast.

Sorry if that last paragraph didn't make a lot of sense. The final point was that I want to continue being happy about everything. No matter how cold it gets, or hot or how many bugs are in my apartment. I stil want to keep my new missionary attitude. So that's my goal for my mission.