A Lot Going On!

Alright I got a lot of things to talk about. But I'll start at the top of my list. Next week I am going to Bulgaria for my Visa trip. I need my social security number and I can't remember the first three numbers. Could you just send those to me? Also about Visas I have a pretty good chance of staying in Illichosk because the 26 new missionaries dropped to 15 and now they don't know if any of them are going to get Visas. My group was the last group to come in without any problems. I didn't realize how much of a blessing it was until now. But ya we will find out on Saturday, I really want to stay, things have really been going well lately.

So a quick two funny stories. This one is for Johnny. A little while ago he told me how he and his companions would keep themselves entertained while walking on the streets. They would kick rocks between each others legs. Well I did it to Elder Wells and he didn't like it. But for a little while now Elder Karajov has been doing it to me. At first I thought it was an accident but then he did it and I heard him mumble "yes." I asked him what he was doing and he told me everyone up in Kiev does it. I laughed so hard. I guess missionaries are the same everywhere. 

Second funny story. I was studying this week and came across a word I didn't know. It ended up being the word "beard" then I came to the same word but with a prefix added to it I looked it up and it said chin. But the litteral translation is "under beard." It makes you wonder what came first the beard or the chin in Russia. Sorry that was a random story I just figured you would all get a kick out of it. 

Now this was a crazy story. So we approached this guy and started talking with him he was nice but wasn't super interested. Then this lady walked up and asked if she could listen, Elder Karajov was like ya of course but I thought I know this lady from somewhere. We payed with both of them and then she sprang her attack. She started Bible Bashing like never before! Then I remembered that she once came into our church and tried to bible bash with me and Elder Wells. This was one of the first times that I actually understood what the person was talking about and she was making me so angry. Here we were talking to a nice guy and she came in and ruined it. She turned to me and said I read on the internet that you believe Jesus Christ and the devil are brothers. I said we are all children of our Heavenly Father and that makes us all brothers and sisters so yes the devil is our brother. She looked like I had just slapped her in the face. She was so mad at me. She said how dare you say that about our Savior. I just started in on the Plan of Salvation but she wouldn't let me talk. So we gave up and just let her ramble on. But then she hit another nerve of mine. As missionaries we always try to commit people to do things. So when she said "This is what I want from you boys, I want you to stop using the Book of Mormon and only use the Bible. Will you do that?" It was if she was trying to commit me to do something. I was so angry but I held my tongue and said "We know that this is Holy Scripture" Then I turned to the guy and said if you would be interested we would love to talk with you. This was the best part. He said ya now I am because that lady is crazy. He said it right in front of her. It was awesome! So we just walked away. But afterwards we looked back on it and were really proud of our selves. We didn't bash we only bore testimony. 

Now onto investigators. So I guess I need to stop complaining because we had a great week this week. We found 3 investigators and two of them came to church and that doesn't include Dima because he wasn't able to. Stanaslav came which was super random. He said he didn't want to when Elder Wells and I tried to commit him but this time he came. Also Vova came which was really cool. Then we had one of the best sacrament meetings. Kcosha Goncherova a 16 year old girl gave an amazing talk on prayer. It was one of the best talks that I have heard for awhile. Then I talked on the Plan of Salvation and then President Gonyev from the District Presidency talked on the Plan of Salvation as well. It was such a sacrament meeting. For second hour I gave the lesson on being cleansed from sin through Christ and I think it went well. 

Relief Society Choir 

Later on the night we taught Oleg again and talked about repentance. At the beginning we talked about why we ask him to make commitments. I told him that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and so when we ask him to something it is as if Christ is asking him. His whole attitude changed and he said we could continue teaching him. Also next week his step daughter Ana comes home from her minimission which is going to be such a big help of lessons. 

So as you can see things really picked up this week. I really want to stay in Illichosk for just s little bit longer.