God loves being merciful

 My week was super busy and involved a lot of running around but I will get to that later.  It was weird to remember that a year ago on Easter we were all in Florida. Fun stuff. So let Mark know that when I come home I will be more than happy to play swords with him. I am just proud that Katie let him have a sword. I think he is ready to hear the full unedited story of Ammon. haha well maybe we don't want dad to lose any arms. Also I am very glad to hear everything is going well with Natalie and the baby. :)

So I want to start out with General Conference this week. It was so good. I saw a lot of cool correlations between the messages that were shared. One of my favorite talks was from Elder Holland. His quote really hit me. "Surely the thing God loves most about being God is being merciful." I love it so much when I can look someone in the eye and tell them that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that he wants the best for us. This very simple concept is very hard for people to grasp. God here is a very scary firm man who we have to please or he will smite us. I try to tell people that he does not hurt us it is us who makes the pain. We are warned of dangers then we have the choice to keep going or to come back to our Heavenly Father. It is such a great truth that I hold very dear.

The missionaries watching General Conferance 

As far as things go this week it was a great week. We had to take the one hour bus ride to Odessa a lot this week. There is a new law that requires us to get registered in every new apartment that we move into. It is really complicated and requires a lot of work between us our landlord and people from the mission office. It also has a very complicated vocabulary that many timed I have no idea what they want from me, but today was the last day that we had to do anything.... I hope.

But despite all of that things went really well. Vova agreed to be baptized when he receives an answer. We had a really cool lesson that was probably one of the best ones I have ever taught. We tried to set a date but he said he doesn't feel ready yet. I told him I will not baptize him until I feel that he is ready as well. He said he would pray for an answer and he even said the prayer at the end of the lesson. When I told this to his mom and sister, who are members, they started jumping up and down. They were so excited. I really feel like things will start to go well here in Illichosk. Also he went to General Conference which was awesome!

We also had a lesson with Dima this week. He signed a sheet saying that I could do his work if he is unable to do it. I took a picture of it and will keep it very safely. We also tried to set a date with him but he just didn't know when things would work out. I also see things going well with him. His health has seemed to stabilized and I saw him laugh a couple of times. Sister Finanko came on the lesson and acted just like a grandma to him. She felt his head fluffed his pillow and was telling his girlfriend if they need anything just call. It was so good to have her there. He said he would pray this week for an answer of when he should be baptized. He is still reading and praying which is really good.

This week I am teaching seminary and so I am going to say I need Cylvester's help. Speaking of which wish me luck, I have to teach from the Old Testament. Pretty much everything Hannah hears this week in Seminary I have to teach it in Russian haha it will be interesting...

Awesome young man Maxcime