Baptism of Vova!

Good news. Vova got baptized and received the Holy Ghost. It was awesome! I had the opportunity to baptize him which was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done. But I will start at the beginning of this week. On Wednesday Elder Christensen, my district leader and I were on exchanges so that he could interview Vova. I sat in the corner during the interview praying my heart out that it would go well. He answered the questions perfectly it was awesome! I could literally feel his testimony growing as he answered the questions. So on Friday we taught him and just went over some last things before the baptism. He said he was really scared and I told him I was too haha. So the next day we went to Center Odessa for the baptism. There was another brother being baptized which helped him with his fears. We had asked his step-sister Anya to give a talk on baptism. She did such a good job. She got really choked up as she talked about how this day is an answer to so many prayers. She said the next person to be baptized will hopefully be her dad and that maybe her mom will speak at his baptism. It was really sweet. So after that I was able to baptize and it all went well so I was super relieved. After the service we had some food and snacks. Some people from the other branches got to know Vova which was really good. I forgot to say that we had an amazing turnout to the baptism. Nearly half of our branch came. The next day Vova received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and I and Elder Hughes got to stand in the circle to confer it upon him. It was really cool. Definitely one of the coolest experiences of my life. I will put up some pictures right now.

Elder Quinn, President Sadchenko, Vova, Elder Hughes 

A happy moment!  Vova, Elder Quinn

Elder Quinn Vova 

Now about his father. Unfortunately he did not come to the baptism or to church. But tonight we have an amazing lesson planned for him and his family. It is going to be so cool. I really hope that he has seen the change in his son and will see that this is what he wants as well. His family is so cool it is only a matter of time before he accepts this great message. I just want it to be sooner rather than later. It would bless him and his family so much. That is one thing I have really learned while on my mission. About how much this Gospel really does bless everyone. The blessings of Priesthood in the family and in the church has been shown as I have seen families struggle without it in their homes. But I am so thankful to be a worthy Priesthood holder that they can look to and ask for help. As our branch President said on Sunday, without us there would be no branch here. We had a less active brother show up and when Vova gets the Priesthood then we will have 6 worthy brethren. That will be awesome. But we need more specifically Oleg.

The Kozakova family - Anya, Sister Alyona and Grandma Lidia
along with Elder Hughes Vova and Elder Quinn

The people at the Baptism

So Hannah you mentioned a couple of weeks ago that you are doing family indexing. Keep it up that is a really good thing to be doing. There are two young women about your age who after church do indexing while their mom is in meetings. I have seen the pictures that they do. Imagine Russian cursive. It is pretty intense. There is no way I could even pretend to read it haha. But ya that is a really good service so keep it up.

Mom, here is a funny story for you. It is about the handkerchiefs that you sent me in my package. Elder Hughes kind of laughed and said that he would make fun of me if I used them. But that was before it got soooo humid. We were at sister Finanko's and she was feeding us her Borsh which is a hot soup. Then she fed us pasta and meat. I was sweating bullets so I pulled out my handkerchief and wiped my face. I look up and Elder Hughes was sweating way bad too so I haded him another one I had in my backpack and he used it. Afterwards he said ok fine I will eat my works the handkerchiefs were a really good idea. It was super funny.