June 10th 2013

Hello! Another week in paradise... seriously! We live super close to the Volga so we've been spending a few nights there contacting. It's so beautiful!! I would send you pictures but I was using Sister Clyde's card reader all this time so now you might not get pictures for a while. We've been meeting quite a few amazing people, but we haven't gained very many investigators from those people quite yet. One woman we met the other day and it was her birthday so I was like, hey! I have a present for you and gave her a Finding Faith in Christ DVD. She was so excited.. haha little does she know that those are always free. We also met a lot of nice people knocking, which is strange because I'm used to angry folks answering the door and yelling us out, practically dragging us out of the complex by the ear. But with Sister Moffatt it's different. If you heard her voice, you would understand. No one can say no to it...okay, they do.. but it's like kicking a little, fluffy kitty cat, you just don't do it. We had a cool experience last night knocking. We were knocking with a member, Galeena, she's a ward missionary that's been wanting to work with us for a while but the sisters before us advised us not to use her for some reason. Well yesterday I unknowingly sat next to her in sacrament meeting and then when I figured out who she was I invited her to come with us. Sister Moffatt wasn't necessarily happy about that but it's the woman's calling for heaven's sake. Anyway, so we're knocking with her and was kind of frustrating because knocked into a few people with potential who seemed interested but Galeena was driving them off a bit. It wasn't really her fault, members just don't always understand how to do missionary work. Like how we generally like to get to know them first before we invite them to come to church or listen to us. Finally we get to what we decided was the last podyez (stairway) and we get to the last floor and are about to knock on the last door. I'm standing there and the thought comes into my mind. Hey, this is Galeena's calling. She is called from God to help us and just as much as I believe in my calling, I should believe in hers. I thought, there must be some reason why she is here with us right now. So I said a little, sincere prayer saying, Heavenly Father, I know there is someone in this building that needs Galeena's help, please help us to find that person. Then after we rang we waited, then a woman yelled through the door like they often do, "who's there?" Sister Moffatt answered that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The woman yelled again, what?? Then Galeena answers saying the same thing and we hear the keys unlocking the door and it opens slightly, enough to see and old woman in a wheelchair. She was gruff and she and Galeena had some sort of exchange that sounded like fighting to me but it seems like people are fighting a lot to me here so that's not very abnormal. Then after a few minutes we start to see the door open ever so slightly a little bit more and the longer we are there the more it opens and she hands us her trash so we can take it out for her (never have I seen a Russian ask for help like that) and Galeena starts to explain the Relief Society and inviting her to church. Next thing I know we're in this woman's house and remained there for the next hour talking with this woman, who's name, ironically, is also Galeena. They are also the same age. They really hit it off and we got to know all about her life and the situation she's in now. She loved the pamphlet we gave her of the restoration, mostly because of the picture of Jesus on the front, which she kissed. I know that my prayer was answered that night and I know that both Galeena's needed each-other in a way that Sister Moffatt and I could not fulfill.  In this past week I've really learned the power of prayer, especially ones given out of the moment that they are needed. This week we visited another older woman who we met on the street named Annatonina. When we first met her she was very alive and friendly, gave us her address and invited us over anytime. We went the next day and finally found her after a good hour of walking and searching. She hardly remembered us and seemed very sullen, but she was also sweet. She lives alone, widowed at a young age. She explained how she grew up basically atheist in the Soviet era, knows very little about God and is only acquainted with religion by what she has observed around her. She told us of how her husband died after installing the roof right above where she sat. He decided to go out to the balcony for a smoke break when he tripped and fell, hitting his head on the step. She pointed the scene out to us from where we sat and showed us a picture of him, one of the only things occupying the empty shelf in a fairly empty and dimly lit room. How sad I felt. How much despair and lack of hope. How much love I felt for this woman so alone. We asked if we could leave with a prayer and she agreed, sitting at the edge of her seat, listening to every word Sister Moffatt uttered in prayer. I sat listening as well and prayed a prayer of my own, Heavenly Father, please help this woman feel the Spirit, help her to feel you here. At the end of the prayer she opened her eyes, clutched her heart and leaned back letting out a big breath. In that moment I knew that once again my prayer had been answered. She kissed our cheeks and asked us to return.

Oh how I treasure moments like these with these precious babooski. 

I want to tell you more about experiences I've had with investigators... mom kinda reminded me that I haven't been but somehow I feel like I'll jinx it if I tell you about good things we have going on. Now that I'm not in Bezi anymore I can tell you about them but I'll have to save that for next week. I love you guys and I think about you all the time! Especially lately as I have been reading the conference talks and being reminded of all the things that you are going through and words that might inspire you. I would share it with you but I can't cover it all so I guess I'll just say read the conference talks again!! or listen to them!! :)