10-22-12

October 22, 2012 Alright, so on which passport do you want the new visa?" " *poker face* huh?" "Come on, I know you have 2 passports" "Oh." Hey there everybody! Gosh, you know I've been telling Elder Treter for the past 3 weeks that we'd be having a normal day of missionary work. Well...that still hasn't really happened, but amazingly enought we've still been having some incredible stuff going on here in Orenburg! The investigator who wants his family to be together forever is making really awesome progress in the gospel. He came with his two twin sons to Church all by himself and stayed for all 3 hours, which is way cool since we weren't even on third hour (we taught Aaronic Priesthood instead, way cool kid there) and he took a Gospel principles book and loves it. We're gonna start meeting with him every Monday and Wednesday is the hope, so we'll see how all of that goes down! He's a pretty solid guy and investigator of the Church, so I can't wait to be meeting with him tonight and teaching him about the plan of Salvation! Another person we're working with is doing really well too! She met the missionaries 5 years ago and has been flitting in and out of investigating the Church. She's been having rough times lately and had some spiritual questions so she herself called the missionaries (one of which was Elder Johnson, my second trainer if you remember!) and has been meeting with them ever since! We had a really cool lesson on Lehi's dream and relating it to baptism and eternal life and she's been praying about a baptismal date of the 17th of November. Because she's investigated the Church for so long I think she's got a really good knowledge of the Church, but is lacking a bit in testimony, so that'll be cool making that a focus for our upcoming meetings! Also, for the past couple of weeks we've been trying pretty hard to get this one family out to Church. They're way cool and love the church but are hurting a bit financially making it hard to get to Church. Me and the mother talked on the phone a couple of times before this past Sunday and she's just the best mom for her 4 kids! Super energetic and she loves the Church and she was able to make it this past Sunday! Her little 9 year old daughter is also one of the cutest little Russian kids I know and we're gonna be working with her to prepare her for baptism (the rest of the fam are members). Pretty cool, right? Elder Treter is doing pretty dang awesome too, I've got to say. I'm still super impressed with his knowledge of the language and his ability to express himself. We had a meeting with a potential investigator and she asked him how the Church and the Book of Mormon had affected his life. He proceeded to explain how ever since he was 13 he noticed the difference between people who kept the commandments and those who didn't and the quality of their lives. He explained what he did to come to know the Book of Mormon was true (he has a testimony a lot like me, no real defined moment when we found out it was true, it just was a knowledge that's ben there since childhood) amd testified of the Church. I'm so glad that I get to be Elder Treter's trainer, he really is the best. As corny as it probably sounds, I've learned a lot more from him than I think he has from me. This past week I was on a visa trip, which is why I'm so surprised as to how much good happened considering that we were effectively only in Orenburg for 3 days or so, one of which got eaten up by weekl planning. We unfortunately didn't get to go to the temple in Kiev this time around, but it was a great opportunity to get to know the missionaries in the Samara zone and to catch up with some good friends (like Elder Stoddard in Penza!). I think it's funny, now that I look back, how I used to be a bit shy of talking to people on airplanes back in America. I'd almost always do it, and always have an awesome experience doing so, but I still just remember being so shy of doing it. Now I just get on planes and talk to anybody and have a blast doing it! Glad I've picked up at least that skill since being in Russia and having visa trips! Well, time's about up here, thank you so much for being so awesome! A bit belated, sorry, but happy birthday Neil and Brando! You're the best! That's way cool that Lexi and Lily got blessed too. I can't wait to meet them! Ya'll have a great one now, alright? I love you lots :) С любовью, -- Elder Peterson