February 25, 2013
"Well, it's really called the Day of the Protectors of the
Fatherland...but we call it Mens' Day!
Hey there everyone :)
Wow, it's pretty warm outside. Hitting above 0 C is making all the
ice and snow melt and, just like at about this time last year, you can begin to
see hints that indeed, this isn't just a land of ice and snow, but there is a
thing called a sidewalk that lies under all that stuff! Weird, right? I approve
though. I forget at what point last year all this stuff melted, but if it melts
in the next few weeks or so I really wouldn't be all that surprised. It's been
a super warm winter this year.
This week has been a cool one (isn't every week?). I'm not sure if
I've told you or not, but one of our main investigators is actually not really
an investigator at all. He's a former member of the church. I've taught excommunicated
members before (and actually been a part of the process of having someone be
excommunicated), but he is the most unique and happy story of them all. We had
a really rock solid lesson with him on repentance this past week and I'm so
impressed by his sincerity and honesty. He feels the Spirit again and he's
working on quitting smoking and his main concern is in just being fully ready
for baptism. You can feel the Spirit as he bears witness of the power of the
Atonement and of the Love of God. I'm so grateful that he's working towards
that. Not to mention he's just a cool guy! He makes a living in being a singer
and he DJ'd our recent activity on Saturday. Once he's ready, he'll be baptized
again. That'll be a good day.
This has been a cool week to really make some good friends too. What
with the Wings leaving soon they've really tried to speed up the process of
teaching all the the Balakovian (does that sound funny?) leaders. Since we're
the oldest and most experienced missionaries here in Balakova they've been
having us do all of their translating. So cool! I love translating a lot and I
learn a lot of words in doing it (like object lesson!). We taught all the
presidencies this past week, which ate up a lot of time but was really worth
it.
Lesson wise, we did have other stuff that happened. More so now than
ever Elder Warkentin and I (caught myself again! I'm so good) have been
receiving a ton of contacts from members and investigators. We got a family
referral that we'll visit on Friday and another family who we met because he
wasn't able to make it to the meeting and a couple of more friends of the guy I
want to give the shirt to. There's been a whole lot of work going on here, so
I'm really grateful that we're staying busy.
Speaking of miracles, Sister Kiestler and Sister Crane really had a
cool experience this week. Last week they met a woman on the street who invited
them to over to her house to meet! They met at her place this week and had a
wonderful meeting and set up another time to meet. Well, that very night as the
sisters we're knocking they found a woman who was talking on the phone when
they knocked. As it turns out, she was talking on the phone to the woman the
sisters had met with earlier! She was excited to meet them and asked to be a
part of their next lesson. What are the odds, right? That was a fun story to
hear from the sisters!
This upcoming week all of the district leaders and zone leaders are
meeting up in Samara to have a conference. I'm a little nervous since I have to
prepare the concerns and other things for our area to present, but I've heard
that there conference/meetings are always awesome and uplifiting, so that'll be
cool! I'm thinking this week is gonna be an especially good one.
Anyways, that's about it on the mission front. I have a couple of
requests for you, Mom and Dad, whenever you get the chance :) If possible, I'd
like to know when the BYU-I summer session starts, just to know. I'm not sure
if I'll attend it or not, especially since I don't really know what plans ya'll
have for the summer, but if you have any plans/opinions on the matter, that'd
be awesome to hear! I'm not sure how actively they read the blog or not, but
it'd be cool if you could tell [these three friends] that the've each got a
letter on their way to them :) Also, my friend I think may be back from his
mission, if you could check his facebook to see if he is or not, that'd be
great. In addition, do you know how [another friend] is doing? I hope
everything's going well with her.
Ok, so maybe that was more than a couple of requests! No rush on
getting any of that done pronto, but whenever you get the chance that'd be
great :)
Time for me to head out now, but thanks for everything! It's way
good to hear that your foot is doing a lot better! Cool story on the revelation
too! I'll be keeping you (and your foot!) in my prayers :)
You all are so great! Thanks for being the best! I love you lots
till next week!
--
Elder Peterson
No comments:
Post a Comment