And so the miracles begin

Hey everyone,

We had a really great week, one of the best ever! It went by so fast because of all the good things that happened with us. On Saturday, we had district meeting at the Maxwell's house. The Moores had gotten there that morning so they were there with us. I got to give the spiritual thought, I used some awesome verses I have been studying lately from Alma 37 about the Liahona and about faith and diligence, if you get a chance, look it up, from v. 40-47. Compare it with 1 Nephi 16, it is really interesting and applicable to any stage of life. Anyway, after the meeting, we went out to dinner, just the elders and the Moores! We went to that place I told you about, the chinese looking place that has a restaurant on the 23rd floor. The floor rotates which is awesome, we got to see the whole city after about an hour. I got a steak, some fries, some Asparagus in cheese (can you believe it?) and Elder Hasbiullin and I split an order of Bish Bar Mak, the national dish of Kazakhstan. Horse meat and noodles (nothing special if you ask me). After the dinner, we had a meeting with a person we are helping with English. Sunday was a nice meeting. No investigators came, but it was nice to have the Moores there. They spoke, and after the meeting we all had an interview with Elder Moore since he is in the mission presidency. They had invited us to their hotel that night for dinner and to let us watch another session of conference. The other elders made lasagna which was pretty good actually. We only got to watch a couple of talks from the Saturday morning session, but it was really cool. The best thing was on Monday. We haven't been able to meet with Venera for quite a while, she was busy with work, then she got sick. Anyway we set up a meeting with her for monday and we went to her apartment for the lesson. We have taught her the restoration, the plan of salvation and so we wanted to teach her the gospel of Jesus Christ and try to set a baptismal date. We had planned out a really good lesson about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We executed our plan and everything worked out great! By the time we got to the part about baptism, she had already asked, "how do I show my faith? How do you baptize people?" As we started to talk about baptism, she said "I already feel a desire to be baptized, I don't know why, but I feel a desire to be baptized, think about it guys." We told her, we have thought a lot about it and we want you to be baptized. Elder Hasbiullin extended the commitment and the first thing she said was, when. We told her we want her to be baptized the 21st of May and she said, what do I need to do? We assured her that we would be there every step of the way and that we would help her prepare for baptism. It was a great lesson and a great feeling. The spirit was strong, and she was able to recognize it. She said she had met with the Jehova's Witnesses for over 8 months and they wanted her to be baptized, but she never felt the desire. She now has that desire and has agreed to meet the challenge. She agreed to come to church this Sunday, and she also attended our activity last night at the branch. She has a 15 year old son and we can't wait for this family to start receiving the blessings of the restored gospel. We're very excited.

We also had another miracle a few days ago. We were contacting and we were talking to a really nice lady on the bus stop. As we were talking to her, a man in a suit walked up to us and said, guys, I see that you are well dressed and happy guys, that you are talking about something serious. I don't have time right now but lets exchange numbers and meet. We got his number and he left. We also got the lady's number on the bustop by the way. Anyway, that night we called him and set up a meeting for the next day. He invited us to his office in some hotel. As we were heading to the office, we were worried that it was going to be one of those pyramid scheme meetings or something. As we got to his office, sure enough it was one of those businesses. We sat and waited for a minute for our contact to come in. He came in and we sat in a corner of the room. He immediately started introducing himself, saying that he has been thinking a lot about eternal questions lately. He said he didn't know why he wanted to talk to us, but he saw us on the street, saw that we were happy guys, well dressed, working hard. He said, "people are just attracted to enthusiastic happy people, but usually I don't introduce myself to them. I saw you guys and thought, why not?" We were able to talk to him for almost an hour and explain that it was probably the influence of the Holy Ghost that made him want to talk to us, and that we do have answers to the questions of the soul. The whole time we were there, he didn't say one word about his business, we are really excited about him as well. He has a wife who also worked there.

I'm not sure why, but the Lord has been answering our prayers really really fast lately. Sunday night we had sent a message to Venera, making sure our lesson was still set. We hadn't heard back from her, but as we were praying before bed, I asked that we would be able to meet with her. We closed the prayer and the phone rang, a text from her saying everything was good. The next day, for some reason they had shut off our lights and water, so we couldn't shower or do anything really. So we just got dressed and went out contacting first thing in the morning. We got back, still no water or electricity. We were getting worried that our food was going to go bad. We needed to leave for our lesson and we didn't know what to do with the food. We figured, oh well, it should be fine. Before we left the apartment, we said the prayer and I said, please let the lights and the water come back so that our food didn't go bad, and literally at that second the lights flipped on and we were able to leave knowing that our fridge was fine and that all our food would be okay. Small examples, but important ones. Just goes to show you that the Lord listens to even our smallest of desires and problems.

The AP's got here this morning. We already went and played 3 on 3 basketball for about an hour and a half. I wouldn't say I'm great by any means but I'm getting better and enjoying it more each time. We will be working with them tomorrow, so it will be pretty fun. We should be able to find at least one lesson for each companionship. I'm excited. The AP's right now are Elder Nuckols and Tanner. Elder Nuckols was in the MTC with me and Elder Tanner was in the group behind us. Elder Tanner and I served together for quite a while in Voronezh, so it's a really fun set of AP's.

When the Moores came up, they brought with them some mail that had made it's way to Almaty a while back. I got a letter from a member in Kaluga who just left for her mission a couple months ago. She lived in Moscow while I served in Kaluga, but her mom is in Kaluga so she came down a few times. She's really cool and really nice. She sent me a postcard and thanked me for my service in Kaluga and for my support of her and her family. She said "my mom always talks about you with a lot of respect, and you were a great example to me of a missionary." It was a short little note, but it made me so happy to know that people really do appreciate the work we do here. It brightened my day, that's for sure. It's so awesome when people take the time and effort to thank you for something, we should all probably make the effort to do that a little more often, we all probably know how it makes us feel when someone thanks us. It was a nice little surprise for me. Oh ya, by the way, last transfer, they closed down Kaluga. We just don't have enough missionaries. The good thing is that the office elders in Moscow are now traveling every weekend to Kaluga. They have Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday to meet with and support the members there. I guess there is even a couple of pretty promising investigators right now. I was sad that they closed it down, just because I have a convert there and I really grew to love the members. But at least the office elders have a chance to go there every week and support the branch. One of the office elders is Elder Erickson, he and I baptized Tatyana, so I'm sure that's a good thing for them.

We got things sorted out in the hospital with my companion. We had to go back about a million times and wait in about a hundred lines, but finally we got him some medication. I think I told you about it, he has this weird spot on his back that he is constantly itching, so I made him go to the doctor. Yesterday we got the medication and they said in about 10 days it should start going away. I hope so, I'm sick of him scratching himself! Ha, I swear, when you are with the same guy from the second you wake up to the second you go to sleep, things start to wear on you! But I really love Elder Hasbiullin, I'm glad we're together. We have a good time.

I will be speaking in church on Easter Sunday. I'm pretty excited. I'll be speaking on the 4 parts of the atonement. Usually we talk about the 3 parts, suffering in the garden, on the cross, and the resurrection. The fourth part I will include is the fact that Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. Without that, there would be no atonement. There are several references in the scriptures when it talks about how Christ was tempted, but gave no heed to the temptations. The fact that he was able to live his life in perfect harmony with the Father, always being able to resist temptation, always serving and loving others, allowed him to give his life for us, and take it back. We know that Jesus Christ showed us the perfect example in all things, and that we are to follow that example. At the end of the sermon on the mount He commands us to be perfect even as He and His Father are perfect. Jesus Christ was able to withstand all temptations, technically, we can too. The fact is though, that we don't always withstand every temptation. The commandment still applies, be ye perfect, the only way we can progress toward that goal is by the atonement which provides the mercy needed to pay the demands of justice. We'll never understand the atonement perfectly, it's too complex and deep, but that just means that we can study it for our whole lives and always learn more! I love studying the gospel and learning, it's such a great blessing for us as missionaries and as members of the church.

Today, we are planning on going to see the sights, since the ap's are here. It should be a nice day, we'll get some good pictures, without the snow and stuff. This is a pretty cool city, some days I just still can't believe I'm here. I'm really glad I am here though. I have a little over 2 months left and we'll be working hard until the end. Thanks for all the letters and support, I love you guys!