Tuesday, July 24, 2018
July 23, 2018. Russian Speaking 2nd week
This week has gone by so fast, We started off the week going on exchange with our Sister Training Leaders. I went to their area because no way am I being left in Russian land with no one who speaks Russian!😂 But It was good! We walked up to a group of teenage girls sitting in the bed of a truck and start talking to them. They were giving us attitude! wow I don't miss those days at all lol, but we didn't give up, even though it was very uncomfortable, we brought up family history and guess what! They got interested when we told them they can download the app and find their ancestors and then click on something called relatives around me and see how closely related each of them are to each other. Family history works!
We had lessons with three of our investigators, Sofia, Leonid, and Megan. In our zone conference we were asked to start using baptismal calendars for our investigators, which is putting them on date for baptism and having something for them to do each day counting down to their baptism to better prepare them for it. so we tried so hard to put them all on date and showed the the calendar and explained why it's important to set a goal, sadly they all declined the invitation. It was very sad. But it's in God's timing.
We went to a less active Russian members house and made dumplings with her and her family then had dinner with them after, it was super fun! Now I know how to make dumplings! They are way easy, but making them look nice is another story haha.
On Saturday we drove all the way down to Kent, it is south of Seattle, it is next to Federal Way area. We had a lot of referrals from down there that we needed to see. It was actually very successful. Every referral we visited was home except one! Sister P did a lot of talking that day, and I did a lot of just standing there patiently, it is honestly way hard not being able to say anything because they don't understand me and there is no point for Sister P to translate these contacts because it would take too long to get our message across. But the Lord definitely blessed me with patience that day. Sister P gave 3 restoration lessons and one Plan Of Salvation lesson to these people and two of them let us inside to talk. I mean I was able to pitch in here and there, but not too much.
OH MY GOODNESS, after our last contact before driving back up to Bothell, I go to open the car door and I scream. I look down and there is dog poop on our car handles! I could not believe it! some crazy person thinks it's okay to do that! Oh my it was terrible. so that was our adventure in Kent.
Our investigator Sergey came to church again this week! He is way awesome, we are excited to start teaching him because we have been meeting with his wife, but he I guess doesn't like to be taught by sisters, but that's all he's got, so our Russian Leader Pavel is going to talk to him about it.
Everything in this ward has been changing since I got here, We got a new Ward Mission Leader, and just yesterday, we got a new Bishop! it was so unexpected. and now we are starting to do English work haha. It is all good though.
I love the experiences I am having on my mission, I know I am learning what I am supposed to and the things I learn will be valuable later in life as well. I love this Gospel and am grateful to help others strengthen their relationships with their Savior. I hope you all have a fantastic week!
Love,
Sister Stokes
Sunday, July 22, 2018
July 16, 2018 1st week in Russian
Wow, so much has happened this week I don't know where to start! I guess I will start from the beginning ha! We had Zone Conference on Tuesday and it was good, we had 3 zones together for it. I love how we have been focusing on being creative in missionary work. It has been so cool! so we separated into zones at zone conference and President and Sister Wilding came with us, we headed outside to the grass and one of our Zone Leaders was in soccer attire with huge rain boots on. They did a visual representation comparing soccer to setting Goals, using the Book Of Mormon, Family History, and Preach My Gospel. so setting goals was obviously the goal in a soccer game, if you make it too small, you will never reach your goal, if you make it to big, you will never improve, but if you make it just big enough it is going to challenge you and make you stretch, and that is when you will see miracles happen. the Soccer ball was the Book Of Mormon, there is no game without it. the soccer cleats represented Preach My gospel, it is what gives you traction and helps you spread the gospel around without slipping or falling. and the last thing we needed was a team, and that is what family history represents! It was fun, During this whole thing, 2 elders from another zone come outside and run to their car, they pull out two goats and run back to the church with them. They tie them to a light pull and go back inside. These goats were just screaming the whole time, we were all dying! haha. I'm not sure what creative thing they used the goats for for their message.
As I was saying, our mission is really into coming up with creative Ideas for sharing the Gospel lately, so Elder Stephens, who is in my district, tells President this idea he has had about #One WordtheWord and president was so excited to get it started right away. I invited many of you to join in on it on Facebook, but all it is is you take a picture of yourself with the Book of Mormon and say one word that describes what the Book of Mormon is to you and post it on Facebook on August 4th and 5th. It is way exciting!
But Zone conference was really good, we learned a lot. Sadly, the way Russian work is, it is hard to do some of the things normal English missionary work can do, like working with members. We have elders in our ward as well and they work with the ward, we work with the single women of the ward, which there isn't many of them. So Sister P was feeling pretty down about Russian work, because we didn't know what to do to make it more affective. We went to the mission office afterwards to get some things and President and Sister Wilding walk in, they ask us how were doing and Sister P tells them what she is feeling. Sister Wilding has us come and talk with her. We were brainstorming ideas of what we could do to make it better for the both of us and Sister Wilding brought up having an area of English work and still covering Russian work, but just so we can both experience English work as well. We also had the idea of going up to Bellingham for a couple days and staying with some sisters to scope out the area and see if it would be beneficial to move up there because there are a lot of Russians up there. So That's what we did.
Our District meeting was so good, it was all about goals and I have a huge testimony of setting goals by the spirit, the Lord will provide as you work hard and have faith. It reminded me of many amazing miracles I have had by setting goals on my mission and made me want to work so hard.
So we drove up to Bellingham on Thursday, but made a stop in Marysville to have a lesson with a referral! She is Russian and she wanted to help with family history and then we shared with her the Book of Mormon. We were able to make her a new investigator! It was awesome.
We got up to Bellingham and stayed with the YSA sisters for two nights. We spent the day visited potentials we had and also tracting a lot in complexes with lots of Russians. It was so hot oh my goodness! I don't even know how many hours we tracted for, but we found 2 Investigators out of it so worth it! We are going to have to do Skype calls with them because they are so far away.
So If you remember Ivan, He was an investigator we were teaching in YSA, He got baptized Friday and it was perfect that we were already up in Bellingham! love when things work out, But it was such an amazing baptism, Sister Durrant and I did the Restoration and we played a game of telephone first to show how things get misinterpreted. He has changed so much, everything he had overcome is amazing. He has really seen the gospel bless his life and bring him closer to his family as well.
Also, Coree, who was baptized in June is going to the temple on Friday! I am so excited for him😊
After the Baptism we all went to Bishops for a BBQ, It was awesome, Sister Nordstrom (Paige) got to come to Ivans baptism as well! He flew her in! He is amazing. Bishops house is on 5 acres and they have the biggest garden!, we picked cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries, it was so fun and so good!
On Saturday, we drove back down to Bothell and we had another Baptism to go to for the elders in our ward, they asked me to do the Restoration for them. Super cool though, Our investigators Victoria and Sergey who have never come to any church activity ever and it's been like a year, came to the baptism! we were so surprised! Sister P had to translate for them. We met with her this week and Sister P said that that was the first time she has really opened up to us. So it was so awesome!
On Sunday, We didn't think anyone was going to come to church, but we set up the equipment for interpretation anyway, and These Less active Russians Olga and Sergey and their son walk in and Sister P said they haven't come to church the whole time she has been here! They are really cool. Then we see our Investigators Sofia and Leonid walk in! We invited them to the Baptism but they said Leonid was not doing good so we didn't even ask them to come to church. It was a miracle, and lastly, we see Victoria and Sergey walk in! (there are many sergey's and Olgas in Washington haha). There first time at church, It was such a blessing! So we have Russian leaders in our ward and one of their names is Pavel, he is from Belarus but speaks perfect English. He translated at church for everyone. In our second hour, we go to Gospel principals for Russians and Pavel teaches it. He is good friends with Sergey, Victoria's wife and Sergey asks what do I need to do to be baptized! So he explained how he has to take all the missionary discussions and everything, but it was so exciting!
The Lord is really blessing the Russian work right now, we feel He has told us that we need to stay where we are, but we are going to start doing English work as well in our ward boundaries and we are both excited about that. I am so grateful for this work, the Gospel is real and will change the hearts of those we share it with.
Love,
Sister Stokes
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