August 27, 2018

August 27, 2018. всем привет!

Well, another week has come and gone, and let me tell you, a lot happened this week which is always grand. We had FHE with people from our Russian group and some others. Introducing everyone took the whole time so we didn't end up doing any games, but we had a fun time together! 

Sister P made Borscht for us and we ate it pretty much all week, it was so good. But cooler story, we drove down to Sammamish to visit this awesome Russian lady who has Twin babies who are so cute! She made us Russian pancakes (which are pretty much crepes). Russian culture is the best, they ALWAYS feed you and it's all from scratch! But she has no belief in God, but she told us, "Despite the fact I don't believe in God right now doesn't mean something can't change as I learn more about what you share." That was music to our ears! It doesn't matter she doesn't believe right now, but it's about her desire to know if something is true and I just love that! That is why we're here, to help people learn about the relationships they can have with God.

We have had two lessons with our Investigator Sergei this week, His official baptism date is September 8th at 2:00 pm. We finished 4 out of 5 lessons with him and are going to review what we have taught him, because he has learned everything he needs to be baptized and we want to make sure we answer any questions he has. We were nervous to teach some of the commandments to him, but he agree'd with all of them and committed to live them! He is so awesome and he has already changed so much. His wife sat in on the last lesson we had and she doesn't say much, but you can see that she is interested. They both came to church again this Sunday:) 

Cool Story, 

we are in our second hour and we get a call from some elders in Kirkland from Seattle mission which isn't far from us at all. They told us that a Russian lady walks into their ward and is looking for two specific sister missionaries. Luckily one of the elders knows some Russian so he was able to talk to her and then their is a member of their ward who knows Russian and was able to translate the meeting for her. So they give us her number and we call and she said that we could come over after our church ended. She told us that two sister missionaries knocked on her door 6 months ago and she just barley moved in and was just stressed and said she was just very rude to them and they were just so nice. So she just walked into the church building Sunday to see what we believe because she just remembered how nice they were to her! So we were able to have a lesson with her and pick her up as a new investigator! 

Ukrainian Independence Day was on the 24th and they had a Ukrainian Festival down in Bellevue that we went to. It was so awesome! There were so many people there! We talked to a lot of Russians. We are having a huge church tour on the 8th our zone is putting together and we have been inviting at least 3 people a day to it with Flyers and we invited a lot of people to come. We had Elders from Seattle mission come as well because one of them is from Ukraine and was able to talk to a lot of people as well, it was very successful. We saw the elders talking to this guy and it was someone who we have taught before, but he is very factual and almost seems like he is trying to convert us to his church, so we walk over there and say hi and start talking with them. Then this random white guy comes up to us and starts bashing the elders hardcore. He was throwing down so much crap and not giving anytime for them to answer. I was getting super tense and had to say something, so then he turns to us and starts throwing down on us, Sister P was just giving it back to him😂 Honestly I don't understand those type of people, like what is their purpose in trying to destroy our testimonies? What are they getting out of it? Like you don't go and tell Jews or Muslims their religions wrong? So why do you care how we choose to believe? We were just like, well I don't know why Joseph Smith would write a Book just to get beaten up and later killed for nothing. And how could a book an uneducated man 'wrote' change millions of peoples lives? He was then like how do you know and we were like the spirit. He's like how do you know what the spirit feels like, so I was like well do you know what salt tastes like? and he's like yes, so i'm like okay then explain in detail was salt tastes like😂 It was honestly really cool to see how much I wanted to protect the Book of Mormon and I could see how strong my testimony is of the Book of Mormon. So if you ever are trying to see how strong your testimony is of the Book of Mormon, find someone who will bash with you and see how mad you get when they tear down this Book, JK don't do that but if it ever happens you will see.

We also went to Seattle downtown with our STLs and chalked the Plan of Salvation on the ground haha. Sister Barnard played some guys guitar and we were part of a magic trick and met lots of interesting people!

This has been such an amazing week though, so many miracles, the Russian work is on fire right now, I am so grateful to be apart of it! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Stokes 

August 13, 2018

August 13, 2018

Well everyone, we found out just a couple days ago the 2 Russian Sisters who were supposed to be coming in haven't even gone to the MTC yet and aren't coming till next transfer! So that means I will be staying one more transfer with Sister P! One elder from each companionship from my district is leaving so this is about to be an interesting transfer merging the Seattle missionaries with the Everett Missionaries. But overall I am way excited to be staying another transfer and here is why!

Miracles! 

This week we got a referral from the elders we serve at the food bank with. Her name is Mila and lives walking distance from the food bank, we all head over there to meet her and she was out in her garden. Sister P starts talking to her in Russian and sets up a time to meet with her next Wednesday after we serve at the food bank. Next week we go over, but she wasn't home! But the Elders wanted to go to dinner with us because one of them was leaving home Monday, so we go back to their area for dinner, but after dinner we didn't know where we should go for only a short amount of time left in the day, but I had the thought we needed to go back to see Mila. So we go back and she is home and lets us in! We had a lesson with her and were able to pick her up as an investigator!

Another set of Elders in our district Elder Cahoon and Stephens have an investigator and she has a young couple living with her who are from Pakistan or something but speak Russian. There names are Toyly and Jemal and are so cool! They are here for school and said they would love for us to come over and teach them. So we go over with the elders for dinner and we all get talking about the gospel. They have never heard of our Church of the Book of Mormon but were super opened to learning. They both are trying to learn English as well and he speaks pretty good English. He says he can read it and listen to it easier than he can speak it because he hasn't had much practice, so we are going to do our lessons in English for them so they can learn! WHAT A BLESSING! We are beyond excited to teach them.

So we had our first actual lesson with our our investigator Sergei who has been investigating the church for a year. He has finally opened up to be taught by sisters. He is honestly so cool and super nice. His wife Viktoria is also learning from us, but we had a lesson with him yesterday and we were impressed to bring a baptism calendar for him so we could set a goal for baptism and to work towards it. We showed him it and he was like yes I want to set a goal. So we set a goal for September 1st! It is so exciting how much the Russian work is booming right now! They haven't had a baptism in over 2 years and Sergei will most likely be baptized. It is such a blessing to see the Lord work Miracles, I am grateful for the trust he has with Sister P and I over this Russian work and those we are working with. Sometimes I don't know why he trusts me so much.

We had Stake conference this weekend and their was a Russian member named Brother Slava who got out of the hospital and could finally come to church, but Sister P needed to translate for him. We ask the Elders if there is translate equipment at the stake center where we will be, and they said probably, so we believed them. We get there Sunday and comet to find out they don't have any translation so we have to drive 10 minutes one way to go get it and we are way late! We finally get back and we usually sit up on the stage to do it, but there was no outlet to plug into so we had to go to the back of the room where it was super loud because all the kids and hard to hear. Poor sister P was trying her best to translate and I was helping the best I could to tell her what the speakers were saying. Finally the two hours are over and we go to Brother Slava and he tells us that the Translation thing stopped working in the beginning! Oh my goodness we were so mad! Poor Brother Slava just sat in a meeting for two hours not knowing what was going on the whole time! Well I can tell you that was the most stressful conference I've been to lol.

We are way excited to have the Opportunity of going to President Nelson's Devotional at the Safeco Field on September 15th! It is two days before the next transfers so Sister P and I will still be together!! But our mission and the Seattle mission are all invited to go. Cannot wait!

It has definitely been an eventful week this week, lots of Miracles and more to come. I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week this week!

Love,

Sister Stokes