September 10, 2018

 Sergei Baptism

The Lord's Prophet is coming in 5 days!!!

We have had such a great week here in the Pacific Northwest, The days are getting cooler and the leaves are starting to turn color. More rain is coming our way, getting ready for another winter! well, we started off the week doing a lot of traveling. We went down to Sammamish to visit our investigator Victoria! She always feeds us Russian food and is the nicest lady ever! She is the one with the two month old twins and doesn't have a belief in God. But holy cow, we had such a good lesson with her. We started out just sharing a Mormon message with her about Earthly Father's and Heavenly Father, and it got us talking about so much! She had so many questions regarding the Bible and how they all use the same book but have so many interpretations of it. So we shared the restoration with her. She also asked how come we need Christ to repent, why can't we just forgive ourselves and move on, and we explained His purpose in coming to the Earth. 2 Nephi 2:6-8. She had so many questions and it was great because we had the answers to all of them, even pertaining to life before this life and life after. She told us that we are lucky we have the faith we do and that it makes us so happy. She said it is hard to unlearn what she has already learned and knows, but she is open with us and we are excited to keep working with her!

We went up to Mount Vernon this week to visit some referrals we have had. we had a lesson with one of them named Janna, we met with her before because she wanted help with family history, but we were able to leave a Book of Mormon with her last time. We asked her if she's been able to read it at all and she said she has read some of it! We talked to her more about what the Book of Mormon is and invited her to church. She said she would love to come, but it is just so far away where we have Russian group. But she speaks good English so we might come up with her to a ward up here!

Sergei was Baptized this weekend!!

It was such a great service, it was half in Russian half in English and it was super cool. Lots of people came to support. Our Bishop asked after he was baptized, "How do you feel?" and in English he says, "I'm Happy!" and it was so happy!! that was my first time hearing him speak English! But I am grateful I was able to help prepare him for this covenant, it was a special day.

With President Nelson coming this Weekend, I have been preparing everyday by reading conference talks given by him. He is such an amazing man and I have learned so much by him! I would encourage all of you to do something to prepare for conference coming up! There is always something the Lord wants us to learn.  2 Nephi 28:30- "For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."

We need to be willing to open ourselves up to receive revelation, and it takes preparation to do so.

We were able to watch the Face to Face Devotional with Elder Cook yesterday at a members house. It was really good! All about church history, you should all take time out of your day to watch it! I am so grateful for those who sacrificed everything for the gospel. The more I learn about them and their history, the stronger my testimony grows. If they were willing to put their lives on the line for a book, then I sure better be willing to take 18 months to serve the Lord and spread this good news. I hope you all can reflect on the sacrifice so many made so we can have the fullness of the gospel on the Earth today. Love you all!

Love,

Sister Stokes