May 20, 2013 ~ Неделя чудес!!

Absolutely wonderful week this week!  One of the best!!  First of all it was transfer week and so we got to go to the transfer meeting (I'm still in Gatchina btw), but my companion was going home (is now home and no longer a missionary-weird thought).  I absolutely LOVED LOVED LOVED this transfer meeting!!  The most incredible spirit was there and I could not get enough!! Every missionary in our mission was there except for 2, which, as I mentioned before was Elder Noorda and Eady - the only conpanionship not affected by this transfer.  I was just in heaven there.  It was so good to be around so many missionaries again!  It was basically a mission meeting.  There were 14 missionaries that came in and 13 that went home.  All the ones who went home had to bear their testimonies of course.  4 of them were sisters (3 natives) and I was just so impressed by them.  The Elder's were all really good too, but there is just something about sister missionaries that is so incredible.  These 4 sisters that went home just gave the most powerful, spirit filled testimonies I have ever heard.  Sisters are amazing.  Any girl thinking about going on a mission, do it.  They need you.  Any perspective Elders, you are needed just as much.

I got to see Elder Gatrell again this transfer meeting (he is in Kaliningrad) and talk to him for a while.  After talking with him, I am so grateful to know that God know's us each perfectly and will put people in our paths that will change our lives forever.  He told me that he had been working with this one contact - turned - investigator since one of his very first weeks here.  Is named Alexandr (like half of Russia) and he was a Jehova's witness (any one who has been a missionary before knows how impressive this is haha) and he is 27.  Ever since they met him back inFebruary, they have seen and been working with him every day.  He was just baptized on the saturday before the transfer meeting and confirmed and recieved the Holy Ghost and Aaronic Priesthood the next day (on Sunday).  3 days later, a few hours before transfer meeting began, they (elder Gatrell and companion) recieved a call and were informed that Alexandr had died that morning.  It just goes to show I suppose, that the Lord's timing is perfect.  It also is a wonderful/terrible example of why we, as missionaries (and members) need to have that sense of urgency.  Maybe things would have been the same and he still would have been baptized when he was, but I really think that if Elder Gatrell and his companion had not had a sense of urgency and worked as hard as they did to help Alexandr - things may not have ended up in quite the same situation.

Well, sorry for that kinda down section, but not for some miracles (as I'm sure you were all anticipating after reading the title).  This week we had some really awesome contacts.  I have really been trying to do as President has been recently emphasizing and just talk to people normally and not immediately throwing our purpose at them, and it really does get them talking.  Everyday we've had really long/good contacts.  A few of them lasted even more than 20 minutes.  It really does change their whole attitude towards us when we try to take an interest in them first.  One guy in particular was awesome.  He talked to us for a really long time then had to go.  We exchanged numbers and kinda talked about a time that we could set up to come and meet with him.  He left really grateful and really wanting to meet with us.  Then the next day he called us and said that he had gotten sick and couldn't meet when he had originally said he could, but said that he still really wanted to meet.  He seems very sincere so we'll see what happens with him.  We are going to call him in a few days if he doesn't call us first to see how his health is and also when we can meet.

Then at English on Saturday, huge miracle happened!  Dennis, the one guy last week who walked a really long way with us and talked with us, then came to english - he came again this week!  And he was able to stay for the spiritual thought.  The theme this week was how the Gospel blesses families and he loved it.  After the thought, for the 1 on 1 time I asked him what he thought about what we talked about today and he said that he agreed with all of it.  We were also able talk about some other things related to the gospel and restoration as well.   He seems to be really interested and agrees with a lot of the stuff.  He even said that he looked some stuff up on the internet about us after our first contact with him (always scary when people say that) and he still came!  At one point he was even like "maybe Joseph Smith was right".  I almost fell out of my chair hahah.  This guy is so prepared it's ridiculous.  I really home we can help him.  I'm not entirely what to do at this point, but we'll figure it out.

Then at church, probably my favorite miracle of the week happened!  The branch president's wife came up to us after church and asked if it would be ok for them to invite some of their friends over to their house and invite us over too and teach a lesson with them!!  YES!!  So awesome!  I could hardly contain my excitement then.  Hopefully this actually works out.  Apparently this family is kinda interested/has some questions, but won't come to church for whatever reason.  Branch President's wife thought that they might be more willing to come over to their house for a meeting instead.  I really hope this works out!

Then on the way home from church this guy gets up off the bench and walks up to us and tells us that he's been looking for us for a long time.  He asked if we could help him quit drinking (he was drunk this whole time) and we told him we could.  He seemed like he wanted to meet and then asked if he had to be sober when he came to church and stuff.  I told him that would probably be a good idea haha.  He couldn't give us his number for some reason, but he has ours so hopefully he'll call.

We met this other guy in the park on Thursday.  Not terribly interested, but thinks that we are just the coolest people ever.  He loves what we're doing and kept telling us how awesome we were.  He talked to us for like half an hour and asked for our number and gave us his.  As we were talking some people walked by and kinda started laughing and saying stupid things about mormons and he totally defended us.  Then he asked if that happens often and we were like "yeah, but its not really a big deal".  He told us that if anyone ever made fun of us or anything, to call him and he'd come right away.  He's 34 and a normal guy.  Probably from my description you think he's all weird, but he's actually really normal.  Then he called us later that night to find out where we were (and was surprised to find out we were at home at 10.15pm).  Then he called the next day too, just to make sure people were being nice too us haha.  He hasn't called again yet, but who knows, maybe he will.

Lastly, (that's not the last miracle but thats the last that I have time for) maybe you all remember Olya, the girl we were helping with English?  Well she passed her test this week (which she and her mom were terrified for) and it was her birthday on friday.  So in light of all that, they invited us over for some tea (they know what kind we can have) and cake to celebrate.  That's all we were expecting when we went over there, but no,they had prepared more since it was such a big deal for them and they were so grateful for our help.  So I had 2 firsts this week.  First they made me try caviar.  That was interesting.  I didn't like it very much.  Then they fed us язык.  I pretended like I didn't hear what it was that we were trying just so I could stomach it, but, she said it again a second time more pronounced and it was confirmed to me that yes, I was indeed eating tongue.. cow tongue, I think.  It didn't taste bad, but it was cold.  That part I was not really a fan of.  But there you go.  Fun story of the week.  To make up for it, Olya did remind her mom that she had promised to go to church with us after Olya passed her test, so that will be coming up some time too!

Have a great week!

Elder Robison