December 2, 2013 ~ День Благодарения - праздник чудес!

Well this week was thanksgiving apparently (for some reason I thought it was last week).  But for thanksgiving dinner my companion and I made щи (Russian cabbage soup) which we learned how to make at a members house last p-day and it was delicious!  So that was fun, then on Saturday there was a branch activity for thanksgiving even though it is not a russian holiday, the members here just love any reason to get together and they love the missionaries so they wanted to do thanksgiving for us.  It was so awesome!!  We had basically everything there to eat that we do at home with a Russian twist.  I loved it!  And it was such a miracle cause as it was starting there wasn't really anyone there which was disappointing, but people all trickled in and turned out to be 33 people there!!! Huge miracle!  I know you all are probably thinking that it must have been the lamest activity ever with so few people, but lets keep in mind that in this little miracle branch, there are 7 active members.  And we felt pretty good about ourselves cause we had 5 investigators there between the sisters and us and 3 less actives!! One of the investigators was a huge miracle that I'll try and not forget to tell you about.  Funny though, because we (the elders) made jello cause what is Thanksgiving/ a mormon party without jello and apparently Russians have absolutely no concept of what it is.  They were all putting it on top of their pie as some sort of a topping.  We had a good laugh about that.  Afterwards when we finished cleaning up, the branch president (have I mentioned before that he is from Cuba?) told us that that was the best Thanksgiving activity they've ever had (they do this every year)!  We were pretty happy.

So now about this miracle investigator.  Friday night we decided to stop by this family's appartment who have been meeting with the missionaries on and off for about 10 years, and we just wanted to get to know them and introduce ourselves.  They are super nice, but then as we started their son (who honestly I thought was like 14 but I get he's older) just starts blasting us with all sorts of anti information and questions and just keeps going on and on and doesn't give us a chance to say anything.  Anyway, we told them that we had to go and catch our bus to go back home (cause we did, it was getting late) and this other guy that was there too (but never said anything the whole time) left at the same time as us.  So we told the family we'd call and come and see them again cause aside from all that they are super nice and love the missionaries, and we leave.  And so does this other guy and when we got outside and he looked like he was waiting for something so we say goodbye and start walking away.  Then we notice that he is awkwardly following us and so he catches up and I start talking to him and turns out he is the friend of this family's son so we invite him to the thanksgiving party (the next day) and we also invited this family earlier (but ended up praying for them to not come, which they didn't - God answers prayers both ways!!).  Anyways this guy came!!  And enjoyed it and we got his number and agreed to meet with us!  Huge miracle that came out of a disaster lesson! 

And kind of along the same lines (the disaster part) I have to tell you this hilarious story that happened in church yesterday.  So this guy comes into sacrament meeting towards the end and he's been there before, but totally not interested in the church (branch president told me that he thinks that he alone in the world is fighting against evil) but he every once in a while shows up at church to ask for money to help him start some eco project (not really sure).  Anyways We start singing the closing hymn and I hand him a hymn book and he asks me for a Book Of Mormon that he can take.  So I was all excited (after being bummed that none of our investigators came to church) thinking that was finally wanting to start investigating (he was also at the thanksgiving thing).  So of course I gave him one then after sacrament meeting he goes up and asks the branch president if he can make an announcenment (so of course I'm thinking great!  He's going to announce that he's going to get baptized!).  Lets just say that's not what he wanted to say.  He gets up there at the podium and starts talking about how God's greatest creation is the earth and how we need to love our neighbor cause that is a commandment of God and then holds up the Book Of Mormon and says that it breaks God's commandments because there are wars in it and we as a church are breaking commandments because we don't love our neighbors cause we won't give him money for his own church and projects and stuff and says some other weird stuff that I don't remember and them branch president gets up and stops him and they kinda start arguing a little bit and our branch president was like "umm have you ever read the old testament, there are tons of wars in it, and besides that, the Book of Mormon...." I can't remember what he said and then is like "This is Christ's church and we preach His gospel, not the Gospel of man, but if you want to go and start your own church and preach what you want to people, go ahead, but not here".  Of course I was concerned about how all of our members were reacting cause all of them in this branch (active at least) besides the branch president, have been members for less than 3 years (although they are some of the strongest and most dedicated I have ever seen in my entire life).  I look around at them and I have to say that Russians really show no emotion and keep really straight faces in public even when funny things happen, but I looked around and they were all kinda just smirking a little bit and rolling their eyes cause they know this guy is crazy. I was relieved and also relieved that none of our investigators were there to see that. 

This area is so funny.  There really are the weirdest people here and I love it!  

Our biggest problem with people is getting them to read and to come to church and as I've been reading more my testimony has grown so much and I know that book is true!  I love it!  I was watching a talk by President Hinckley yesterday and he said, talking about the Book Of Mormon, something to the effect of "I cannot understand why the whole Christain world does not readily accept this book, which testifys as a second witness of Jesus Christ."  It was way better than that, but something like that, I can't remember exactly, but I 100% agree with him!  It's such a gift!  Read it!  It's true!  have a great week!