Well, the beginning of this week was good weather, it even hit +2 C, but unfortunately the end of the week was awful and has been around -26 C for a while. It's pretty cold (there's actually a blizzard outside right now...), but I'm super happy!
My new companion is AWESOME. As you can see by those pictures, she's definitely a "mini" missionary ;) but I think if you average our heights, you'd get a normal sized person. She's only small in height and not small in anything else. We haven't even been together a week, but I feel like we've been together a year. I love her! We laugh all the time and joke around. She speaks even less English than Sister Fedas did, so everything is Russian 100% of the time (as usual) but I don't have any headaches this time around because I'm used to it by now. I love being able to communicate in Russian 100% of the day because that means that I must know something! It's a shame Sister Kaigerodova is only going to be with me 2 weeks because I would have loved to have her for an entire transfer. She's great! She has the prettiest smile and testimony and she knows the scriptures like a boss. Her family came in contact with the church in the mid 90s, so she was baptized when she was 8. Her sister is serving a mission in Rostov right now, and Sister Kaigerodova is in the process of doing her own mission papers. She's awesome!
This week was not as eventful as I would have liked as far as meetings go but things are swell.
Over the last month or so, I've had three meetings with these two less-active ladies, a mom and daughter who are in their 60s and 40s. I've never been able to get in contact with them until recently, but they're awesome. They were baptized about 10 years ago, but once the branch building got built (an hour and a half away) it was really hard for them to commute, so they stopped going. They started attending other churches, so they forgot a lot of our doctrine because of that. They remember random things (think: deep, deep doctrine....) but not other basic things like "Nephi restored the church in New York, right?" Teaching them feels like teaching investigators but even more challenging because I don't know how much they remember or how much they think they remember. They're very interested in coming back because they always loved our church and had good feelings there. Obviously, we're trying to help them get testimonies, and right now they're progressing towards it! They were able to find both their copies of the Book of Mormon, and the mom has even started reading everyday. We met with them this last week, and they were actually able to contribute to the lesson almost as if they were active members.
I read a really cool verse in the Book of Mormon this week Mosiah 26:3 "And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened." I really liked that verse because if you take the opposite of that...... "and because of their belief, they could understand the word of God, and their hearts were softened" You can see by this that if you just have faith, you can understand the word of God easier, and then your heart gets softened. Some people are just so stubborn that they refuse to believe and because of their unbelief, they cannot understand the word of God or have a softened heart. That happens with members and non-members alike. It even applies to every situation. One of the reasons why I think my Russian has excelled so much is because I've always believedin myself and knew that I could do it.
It's just so cool to me because FAITH is the first principle and ordinance of the Gospel, and really it's the first principle of anything. I've really come to believe that on my mission, and it's cool to see that proof manifested in so many ways. If you just believe, then it can happen. Faith is an eternal principle.
Also, another kind of random thought (I do lots of thinking on my mission, haha). I've always wondered why God allowed Satan to tempt us. Just because Satan rebelled against God, why does God allow temptation from Satan to happen to us? This may not be very profound, but the answer had never hit me before-- it's because agency is really a gift from God and He respects our agency. Satan chose to rebel and chose to tempt us, and God lets him have his agency. Agency is an eternal principle.
Also, another thing I've been wondering about besides the fact that "families can be together forever," why does the Gospel bless families? ("The Gospel Blesses Families" is a point of doctrine in the first lesson that we teach). I just have thought so much about it and had never figured it out until this week. We were teaching a lesson on Happiness and centered the story out of Mosiah 21 and 24 and how those people in slavery were happy because God was with them and supporting them in their trials. Well, it dawned on me during the lesson that the Gospel blesses families because if you look at the entire Book of Mormon, people were happy and NOT killing each other when they had the Gospel in their lives. I think that relates to families pretty dang well. There aren't any "secret combinations" when you live the Gospel, there aren't any wars, there aren't any contentions, there isn't anything bad because if you build your foundation on Christ, it's just not possible! Light always conquers darkness. The good will always triumph over evil (not just "win" but "triumph"). Evil cannot exist in the presence of good. And God will always love us no matter what. These are all eternal principles, and they're all true!
Sometimes being out here seems a little hopeless, and I would say that about 90% of the time that it's a trial of my faith, but I remind myself that no matter how dark, evil, and cold the world seems, good will always triumph. God is real. Jesus Christ is actually alive-- He really lives. Miracles happen every day. I'm so blessed to be out on a mission right now, and I love every day of it. I just can't believe how fast the days fly by.
Have an awesome week. :)
All the best,
Sister Brown
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