Humility & Harvest

Здраствуйте!

Family!!!!

How are you all doing?!?! The time here is seriously going so fast, it feels like yesterday I was here emailing you on my last p-day. The days are all starting to blur together here because the schedule is so rigid.  We do the same stuff everyday so it's hard to remember a whole lot. I've had to start writing down things to put in my emails so I don't forget by the time p-day comes around. 

I've had a lot of really cool experiences teaching this week. Last Friday we committed one of our new investigators to get baptized and that was such a cool experience! Even though I know they aren't real, I'm so excited for them! We started doing TRC this week, which basically is just lessons with members of the church that speak Russian. We go into a room and just talk with them and then share a message, it's a super cool experience. It's been pretty humbling though, I've learned that that's one of the most important qualities to have as a missionary speaking a different language! My companion went into that lesson feeling super good about his language skills, with pretty much 0 preparation, and the spirit just was not there at all. As a result of that, both of us struggled to speak the language and we couldn't remember a lot of our really basic vocab, it was so frustrating! The next lesson though we both changed our mindsets and just asked for the spirit to be there, and it actually ended up being a super awesome lesson. That scripture in Alma 26:12 has been one of favorites this week, it helps me remember that everything I have, even the things that I think are my own, are from God. Ammon was such a good example of humility, I've been reading a lot about him in my personal study this week and he's probably my favorite Book of Mormon missionary right now! 

One of the other district's left this week, and it was super strange! They've been here since we arrived and we were all pretty close, so watching them leave was really weird and really awesome at the same time! It's getting me so pumped to head out though! We're over a third of the way done with the MTC and it feels great! 

We had a member of the quorum of the 70 come speak to us this Tuesday for our devotional and he had some super cool comments. At one point he was talking about how we have the ability to baptize thousands on our mission. He had a senior couple stand up, and said to imagine they were a couple we converted on our missions. He then had 5 missionaries stand up to represent their children. If each of them had 5 children ( I know that's a little unrealistic) there would have been 25 more members. He did this 3 more times, and the entire audience was standing up. It was super cool to see the effects that a single baptism could have, and it gives me hope knowing that I can potentially have that big of an affect on the lives of so many! Another super cool experience from this week! We had a worldwide missionary broadcast and received special training from Elder Bednar, Elder Anderson, and a couple of other general authorities! This was the second time in history that they had ever done anything like this, so it was cool to be a part of it! 

Also, my companion is definitely not from Sweden, unfortunately for Cole! He's from Las Vegas, and he's super cool! I'm having such a good time here, and I love having the ability to study for 10 hours a day. It's like a dream, honestly, being able to devote myself so wholly to one thing, and have no distractions! 

I'll just leave you guys with one last scripture that I thought was really cool this week! In Alma 17, the sons of Mosiah meet up after having been separated for something like 14 years. Alma's heart is full when he sees them and realizes they are still strong members of the church. They talk and travel together for the space of a day or two, probably swapping stories from their missions and having a good time. Around verse 13, they arrive at the borders of the land of the Lamanites, and know that they must go their separate ways. The words in that verse are so cool to me. "They separated themselves and departed one from another, trusting in the Lord that they should meet again at the close of their harvest; for they supposed that great was the work which they had undertaken." I feel like a son of Mosiah at times, and I have departed from you all for a time, but I have faith in the Lord that this is a great work indeed, and that I will see you all again at the end of my harvest. I love you all dearly, and think about you often. I'm so thankful for all that you do for me and have done for me.

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)