New Adventures

Здравствуйте!

Hey everyone!

Another week has passed here in Russia, and I'm finding it hard to believe that it's already been a week since last Monday! Time is seriously going by so fast here, it's insane! This week has been full of really awesome experiences and conversations with all kinds of awesome people! I've been trying to get rid of my accent this week, so during our meal times I have all of the church movies on in Russian and try to imitate what they're doing. People have been asking me if I'm from Germany all week, so I'll go ahead and count that as progress, just because it's not American, haha! It's awesome though, being foreign makes starting conversations so much easier, because people always say, "You're a foreigner! Where are you from!?" And then when they find out we're from America they always try to introduce us to girls, take us to a club, or anything like that, which is another great opportunity to talk to them about the gospel, haha! It's fun stuff though, the people here really are so great. We've met some really awesome people on the streets this week that all seemed relatively interested in talking some more with us! 

We found 4 new investigators this week, and they're all super awesome! One of them, Дима, is from Ukraine, and had met with the missionaries there a couple of times. He ended up coming to church with us this week, and he was super involved in the Sunday School lesson. It's so awesome to see people progressing. One of the other new investigators is Ольга, and she's a little bit interesting, haha. We were just standing at the bus stop waiting for a Marshrutka, and she came and asked if we were missionaries. We smiled really big and said "Yeah! How'd you know?" She told us that we were wearing white shirts and ties, so we had to be missionaries, haha! We helped her with her groceries for a little bit and then set up an appointment to talk with her the next day! She corrected us pretty much every time we made a grammar mistake or pronounced something wrong, but we were able to teach her about the Restoration! I'll keep you all updated on how they're doing in the coming weeks! 

Блын! I completely forgot to mention this last week, but we moved apartments, which was a bit of an adventure! Our new apartment is on the 6th floor, and there's no elevator, so we spent most of last Saturday carrying all of our things up all of those stairs. We're still sort of settling in, but this apartment is wayyyyy nicer than our last one! We've got a pretty awesome view, and the kitchen is easily 3 times larger than our last one, which makes meal times easier and faster! It's great though, I'm just so humbled to be here as a part of this. Every time I look out my window and realize where I am, I can't help but think about how blessed and privileged I am. Sometimes it is a little bit hard to tell yourself to go back on the streets, but when I just take a step back and think about what I'm doing, and what my goal is here, it's not longer a trial. Our branch is bit by bit increasing church attendance! I think there were 13 people there last week, including missionaries, which is pretty good for us! The members are so strong, and they're all so funny! That's pretty much it for this week, I think, but I'm sure I'll have more next time! 

I'll just leave you with a spiritual thought for the week, like I usually do! In 2 Nephi Chapter 26, it talks a little bit Christ and his purpose here. In Verse 25 it says, "Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price". The beauty of the Atonement is that the only cost it has for us, is to come unto him. If we do that, and just turn our will to him, we will receive the "milk and honey" that has already been bought for us. Christ has paid the price in full, and our reception of the fruits thereof is soley contingent on us simply coming unto him. We read a lot about miracles in the scriptures, and these great acts performed by God through his servants on the earth, and we sometimes ask where they are today. But the atonement of Jesus Christ is the greatest miracle that has ever been performed, or ever will be performed. I do not need to see mountains move, seas split in two, the dead return to life, or any other act of God, for the Atonement has wrought a greater change in me than anything else has or will. I leave you with my testimony of the truthfulness of this Gospel, and of this Church. Christ lives, and he is at the head of this church, guiding us by the mouth of His prophet in these latter days. We are never alone, and with God on our side we can do anything. I love you all strongly, and pray for you daily!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

First Full Week in Russia!

Здравствуйте!

Hey Everyone! Another week down here in Stavropol! This week has been crazy awesome! Everything here is so different, but somehow still so much the same. It's still a bit of a struggle understanding people when I talk to them, but I'm starting to get the general idea of what people are saying, haha! We've done a lot of street contacting this week, and we talk with absolutely everybody. It was a little bit intimidating when I first got here, just because everyone here looks like they could pretty much break me in half without a second thought. After a week though, there's really no fear anymore. We have a lot of really interesting conversations with people here. Sometimes they'll go off on tangents that have absolutely nothing to do with the question we asked or what we were talking about. Either that or I just really don't understand Russian, haha! It's been really awesome though. 

We got a new investigator this week named Фёдор(I don't actually know if that's how it's spelled, but it's pronounced sort of like Theodore but with an "f" instead of a "th") He's super awesome. He's super in tune spiritually and he was really just prepared for us to find him on the streets. We'll probably set a concrete baptismal date with him sometime this week! We have two other investigators that are both making a lot of progress. One of them actually moved to Siberia for a month, so we've just continued teaching him over Skype. It's so cool being a part of this work. Seriously, the people here are so awesome. Our branch is the best, even though it's super small. This Sunday we ended up having 9 people in attendance, and four of them were missionaries! As a side note I'm really regretting not learning how to play more hymns before I came out because I'm playing for them now and if I don't know it super well I have to just use the right hand, haha! I actually spoke this Sunday, which was pretty fun! I'm sure it was riddled with grammatical errors, but I'm getting better every day! I'm scheduled to speak again in 10 weeks, so hopefully they'll be able to see some improvement by the time that rolls around!  It's crazy how much faster you learn out here. I've made so much progress since I stepped off the plane in Rostov. There's so many words that you just pick up, and the grammar just starts to make sense. You sort of start to recognize when you make mistakes because it doesn't sound like it fits, even if you don't know how to say it correctly! It's so hard to explain what it's like over here. I wish you could all just come see it and experience it for yourself, but it's seriously just the greatest.

I'll just leave you all with a spiritual thought from a story that's come to my mind a couple of times this week. In D&C 101 there's a parable about a man that purchases some land. He hires a few workers, and tells them to plant 12 olive trees, build a hedge up around the garden, and place a watchtower in the center. They go to work and plant the trees, and make the hedge. When they begin to build the tower, however, they begin to question their master, and they talk about all of the better ways they could be spending their time, and their master could be spending his money. They argue like this for a while, not getting anything done, and then they all fall asleep. "And the enemy came by night, and broke down the hedge; and the servants of the nobleman arose and were affrighted, and fled; and the enemy destroyed their works, and broke down the olive trees." Sometimes we get a little bit caught up in asking why we've been commanded to do things, and wanting to understand exactly what the Lord's intentions were in giving us certain council. We get caught up in the alternatives, the things we could be doing better, and fail to recognize that the Lord knows all, and he gives no commandments unless there is a purpose. It's at these times in our lives that the enemy attacks, in whatever form that may be. I've found over this past week that the council of Gordon B. Hinckley's father is a pretty effective solution to this dilemma. "Forget yourself, and go to work". When we stop focusing on ourselves, and what we might think is best, and instead turn our focus to what the Lord wants us to do, we don't have to deal with the destructive results of the adversary's attacks. 

It's my firm testimony that the Lord has a plan for each and every one of us. One of the speakers while we were at the MTC said that this life is a lot like a tandem bicycle. In one seat, us, and in the other is the Lord. We can try and take the front seat, and steer the bike ourselves, but we're more than likely going to make some wrong turns. If we let the Lord steer though and just put our head down and pedal, he'll never steer is in the wrong direction, and we can get there a lot faster. I love you all strongly, and pray for you daily. Hope all is well back home or wherever you might be!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

He Made it!!!

Hey Family and Friends!

I'm safe and sound here in Russia! It's so crazy to think that all of you are halfway around the world right now, and it's super late at night, or really early in the morning depending on how you look at it! Traveling here was a little bit crazy, we left on a Tuesday night and ended up arriving on a Thursday night about the same time that we left in Russia. It was a pretty interesting experience for my first time stepping foot in an airport, let alone flying anywhere, haha! I basically just followed the other 2 people in my group and did everything they did. When we got to our terminal in JFK there were seriously like 500 people that looked like they were Amish, I almost took a picture but I figured that probably wasn't the most missionary thing to do. It turns out they were actually Jewish and they were all going to Israel to listen to a Rabbi, or something like that. I ended up sitting next to one of them on our 8 hour flight to Moscow and we had a pretty cool discussion about what each of us believe and I got to testify about prayer and it's role in our lives, and I learned some Hebrew at the same time so it was pretty much a win-win situation! 

When we got to Moscow I realized that I probably should have learned 1 or 2 words to help me get around an airport, haha, and the fact that they had a crazy thick accent didn't help me as far as understanding anything they were saying went. We went to the American Embassy in Moscow right after that and applied for our second passports and then went to a different airport to get to Rostov, and some lady explained to us like 5 times that we were there 5 hours early, and I still don't know why she kept saying the same thing. We told every time that we were just going to wait, haha, maybe she was actually saying something different and I just didn't understand! It all worked out though, and the Miners (my mission president and his wife) met us at the airport in Rostov. We went back and ate some dinner at the mission home and they told me my companion would be Elder Dayton and we'd be serving in Stavropol!  We had an orientation the next day until about 4 and then we just went street contacting. I can pick out some words here and there, but for the most part it's just really hard to understand the accent right now. It's getting easier every day though! We ended up getting a referal for the missionaries over there and had a couple of nice conversations with people! 

The next day we went to Stavropol with the Miners and we had a branch party because they were there. Our branch is super awesome! There's only about 13 members, but all of them are so strong! It's awesome being here with them, I wish you could all meet them because they're seriously just so cool! We've been doing a lot of street teaching here, that's pretty much all we've done because we haven't had a whole lot of lessons scheduled. We got 3 referals yesterday that all seemed really interested in meeting with us again and learning some more! It's so exciting being here serving these people. I have so much love for them already, and am excited to get back out tonight at 6 to get back to work. That's pretty much it for updates on my end! 

I'll just share a scripture I was reading earlier this morning that really meant a lot to me. It's actually pretty much the entire chapter of Alma 26. Something we did with one of our teachers the last day at the MTC was read this chapter, but replace the word Zarahemla with America, and the Lamanites with the Russians. It just talks about the commitment they have to the work, and how the whole purpose of all they were doing was just to bring even a small number of them to a knowledge of the truth. I don't have my scriptures with me so I can't give you an exact scripture reference, so you'll just have to read the chapter yourself to get something more out of it! I'm so grateful to be a part of this great work, it really is a privilege. The Lord could do all of this on his own, and he could do it perfectly. But he lets us, the imperfect, carry out his work, and bring others to the knowledge of his perfect plan. I love you all strongly, and pray about you daily! I hope all is well, and continues to go that way!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

                                          With his new companion, Elder Dayton, and President Miner
                                           in Stavropol, Russia

                                         At the mission home in Rostov right after arriving from their

                                         2-day trip to get there from Provo!

Next Stop...RUSSIA!!!

Здравствуйте!

У Меня есть лета документи! (I'm not sure how to say flight plans in Russian, but that's supposed to say... I have flight plans!) We finally got our travel itineraries this week, and I'm seriously so excited! We're going from here to JFK, where we have an 8 hour layover, and then to Moscow, which is a crazy long flight. We seriously have an 11 hour layover in the Moscow airport, which should be pretty awesome! We have to run to the embassy and do something there, but other than that I'm just planning on talking to all sorts of different people! It's gonna be so awesome! It doesn't feel like 9 weeks has passed, it seems like it was seriously last week that I had to say goodbye to all of you and come into the MTC, and now I'm already leaving! It's so exciting though! I feel so blessed to be able to go and serve those people! 

This week has been sort of weird, half of our district left last week, so we only had five people in our classes. Even though we were lacking in people, it was still a really awesome experience! We've been listening to conference talks in class this week and translating what they're saying to English, and I'm pretty sure the people that do the voice-overs for conference play a game called "Let's see how fast we can talk". Haha, it seriously sounds like they put the video on fast-forward. It's surprising how much we understand though! I've learned so many new cool words from that though, like умопомрачителный (Oom-uh-pom-ruh-cheat-el-nee, haha, that's the closest I can get with English letters). When you break it down it literally translates to "Mind darkeningly good," which is basically like saying so great that it literally blows your mind. And then the word сногшибателный (Snog-she-bottle-nee) means feet-sweepingly good according to one of my teachers! So now I don't have to respond with the same two words every time somebody asks me how I'm doing! 

This week has been pretty average, just like usual, study, eat, and sleep! We had a pretty cool devotional this Tuesday though, I can't remember the name of the person who spoke, but he gave a really good talk full of so many awesome thoughts! One that particularly struck me was that fear shouldn't exist in this gospel. If we have faith in Christ and his abilities to guide us, there really is no place for fear. There's no reason we should hesitate to follow promptings, or simply open our mouths, because when we act under the direction of the spirit, we are led down the path that Christ has prepared for us. He told us about a French poem that was translated into English. It went something like this, "A lone man was walking across a mountain path. Another man from a distance called to him saying, come to the edge. The man responded no, for I will fall. The other man called once more, and he responded again with no, for I will fall. The other man beckoned once more, "please, come to the edge". So he did, and he pushed him. And he flew." Sometimes it does not make a whole lot of sense to us, why we have been asked to do something by the Lord. Occasionally, we are even justified in our fear. But when we recognize that the call to come closer was from Christ, and that he will not lead us astray, it is then we learn that we can fly. Please do not misunderstand the analogy here. There are many types of canyons in this life, most of which lead us to nothing but a fall, followed by pain and agony. These are not the types of cliffs we should be jumping off of. When we have the ability to recognize Christ calling to us in our lives though, asking us to take that next step, we need not fear, for through Him we can do all things. I love you all strongly, and pray for you daily. I hope all is well, and continues to stay that way.

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

(FYI:  Because Dustin didn't really say when he leaves the MTC for Russia, I am just letting everyone know that he is leaving Tuesday evening, Mar 8th...he doesn't actually get to Rostov until Thursday evening, Mar 10th!  It's going to be a long few days for him, but as you can tell from his letter, it can't come soon enough!  Next time we hear from him he will be in RUSSIA!!!  So excited for him!)