Meet the Mormons

Здравствуйте!

Hello everyone! It's been another great week over here in Stavropol! There's been a lot of fun stuff happening here this past week! This Saturday we had a branch activity(the first since I've been here) where we all got together and ate some pizza and watched Meet the Mormons. We ended up having more investigators and potentials there than we did members, but it all worked out! Everyone seemed to really like the film, and it was hard to get everyone to leave at the end because everyone wanted to sit around and keep talking! It was awesome to see our members helping us out, they play such a big role in the conversion of these people. It's so much easier for people to come to church, and make the decisions that they need to make, when they understand that there are people out there that used to be in their same position, faced with those exact same decisions! 

Ilgar, our investigator with a baptismal date, was even going around telling people to meet with us after the movie! He's gonna be such a strength to this branch! We really need the priesthood over here, as of right now, we only have one worthy Melchezidek in this city, and he technically doesn't even live here. It really makes me appreciate the great blessing that it was to be raised in Gilbert, where the church and the priesthood are so readily available to all those who are in need of it. We've ended up moving his baptismal date back a week, so that our zone leader can come give him a baptismal interview face to face, and so that we have more time to teach him everything! Our other baptismal date, Nikolai, didn't end up being baptized as planned this past Saturday. He's still working to make sure that this is the decision he needs to make right now. While it is sort of sad to see that he wasn't baptized last Saturday, there is still great hope with him, and we'll continue to work with him to help him make that important decision. 

We got a new elder down here this Tuesday, and when they traveled down we ended up doing a short companion exchange. We ended up getting 5 lessons that day, which was beyond incredible for us! We've had entire weeks(a few actually) where we've had less lessons than that! It's been really cool to see this area start to turn around! When we got here, there was an average of 1 to 2 lessons a week, and now we're getting anywhere from 8 to 11, and it's only going up from there! God is preparing people for us everyday and, we just get to do His work and watch him send them to us! I can't really think of much else that's happened over here this week, but rest assured that there are more tender mercies and blessings that we are blessed with every day than I can fit in this e-mails. God knows us, and is very intimately involved in our lives. 

I love you all, and pray for you often! Hope all is well!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

Transfers

May 30, 2016

Здравствуйте!

Hello everyone! This week has been pretty eventful! I'll just start by telling you all about my first Visa trip! Our visas here in Russia are only good for 3 months, so we have to fly out of the country every 3 months, grab our new one, and then go back into Russia and get a new migration card. We ended up flying out to Yerevan, Armenia early Thursday morning and then coming back in early Friday morning. It was a bit of an adventure, to say the least! We ended up having an 8 hour layover at the airport in Yerevan, so we had tons of time to go around and talk to people, and eat at this crazy good restaraunt! For some reason they had a random piano in the middle of the airport that anyone can play if they're just looking for a way to pass some time, so I sat down and played for a few minutes. I ended up having a few people come over and listen, and when I finished I was able to talk with some of them about the church and why we're here. It was just a really fun experience all around, and hopefully they'll run into the missionaries or some church members there someday! They also have a Cinnabon restaraunt there, so naturally I went and got some super tasty cinnamon rolls there. I had a pretty good chat with one of the employees there, and we were pretty good friends by the end of the conversation. He told me if I ever needed a place to live, I could go move in with him at his apartment. He taught me how to say what's up and a couple of other phrases in Armenian, and then gave me all of my food for free! It was pretty awesome, he even added me on facebook so we could chat when I come home! We got home at around 2 a.m., slept for about 4 hours, and then hopped on a bus back to Stavropol for the next 5 hours. I was glad to finally be out and about again after sitting around on transport for so long! Even with all of that, we were able to have 6 lessons this week, which is pretty good for us over here! 

Things are really starting to pick up, and it's just awesome to see! We ended up having 5 investigators at church on Sunday, and 17 people in all which is the most we've had at church in a LONG time! The members did a really good job getting to know them, and hopefully it'll be easier for them to come back! Our investigator, ilgar, is still on track for being baptized on the 11th, and he's just progressing like crazy! He's already read a good amount of the Book of Mormon, and he just really wants to change his life, and he understands that baptism is something that he needs right now!  It'll be awesome to finally have some more priesthood in this branch, for the past year or two the only worthy priesthood holders have been the branch president and his son who is 14. It's going to be such a blessing for our branch to have someone else that can take some of the responsibilities off of the branch president! 

In other news we have a church headquarters referal, Alexander, that we've been teaching over Skype (he lives about 5 hours south of Stavropol) and he's also on track to be baptized! We have to get some of the logistics figured out, because the church just isn't in that area of Russia yet, but we're looking into getting a group organized down there! He's got quite a few friends that have read some of the Book of Mormon that we'll probably be teaching soon. We're sending down a few more copies of the book of mormon so they can all have their own! Apparently they've got a group of friends down there that meet and discuss the bible, and a baptist preacher came down not too long ago and preached out of the book of mormon. They were all super interested, but didn't know where to find more info after he had left, so their group leader (Alexander) searched for a bit and found our website, and requested a book of mormon and to start meeting with us! It'll be interesting to see how it plays out over the next few weeks! That's about it for this week! I'm sure there's more that I'm forgetting, but that's about all I have time for! 

I love you all, and pray for you often! Hope all is well!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

PS.  Even thought this email is titled "Transfers" , Dustin didn't even mention transfers in the entire email!  He must've forgotten, haha.   But he is staying in Stavropol for at least another 6 weeks! 

Off to Yerevan

May 23, 016

Здравствуйте!

Hey everyone! This week has been super awesome and just full of blessings! We ended up having 11 teaching appointments this week, which is way more than usual! Things are really starting to get moving over here in Stav! We've been seeing a pretty steady increase in the number of lessons we're teaching, and hopefully it keeps going that way! 

We also have another baptismal date for the 11th of June, which is super exciting! His name is Илгар(ilgar) and he's just one of those people that the Lord has been preparing for a while.  We had to mail a book of Mormon to a church heardquarters referall that lives down near Chechnia, and we were just sort of waiting in line at the post office with the other 2 elders(because we had no idea how to send a package and they were helping us, haha), and we just decided to go on a split and contact for a few minutes while we were waiting! We ended up meeting Илгар pretty much as soon as we went outside, and he told us he would come to church on Sunday, but he didn't give us his phone number or any way to contact him, which usually means they aren't actually going to show up! When Sunday came though he was there, and we were able to get a lesson with him right after church. 

He told us that we had a light in our eyes, and that all of the doctrine we were teaching seemed true to him, he even started backing it up with bible references, it was awesome! We've met with him a few more times after that, and he's just continuing to progress and learn more! 

We also were able to meet with an inactive member this week named Сергей(Sergei). He's actually a former missionary that served in this mission back when it was still relatively young. When he got home though, he ended up marrying one of his investigators and going inactive. It was sad to see that he's fallen away, but there's still a lot of hope for him and his family! We made him some brownies(just to soften him up a little bit, haha, american desserts are key to missionary work over here!) and were able to share the message of the Restoration with him and his wife! The spirit bore powerful testimony of the truthfulness of what we were saying, and hopefully touched their hearts. Two of his old missionary friends are actually from Arizona, and he said that one of them actually lives in Gilbert, which is insane! If any of you back home know a Michael Wilcox, or a Julia Brooks, let me know.  I'd like to get in contact with them and see if they could reach out to him somehow! 

All around though, this week has just been incredible. We've seen the Lord's hand in our lives pretty much every minute of every day! It really is a privilege to be here doing this work, and share this message with these wonderful people! 

I'll leave you all with a spiritual thought as usual! I was reading through D&C the other day, and I found a verse that one of my teachers shared with us, and it really stuck out to me for some reason. Verse 17 of Section 123 says, "Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed." That really rings true to me, especially as a missionary. Often times when people don't keep commitments, or show up to church, or just do the things that are necessary to progress and come closer to God in general, you sort of feel like it's something you may have done poorly, or that you could have done better. In reality though, for the most part it's just because people have free agency, and unfortunately, are not perfect and choose poorly sometimes. We, though, can still do all that is in our power to help them make those decisions, and then take a step back and feel the peace associated with knowing that we have done all that we can. I know that Christ lives, and that He is ever present in our lives if we so much as look for him. I know that God loves each and every one of us, and knows us perfectly. I know that this church is true, and I, as always, am so humbled to be a part of this work. I love you all, and pray for you often! Hope all is well!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

PS.  Also, regarding the title of this email, we have our first Visa trip this week!  We're heading off to Armenia on Thursday to grab some new visas.   It should be interesting.

Where is the Time going?

May 5, 2016

Здравствуйте!

Hello everyone! Another week is gone and I'm still just as surprised as last week that it's already Monday again! This week has been full of a bunch of just really awesome experiences! We ended up having Zone Training up in Rostov this Tuesday, and it turns out that the Marshrutkas that we usually take aren't in operation on Mondays. All four of us elders here in Stavropol ended up taking a train on Monday night and getting in on Tuesday Morning. I don't understand how, but the trip is about 3 hours longer by train than it is by bus, so we left at 9 at night and rolled in at around 5 a.m. the next morning! The compartments have 4 beds in them, and pretty much no space for anything else, but it was still super cool! 

Zone training was super awesome, like always, and we got some good advice on how to contact families, so hopefully we'll see some more families in the coming weeks! Even though we did lose a few days, we were still able to get a lot done this week! We've been doing a lot more small shop contacting this week, and it's been pretty effective and pretty fun at the same time! There's a clothing store named White Brothers that we've gone to a few times, and have given the owner, Pavel, a Book of Mormon. We stopped by this week and he gave me a book from his personal collection of antique Russian books, and even though I can't read it right now, I'm excited to give it a read when I come home. We're pretty good friends with him now, and he even started following me on Instagram so I could follow him back and stay in touch when I get home, haha! He's a pretty awesome dude, and hopefully we'll be able to teach him some more! 

One of our other investigators, Ali, asked us to make him some pizza this week because he wanted to try "authentic American pizza". It was a pretty good time, and afterwards we were able to have a really awesome lesson with him. This week we decided to focus on some of the poorer areas of Stavropol, and we've been seeing a lot of success there! We met this really cool family that was working on their car, and they told us to come by anytime and share our message with them, so we'll be stopping by sometime tomorrow! I also had the opportunity to speak in Church again this week, which was pretty awesome! I think it went way better than when I first came, and while there were definitely still grammatical mistakes, there were way less! All around this week has just been super awesome, just like every week over here! 

I'll just leave you with a spiritual thought! I was reading in Alma 5 the other day, and verses 7-9 really just sort of hit me. This particular passage is Alma's words that he preached to the people throughout the land in an attempt to bring people back to the church.

 7 Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, they were encircled about by the bands of death, and the chains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await them.

8 And now I ask of you, my brethren, were they destroyed? Behold, I say unto you, Nay, they were not.

 9 And again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell which encircled them about, were they loosed? I say unto you, Yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. And I say unto you that they are saved.

As a missionary, I'm priviliged to see this every day in my work. It's really incredible to watch my investigators as they are awakened from that "deep sleep" and come to recognize and rely on Christ as their Savior and Redeemer. I know that I testify of Christ and his Atonement often in these e-mails, but that is just because it is so central to all that we do here on this earth. I know that this church is true, and I know that Christ is at the head of it. I know that through the infinite atonement of Christ, the bands of death have been broken, and if we only humble ourselves enough to accept it, we can receive the greatest gift of all, Eternal Life. I love you all, and pray for you! Hope all is well!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)


(Pictures of Zone training in Rostov)

Victory Day!

5/9/2016

Здравствуйте!

Hello everyone!

It's been another great week here in Russia! This week's email is going to be a little bit short, we don't have a whole lot of time today. It's Victory Day over here and there's all kinds of parades and celebrations going on right now, and we were able to go attend some of them this morning in our p-day clothes so we blend in and don't draw attention to ourselves, haha! It was seriously such a cool experience! I can't even begin to describe it, but hopefully these pictures will give you a bit of an idea! 

In other news, one of our investigators has a baptismal date! His name is Nikolai, and he's just a really solid guy. He's one of the former investigators that we met while we were walking around one day, and he decided to start coming to church and meeting with us again. He's going to be baptized on the 4th of June if he's ready by then, and I really think he will be! He's already been baptized into two other churches, and is a little bit timid about being baptized again without being absolutely sure that it's the true church. He told us that he wants to know, and he understands that it's only through prayer and the book of Mormon that he's going to find that answer! It's super exciting to see him progress, and just gets me so pumped to keep working! This week we ended up having 9 lessons, which is a lot for us over here! We got 6 new investigators, and most of them seem pretty interested in meeting again and finding out more! I'll fill you in more next week, but that's really all I have time to write for now! 

I'll send more next week, but just know that I love and pray for you all! 

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

Happy Mother's Day (A Week Early!)

5/2/2016

Здравствуйте!

Hey everyone! Another week is gone, it's seriously crazy! This week has been full of all kinds of interesting and awesome experiences! People on the street have been a little crazy this week, and we've had quite a week. 

We're still running into former investigators from a few years ago on the streets, and we meet people pretty much every day that have had some sort of contact with the missionaries in the past. A lot of them attended our English group a couple of years ago, or just stopped and talked with them for a few minutes! Yesterday we were out contacting on the streets, and we took a really random path down a street we don't usually walk on, and out of nowhere this lady came up from behind us and started talking to us in English. We found out she had met with the missionaries three years ago, but both of them got transferred out of Stavropol, and she just didn't know who the new missionaries here were. She invited us over to her house that was about 2 minutes away and we were able to teach her the restoration. She seems super sincere about everything, and said she would pray about it! It's awesome to see the Lord preparing people for us every day, we just need to be in the right place at the right time! 

This email will be a bit shorter than usual, we just had a pretty long conversation about our church while we were sitting here emailing at the internet club, and he should be coming to church next Sunday! We were able to Skype home yesterday, and it was seriously the coolest thing ever! I'm so grateful for my family and the knowledge that I have that this life is not the end. My family is everything to me, I love them dearly, and all I want for the people here in Russia is to have the same thing with their families! That's really all I have time for, but I love you all, and pray for you! It's great hearing from you, and I hope all is well with everyone!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)

Talking to Dustin over Skype!  It was the best!

Another Incredible Week

April 25, 2016

Здравствуйте!

Hey everyone! This week has been pretty interesting, just a lot of stuff has happened and it's all gone by so quick! 

I'll start off with some of the less exciting news. One of our investigators, Dima, is apparently somewhere in Ukraine right now. There were some problems with his documents(and now that I think about it, he was probably living in that attic so people couldn't find him), and he ended up having to go serve in the Ukrainian army. We've pretty much lost all contact with him, so we're just praying that he's able to find some church members over there. It's a little bit sad to see that he's gone, but we did everything we could, and I feel pretty strongly that he'll find the church again in the future! He's got his book of Mormon, and he reads and prays every day, so hopefully he'll stay strong! 

This week has been full of all kinds of other crazy awesome experiences though. We've run into 3 former investigators this week, that were taught a few years ago but all ended up getting dropped for one reason or another. One of them even ended up coming to church this Sunday, and we were able to teach him a lesson. It's so cool to see the Lord just put people in your path that he's been preparing for years. It really motivates you to talk with everyone. Who knows how much longer it would have been for him if we hadn't ended up talking with him that day. We also ended up having a meeting with a guy we contacted like 5 weeks ago, that has bailed on us pretty much 5 times. We happened to be at the branch for a district meeting, and he called pretty much the second we said amen to close the meeting. We met with him and had a really solid lesson, and the spirit was just really strong. He brought his friend with him as well, so we ended up getting another investigator out of it as well, and they both seem pretty sincere and willing to listen more to what we have to say. 

We've been trying to change up the way we contact a little bit this week, and we've been having a lot of fun with it. We'll just ask people random questions about Russia, or the Russian lifestyle, or if we see something we don't know how to say we'll just ask them how to say it. I've asked a couple of Бабушки(Grandmas) what the deal with all the pigeons here is, because there's tons of them here and people basically worship them. Seriously, don't mess with pigeons if you come to Russia. It turns out that the word for pigeon, and the word for dove are the same, so in the bible when it says that the Holy Ghost descended in the form of a dove, Russians also interperet it as a pigeon. We've had tons of really awesome experiences like this, and had tons of just really awesome experiences. 

We talked to an older man on a park bench the other day, and he told us some of his stories from WW II. He started serving when he was 17, and from what I understood he was part of a group of soldiers that marched 66 kilometers through a desert without any water to overtake a camp of Japanese soldiers. He was just a really cool guy, and hopefully in the future we'll be able to chat with him again. Overall, this week has just been full of all kinds of really awesome experiences, and there's so many other things to write about, but I don't have a whole lot of time. 

I'll just leave you with something I read in Preach My Gospel this week that was sort of interesting to me. It was talking about the Book of Mormon, and he we can better use it in our work here. It mentioned the promise given in Moroni 10:3-5, that if we pray to know the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, with real intent and a sincere heart, that we will receive an answer. Something interesting that it suggested we do is to apply this promise regularly, and to often reaffirm your testimony that the book is true. I've had the opportunity to do so this week, and the witness that the Holy Ghost bore to me is undeniable, and rekindled the testimony that I received when I first prayed for a confirmation of it's truthfulness. I know that this Church is Christ's church, and that we have the fulness of the gospel on the earth today. I love you all, and pray for you often! Hope all is well!

Until next time,

-Старейшина кэмптон

(Staryeshina Kempton)