Easter P2

Hello all!

So, this past Sunday was the Russian Easter which was pretty cool. We actually did things to celebrate! We had an Easter egg hunt at the senior couples house and ate cake with them:) There is also this bread thing that people eat here. It's tall and has a dome on top covered in frosting and sprinkles. It smelled like a doughnut and we were so excited to eat it... come to find out it's literally just bread with raisins in it. People eat it as a representation of Jesus's body, but half the people that do it aren't even religious. It was fun anyways! I'll attach a picture. 

I finally talked to Veronica, and it went very well actually! She isn't interested, but we did make her think about what she wants out of life and I know she felt the spirit. We just found out she broke up with her boyfriend, and I think that was a result of her rethinking life a little bit, so we'll see what happens with her! As long as she knows that we love her, I think we did ok.

We got three new investigators this week! There is one member that has two daughters that she wants to get baptized. One is 40 and the other is 9, so quite an age gap! We visited them on Saturday, and our visits right now are mostly geared toward the 40 year old, Marina. Her first husband was a drunk, and died because of it, and now she has another husband that is addicted to alcohol. She recently had a dream that she was drowning and kept trying to swim up to this light. When she finally got there, she felt peace, and joy. The next day, she met me and Sister Brockbank. She took it as a sign that God wanted something more for her life. She also has two teenage sons, and she wants a better life for them. She doesn't want them to end up drunk like her husband. The first discussion went really well! I really felt the spirit as we taught her the First Vision. It's amazing how much power that account has on people. There was another lady we met with who was baptized 3 years ago. She has 5 sons, one of them who died young, and a husband who just got out of jail, where he was for 12 years. The first thing she said to us when she met with us is "I need to be sealed in the temple." Her husband is not a member, but he wants to be baptized. He read the entire Book of Mormon while he was in jail. There are some logistics we need to work out with him, but it would be so amazing if we could get there family to the temple! After all, that is the ultimate goal.

The last thing I wanted to share about this week is Lydia. I might've talked about Lydia before. Basically, she is a lonely babooshka. She loves the sisters and the sisters got into a pattern of just going and talking with her for hours, which is great, but not necessarily our purpose here. We explained to her about what we do here as volunteers, and how we need to be careful with how we spend our time. She agreed to listen to our discussions. Now, Lydia loves to talk. She just goes on and on and on and on. We started talking about Joseph Smith and the First Vision and she actually asked us to skip it because she's heard it before. But, we kept going, and after I said the First Vision and bore my testimony of Joseph Smith, a warm peace came into the room, and we all just sat there. No one talked. That is the feeling that comes from the Holy Ghost. That is the feeling you feel when you hear eternal truths being shared. I feel so blessed to have this gospel in my life and to feel this peace so often. It is the same peace I felt when talking to Veronica and the same peace I felt talking to Marina as well. Our message is true, and it can bring peace to anyone who is willing to listen.

I hope you all had a wonderful week this week! Thank you for all the messages, thoughts, and prayers:)

Sister Jones

Он воскрес! (He is Risen!)

Happy Easter everyone! 

This week was pretty exhausting, but big changes are happening! 

We had zone conference this week, which is always amazing. President and Sister Lamb had a whole presentation on marriages and how working with a spouse relates to working with a companion. I have never talked so much about marriage than I have out here, haha! We had a good time. We learned a lot, ate Kafe Lima, and there were some tears (not from me though). I bore my testimony about being led by the spirit. Sometimes I look around and wonder, "how the heck did I end up in Russia? What has led me to this point in my life?" Same thing happened when I was in Uganda this past summer. Both experiences I know were not an accident. As random as they may seem, I needed to be at that place at that time. Right now, I need to be in Russia. And even though it seems random, I know it's not. As long as we are doing our best to be good and make righteous choices, the Lord will guide us in our actions.

Sister Brockbank and I were reconsidering a lot this week. We meet with a LOT of бабушки (grandmas), which is wonderful. However, a lot of them are inactive and have been for a really long time. We are trying to get them to come back to church, but some of them have been offended by one thing or another, and have told us time and time again that they are never coming back. So, now we are trying to figure out which people we should stop going to as often. After all, even though we don't proselyte, there are people who want to hear our message. And we can't find them if we are arguing with a babooshka for 20 minutes about why we don't have a new church building yet. It is really very sad though. A lot of them are really lonely and don't have many other people to talk to. But we are trying, and like I said before, as long as we are trying our best and seeking for guidance, He will help us.

Last thing for this week: We have 2 new investigators!! Ahh!! There is a woman who lives about an hour away, and doesn't come to church that often because of the distance. But, she came to church this Sunday for Easter and brought her two daughters! There is a bit of an age gap. One daughter is 9 and the other daughter is in her 30s or 40s with a son of her own. But, they both expressed interest, and we are going to meet with them later this week:)

I hope that you all had a wonderful week this week and a great Easter! I don't really have a lot to say about Easter this week, because Russia actually celebrates it next week (except in our church), so maybe I'll have some stories then. I love you all!

Sister Jones

Pictures:

1. Fog over bridge in Vlad

2. New Russian coat

3. New Russian Easter Dress and FLOWERS!!  

KONTIKS!

This week was a week full of tender mercies. There was also a lot that didn't quite work out for us, but we're moving forward and getting better!

Update on Veronica: So... I chickened out. Basically, we took her to dinner and tried to bring up church and the gospel, but the timing never felt quite right. This week for sure I am going to ask her if she wants to learn more. I felt the prompting definitely last week after watching a little bit of conference, and after finishing conference yesterday, that prompting came again even stronger. I know it's what I need to do but I'm pretty scared... but it will be ok!

We had a few crazy meetings this week. We had a meeting with this one family that is kinda messed up. We visit the grandmother, and she is super sweet. She is only in her 60s or something, but her health is really bad, so she stays at home most of the time and she doesn't even really stand up. She has 8 children, and they are all over the place. When we went over, one of her grown up daughters was passed out on the bed we were sitting on with a hangover, and her grandkids were running around everywhere. The daughter who was passed out on the couch has four little children, and they all smoke, despite the fact that they are no older than 6. It feels sad. We talked with her about Easter, and as we talked, I could feel the atmosphere in the room begin to change. Her circumstances didn't change. The daughter was still asleep, her grandkids still had sunken cheeks, but she felt happier. She felt the spirit, and she felt God's love for her and her family, despite the poor choices her kids made.

I did mention that we had a lot of tender mercies this week. There are these cookies that missionaries here really like called kontiks. They are found in lots of places in Russia, but for some reason, we haven't been able to find them in Vladivostok... until this week. We were in a tiny town about an hour outside of Vlad. It is hard to get meetings there, and a lot of missionaries don't like going there because it seems like even when we do have plans they always fall through. However, despite the disappointment, we went and we tried our best, and God blessed us when we walked in the store and found kontiks. The crazy thing was, they were only in one check out line in the store, and the lady had to manually type in the price because the scanner wasn't working on them. I think that they were heaven sent.

Life is sometimes hard. Actually, I think a lot of the time it's hard. Things happen. But that doesn't mean that God doesn't love us. He gives us trials so we can grow. He gives us agency so we can learn right from wrong. And He gives us tender mercies so that when we are about to give up, we have the strength to keep going. I know that this gospel is true. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to watch conference this week, and for the words that we can hear from modern day prophets. I know that President Nelson is a prophet of God. I am just so grateful for all of God's little tender mercies in my life. He really does love us!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Sister Jones

What's A Map?

Another week gone by! I feel like the weeks are going by so slow, but so fast at the same time. It's way weird how that works. This week has been a bit of a roller coaster, what with trying to be missionaries, having a new companion, and finishing moving, but Sister Brockbank and I are doing great:)

This week, we really realized the importance of knowing the city and knowing the bus system here. I know the city pretty well from downtown, where our old house is located, but neither of us know how to get ANYWHERE from our new house. And we don't have smart phones. We have a map of the city and a bus map that doesn't have the times that the buses come and it's also not very clear which buses are on which routes, or even what the routes are. The work has been going a little slower this week because of moving and because we are confused on how to get anywhere, but we're getting slightly better! Slightly. It's only a problem because we can't schedule in that many meetings because we have to plan in so much travel time. For example, we had a meeting with a lady this week at 5 pm. We left our house at 3:30 pm, and still got there 10 minutes late. We haven't gotten lost as in we don't know where we are, but we just don't know the best route from point A to point B. But, we're figuring it out, and by the end of this transfer, we're going to know this city so well!

I have only watched a little bit of General Conference so far (actually only the Saturday morning session), but I loved the talks in it! I made an effort this past week to keep conference in my mind, and think of questions that I want to be answered and pray about it. I prayed a lot about Veronica, one of our friends. I feel like we've established a really good relationship with her, but we haven't really talked to her much about the gospel. She's in a tough home situation, and we felt like trying to share the gospel would make her feel too pressured. However, the almost all the conference talks in the Saturday morning session talk about ministering and sharing the gospel. I really love the idea of sharing what's in your heart. After all, that's what we're here to do. It's Veronica's choice if she wants to accept the gospel or come to church or whatever she wants to do, but the church is something that brings me purpose in life and true joy. Why should I not share that with her? I want her to be happy, and I know a way that she can be. Sometimes, it's really hard to talk to people about what you believe, whatever it is. But if it's something that you really believe and it's something that you know can help others too, why not share it? We're going to try to meet with Veronica this week which I'm just a little nervous for (ok, a lot nervous), but she knows that we care about her, and that's really all that matters.

Because of the big move that happened this week and trying to get our lives back in order, I have found that a lot of my thoughts were focused on me and my companion, how hard it was for us to move, how tired we are, how stressed we are. While we were still trying to do missionary work, and we still had a lot of fun this week, some moments were miserable. That's what happens when we focus too much on our own problems. Striving to always think of and help others has really made a difference in my mindset and how I think about life. Life is a lot better when it doesn't completely revolve around you!

I hope that you've all had a great week! I love you all!

Sister Jones


Pictures:

1. Russian buildings

2. Beautiful Vlad/ our new view!

3. Angel wings in Korea! Also, we're allowed to wear nametags there!

4. Isaac: the best breakfast sandwich shop in Korea

5. The Korean temple

6. Shake Shack in Korea! It tastes like America:)

Moving Is Hard

Hey friends! 

A lot has happened... and not a lot of it was really missionary related sadly... being a missionary in Russia is weird. Anyways, here are the three big things.

First, I went to Seoul! It was a legitimate magical fairyland. I got to attend the temple there, which was like the best thing ever. I really took for granted how close we live to temples in America, even though my family lives kinda far from the one in Detroit. The people in the branch here have to plan to go to the temple in a completely different COUNTRY! But Korea was way awesome, and we just got to walk around and eat Korean food and even talk to some people that spoke English. It was weird that we could talk to them about church and God because it's not against the law there.

Another huge thing is that we moved... and we're still in the middle of that whole process. Ugh. We moved yesterday. It was awful. But we're ok! We haven't been able to meet with many people this week because we've just been packing, cleaning, and moving, but it's almost over and we can continue to do work. I'm stressed, but I'm ok! Mom, Dad, I don't know how in the world you moved all of those times because this has been absolutely crazy.

I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Brockbank, she's from Utah, and she's way cool. We've been freaking out about moving together:) She's my trainer, but I'm kinda training her on the city and the people here and stuff because she's never served here. It's a weird dynamic, but I'm way excited to be her companion!

Anyways, I'm sorry this weeks email is so short. The Russian is coming, I love it here, and I hope you are all happy and doing well! 

I love you all!

Sister Jones

P.S. I did a stupid thing and left my camera at home, so I will send pictures next week... sorry I'm the worst:)