Elder Rasband!

Hello all!

I am doing great here in Russia. This week, it finally got warm! That was a huge blessing. It’s rainy again, but at least we got one week of summer. 

This week, I wanted to focus on Elder Rasband’s visit to Novosibirsk! Elder Rasband is one of our church leaders, and although we didn’t get to meet him personally, we had some meetings this weekend with him that we watched over video conference. It was a truly amazing meeting, and I got real answers to a lot of my questions that I had. One of my favorite things that we talked about was getting through hard things. When we are placed in difficult situations, we need to remember the bigger picture. We are here on Earth to learn and to grow! So, when something hard happens, we shouldn’t ask «why me?» or wish that things were better, we should be asking «what can I learn from this?». 

We visited a lady named Natalia on Saturday. I don’t remember if I’ve talked about her before, but she was offended by someone at church 13 years ago and hasn’t been back since, despite the fact that the lady who offended her moved away shortly after. We are trying to have Natalia set a goal, and not necessarily one to go back to church (though we would love that!). Our church is a church of change and growth, and right now, she is kind of in a rut. She is such an amazing woman. Her testimony of God and of the Book of Mormon is so strong. She loves having us over to her house and talking about doctrine. Other than not going to church, she really is trying her best to live the gospel. That’s why it is so hard to see her the way she is right now. She’s trying so hard, but she doesn’t realize what she is missing by not coming to church. The reason we need church is mainly to take the sacrament. We have the wonderful privilege to do so every week, and every time we do, we grow, learn, are forgiven of our sins, and come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. We have peace and joy. She does not feel at peace right now, and I hope that one day she will choose to come to church again, but until then, we will keep trying to bring the spirit to her. 

I hope that you all had a wonderful week this week! I love you all:)

Sister Jones

Pictures:

1. SUMMER LOOK THERES GRASS

2. Elder Rasband over skype :)

3. Our knockoff 7-11 we found this week

Elder Golden!

Hello all! I hope everything is going well with everyone!

This week was a crazy week, but I say that every week. I'll start off with a really random story of a girl we met! 

We had two sisters from a different city staying with us this week for zone conference. One of them tore her ACL, and is leaving home for America on Tuesday to get surgery for it:( It's really sad! She's only been out for a year. But, she is hoping to come back out when her leg is better! Anyways, Sister Brockbank and I felt bad and we wanted to do something nice for her, so we told them that we were going to take them out for dinner. On our way to go meet up with them, we started talking with a lady named Oksana on the bus. Sister Brockbank asked her where we could find really good Russian food, and she just said "I don't know" and went back to her phone. When we got off the bus in center though, the lady was like "come on girls! I found this place on the internet. I'll show you where it is!" So we were like, "cool! ok!", just expecting her to show us and then we would go meet up with the other sisters and get food right? Right? Wrong. We get to the restaurant, and she walks in with us and is like "let's go wash our hands." And that is how we cancelled on the sisters and had dinner with a random Russian lady. She was really nice though! We want to meet with her again, even to just be friends. She's new to the area, and kind of lonely right now.

We had zone conference this week, and Elder Golden came! Elder Golden is a general authority in our church, and he will be our new area president soon. I actually don't really know what that means... but he's a church leader. He is so cool! Him and his wife are both white and have British accents so I just assumed they were British, but it turns out, both of them were born and raised in South Africa which is pretty cool! Anyways, Elder Golden focused a lot on love and on charity. One thing that I love that he said is that charity is not only the pure love of Christ, charity is what God IS. Showing real and genuine love for people is how we can strengthen each other and become more like Christ, and that is what our church is all about. We are all God's children, brothers and sisters, and we need to treat each other like it. And how can we get charity? Through studying the scriptures, studying the Savior, praying for help, and trying to emulate what you learn. 

One last story from this week! We tried to make borscht this week. In the grocery store, they sell these packet things with shredded beets, carrots, onions, etc that you need to make for borscht, but we forgot to put chicken in. It was not the worst thing ever, but we pretty much had vegetable water for dinner last night ahha:) 

Also! This week I had a bit of a throwback from Uganda. Our hot water went out on Tuesday, and the landlord told us if it wasn't back in a week they would call someone... so helpful. So, we've been heating up water in the hot water pot and mixing it with cold water and taking bucket showers! It's a good thing I'm experienced;) 

I love you all! 

Sister Jones

Pictures:

1. Eating really good Korean BBQ:P

2. Me and sister maccabee in Korea

3. Me and Sister Brockbank at the aquarium... we wish it was that green outside

Korea, Aquarium, And Ballets...Oh My

Hello hello friends!!

This week was crazy because it was transfer week, and I got to go on my visa trip to Korea again! So, we didn't have a ton of meetings this week sadly:(

For PDay this week, we went to the aquarium here in Vlad which was AMAZING! They had a dolphin show, and a walrus that did pushups and whistled. They also had a place where you could touch starfish and tunnels where the fish swim over your head. If any of you ever end up in Vlad, it's definitely a place worth visiting!

Korea was so much fun! I got to see sister Maccabee (my MTC companion) again! We visited the temple, and just walked around the streets of Korea. We walked around the university campus there, ate at a really good Korean BBQ place, and just had fun together. I even got to try a temple session in Russian! I understood enough, haha.

On Saturday, a member took us to see a ballet. It was really really good! We saw the Nutcracker. It was funny, because they changed the story a little bit. They changed the name of the main character from Clara to Masha, and Masha helped the Nutcracker get back together with the Sugar Plum princess. But it was all together still wonderful!

The last thing I want to talk about was church this Sunday. Sister Brockbank and I sat in on Young Women's and they were discussing personal progress. I have decided I want to complete personal progress in Russian while I'm here, and I am so excited for it and excited for the girls that are doing it! If they really put the effort into it, I know that they will be able to strengthen themselves and their families so much. 

I'm sorry again for the short email, but I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!

Sister Jones

Be Grateful! - Week 12 In Vlad!!

Hello friends! Russia is doing great (except that it's STILL COLD) and I'm doing great:)

This week was a little bit of a sad one, I'm not going to lie. I talked about my and Sister Brockbank's decision to spend less time with people who are not progressing. I still stand by that decision, but it has been difficult. We had another meeting with Lydia this week, and we really just wanted to know if she even has a desire to know more about why we are here, if she has a desire to learn about the gospel. So, we started off and asked her if she believes that Joseph Smith is a prophet.... and she said yes, which we weren't really expecting. I asked her if she believes that Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ, and if she believes the Book of Mormon to be the word of God. She said of course! However, she really isn't that interested in learning more, so we had to tell her that we wouldn't be able to come by as often. She was a little bit taken aback. The sisters have been coming to her for such a long time. She went on and on about how they just came and had tea with her and they never really encouraged her to pray. But we made it clear our purpose to her. Sister Brockbank especially made sure she knew that the gospel means everything to us, and it took a lot for us to come to Russia. We are still going to check up on her, but we can't spend hours at her house every week anymore. I still want her to know we love her, so much, but we do have a real purpose here. It was a really sad day. She knows that this church is God's true church, but she not ready to take any steps forward. 

We also helped a handicapped lady this week for service. She is so sweet! She can't bend her legs or her fingers, so it was interesting. She needed to go run some errands. We got her into the wheelchair and took her to different places. It was actually a little eye-opening for two reasons. This lady hadn't been outside since last summer. She has a son, but he lives out of town, and it's been "too cold" for her to go outside. Also, we were at the clinic trying to get some medical records her doctor asked for, and the people working there were so rude to her! They told her she was wrong, and that the doctor would never ask for that kind of information. They told her if she wanted to get her eyes checked, she needed to go upstairs, but that they weren't going to help her (there was no ramp). Basically, it was really sad. I am so grateful for the body that I have and that it WORKS.

I'm a little short on time this week, but I love you all and I love the gospel! I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Sister Jones

Pictures:

1. We cleaned windows at a member's house this week! She is unable to come to church because she has a severely mentally disabled daughter:(

2. Me and Sister Brockbank in front of the ocean

3. Me in Artem