Привет всем!
This week was the last week of my 4th transfer. A transfer is 6 weeks, and I only have 12 of them... so I'm about a third done. So far to go, but I can't believe I've already been out that long! I still absolutely love it here:)
One of the best days that we had this week was Saturday. The mission president, President Lamb, and his wife were in town to visit our branch, and they came with me and Sister Staiger on our lessons. We had two lessons on Saturday, one with Sister Nina and the other with Sister Larica.
Sister Nina lives kinda in the country in a little wooden house that is really only one room. She also happens to make the best piroshki (little stuffed bread things) ever! She has a granddaughter who lives with her, Ksusha, who is super cute and happy. We talked with them about the Holy Ghost and how the Holy Ghost guides us to do good. With Sister Larica, we talked about the Elder Uchtdorf talk from October 2018, "Believe, Love, Do" (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2018/10/believe-love-do?lang=eng). Specifically, we talked about Weltschmerz.
"There is a word in German, Weltschmerz. Loosely defined, it means a sadness that comes from brooding about how the world is inferior to how we think it ought to be.
Perhaps there is a little Weltschmerz in all of us.
When silent sorrows creep into the corners of our lives. When sadness saturates our days and casts deep shadows over our nights. When tragedy and injustice enter the world around us, including in the lives of those we love. When we journey through our own personal and lonely path of misfortune, and pain darkens our stillness and breaches our tranquility—we might be tempted to agree with Solomon that life is vain and devoid of meaning.
The good news is, there is hope. There is a solution to the emptiness, vanity, and Weltschmerz of life. There is a solution to even the deepest hopelessness and discouragement you might feel.
This hope is found in the transformative power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and in the Savior’s redemptive power to heal us of our soul-sickness.
“I am come,” Jesus declared, “that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”4"
Life gets us all down sometimes. That's why there's a word for it in German. But we don't have to live our lives in a gloomy haze. There is hope, and you can find it.
I'm sorry for the shorter email this week, but I love you all and I hope that this week is wonderful!
Love,
Sister Jones
Pictures:
1. My desk:)
2. Me and Sister Bybee and our ukes!
3. Khabarovsk<3
