A yes, the coldness increases degree by degree. Fog increases and the leaves are nearly gone from the trees. The winter is almost here, and I'm just waiting for the winter and the snow!
I didn't write on Monday because I was in Riga receiving a new visa. These trips are always a lot of fun because I get to see all of my old friends and catch up what is going on in far flung areas of the mission. I really like our visa group because we have all been on the mission for quite a bit and so we all have served in the same cities and all have the same outlook on the mission. It is a lot of fun to see all of these friends who I've known for awhile and have enjoyed being around. In Riga, we made a concerted effort to go to TGI Fridays and eat some good American food. We succeeded! I really enjoyed some real French fries, fried mozzarella, and Buffalo chicken wings. I was quite the happy man!
Otherwise, our investigators are going pretty well. We have been meeting a lot with Natalya lately. She has a lot of concerns about baptism and what that means for her, and she is really having a hard time developing a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We have been working really hard with her and have been trying to give her a lot of opportunities to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost and make a good decision and choose to follow Jesus Christ. The other day, she did say that she feels good when we were around, and Elder Merrill and I were able to strongly testify that this is the Holy Ghost telling her that we are bringing the truth, and that if she prayed about it with a sincere and humble heart, she would receive a testimony by the same power. I am always fascinated when people say that they can feel a difference when we meet with them. I honestly am pretty oblivious to this phenomena, but I think that we can really see how the Holy Ghost can start testifying to people just as we walk into their apartment or they walk into the church and before we even begin to teach. When are worthy for it, we will be able to have this blessing in every one of our meetings.
Last night we had a very cool lesson with an investigator, one of the most spiritual moments of my life, and afterwards as I was writing in my journal about it, I noticed a racket from outside. We had cracked our window open and thus the noise from a small square outside our apartment was floating into the house. A bunch of teenagers, obviously very drunk, were yelling, swearing, carrying on with all sorts of shenanigans and basically not obeying very many commandments. I became philosophical as I noticed the difference between the experience that I was currently writing and the activities and actions of this group of teenagers. They were complete polar opposites. The difference between the wonderfully peaceful and great experience with the Holy Ghost and the experience that those teenagers were experiencing at that moment really showed me the difference between us and the world. Often times we like to make reference to the scripture in the New Testament about being "in the world but not off the world." It is always interesting to me to notice what a difference the gospel has made in my life and the life of those people that I have taught, opposed to the people who have either rejected or never found it, trading happiness in the moment for eternal and perpetuating peace and security. I don't know why, but at that moment I was really struck by the difference.
This week we also had the opportunity to watch general conference. It was so good! Every conference just seems to be getting better and better, but I think that this might be because I am becoming more spiritually mature as my mission progresses. At any rate, I enjoyed all of the talks and was amazed by how much direct council that was given. I felt like many of the talks included very direct and concrete actions or commitments that we should be doing in our life, which I really enjoyed. I can't wait to get them on audio and in print so I can study them more thoroughly. On first impression my favorite talks where:
-All the talks from the 1st Presidency, especially Henry B. Eyring's Priesthood Session talk, Dieter F. Uchtdorf's Saturday talk, and President Monson's talk about appreciating the blessings in life.
- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk, of course.
- M. Russell Ballard's talk, which was probably my favorite talk by him up to this point.
- D. Todd Christofferson's talk! That was a really great one, straight, direct and crystal clear. It made we want to be a much better person.
- Russel M. Nelson's talk. "Ask a missionary, they can help you!" Also, he gave the perfect outline for a 1st lesson discussion!
As always I am very thankful for living prophets who speak in the name of God on Earth today.
This week we have the baptism, Elder Turner comes down to see Ryazan one final time, which will be awesome, and hopefully everything goes well! Talk to you next week!
As Always,
Elder Zachery E Brasier
If anyone wants to listen to the talks Zachery is talking about, click HERE.
Moscow Time
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