Today I woke up to a full moon. It blew my mind how bright the moon was this morning and because it doesn't get light until ten o'clock I was able to observe it for such a long time. I took some sweet pictures, but I can't figure out where the SD card port is on this computer so I won't be able to send them to you. Sorry.
This week has been kind of a business as usual week. The area has really started to move forward. We are developing a pretty steady pool of investigators that seem to be coming out of nowhere. This is a huge blessing because street contacting is notoriously difficult in the winter and since tracting is illegal in Moscow, we don't really have that option for finding people. Overall though, I can't complain, since things seem to be going really well and looking up.
We had three really cool experiences on lessons this week. Maybe they won't seem that cool to everybody else, since really they are small and simple, but I've learned on my mission that these small experiences usually turn into great spiritual moments.
U-tau: We were able to teach U-tau this week with the help of Mike from Taiwan. It was super cool to hear them both speak in Chinese to each other, but also a little bit intimidating because I could not understand a single thing, although I start understanding words like repentance, baptism and Holy Ghost. Teaching was kind of funny because sometimes U-tau and Mike would just talk to each other about a principle for five to ten minutes and I would just be sitting there thinking: "What are they talking about?" Then Mike would say to me in English: "He had a question and I resolved it" and then move on. I trust him but it was really awkward having no idea what my investigators concerns were. I guess I should learn some more Chinese!
Anton: I hope you all remember Anton, who looks like Harry Potter. We had a really good lesson with him this week. Lately his problem has been that he doesn't really understand why he should read the Book of Mormon. We planned to teach him a little bit about our purpose of life and such, and when we found out he hadn't been reading, we decided to read with him. So we read Alma 34 with him. After we got done he just sat there thinking, and silence ensued. Earlier in my mission I would have just jumped in and started expounding doctrine, but now I have come to realize that silence is a good thing. After a couple of minutes sitting there, he started asking super profound and thought provoking questions. It was an amazing lesson, and we cleared up a ton of his concerns, and we even got him to pray at the end! It was such a great experience that taught me the importance of patience and letting our investigators ponder.
Leonid: I don't know if you remember Leonid. He had a baptismal date at the beginning of December, but things didn't go through. One of our big problems is that he never came to church. Well this Sunday, near the end of the meeting Leonid strolls into the building, and I don't even think we called him! He stayed the whole three hours and at the end of Sunday school even offered the closing prayer. We asked him why he felt the need to pray and he said: "I felt the Holy Ghost, and when I feel that, I know that I should offer a prayer." That was amazing! Hopefully we'll see some progress with him in the near future.
So yeah, the work is progressing. I'm excited for what we'll see in the future, and I'm hoping to see more success and miracles!
As Always,
Elder Zachery E. Brasier
Moscow Time
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