Finding... answers, investigators, packages

01-27-10
How about Elder M. writes you next week? Does that sound good?

That is so cool you decided to go to England! wow! Elder M. was a big traveler, and his family went on a lot of vacations. He recommends you take a couple days for Norway, he says its beautiful.

I should have brought pictures of thunder with me, I miss that dog so much.

Last night we went over to this couples house. The guy very soon after baptized had a stroke and can't come to church anymore. I brought my family pictures which she LOVED. that might even be an understatement, but it was so funny. She was using the diminutive form while talking about you guys, which means that it makes the words cutesy, small, happy... you get it. We shared a short message with them and booked it home.

Also this week we have taken on the 17 years investigator C. Whew. We set a baptismal date with him and gave him a teaching record so he knows what he has to know and do to receive an "answer." His deal is that he hasn't received an "answer." Hopefully we can help him.

While studying Preach My Gospel I ran across the scripture in first or second Cor. chapter 2 verses 9-14. probably 1st? It reminded me of D., and is exactly what he needs. It was so cool to have found that. He feels like he needs to be able to physically test it, but the spirit isn't of the world.

I did receive the letter from grandparents last week, I just don't have a whole lot of time to write people back. We only have an hour to read all the letters, write president, write home, and whoever else, which usually doesn't happen. I did receive 2 packages today though... possibly grandparents package? someone just called us and told us.

In packages, just by the way, please just send food, like snack things that we don't have here. Unless they are the few other things I specifically asked for or you've asked me about. The Nerf guns were thrown away, because we just don't have time to use them, and its just not useful.

This week we are really pushing to find a new investigator, we haven't added any since the beginning of the transfer, and we really need to find someone new.

We are switching over to G-mail soon through the church, which is going to be cool, I'll keep you posted on how that's going to turn out.

This one member family, the F. family, we have been visiting is so cool. The Father knows a little English and he plays the guitar really well we found out. He sang a couple songs last time we were over there, like "Let it Be", and "What a Wonderful World", it was awesome.

That's all for this week. its kind of weird this transfer is almost over.

Love you all!
-Elder Blake Wight

M. Family comes to church

01-20-10
So this week has been really good. We challenged M. to baptism, which he declined, which is alright, no problem. Also, the B. family I asked to start coming to church came! They are inactive, and we have been working with them. It was so cool, I felt so happy for them. Yesterday I went on a split again and visited them, and asked them to write their testimonies on Book of Mormons so we can hand them out and we can tell them about the people that we gave their Book of Mormon to. That idea came from zone conference this last Tuesday, it gets members into missionary work without having to chastise or beg. It will be really cool, I hope the idea works out.

Also, our investigator D. agreed to start reading the Book of Mormon. He is definitely making progress, and his wife is in Kiev for only like a few more days. She is also from some state in the south I think. I don't know exactly.

OH! i got my first contact, I was on splits with the new elder living with us, so I let him have it, because he has no investigators or contacts.

As for discussions, I give a decent amount, probably like 20-40 percent. But the last two times we have gone to the B. family's house, it has been me on a split with someone. Those times I gave almost the whole thing, that is when I asked them to come to church and write in the Book of Mormons.

The two new elders in our dorm isn't bad, its just a little more messy, and we go through food like crazy. Other than that, no biggie. The native is really helping my Russian, just being able to ask him if phrases I say are ok and just hearing Russian so often. Its good.

The grief lady did not come to church, I don't know if we have called her yet, but its going in my planner as we speak.

I JUST bought a coat, I pulled another hundred off for emergency cases, and buying some kind of bag to carry things around in. The other coat is one I have been borrowing until we could go to a market, which was today. Vova the mini missionary went with me and helped me barter.

Please send my ballot, I will do what I can to vote. I agree, I really should vote. I heard Obama passed a socialized health care bill? is that true? I just would like to know BIG things that are happening, and if that is true, that is big.

What is the don't answer game? I have no idea what that is about.

The cold here isn't too bad, The coldest this last week was like -20 c. which is like -8ish F?

As for Casey's wrestling, really, the next big step in his game is figuring out that no one can stay on top of him. Really, skill is good, but the mindset is probably 100 times more useful. Casey, look at the guy and just think how small his little arms are, and that there is no chance that guy can stay on top of you, if he is buff, just think that there is no way that short little boy is gonna keep you down. The only reason they stay on top of you is because you let them.

Carissa, I'm glad to hear that you are doing so great in basketball! Keep making those hoops, and working on your shooting and ball handling skills! Don't let the house be boring, do something to make it fun! if you are bored, it is because you are boring.

Samantha, You will have to tell me what classes you are interested in, and what teachers teach them, then I will be able to help you out. I can't do a whole lot for you without knowing what you are interested in. and keep practicing ball handling, just do under the legs, then while walking, then more and more. It helped me get a lot better back in the day.

Anyways, life is good! I don't get any mail besides from the family, but its all good, I don't know if I'd have time to reply.

love ya'll

-Elder Blake Wight.

New Roomie and wrestling tips

01-13-10


I'm finally on my regular weekly schedule. p-days on Wednesdays. This last week we taught another lesson to M. but it wasn't right to give him a baptismal date, we are really pushing for one soon though. He is a real good investigator. L. and D. are doing well, L. left for a visa trip to Kiev yesterday, or the day before. We have decided that the real problem with teaching D is L. We think that D. would keep commitments like coming to church and praying with his wife, but she just isn't into it. She asked us to give her a blessing before she left, which my companion gave, and he said that he almost should ask why. We need her to be a better example to D. of what a member should be, and once that happens we hope that he will be a much better investigator. He is good, and progressing, but with an active member as a spouse, he could grow so much faster.

We found out this week we are getting another set of missionaries in our district, and that they will be living with us because we have two bunk beds. One is elder H. He is with us right now. The other, that will be his companion, is a mini missionary named V., the one with all the tattoos. A mini missionary is a member that is a missionary for a short amount of time in the mission they live in. So he will be serving for only a few weeks with elder H. We have already gotten elder H this morning, he seems to be bummed to be moving around so much, and I don't blame him.

Yesterday we went inactive finding, so we can better fill-out our branch record, which is really outdated. People have died, moved, and some now hate the church. So last night we went and found out that one couple is never home. We left them a Liahona magazine. The next couple had moved, but the old lady living there was one of the couple's mom. The last lady was the best. We found her, and she did not look happy to see us. She invited us in anyways, and as we tried to share a message, she said thanks, but no. She also told us she "knew everything" hahaha, weird. We left her the Liahona magazine and asked her to read the Love of God talk, but she "already knew." She also made the fatal mistake of telling us that she was planning on coming to church this Sunday. We will definitely be giving her a ring when she doesn't show on Sunday.

We only had three investigators before. That email awhile ago is pretty much everyone I know/ taught. We only dropped one of them. My Russian is going a lot better. I'm understanding a lot better, and picking up words. I can't wait til I'm at the point where I can ask what a word means, and understand the response.

I hope that dad's knee gets better. Maybe get it looked at?

Casey, work on the other moves, it will really help you know how to defend them, and be able to use them and pin faster. Also, I used to be bad on bottom, but how I got better wasn't just practicing getting out, the best thing that helped me, was telling myself that no one could keep me down, and telling myself that enough, until I knew that no one could keep me down.

I'm doing great here, just please let me know if that other package is coming. Please send me Mitch's email's if you get them. And, please send the recipe for the brownies!

I love you all!

-Elder Blake Wight

Settling In

So this week I'm emailing from a different place because one of the workers at the place where we usually email from left a window open overnight and the register and some other things were frozen. Sweet huh?

Sister C. (Mission President's wife) told me that she exchanged a few emails with you. She is a great lady, I love the them.

This week we dropped our investigator A., because he wasn't keeping commitments and straight up told us he wasn't going to join our church. Bad news is we are thinking about dropping another one, D., the one that is married to the American member, we just don't want to because we are L's only contact with the church. She comes to church once a month, and we are afraid that will drop to zero if we stop coming. Questions, Questions.

About everyday here is about 10 degrees below zero Celsius, except a few days where it was pushing -20. that was freezing. one of those days this happened... (I copied and pasted from my email to my mission president)

This week our miracle was pretty cool. We headed out to go tracting at this dome we picked out. We got there and rang probably 20 domaphones and no one answered, to let us in. We went to few different подезд (kind of like a column of a building) and tried them, and still no one answered. We got on the metro because it was cold enough that it wasn't fun being outside and tried snake contacting, which we also didn't have much success with. It was time to head home so we took our metro home. As we left the metro building I saw I guy wearing a Salt Lake City Olympics jacket and told my companion. We went over and talked with him for a minute, and he told us he had stayed with the Mormons there and wondered where he could find them. We exchanged numbers, and hopefully we will be able to start teaching him soon.

Pretty cool huh? I think our investigator M. we will challenge to baptism this week. (he wasn't able to meet this last week due to holidays)

the A's family we are working on re-activating, I hope they start coming, because they are a really nice family.

Anyways, that's all for this week investigator-wise.

Yesterday we helped set up a Christmas party, and then stayed for it. I had no idea what was going on the whole time, it was really awkward. People talk at me and I just look at them and tell them it is my second week and I don't understand. Which always makes metro contacting interesting.

Two days ago me and my old companion elder M. went on a split because our companions went to a District Leadership meeting. We taught a member and visited N. I had to get us around on the metro which was kinda of crazy, but not bad, we made it everywhere we needed to go.

We got moved from conversational class at English club to beginner. Bummer.

Yeah, so that is it for this week!

Dad-please keep sending pictures, if they are too big I can just zoom out no problem.

Whats the deal with the packages from the MTC? am I going to get those? Did you even receive them? I just would like to know.

Anyways, love you all!

Elder Blake Wight

My 1st Contacts

01-01-10
Talking to you all was really nice, I loved it. So Christmas eve we had a Christmas party where we played games, ate, did some skit things and had a lot of fun. hahaha not much missionary work. Then on Christmas we talked, and then studied afterwords, so we got out late. So far I have met (I'm going to do the American version of the names, because I don't know how to change to Russian)

A., who has read the Book of Mormon 3 times in Russian and is now reading it in English, he has very good English, but he believes Jews are 100% correct except they don't accept Jesus as their savior, which is the one thing he KNOWS. I don't get it. I challenged him to not listen to anybody, but just pray about it.

M., 55 years old man, takes care of his mother, very good man, just needs help trying to see the purpose of the Book of Mormon, he accepts it as truth, but doesn't know why we need it. also knows some English.

D., all his friends are in the church, but he is just too lazy to do anything. he asks weird questions like where we "shoot" the holy ghost from, and where exactly in your body do you feel it? Weird guy, hahaha. He decided he was going to fast this last week for no reason, we tried to help him see that it is just going hungry... I'm curious to see how that goes.

Di. is a member of the church, has a funny accent, has no job, so we call him up all of the time to go on visits with us. We are re-teaching him the lessons as practice, and also we need to go over the lessons again after he was baptized.

V., was a punk kid, and one day while watching South Park, they mentioned the "Mormons." He called got a book of Mormon, read it, got baptized, and is now filling out papers to go on a mission. He was the one that gave me the "welcome to Russia shirt" with the bear. He has gauges that are healing up and like three tattoos, but he has really changed. (from what i hear)

N. An old lady that can't walk, we visit her every Sunday and Tuesday, to pass the sacrament, and to help her out with anything. on the Tuesdays she like us to take her out. She tutors English and is pretty funny lady, i really enjoy going over to her place and meeting with her.

M., member of the church, loves missionaries, we practice Russian with him a lot. not much there...

L. (American) and Di. 2 (different one, but still Russian), dated online she came over and married him, she is a member, he is not. Dimitri was born in Soviet Russia, so he has a hard time grasping religion, but he has a real desire, the only problem is that he has a million questions. We asked him to write only a few so that next time we can have a real lesson, because Q&A won't help him grow.

Well I think that's it! So far, almost all of our investigators know English, but sometimes we teach in Russian, and sometimes in English, it really just depends on them and the day. its weird.

Today, new years, there is NOBODY on t he metro, which is insane. we had to be in at 5 last night, and we were allowed to watch 3 movies. we watched HP 6, UP, and a Russian Disney film, the translation being "book of masters." which even if i understood it, I'm pretty sure was terrible.

So about my journal... days have not been very regular lately, and i just have forgotten about it. I remember later, but I don't have time. I'm planning on doing it today though.

I'll see if I can get a card reader deal so I can send pictures right away, and you don't have to wait for my cards to see some choice pictures. right now there is a guy pasted out in here, no doubt because of last night, and there is a beer can right next to him, pretty funny! don't worry, I got a picture.

I really miss all of you! But, I'm glad I am here.

из Россий с любовью
(from russia with love)

-Старейшина Блейк Уайт
-Elder Blake Wight