February 25, 2011

I decided we should call this weekly news, Triple A or Alands' Amazing Adventures because it has a nice ring to it. And though all weeks are NOT what I would term Amazing, they are certainly an adventure in one way or another.
But this week, we would like to share our top 3 teaching opportunities and they ARE amazing to us because we get to be here at this time and to experience the gospel in action with these dear elders.

Number 1. If I could have only transported you to our family room on Sunday evening as the elders taught a sister from Mongolia that our young Mongolian friends brought over, it would have warmed your heart enough to last for months of winter, as it has mine. This sweet young lady openly wept and said over and over again, I cannot deny what I feel, I cannot deny what I feel. She wants to learn more and we have another appointment here on Saturday. Friday night (tonight) she was at our ward party and said her week has gone PERFECT. She is so beautiful inside and out.

Number 2. (This IS a good one!) So Monday night we had FHE here and it was CROWDED around here, but when everyone had left, there were our Mongolian friends with his room mate, who happened to be here from Brazil. Well, while the elders were giving another lesson in the other room, John and I found ourselves needing to talk to this young man two on one. So he understood English, but couldn't talk it very much, and he has been here 4 months, so his Russian was only a little better than ours, so all of a sudden, John connects with him in (you guessed it) SPANISH. They understood each other perfectly and I can understand MOST of what they are talking about. The next thing we knew John was giving the first discussion in Spanish and the young man was VERY interested and I was just sitting there beaming and in awe. When they all left, we couldn't stop smiling - John DID need his SPANISH in RUSSIA :) Yep, Yep, Yep!! Tender Moment!

Number 3 ( This was too much for one week. . .) So, one of the families that are coming to the English Club classes have little children that I say hello to each week. So these beautiful girls, ages 11 and 8 and 5 actually wrote us an invitation to come to their home and have a party. So, of course, we did. This is a family of 7, which RARELY happens in Russia. So when we walked into their home we found that they did not have a typical home either. They have one room as a little gym and they are in a "sport school" here and spend 2-3 hours a day on gymnastics. Holy cow are they good. And they performed for us and gave us a bunch of special treats and we had a spiritual thought from the elder for them and then John prayed and it was all received VERY well. And they asked if we could find a Book of Mormon in Russian on audio, because the dad wants to listen to it as he is very busy. We love this family so much, I can't tell you how good it felt to be in their home. They want to skype with our grandkids. So we just learned that their oldest daughter (age 19) wants to be baptized next week. WOW

I could go on and on, but I will end there and ask for your prayers, along with ours, that these stories will have happy endings.
We want to do everything to make it so. Our motto is "Eternity Hangs in the Balance".

Love to you all, John & Marsha