February 18, 2014 Russian Mission?

Hello family!! How was your week? Mine was great! :) Missions are the greatest thing ever!! I am so happy that I am here!! Heavenly Father really knows how to make me so happy!

On to this week! So we have this apartment complex in our area that is FULL of people who are originally from Russia. Oddly, there is a member who is less-active that lives there who is NOT from Russia. We always feel weird going there because we only hear Russian. Anyway, we went there to see this member and as we were walking up to her building we hear this lady calling to us in Russian. Um, yes??? Short version of the story is that we went up to her apartment and taught her a lesson. It was a very scattered lesson, but a lesson nontheless. We were able to teach her how to say Jesus Christ in English. We taught her with pictures. It was amazing. At the end of the lesson she said she wanted to speak to missionaries that spoke Russian. We don't have Russian missionaries in our mission, but there ARE some in the Seattle mission. Actually, President Eaton's daughter is a Russian speaking missionary in the Seattle mission. Small world, right? So we were able to have the missionaries call her. I'm not sure what happened after that, but we planted a seed! :) Also, at the end of the lesson we were asking if we could say a prayer and we weren't sure if she was understanding us because she spoke and understood so little English. I realized that prayer is a universal language when she went right into a prayer in Russian. It was such a cool experience!

Also this week, we had to take our car in to be fixed. We have been smelling gas pretty strongly and we figured that probably wasn't good. lol. Since our car is still under warranty, we had to take it to the toyota dealer in Renton. It was so fancy! Sister Carlin thought it was so weird because she had never been to a car dealer before. haha...she's from a small town, what can I say? :) Anyway, we were looking for opportunities to share the gospel and when we went to pick our car up, we found that opportunity! There was a man that was wearing an "I love Jesus" hat. Sister Carlin said, "You love Jesus? We do too!" and then I asked him, "How did you come to love Jesus?" I was not expecting the answer he gave us! He said that he is a refugee from Vietnam and he came here on a ship during the war. When they were on their way here, they saw dangerous things and it was scary. They talked to God because it was what other people did. However, when he got to the refugee camp, he bunked with someone that taught him the 10 commandments. He learned the 10 commandment and recited them everyday when he would get discouraged. From that, he read the Bible and grew to love Christ. What an amazing story! We were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon right there in the middle of the service center! It was amazing! It just goes to show you that people have truly been prepared to hear the unique and amazing message of this gospel!

Exciting news of the week! One of our investigators is committed to be baptized on March 14th! We are so excited for her! The elders were teaching her daughter and she got baptized on the 9th and because of new rules, we are teaching her mother and sister now!!! It is great to see people's testimonies grow!
I know that our Heavenly Father loves us each and knows us each individually! I love Him so much! I know that as we come to know Him more, we will be happier and we will be able to live with Him once again!

Love,
Sister Keele