Samara - Week 22 - "Oh man, Christmas was wonderful!"

Four beautiful "Sisters in Zion" Russia

December 29, 2015

All is well!

Oh man, Christmas was wonderful :) It was so good to see that everyone is actually still in fact alive. I do have to say that talking to my brothers in Russian what pretty interesting... and Tanner I do have to admit that yes, your accent was pretty awful ;) Somehow you need to keep up with your Russian! You once had that perfected! Now watch, I'll get home from my mission and get swept up in life and forget it all too. You can never judge a person until you are in their exact sitation (AKA someone who is living the life that will lead to the life of a billionaire) I can't image how busy you are. 

Sister Wilson & Sister Martinez

After skyping with everyone, we sat down for a moment with the member that we were with, Sv... We were definitely meant to be at her house that day ... to be with her. She is 52 years old, and her one desire is to be married only so that she can talk to somebody about the gospel at any time that she wants to. She has had a HARD life, full of abuse and neglect, being thrown down out the door and down stairs by former husband. Being blamed for the death of someone. Having children leave the church... going on a "mini-mission" only a few days after she had a stroke... she's tried to take her own life a few times while she was young and people always came to her rescue. Once as she was about to walk out into the middle of the road in front of a car, a woman took her by the hand and jerked her off the road. I mean honestly the things this woman has been through has been truly awful. She just sat and told us that we need to focus on finding young people so we can help them know how to deal with these sorrows and pains earlier than later in life. By the end of her venting all of us were crying and my dear companion suggested that we get down on our knees and pray. Oh Sv, she just sobbed and sobbed and begged her Heavenly Father for help and comfort but thanked him for the Plan of Salvation. What would we do without that knowledge? The atonement will make everything okay. Everything that isn't okay in this life will be made fair in the next life. What a blessing to know that relief will one day come. Sv helped me to see that missionary work really IS the most important thing that we can do in our lives, helping people to know that they don't need to suffer. Because we have a Redeemer who has already suffered all. THAT is the message to the world, that truly peace and joy can in fact be found in this life. 

Sometimes I look at this mission life and I wish there was a veil. Can you imagine how homesick we would get for our heavenly home without the veil? Why can't we see God, or remember Him? First of all that wouldn't be faith, and second of all, It think that our hearts would break from homesickness! However, I do have to admit that when I was done skyping you, it gave me a lot of gratitude that I am here in Russia, I love you SO MUCH. But I am learning so so much here, and I am definitely not ready to be home yet :) I still have so much to learn. I gotta build my own firm foundation before I can come back. And wow has that foundation been built, it's just being forified now. 

We had zone conference this week as well on the 26th and it was just perfect. It was 10 hours of a spiritual FEAST. I have never felt so satisfied spiritually! I am all regenerated and ready to work my tail off this year. Also Sister Schwab made Christmas dinner and it was soooo goood. Mom, I was so stuffed. I promised myself I would't do it, but I haven't had a homemade meal in so long. I couldn't help myself :) I love the Schwabs so much. They will be a part of my life forever, I am certain of that. They are the perfect example of a happily married couple as well. I want a good humble husband like president Schwab. He's probably the most humble man I know. 

I am just choosing to be happy. I am choosing to see the little miracles and then RUN with it. When I see something small, for example on Christmas Eve I was actually feeling like someone was holding me back, my desire to work was small. But nonetheless I did have a desire. We approached 3 women and 2 of them took Books of Mormon, that little miracle sparked our hearts and we decided to run back home and give out 10 copies of the Book of Mormon that day, I have heard of missionaries doing that and just thinking, "That is IMPOSSIBLE! How can you do that?!" Well that's just it, we can't! God softens people's hearts and we gave out 13 Books of Mormon. It built my testimony that we display a desire and then act upon that desire (AKA faith) and then God gives us a little miracle, and the small miracles lead to BIG miracles! 

I can't wait for the new year. This will pretty much be my year to give to God. I will be back before Christmas, but looking back on this past year I am just blown away at how fast it went by... this year will likewise fly by. I am SO EXCITED and ANXIOUS to see what this year has to give :) And what I can't wait to give my all to Russia for the sake of my Heavenly Father and his only begotten son.

Merry Christmas to you all. 

Love you :)

Sister Brooklyn Wilson 

Sister Wilson mentioned that "the Atonement will make everything okay". What did she mean by that?  * Find out more about the Atonement HERE

Samara - Week Three "I've doomed myself..."

August 11, 2014

All is well,

Although.... sometimes I feel that I have doomed myself for taking Russian in college. I know that definitely upped my chances for going to Russia. Sometimes I feel like I am getting it... and other times I feel so discouraged. The most frustrating part of this language is 1. not being able to UNDERSTAND people. and 2. not being able to express yourself freely. I can't believe that 100s of missionary, even 1000s of missionaries have and CAN do this. It is absolutely NECESSARY but also absolutely CRAZY. What is it like trying to talk to a Russian about religion....? The Orthodox church is part of their life, they grew up with it, their parents... their grandparents, their great great great great grandparents, it is a part of them. Preaching the gospel in Russia is comparable to Jehovah's Witnesses trying to preach the gospel in Utah, where everyone is Mormon. Haha it's so hard! We really have to look for "the elect" I never really thought about that until I got here. The elect are those who are truly LOOKING for a meaningful religion, who need change, who need help and realize it. All this people need help (seriously) but not many of them actually realize it. Know what's cool though? Our president has spoken to us about how important it is to talk to literally everyone, because it doesn't matter WHAT you say to the elect, if you open your mouth to them they will listen. Because they are ready. Where these people are? I have no idea! That's why it's so important to rely on the spirit in this work because only He knows where they are.

It's so interesting how things change from week to week. My mood took a weird turn a couple days this week and I feel that I regressed a little. In the moment of trials and weaknesses, they seem so unbearable to overcome, I feel at times so weighed down! There is something I need to remember: THEY ALWAYS PASS. They will always pass, I think that God just wants to see not IF we can endure our trials, but HOW we endure them. And know what else? Every time I pray to have more faith and more strength, I seem to get it, every time. It may not be MY TIMING, but it still comes!

I will explain just a little bit about our current investigators. We've been pretty busy with lessons actually. First of all... there is K., (yes that's a man's name in Russia). He is a genius of the Bible and is a Baptist. He also ... speaks 100 MPH. What's his goal in life? To perfect himself, WOW. This week we had quite the lesson with him. He wanted to know 3 things: Our relationship with Christ, What we think about the bible, and more about the plan of salvation. After he got that information he told us: Wonderful. I now understand that you have a strong belief in Christ, I understand that you do not believe the Bible is perfect (the bible is his baby so he didn't love that, we didn't even mean to bring it up!), and the Plan of Salvation... there are holes every where in it's theory. I wanted to shake him!!! Don't you get it people?! It's not about the information! OF COURSE IT SOUNDS CRAZY. If I weren't Mormon I would think it's crazy too! But it's not about where it makes sense or not, if there are "holes in its theory" It's the way that you FEEL, that will tell you if this is true. What other church tells you to ask GOD? We are asking these people to go straight to the source itself! So... Unfortunately just GIVING this information isn't very helpful.

 Did you know that teaching the gospel without the spirit is actually not the gospel? It's just information. Here's where we made our mistake with K. You can't just GIVE people information, you have to build in them a desire to find out for themselves. Not because just anyone tells them, but because it is from God. K will meet with us one more time tomorrow. We've been working on this lesson all week to make sure it goes perfectly. The spirit is going to have to be there, or we won't be able to teach at all:)

Praying for miracles every day? We're doing it! And here's one from this week :) Okay... so on Friday I was in theeee worst mood. Why? The natural man was taking me over with hunger! (literally) It's such a weakness of mine to become onry when I am hungry. We were about to get on the bus and I knew that I was going to have to open my mouth and talk to people, regardless of how I was feeling. These people are so interesting. I've heard it at least 30 times that they are like a watermelon, or like an orange... they have this hard shell on the outside, they literally look so scary to talk to! But as soon as you smile at them and ask how they are doing they light up and smile right back at you. I sat down and smiled at the woman beside me, and what do you know? She smiled back:) We started into a friendly conversation... at least as far as we could talk with my level of understanding. As she was about to get off the bus she reached into her bag and pulled out a few apples. I was so thrilled! She gave me the apples and I gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet.

Want to know more about what Brooklyn shared in return for an apple?
LOOK HERE

Oh what a little tender mercy! (although I feel it was quite an unfair trade... fruit of eternal life vs.... fruit). However, it was just a testimony to me that God knows us all so well. He knows what's good for us. Although we may not want to do things, he can see the benefits from obedience, but we are left in the dark until we act. I want to make a challenge to anyone who reads this to think to yourself: why not trust him? Trust him who knows everything. Trust him who loves you with a perfect love. Trust him who is always waiting for you, he wants YOU! No matter how lost you feel you are, he is ALWAYS with his lost sheep, you just need to turn around to see that he is there. He always will be there.

Give yourself to God, give up your will. After all, what can you make of yourself without him? You can make of yourself a man. Give yourself to Him and he will make of you a god.

Love,

Sister Wilson

Mosiah 3:19  For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.