This week was a great week:) Started off the week with a
trip to the airport to pick up an Elder who was staying with us named Elder
Nielson. He was in Irkutsk with me for a little bit. Then the next day we all
left for Korea and I had more than 5 smoothies and shakes because they don't
have those here in Artyom and I chose not to exercise any self-control:) We
were so very blessed to be able to do 3 sessions in the temple. I wasn't
expecting it and I am so grateful we had any early flight in to Korea because
that gave us plenty of time to enjoy the Temple. I learned a lot.
Yes, I did get rid of all that Korean money :) However, I still
have a ton of coins that I haven't gotten rid of because they are 10 won coins.
They aren’t worth much. If you want to
buy even a pack of gum it will cost you around 1000 won – that is about a
dollar. So basically I have a ton of
Korean pennies (if you want to look at them that way). I might just have to
keep them - they will be good souvenirs.
 |
| Lunch at Zone Conference |
We were walking down the road in Korea and I saw a piano on
the side of the street. It was painted and decorated and I am not sure why it
was there but I took the opportunity to play Hymn number 26 because it is one
of the first ones I memorized and I can play it fairly well. As I was playing a girl came up and made a video
of me playing and after I finished she walked away very quickly and we didn't
have a chance to talk to her. So if you see a video on YouTube of a young man
in a white shirt and tie and wearing a big fluffy leather jacket playing Joseph
Smith's First Prayer on a busy street corner in Korea, it is probably me.
Oh yeah, I wore my big jacket to Korea but that was a
mistake. It was a bit chilly but I would have been fine in a short sleeve
shirt, I was sweating pretty bad.  |
| More Zone Conference |
After getting back from Korea we went with Elder Hess to
take him to the bus station so that he could take a bus back to his assigned
area. We were waiting for his bus for maybe 30 or 40 minutes and while we were
waiting a man came up speaking English asking if we could help him. He was
dressed normally, it didn't seem like he was homeless or drunk, but we were a
bit hesitant. He said that he was stuck in Russia and wanted us to get in touch
with the US embassy and wanted us to help him get to America. This often
happens but normally it is a Russian asking if we can get them to America. We
started talking to him more and more trying to figure out the situation and he
said that he was born in Korea, moved to America and grew up in Southern
California. Right now he was living in Korea with his mother and came to Russia
for a small day trip to see what it was like. He ended up riding the train too
far and landed in North Korea where he was subsequently put under arrest. He
said they treated him really well in North Korea and gave him a nice play to
stay and good food to eat. They respected him but of course kept him in custody
for some time to figure out why he came to their country. After a few days they
let him go and he had been just wandering around the streets in Vlad and Artyom
looking for a place to stay when we met him. He said he wanted to go to America
but we couldn't really help with that. So we offered to let him use the church
computer to email his family and get something arranged. He emailed his mom and
then got in contact with his aunt who lives in Southern California.
 |
Within about 15 minutes he bought a plane ticket and was
very very relieved to be going home. The next morning we met up with him again
and took him to this good noodle shop near the bus stop and we all got some
tasty noodles. Then we went to the airport and sent him off. I hope he made it
all the way to California because he didn't speak Russian and had a 24 hour
lay-over in Moscow before he flew to NYC. Hopefully he made the switch and
everything is good with him. I am so grateful that we had the chance to help
him out. We even talked with him about the Restoration of the Gospel and the
Book of Mormon and gave him a copy. He was very interested and said that he
wanted to come to church in California.
On our way home from the airport we were sitting on the bus
going home and a guy got on the bus with a bunch of ski equipment. We started
talking to him and turns out he is from Calgary, Canada and we helped him get
on the right bus. He wasn't supposed to be on the one we were on. Lots of
little opportunities to serve and it is such a blessing:) I am grateful to be
here in Russia.
That is crazy that I already have a place to stay in Provo
and I am signed up for classes. It is all becoming a reality haha. I can't wait
to see Elder Riggs again, it will probably be super weird to start calling him
Nick instead of Elder Riggs. I might just call him "Фура". It means Semi-truck in
Russian but could also be translated as Big-Rig!
That is so cool that everyone is doing so well with their
studies. I am not jealous at all though haha I don't have to study anything
expect the Gospel. The most applicable subject you can study. I never
understood how learning the history of Delaware would help me in my daily life,
or when I would ever need to know how to take the integral of a function. But
the Gospel is applicable in all aspects of life and never gets boring:) I am a
lucky individual.
Our investigator hasn't been doing too hot. We haven't seen
him in over a month. He has been drunk every time we have a lesson scheduled
and we haven't been able to teach anything. Ironically the last lesson we
taught before this whole deal started was the Word of Wisdom.
I have been eating very well recently except for in Korea. I
had lots of junk food there. I got your care package full of goodies and snacks.
I have been trying to give some of the cookies away because there was plenty to
share. I know my whole district was
grateful for the Girl Scout cookies!
Yes, we now have Assistants to the President again. I think
we didn’t have them for just one transfer. They came back pretty quickly – I was
still in Irkutsk at that time. Everything is constantly changing but really
the only constant thing in this life is change! I love you all and hope you
have a successful week, whatever your idea of success might be.
Thank you for all that you do and I am grateful that I have
parents as wonderful as you :)
Elder Gardner
No comments:
Post a Comment