Week 43 - June 29, 2020

Hello hello!!

Another great week here in the vineyard.  I even got a crazy story for you all that just happened yesterday!  Such a fat miracle, we will get to that. 

This week Elder Olsen and I went on a nice big walk around part of our area!  It was the first time I had seen this part of our area, and it totally felt like I was in a whole 'nother country!  Just a different vibe.  I don't know exactly why, but it was so sick!  

We went and saw a huge temple they had over there, and that was way cool.

Then we saw this castle-looking building.  We went over to check it out!!  We get there and it looked closed, so we ask this Bob walking by, "Do you know when this is open?"  She just ignored us and kept walking on, so I said, "Thank you, have a great day!" Later we found out that the castle was actually a hospital tho, so that's awk 😂.  

But our sad experience with the Bob turned around when the cutest Grandpa stopped us on the street.  He was wearing rolled up jeans and a button-up with this cute tie, and was picking his nose right before he stopped us.  He asked us if we were natives and we said no, we were from America.  And he asked where we learned Russian, and we told him, "Just on the streets!"  Then he said to us, "Great job, I wish you success!"  SOOOOO CUTE haha. For sure, made up for the Bob rejection.

 

Playground equipment for children.

This week, I decided to start reading, "Saints."  Well... more like "read" Saints.  I turned the audio book on times 2.4 speed and BOOKed it (pun intended).  Next thing you know, 3 days later I'm 3/4ths of the way done with the book!  Definitely some interesting stuff in there.  Gonna finish it tomorrow I think!!  Woo!  Then off to "Saints 2" and "Jesus the Christ!"  Bless up to audio book.  (To learn more about this fascinating church history book, click on the link below.)  

Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days

(For everyone who has the "Library" icon on your phone, you can find the first two volumes under "Restoration and Church History."  In this way, you can read this book anytime you have a few minutes.  You will learn so much about the early years of the church and definitely be humbled by the true events those early Saints went through.) 

This week we had some great lessons!!  We have moved Владислав baptism date to until he can join an in-person church service, and we'll continue to meet, discuss, and teach him!  We have had one of our amazing church members join us on all of our lessons recently.  His name is Игорь (Egor).  It is seriously so amazing having him in the calls.  Not only does he shed light with great wisdom during the lessons, but always comes in clutch when we don't understand something.  It's hard to understand Владислав sometimes, especially 'cuz recently the connection on his phone has been terrible!  He will start talking and it'll be super clear, and then all the sudden sounds like a little quiet mouse is speaking.  It's the weirdest thing ever and honestly frustrating sometimes.  But it's okay!!  He's patient, and so are we!!  All works out.  #nicetrysatan #youthought lol. He continues to join church service as one of us connects to Zoom on one phone, and then have him connect through a call on the other phone.  The thing I love most about teaching him is his prayers at the end of the lesson.  They are all so sincere, it makes me so happy every time. 

NOW THE MIRACLE.  Oh my gosh this was so crazy.  Alright y'all, so get this... imagine urself as a missionary, and it's Sunday night, and you just finished some dinner.  And then... BOOM.  Some random person just calls you and says he agrees with everything your church teaches and that he has read the Book of Mormon and that he wants to help the church.  CRAZY RIGHT?!  WELL, THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!  And yes, I wrote, "Help the church," cuz that's how he said it lol.  I was confused by it when he said it like that, and wanted to make sure I wasn't letting my Russian confuse me, so I asked him, "By help, do you mean join??" And he said yes!  And then I was still in shock, so I checked AGAIN and was like... "By join, do you mean you want to be baptized??"  And he said... yes!!  AND STILL I WAS SHOOK AND WANTED TO MAKE SURE I WASN'T CONFUSING ANYTHING, SO I ASKED AGAIN.  "So you want to he baptized?!"  AND HE CONFIRMED WITH YES AGAIN. AHHHH.  So we will be meeting with him on Tuesday, just to kinda see what exactly he knows, and possibly even figure out a date for him to be baptized!  Seriously such an unexpected miracle. 

Well, that is all for the week.  I hope you enjoy the pictures and the stories.  Things are great here!! 

Much love to you all!

Elder Wilde

Week 42 - June 22, 2020

Yo waddup, all y'all!! 

Hope y'all's жизни are going great right now!!  If you make it to the end of the email, then props to you.

Transfer calls come this week!  And to everybody's shock, almost nobody got transferred... that was a big curve ball to say the least lol.  But all is well, the grind keeps up. 

Fun week here in the vineyard!  Y'all 'bouta be mind blown. Legit experienced the conjuring this week.  Well... at least where they may have filmed the conjuring lol.  Or where the next Conjuring movie is gonna be based off of after something happens to us next time we visit the scene... 

Alright, so rewind with me.  Sinks been broken for a week and a half now, and we finally got someone to come over and fix it.  Our boy Сергей (Sergei), our homie, the G.O.A.T. comes over and whips our the wrench (fun fact, wrench and key are the same word in Russian.  Say, pass the "клюсб." You don't know if you're about to get a face full of wrench or key.  We like to keep it spicy). 

Anyways, so he whips our the wrench and goes to work. 

Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned cuz some of our pipes are so old and broken, that he couldn't shut off the water to just our in house pipes.  It be chillin' tho. 

He calls up a worker responsible for our building, and the guy "casually" shuts off the water to the whole building to fix our problem.  Never see that go down in America without complaints.  Love it.  So in short, the guy shuts off the water to the building, we get the go ahead to start replacing the pipes, and the guy down under the building assumes my boi Сергей has finished the job, so he then turns back on the water, and we start getting our floor flooded lol.  Сергей got all speedy with the wrench and got the pipes back on quickly. He went Luigi on it ;) however.  Since he had to act fast, we didn't get the stabilizing part on for the faucet.  However, we have running water again!  It was so funny seeing how he spoke so sarcastically to the guy in Russian for turning on the water too early lol.  But, now we just got to get our landlord to fix two other things with the sink.  If he ever answers... (also, Sergei is going to be the photo with the man holding the sink. love that guy).

Anyways, so the conjuring part came when Сергей told us we had to see the underground of our apartment building! (He went down there with the guy working with the pipes once and came back up and described it as "exotic" lol).  So, Elder Olsen and I took a trip down, and holy wow it was cool!! Pitch black, webs everywhere, creepy steps and vibes, probably rats, and dead stuff, I'd assume.  Just peep the pictures.  I wish we could get the video to work, but if you wanna see the video you can message me for it haha. Anyways, yeah, super cool to see the way these old Soviet-style buildings are made!!  The guy's workspace was also way cool.  Fun experiences for sure!!

Anyways, that was just a fun little adventure. 

Владислав (Vladislav) finally has his hands on a Book of Mormon!!  Very exciting stuff right there.  We gave him so big reading assignments that we are going to talk about with him next time we meet!!  Unfortunately, we are going to have to push his baptismal date back a little further, cuz our mission president thinks it would be wise he first attends an in-person church meeting, really getting a chance to meet the members and everything, before he gets baptized.  I think that is wise, and I for sure agree.  We will continue to work with him and keep him on the path!  I'm so excited for him to start reading more from the Book of Mormon and am sure it is going to strengthen his testimony and desire to be a disciple of Christ. 

More big news!! АНДРЕЙ (ANDREA) PRAYED!  We have been doing 50-50 lessons with Andrea (a half English lesson, half church), for maybe about a month and a half, and have watched him slowly change during each and every lesson.  It is literally the most beautiful and amazing miracle ever.  At first, prayer was not in the question.  It was just a no.  We would ask him at the end of each lesson, "We would like to end with a prayer.  Would you like to offer that prayer?"  We faced many no's and he insisted we offered that prayer. UNTIL THIS WEEK!!!  AHHHH HE SAID YES AND OFFERED A BEAUTIFUL PRAYER.  What a miracle.  There are still many steps to take, but things are moving step by step, just as faith moved step by step.  Such a blessing, such a miracle.  Not to mention that he has gone above and beyond with reading the Book of Mormon.  He legit reads way more then we were expecting, even when saying, "I may not have time, I am very busy this week," (which he is with school and work actually) BUT HE HAS BEEN SO GOOD ABOUT READING AND LEGIT JUST HAS READ WAY MORE THAN WE THOUGHT HE WOULD.  So amazing to see such progress and change of heart.  Yes, very slowly it has come, but it does not deny that fact, that is has truly come.  Same goes for Сергей.  Man do I love teaching Андрей and Сергей.  They are just so fun to talk to, so funny, and it is just so amazing to me and such an honor and gift to watch them slowly have a change of heart as we have continued to talk. 

Now, to wrap up...

John 5:

19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth.

Fathers, Happy Father's Day (as well as an extra happy birthday to my dad!😘).  You are our examples.  We watch what you do, and follow in your footsteps.  We look up to you. Never forget that.  You are key instruments in which we build fundamental connections of what our Heavenly Father is like. Honor, ponder, and cherish that, as well as show gratitude, and be the best you can for that.  Jesus learned from his father, and so do we.  I am so grateful for a father who has given me some of the most perfect footsteps to learn from, and follow suit in.  Thank you for everything, Dad.  You are truly a gift, love you ❤!

All my love,

Elder Wilde

Weeks 40 and 41 - June 15, 2020

Yo, waddup братишки  

I hope everything порядке with yall!  Big stuff be happening here in the outskirts of Ukraine!  Let me shed some свет (light).  

First things first, our sink still isn't working.  

Our landlord isn't too keen on finding someone to fix it, and it has already been a week, so we took matters into our own hands and found someone within a day!!  Funny enough, it's even someone we are teaching!  He should be coming by to fix it. Woo!  I really realized how much I took having sinks for granted until this point lol.  We had to wash the even more old-fashioned way lol.  Bless up fellas.  

Although, our bathroom water also came out as the equivalence of pretty much dirt this week, too lol.  Luckily, I checked the water before I actually jumped in the shower though.  It was literally browner then I have ever seen.  Took a good 20 min or so to drain that out. 

It has, also, been getting way hot here.  This week was between mid 80's and 90's and pretty dang humid, so I be dripping in sweat recently.  It only took us a couple days to realize that we had a huge air conditioner in the corner of the room!!  Although one end spits out hot air and the other cool air, and the hot air will gradually take over the cool air.  Not really sure who came up with such a design... the heat has helped me get the extra sweat in though when I do my workouts, so I'll take that plus from it 😁😂.  

Also, Elder Olsen and I talked a fat burger.  Was way good. 

Some more, even bigger news!  We have someone on baptism date!  His name is Владислав (Vladislav)!  I have never once met him in person, nor seen his face, cuz 1. He is living in the countryside right now, far from Sumy.  And 2. He only has a super old phone so we can't do video calls with him, just voice.  It has been SO awesome meeting with him though.  We have been debating on presenting the invitation to baptism for a while now, and it's been scary because I have never done it before.  I have heard companions do it, but I had never said the words myself.  However, the moment came, and the Spirit was prompting towards the question, so I led with a soft invitation, which at first wasn't understood lol. Then I was like in my head, "Nope!  We're full sending," and gave him the straight up invitation with the date and everything, AND HE SAID YES!! AHHHH!!  It's seriously such a blessing and miracle.  He doesn't even have a Book of Mormon in his hands yet!!  (We have been trying to send him one, but it has been difficult trying to figure out where to send it in his circumstances, but we're about to get one off to him.) We have had him join our branch (ward) church services through Zoom, (one of us turns on Zoom, and the other has him on speaker through the other phone), and he has loved it.  He feels good when he attends and he feels good when he prays.  We explained he feels that way because it's the Spirit testifying of truth to him.  His prayers with us are beautiful, and it's clear that he is sincerely searching for the truth.  We ask that you keep Владислав in your prayers especially at this time!! 

The work moves forward everyone!

Старейшина Вайлд (Elder Wilde)

Pics of the Week

Zoom Video Call to Family and Friends - Thursday, June 11, 2020

 Elder Wilde gave a wonderful heart-felt message to about 20 family members staying at his parent's home in Danville, California, as well as other family members and friends in many different areas through Zoom.  Also, on the call were grandparents in Salt Lake City, Utah, grandparents in Richland, Washington, and his cousin, Sister Copeland in Frisco, Texas, who is leaving within the week for her mission to Idaho Pocatello Mission.  

Week 38 and 39 - June 1, 2020

Hello hello hello!!

I hope you are all doing amazing!!  We have had a GREAT last two weeks!!  I'm just gonna throw out some fun things for this week's letter haha, I hope y'all enjoy!))

So, we are teaching this FANTASTIC couple, oh my gosh!  I love them so much.  And so this couple doesn't really believe there is a God at all, especially the wife, and believe more that God is a psychological thing, made up in our minds but not really real.  Anyway, she went off and then at the end said, "I'm going to make you guys STOP believing in 10 days," and then I responded, "Okay, you do that, and we will make you START believing in 10 days!"  It was funny!  We were all laughing.  Gosh, they are so fun to teach haha.

I got my first Ukrainian haircut today!!  I had actually been procrastinating that one ever since my grandpa had his haircut incident in Moscow that didn't turn out well!!  He about scared me half to death to face this moment!!  

 My Gpa George's first Russian haircut.

However, it honestly turned out well, I was impressed!!  

The funny thing is though that I had to explain to the lady how to cut my hair, and usually in English when I get my hair cut I would say, "Yeah, I just want a clean up."  You know, just a little cleaned up all around??  So, I didn't really know how to translate that thought cuz I never get haircuts, so I put it into Google translate and said what showed, and they started laughing and saying that was bad to say lol.  Then I realized what I had said 😂.  Pretty much I was saying I want to like, wash myself, which was just weird in those circumstances 😂.

I started doing these 21 minute at home workout things and oh my gosh, holy crap they are a grind.  Legit after the first two, I couldn't walk for the next three days.  But hey, no pain no gain, right?!  I can't let the mission body get to me as much as it already has.  No way man.  I'll attach the day one workout, and honestly I invite you all to give it a shot.  It is seriously a grind 😂.  I'll attach a pic of me breaking a sweat. 

Also, I had my first shawarma from Sumy this week!!  That was a story right there too 😂.  

So this guy totally knows the missionaries 'cuz they always get shawarma from him, so I start ordering from him and he is just a hoot 😂.  And he pretty much asks me, "You guys are still here?!?!  Why haven't you left?!!?"  And I'm like, "It's still safe and fine here!!"  And he says, "Do you believe in the corona virus??" And I'm like, "Yes?..." and he says, "I don't!  There is no virus. You want to know what the virus is??"  And I was like, "What do you mean there is no virus??"  Explain what you think there is then? 😂.  And he says, "Girls!!  Girls are the Corona virus, I tell you!!"  And just kept joking about that. 😂 (Girls, I do not believe you are the virus, you are all amazing😂). 

I am going to wrap up with that haha.  I hope y'all got a few good laughs!  Love you all tons and hope you are all safe. You're in my prayers!!

Elder Wilde

More Pics of the Week