The Beginning of The End...

Well, looks like this is my last full week on my mission! Weird. This place I've come to love and it will be hard to leave all my new friends, but I'm definitely excited to come home and see all my loved ones that I have been away from for so long... Maybe that is how God feels when someone dies... No wonder sometimes missionaries use the slang that you die and leave your mission life. ha ha.

Can you get a copy of Jayden's talk from Aunt Traci? I'd like to read it. He'll do great on his mission, and he'll never regret going!  Good Luck to Jayden!

We had a nice and fun dinner with Roma on Saturday. He's a good cook and a great friend! He made this mushroom stroganoff stuff and chicken, and I realized that I didn't really learn how to cook on my mission.... just forgot what good food tastes like! ha ha

 I don't even know what other souvenirs to get here. ha ha. Well, actually I can think of a couple. Maybe Cody and I can get some lunch in JFK terminal  too? I'll see Code-man before you all! ha ha ha!

Don't worry, I wear my hat, Mom. I just took it off for the pictures that Roma took as my hat comes down over my eyes almost, and you can't really see my face if I wear it sometimes. We had fun throwing snowballs!

Well, this week we met with our investigator who has the daughter who claims to see spirits, and we used what you advised us to say to him and really tried to invite the Spirit. It helped a lot and we testified that we know that he can find out for himself. He was in agreement for the most part, but didn't think that anyone could see God the Father Himself, only Jesus Christ, and he was reluctant to pray about it for himself. He wants to find out from his daughter, and we testified the rest of the meeting about how God is our Heavenly Father and we all are His Children and have the opportunity to talk with Him in prayer and receive answers from Him. He said he would pray for himself, and would also come to sacrament meeting.

We had a great meeting with another investigator talking about the Plan of Salvation and he asked many great questions, especially about repentance and baptism. He also promised to come to church. Met with less actives and had them share their testimonies with us and talked about what a testimony is and what baptism testified of. They also said they would come to church. We called everyone the night before and reminded them to come. We offered to stop by and help and they all said they could make it there themselves... But no one came to church... I think that is the hardest thing to get people to do in Russia, and espeically here in Petrozavodsk. I don't know what we could be doing differently... We'll continue to try to improve to see more success. It still goes back to what  President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "Just do the best you can do and celebrate the good that you were able to accomplish."

Well, I've got to write a letter to President and want to say a quick "See Ya Soon" to Codes! 


I'll write one more time, and see you in a week and a half! Love you all! Can't wait to see you! You're all in my prayers!
Love,
Blake