Sisters January 28, 2013
Dear Family and Friends,
This has been a busy week. The Visalia 1st ward has sister missionaries now. Sister Sheffer is not alone. Since they were doubled in, which means both missionaries are new to the area, we took time and went with them to meet some of the member and investigators. We remember what it was like to be new and not being able to find a grocery store. Sister Tu'ahiva (2 a Hee va) is from Tonga and Sister Baysden is from North Carolina. One of the members discovered that it had been Sister Sheffer's birthday and made brownie cupcakes to celebrate. It had been Sister Baysden's birthday also. It was a nice surprise for both.
This weekend was the baptism for Ekaterina Dobrovolskaya. She is a sweet Russian lady we have been teaching. It was very touching to see how the saints from many wards reached out to help with her learning about and conversion to the Gospel. The Price family from the 1st ward lived next to her and invited her to many ward activities. The Brown family invited her to their home and Brother Brown, who served his mission in the same part of Moscow, Russia where Kate has a home, helped to teach her in Russian and the Cook family from the 4th ward, where she lives now, is fellowshipping her. Brother Cook also helped with her lessons since he served in Siberia, speaking Russian. We enjoyed using our few words of Russian and we were also surprised how hearing the language brings back the vocabulary. It was a delightful experience.
Elder Sheffer was able to help with many blessings. It was a very special treat to help with a baby blessing of Svetlana Eastland. Svetlana means light in Russian. She was blessed Sunday. She is the daughter of one of our converts. She is adorable. We wish we could have gotten a picture of her all dressed up, but we had to leave before the meeting was over to be at another building.
As we were teaching a new member lesson to Brittany Allen she made an interesting comment. She said that her friends were telling her she had joined a cult. She said that it wasn't a cult but that in the church you are held accountable. You were expected to live a certain way and that is the Lord's way. People check on you regularly to help and support you. That was very insightful.
We had a wonderful training meeting with the ward senior missionaries. We trained on how to use the internet to teach the gospel. That is a huge part of the new youth curriculum. There is so much of the lds.org website. We were all excited about what is available to help teach everyone, even ourselves.
There are many things scheduled for next week and we are excited to share as they happen.
…men are that they might have joy. 2 Nephi 2:25. This is the scripture that Ekaterina had on her baptismal program.
God Bless You All Elder and Sister Sheffer
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