So mom, speaking of leadership, I am learning on my mission. I get to start the whole new leadership opportunity for the next half of my mission. I was kind of thinking maybe I'd become a Senior Comp somewhere in another city, but I am super excited and humbled to be in Omsk. I love this Gorod! (Russian-English for Ya!)
I am very nervous about being Zone Leader (ZL) in our mission you when you are a ZL you are responsible for the Zone so that normal missionary work can function, like passport registration, locating apartments, translating for Senior Couples, etc.. You then have to do the ministering side of it and be a Leader for the Zone which has 10 other missionaries in it, making sure everything is alright with them. On top of that you have to do your own missionary work. In short, I have a lot more on my plate than I have had in the past. I am very excited for this new opportunity to learn and grow.
It's the principle of overload, if you don't stretch yourself, you'll never know how far you can go. I'll be a Co-ZL with Elder Trunov. He is from Ukraine, it'll be my first official non-american companion, so I am hoping my Russian will just get better and better. The Maughns already tease me that I am forgetting English when I am at their house and talk. But yeah, we've already got all of the stuff taken care of and when you live out of 3 suitcases it's really not that hard to move I am in my new apartment which has a pull up bar. Score! It is more in the center of the city so I will get to learn a new area it'll be fun I am excited for this new adventure!
This last week, we did have another baptism. Sergey was baptized last Saturday and will be confirmed this Sunday. I am really excited! His wife is a member, and they are planning on going through the Temple next year. It was a beautiful service. I'd send pictures but my card reader is put away in my bag back at the apartment, so maybe another time. Well we have a problem here in Omsk that the water that fills up the font is always supper gross. ...but we figured out the solution! The more baptisms we have the cleaner the water gets! So the more people we have ready to get baptized the better it will be We, as a mission have all set new goals for the year and are ready to work hard in order to get them. We've set a goal to help 130 people get baptized, and we micro organized it into months and such to help us stay focused on what we need to do and to help us reach our potential.
It is interesting being a missionary it's a lot different than I thought it would be and I love what I am doing. As much as I do miss you all and such, but this really is going by way fast. I've already learned so much and it's just amazing the things you see. I've seen how peoples lives change as they start to do things, as they start to excercise their agency righteously and what an impact that makes on them. Just today, we were on a meeting with a family we're teaching. They're new since I am new to this area and all. They are just really engaged..... we taught them about strengthening their family. We taught them about 3 things, that would make their family become better than they've ever seen.
- Prayer. Having family prayer together every night. The mother looked at her daughter and said, "well, looks like we're going to be praying together every night".
- Reading from the Scriptures
- Attending Church Meetings.
If you want to change something and make things better, no matter what they are. Whether you want to play volleyball better, get good grades, or pass big tests or what ever. Those three things really will make the difference. Nothing like a little Heavenly Help to make things better right?
Well this next week will be full of lots of interesting things, for instance I will getting up at 4 to be a the trainstation to make sure the Sisters that are coming in to Omsk (yeah, my entire zone consists of myself, Elder Trunov, Elder Drasso, Elder Banous, and then 6 sets of Sisters, and of course the Maughns. President Trejo told me that I was being blessed. Also, I will be helping in the planning a spiritual district meeting for the Zone and all sorts of running around/errands. We're trying to find a new apartment for the orth area, and so in short this will be interesting But I love you all :) and I miss you. Thanks for all you do and for the prayers. I couldn't do this with out you! Until next week...
жив сильно,
Ст. Иборн!!
Mom & Dad - That's way cool you guys are reading together every morning..keep it up, that way when I tell my investigators my family does this, I am not lying ;) The New Testimont is awesome too, I read it last year and wow, I learned so much. You learn so much about the Savior by reading what he actually did while he lived. I love my Savior. I've started the Old Testiment, and am working on finishing Jesus The Christ before I come home in Decemeber so yeah :) Anyways, love you guys!
2 comments:
What a wonderful letter from my firstborn grandson. How I love that man. He is no longer a kid.
He is learning and teaching what really matters and makes a difference.
Love you all and always,
Grandpa Bart
We're so proud of JT. I guess all the years at scout camp have helped prepare him for the challenges he is facing. Not to meantion the lesson's he's learned from loving leaders, teachers, and family members.
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