The Cover of the Book

So I’m sorry this Wednesday was a rough day, we were running around trying to make sure everything was going alright, plus my comp left for a visa trip so I had to figure out what I was going to do with my week, who I was going to be with, what I needed to get done etc. So yeah! I finally have some time to write a legit letter, so I hope it won’t be super boring, I know I have a tendency to blab on about things that probably aren’t very entertaining to you all but eh, I’m a missionary! My life is centered on this work.


Last week, as I told you, we took a bus up to Tomck! Which was so cool, we got in to the city around 9. Took a bus to the elders apartment it was so weird driving though the city in which I started my mission lol. I saw all the old sites and was telling Elder Rupper about all the funny experiences I had had while serving there.


We spent the night with a set of Elders who are both native and lived in the same apartment that I lived once upon a time. We got to be with them on splits for the whole next day and try to help them to work a little bit better together they were having some “difficulties”. So, we got to work with them and to get a feel for the situation. They’re both awesome elders with strong testimonies. Hopefully they’ll be doing/feeling better. We haven’t gotten any phone calls yet so all seems to be going well… I got to go and visit some of the families/investigators that I taught while I served there and it was just amazing! I got to see, Alexey, he told me about how he gained a testimony and about how he received the priesthood and is now every Sunday blessing the sacrament. All that I’ve done for the last year and a half is so worth it, when he said, “спасибо тебе” I almost started crying. “If you bring one soul unto Christ how great will be your joy “.


We ended up missing our bus to Kemerovo by 2 minutes! I tried to run down the bus driver but he gave me a mad hand gesture and kept on going. So, we had to get another bus that was going to Kemer, and there was only one left for that day. They schedule was if we took that bus they told us there was a slim chance we would be there by 11 pm, or 3 am we were willing to take that chance. So we boarded the bus and set off on an adventure! The bus took a different route that stopped in some little town in the middle of Siberia. We ended up making the right turn and made it into Kemerovo by 11 pm and all worked out pretty well. The mid way bus stop was pretty interesting. Surrounded by communist flags, nuclear power plants and rockets, it was a very interesting bus stop to say the least. It was probably a good thing they weren’t requiring passports this night... or we might not have made it out LOL. We stayed the night at a nice hotel in Kemerovo and were able to meet the incoming elders at the bus station the next morning so it all worked out all right.


We got to watch General Conference in Russian (which rocked), and Elder Scott… said the exact same thing he told me to do when he was here last summer. “Elder, go home, find a girl, and get married. Make it your first priority.” Ha he told me that in person.

After our adventures of traveling it felt very good to back in Novo, to sleep in my own как бы bed. We got back to the grind of things, working on getting next transfer figured out with who’s going be serving with who and all that fun stuff, working on Workshops, Trainings, and trying to just do everything we can in order to help others come closer to Christ. Our investigator Sergey is getting closer to his baptismal date and he’s doing great. He’s a little nervous and needs your prayers to help him make the final step. So please keep him in your prayers. Other than that nothing exciting is happening. Oh, I should let you know now probably I probably won’t be emailing you until Friday or Saturday. Tuesday we fly to Irkutsk then take a train to Ulan-Ude where we’ll be having a Training/Zone Conference with the missionaries there so yeah, just a heads up.


So this weekend is Easter. And I think I’ve told you before, seeing as how this is my second Easter in Russia, but there is an awesome tradition that they have here. On the street you meet people and you say, “Иисус Воскрес” which is Jesus is Risen. And you answer back with, “во истину воскрес “or He really is. It an awesome way to start talking to people on the street; without seeming like a creeper. Especially about the Book of Mormon, this as we read on the title page was written to convince the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ.


I’ve been thinking a lot about the whole meaning of what is written on the cover of the book that is “another Testament of Jesus Christ” and what that really means. So this morning I opened up my  (Russian Version) scriptures to the 11 Chapter of 3 Nephi when the Savior appears to the people of the Americas. And reading that chapter I couldn’t help but to think about how it would be, to hear the prophecies that and then to see the signs of his death, and then to be sitting there in complete darkness, hearing a voice, and seeing the light. Realizing that the Person you are seeing is the Savior of the world and that through him you can be healed from sin, and ailment.


Then listening to his voice and being able to come up and to look him in the eye knowing that he really is the savior of the world. It’s over whelming for me to contemplate. I love my Savior and I know he lives, and that through him we can do anything.


This Easter Sunday I invite you to read from the Gospel of Matthew 28: 1-6 and 3 Nephi 11, and to take some time to think about Jesus Christ, and what it really means that he was resurrected.

I love you all...thank you for everything you do for me and for all the support. I couldn’t do this without you! Have a great week and a wonderful Easter!


liveSTRONG
Elder Eborn!


Mom & Dad – Hey sorry, I don’t mean to be always turning to you about the money stuff, but so you know I had to take some money out to pay for a hotel room because of some complications on our trip. I love you guys!