Hello

Hello! I'm glad to hear that everyone had a good week and that you all are safe. Here's a rundown of the week. On Tuesday we had some good service at the sauna where the grandma lives. We put up wallpaper on two walls, so we only have one wall left. Man, I'm going to be glad when that is over. It's fun to serve, but I enjoy the fluids staying in my body and so yeah. We had a district meeting before that, it was good. We talked about prayer and that inspired me to try and improve my prayers. I picked up a liahona to read that night, and whadda you know, one of the first articles was about improving personal prayers. So that was really great. That night we had a lesson with a family in our branch. They have been members for over 15 years but still have attitude problems, Ever since the husband stopped paying his tithing and got released as the Elders Quorum President, they feel like the new guy is super duper bad. He's better, I would say (the new guy). Anyways, they were hunting for a reason to get offended and stop coming to church. We tried our best to watch our step, and we did a good job. I just feel like sometimes for those people, they NEED someone to just tell them how it is. But, we were told not to by the Branch President. That was an interesting lesson. On Wednesday, my companion slept and I did some calling and organizing the area book. Boring day. Thursday was good, we had our weekly planning session and it was long and painful, in a good way. We got some good progress made, and I helped my companion to set some goals, and I set some for myself. It was good. We had english that night, only one guy showed up and he had to leave early. So that was no fun. On Friday we went to the dacha where we usually do service, and I got lots of bites and nettle stings. We had a lesson with one of our investigators fall through, then he called us and we agreed that we would call each other the next day. So on Saturday we called, and he didn't answer all day. Bummer. We had russian practice that morning. It was fun. It was a russian holiday for war people, and my companion is scared of drunks, so we didn't go outside too much that day. We did go and help a member clean the church. That was fun, the guy we were with was really quiet and a goof. It was fun to be with him. On Sunday we had a great fast and testimony meeting, there was a member there who served a mission in Sacramento and has since gone less active. He hasn't been to church my whole time here, and I only saw him once at a party. He got up first and bore his testimony and it was pretty powerful. Hopefully he's making some changes in his lifestyle and getting ready to return to activity. That was great to see.

I read part of Matthew this week, and I really like in chapter 26 verse 10 when it says that Jesus understood, then responded. That's a good pattern that we need to follow in our lives. We need to first listen to what is being said, and listen until the end of the statement, before we respond or try to change what was said. I tried that out this week and it was great for me. It really does work, there's just a better feeling when there is understanding. 

Love you all! You rock,

Andrew