Missionary Service of Elder Benjamin Moore: 6 Month Mark, Thanksgiving, Olympic Torch

Happy December from Siberia!

This last week was a good one, lots of fun stuff. It was Thanksgiving! As everyone in America well knows. Our district of 8 missionaries here in Tomsk did the best with what we had. We had Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment and we pulled it off really well seeing as we don't have an oven. I made a pot roast in the crockpot, The others brought pie, mashed potatoes, a pumpkin soup, rolls, salad and there was even some homemade egg nog. So probably the best meal I've had on my mission so far! Elder Bergmann and I were left with leftovers to last us the next three days.

It's already December! This year has seemed to go by really fast. In 3 days, on the 5th of December, I'll hit my 6 month mark on my mission. Already a quarter of the way through. I sometimes still feel like I'm new, or haven't been out that long. I've been in Tomsk for just about 4 months.

This morning, Sister Gibbons, our Mission president's wife, texted us all a recipe for homemade hot chocolate mix. So when we went weekly shopping, we picked up the things for that! When we get home tonight, we'll make it! Knowing Sister Gibbons, It will probably be really good. I sure could go for a big container of good old Swiss Miss. The kind with the Marshmallows.

This last week, as far as the work is concerned, has been a lot of active and less active member work. We're trying to get the ward more involved in the missionary work. Get them more excited about becoming a Stake here, and to unify the members with the missionaries.

We had an experience this week with a member in a humble apartment that made me realize how much little things like a lesson on repentance or prayer can mean to someone. I haven't seen as much "success" here as someone in Brazil, but I have still seen miracles. This is the Lord's work. He uses his missionaries carefully

We taught a woman about repentance through Jesus Christ, about the role of prayer and scripture study in helping overcome addictions. How it's through Jesus Christ that she will be able to overcome an addiction to tobacco. She asked us for a blessing and I gave my first blessing in Russian. It was a really cool experience.

Another cool thing that happened was last night. December 1st. We left the apartment at 6 like usual and planned on tracting some apartment buildings. One building we ended up going into, 9 stories tall, we got into! By got into, I mean we buzzed peoples apartment buzzers until someone opened the door. We started at the top and worked our way down. With 4 or 5 apartments on every floor, that's about 45 doors. After 3 floors of nothing but getting yelled at through the doors, or having the doors slammed while they told us to get lost, we knocked on one and this 27 year old guy answered. We gave him a Restoration pamphlet, told him some other things and that was that. Nothing the rest of the building. We left the apartment happily because of that 1 door out of 45 who answered and gave us the time of day.

After that we were making out way towards our apartment with about 45 minutes left. We noticed people...lots of people all going the same way. Obviously something was going on. We decided to follow them. Turns out that the OLYMPIC TORCH went through Tomsk yesterday! The parade ended about a 5-minute walk from our apartment. Lots of people, lots of fireworks. So that was pretty cool, unexpectedly saw the Olympic torch. Sochi 2014...go RUSSIA!

That's about all of the exciting stuff that happened this week. I hope you all have a great December, only a few more weeks in 2013.

Miss you all,

Elder Benjamin Moore

Pictures!