Monday, April 28, 2014

The Chicago of Russia

Happy P-Day everyone!

This week was a fast one. We taught English as usual on Tuesday night. We texted a ton of people about it and only about 12 showed up. So we're working on getting those numbers up! English is a huge finding tool in our mission. 

The Assistants were in Omsk this week and we went on exchanges with them. I was with Elder Madsen who was my district leader way back in August for my first transfer in the field. So it was fun to be with him again. The weather was really nice and we got a lot of contacts. We contacted this old man who was outside his home putting some stale bread out for the stray dogs. We started to talk to him and ended up leaving him with a Book of Mormon. He insisted on giving both Elder Madsen and I a big ol' kiss on the cheek. We just had to let it happen. 

Lisa, who we met in Novosibirsk, emailed Sister Taylor that came back to Omsk last P-Day. So it sounds like she has made a lot of friends really quickly that will help her progress quickly! 

On Tuesday we helped the Dispain couple check out of the hotel and meet up with the Walkers before heading over the airport to fly back down to Kazakhstan. It was fun to help them out. Elder Dispain had served his mission in Switzerland so we had some fun talking about that for a little while. 

I had my first Mormon.org referral this week!...and only the second one that I've heard of on my mission. (The last one got baptized!) Pavol Aksyonov has had some experiences in his life that led him to Mormon.org and he requested to have missionaries meet with him! We met with him with Sister Roza who is one of the first members baptized here in Omsk and has helped 25 people come into the church! She's a legit Babushka. So we met with Pavol and he is really excited about learning more. He loved Sister Roza and was excited about reading the Book of Mormon and meeting again! So I'll keep you posted on him. 

Saturday and Sunday was our District Conference. Equal to Stake Conference back home. President Bennitt from the Europe East Area presidency was in Novosibirsk for the conference and spoke a lot. The talks were all focused on the Stake, the blessings of becoming a Stake, the how of becoming a Stake and what the Members' role is. The conference was done through Skype and the connection was pretty bad.

President Gushin is one of the Area Seventy. He is also the driver for the mission. So the missionaries get to interact with him a lot. He is over Armenia and goes down there all the time. If you go look back to the pictures from when Elder Bergmann went home, you'll see us in a picture with him in front of the mission van. 

The Priesthood session of District conference was Saturday at 3. When we got there a bit before three, it was super windy. It was a workout just to walk to the branch. Dirt and garbage were flying everywhere. We got to the branch and found a 35x25 foot section of roof sheet metal that was blown off of our building's roof. It collapsed onto the ground, landing right in front of the entrance. The edge of it landed on the hood of a little red car, and a pole about 5 feet long and a half an inch thick had managed to spear through the center of the windshield of the car and go into the driver's seat. If someone had been sitting there, it would have gone right through their stomach below the ribs. The inside of the branch is fine. Hopefully it doesn't lead to water damage. Here's some pictures! 


Hope you all have a great week! 

Much love, 

Elder Moore

 The Dispane couple
 English lessons!
 A big war memorial on the Left Bank of Omsk.

 Those last ones were Russian Orthodox statues and a temple.


 These are from the big memorial garden. 


 Elder Madsen and I
 The roof of the branch building that got blown off

 Pole stuck in the windshield.





They don't call it the Chicago of Russia for nothing.

Hope you all have a good, safe week!

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