Barrett's email - July 13, 2011

Ok, let's see. Another week gone by. Unbelievable. This week we did a lot of contacting. Elder Z and I have been trying to get more familiar with our area. So one day we will pick a metro stop and go check it out. Scope out the parks and streets. Look for good places to go chalk drawing. Oh - I did my first chalk draw. We only had 10 minutes, so I did a 5-minute Plan of Salvation. ...

Elder Z and I have decided to focus our efforts on the ward. We set up an appointment with the Bishop on sunday, and it went really well. It is amazing how "bishop-y" all bishops are, even here in Russia. The main purpose of our meeting was to tell him some of our plans. We want to focus our efforts each week on one of the auxiliaries, really get to know the presidencies, make ourselves known, find out if there is anyone they want us to visit. Then we plan to start taking more members out with us to meetings. and perhaps each week we will focus on one of the auxiliaries. And then eventually we set up a schedule in which the presidencies of each auxiliary will work with the missionaries each week on rotation. Sound familiar? Lucky 7 (now ministering visits) is coming to Russia! Epic. It's going to take some work, Moscow is much bigger and more spread out than placerville (for example the bishop drives an hour to church. Both his house and the church are in Moscow), but we'll make it work! Oh, and they don't have a high priests group (every high priest in the country has a leadership position), so it will have to be Lucky 6 for a while. But that's ok. The members are everything! Go ahead - call the missionaries right now and let 'em know you want to help! Miracles happen everyday, you just got to go out and find 'em.
We are teaching this one man, Alex. In our second lesson, he told us of an experience he had. He was in the metro and he had a metro pass that was going to expire that day, and he was done with it. It didn't feel right to just thow it away, it still had a couple rides on it. So he went to the line of people waiting to buy tickets and saw a woman at the back with heavy bags in each hand. He gave her the card. He thought nothing of it. She thanked him, and not even that profusely. But as he walked away, he described feeling such a feeling like he'd never felt. He felt lighter than air. He couldn't stop from smiling. And as he exited the metro he saw two young guys, in white shirts and ties, handing out flyers for a free english club. And he took one, and he's meeting with us now. I hope you can feel the spirit of his story through this computer, because it was strong. In a city such as this, the angels saw one man do a completely unnecessary act of random kindness and they rejoiced. And he felt it. He has no idea that it was a miracle, but I know it was. This gospel is true. There is no getting around it. It's everywhere! It is everything. The greatest challenge is helping people find faith. Well, they have it, it's just in themselves. To teach them obedience, in a country whose history took such advantage of the obedient. To engender humility, in a land where pride is everything.Well, I love you all Elder h