May 8, 2017

Dear Family and Friends, 

This week was good, like really good.  I don't think you understand, it was like really really good. Why was it so good?  It was one of the busiest weeks of my mission with missionary work.  Zone Conferences are done for the transfer, we did not have to travel with President this weekend, and we had 7 full days to do what the Lord needs us to do in our area.  This was one of the longest weeks of my mission just because it felt so packed with good activities.  We started meeting with a former investigator of 15 years whose wife is an active member of the church, and he seems ready to move past previous concerns and get baptized in the near future.  

We had several meetings come through, several meetings get cancelled at the last second, but we had backup plans and tried to just go out and talk to people if all else failed.  Every time we had a cancelled lesson, we just said "Well we're grateful that at least we have someone to care about and be disappointed that things didn't work out."  We have 4 lessons lined up already for this week for people that will be new investigators when we have our lessons with them.  To answer your question, we have one investigator who was a member referral, one meeting this week who was with a media referral, one from the sheet of former investigators, and about 15 people that we are trying to meet with and who have showed interest, that we've just meet by going out and talking to people. Not going up to people on the street, but just talking to people in transport and at stores, and a lot of people have shown personal interest and we have exchanged numbers with them.  It's helped me to strengthen my testimony of trusting the Lord so much.  He knows what he wants to get done, he really just needs us to give it our best and try to bring our will in line with his.  If we really do not know what to do we just go out and talk to people on transport and enjoy the opportunity to met people, and already several times they've shown interest in what we are doing here and have started to talk to us about religious topics.  It's also been really cool to see that talking to young people has led to a lot more success, just because a lot of them are looking into what direction they want to take in life.  The restrictions are still changing to this day, just as the law keeps getting interpreted, and yes we are still working with the members.  That last question I will need to think about some, but my approach to the work has changed working closely with President Childs.

Tomorrow is День Победы and today we get to go with President and Sister Childs to lay flowers at the statue of Mother Russia.  We will actually get to wear our tags today out in public (All the religious organizations in St. Petersburg are invited to go lay flowers).  I love the work, it's hard, and challenging, but so very rewarding.  I love the fact that living true to the Gospel of Christ helps us to want to serve more, be better, and do better, in all aspects of life.  I'm grateful for the opportunity to be a representative of Jesus Christ and serve others.  

Love, 

Elder Belnap