It was a great week in Rostov-Na-Donu! Had two solid district meetings this week. We have been focusing on "Teaching in the Savior's Way" booklet from the Church, that helps us improve our teaching skills. This week we discussed asking inspired questions and then the next time we talked about how to answer difficult questions. I want to share a spiritual thought that was given last week from Elder Powell about Daily Manna from Exodus 16 in the Old Testament! Daily Manna was given to the children of Israel every day for 40 years for food so they could remember the Lord and his power. They did not have to do anything for it, it was there every day and they were given as much as was needed. Likewise, our daily manna is our daily blessings and tender mercies that are always there no matter what, sometimes we just don't recognize them or get so used to them that we don't count them as blessings. We were challenged to recognize our daily manna and since then I have recognized so many blessings! I kind of thought spiritual experiences were stopping because we are not on the streets or in lessons as much, but I just wasn't looking hard enough! I am grateful for a loving Savior and Heavenly Father who give me just enough every single day, no matter what.
We had a lot of service this week! We put in 12 hours of service as a companionship, the Rostov Zone served others for 60 hours this week and we all have goals to do even more this next week.
One of the most rewarding service projects of my life came this week at the Rostov Animal Shelter. It was a little intimidating walking in there surrounded by dogs, but the people there were so awesome. They were just in shock that they had 6 of us show up ready to work- and even more shocked that we speak Russian! We did some cleaning and unloaded some wood, that they will use to repair and build dog houses. They were so grateful for our service,they called us angels and kept thanking us. It was so rewarding to be able to help where help is really needed and to see how thankful they were! We will be helping them out about once a week!
We also did some service at a language school here in Rostov. They love just having native speakers there to talk to and it was fun to talk to some people in English! They get so excited when we show up which always makes us feel good. They help us with Russian too!
On Saturday, while on splits, we went to a hospital and served there as well. We teamed up with a group from the Russian Orthodox Church who goes out to this hospital weekly. It was a great opportunity to befriend our brothers and sisters in the Russian Orthodox Church and do some service with them! We helped feed the patients there, they also get super excited when that group goes each week!
Saturday I was on splits with Elder Bauer who is one of the Assistants. He is a great Elder and it was great to spend the day with him! We got to teach their investigator Ruslan and it felt so good to be back in a lesson, it had been a while! He will be getting baptized later this month, the Spirit was so strong in the lesson! He committed to coming to Church weekly which is a huge sacrifice for him and he gave such a powerful prayer at the end that made me tear up.
Sunday was a good one! I was unexpectedly called on to give the opening prayer which was a surprise! I was not sure if he said my name or not haha. Elder Shumway and I were called to be Primary Teachers for the 8-11 year olds which was a little bit of a surprise but we have been teaching them the past few weeks and we like it! They were a little rowdy yesterday but it is all a work in progress! After church we took the sacrament to Sister Ludmila which is always a highlight of the week. We had a spiritual thought then she had us sing and she sang for us, just the best.
It is a crazy week with people going home and transfers coming up so we have lots of volunteers coming through our apartment. Today also marked the beginning of week 3 without hot water. I have got a system down though, just gotta get right under the cold water and endure 30 seconds then all is well! One of those unique Russia experiences! Thanks for all the updates, support, love and prayers!!
Much love,
-Elder Tucker//Старейшина Таккер
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Pictures - Last nights sunset, found some Skippy Peanut Butter (makes me happy), Sweet Statue, Dessert on top of Rostov (view from the Statue).
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