Elder Alex Bennett's Mission Blog

Apocolyptic Breakfast 4
September 25, 2011 11:39 PM

Well, thought it was the end of the world this morning when I woke up because all of the windows were super foggy and white, its gettin' colda! One of the pics that I sent is a shopka that Elder Peterson bought right before he left Tomsk, it looks like your wearing a bear on your head :) That's good to hear that you got the packages from Finland, the lady that helped me there was soooo nice and made sure that everything was good to go to America. I got an email from Pat Dagley letting me know about Clint and his report that he gave in good 'ol Newton, it you talk to them, let him know that I say "Priviet" from his "Same Lushe Dryg" (really good friend). To answer your question though, yes, everything went ok with Finland travel, I can really testify that Heavenly Father really watches over his missionaries and makes sure that they get on the right buses, planes, etc. There is a picture that I attached and it looks like I am sad, that's the day that I left Tomsk. Things are a prrrreetttyyy different flavor here in Novo. Its like taking Newton and comparing it to Salt Lake or Provo. The people here in the office are sooooo awesome though. My companion Elder Kelly is so witty and hilarious, always on his toes to come up with a funny comment. The Webbs (The office couple) are so kind and great to work with. They are new too, the McCauleys left last week so its been a big learning experience for all of us. Lately I've been working on trying to bring in everyone for Leadership conference this week, but everything has been working smoothly and I love it that President has combined the two office elders jobs that they have to do, so we are able to work on things together which is great. We also have an area and are participating in a lot of normal missionary work. We were working with an investigator named Nakita who speaks really good English and was pretty close to setting a baptismal date, but he just wont commit to one so we have him on the back burner for now, but we are hoping that he will want to continue meeting with us eventually. The Huffakers are a senior couple in Novosibirsk, they are amazing! The missionaries, members, and investigators go to their place every week for family night, which is always a great time. Every P-day we start off by grocery shopping with the Office Couple, Senior Couple, and President Gushin, he is my favorite Russian that I have ever met in my life! He is the mission driver and also 2nd counselor in the Mission Presidency. To describe him is easy, he looks exactly spot-on Mario in (looks and height) and he has the best laugh in the world, ohhhh he's so cool. I know that I am sort of jumping all over the place in my thoughts right now, sorry :) We went on a bike ride with all the missionaries last P-day, it was fun. Had dinner at the Webbs yesterday after church, roast beef, potatoes, salad, cookies, pudding, and Elder Kelly and I brought over Zucchini bread which was so delcious and was in the shape of a volcano because we didn't have a smaller pan so we re-named it Volkini Bread.... cheezy i know... but it tasted really good. After that we went to a fireside and saw a slideshow from a missionary who just got home and they asked a couple of people to bear their testimonies from the little audience of people and I was one of them. It was cool because I wasn't even nervous when she asked, as a missionary you just have to have faith and just go and do it. It turned out good, I testified that Heavenly Father will always help us and how I have seen His help every day. It can be a little frustrating when you can't speak the language very good, but the people understand you. The spirit is the common language that everybody speaks. Well I better get going, we need to do some apartment cleaning and some other jobs today, so we'll talk to ya next week! - Love Elder Bennett