Monday, March 4, 2013

Birthday

Hey, so here's some good news, when I was in Novo last week that package was already there so I got it before my birthday. Thank you very much, I already opened it and have been enjoying it.

Also thank you very much for getting that apartment situation worked out. I know you put a lot of time and effort into that and to me that solution that worked out sounds perfect. Thank you so much.

Well, Elder J and I had a really tough end of the week. We were out of town for most of the week in Kemerovo and in Novosibirsk. We did the exchanges with our zone leaders in Kemerovo. And we had to travel through Novosibirsk to do so. The exchanges went well and we had a good time out there.

But we were really disappointed because in our next lesson with A he told us that he felt like he wasn't ready any more and he wanted more time to research. It turns out that his mom convinced him that he wasn't prepared enough to make that big of a decision and that he needs to study the Bible more. That part was understandable, but then it turns out that his mom has been pointing out some of the classic anti-lds verses in the bible, and kind of pointing him in that direction, so I was very disappointed to hear that, because he really respects the opinion of his mom. And unfortunately he is paying more attention to her right now than the Spirit so it is causing him to question everything that he had a testimony about. So that was really disappointing, almost even devastating that night when all that stuff came out and we had to cancel the baptism. The good news is that he is still working with us and should still be coming to stuff (although he didn't come to church this weekend.)

The assistants, Elders Blake and Johnson came out to Krasno this weekend and it was really nice having them with us the next day after we found out about A. They did a good job keeping our spirits up.

Sunday was nice because one of our other newer investigators made it out to church. He's been through a lot and is making slow progress. We are helping him get through a lot of problems. We are going to see him tonight. Other than that it is just the regular stuff I think.

It's gotten warmer and alot of the snow and ice is starting to melt so it is pretty slushy and gross out on the streets.

At district meeting we celebrated Elder Terry and my birthdays at the Noel's. It's really funny because we have the exact same birthday and last year we were both in Novo and celebrated it together at the Webb's. I actually planned an exchange with him tomorrow on our birthdays, so maybe we'll do something fun too tomorrow. I'll for sure make one of those Reese's things. Ok, that's it. Hope everyone has a good week. Thanks for emailing it's always fun to read them.

-Elder Topham 
Here is one of elder terry and I at the birthday. I have a video but it didn't send so you can see it later some time.