Spiritual Adventure:

On Friday, we finished a whirlwind tour to meet the seminary and institute (S&I) teachers in three of the eastern branches in the Vladivostok Russia Mission: Sakhalinsk, Khabarovsk, and Ussuriysk.
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> The members are few in number, but great in testimony. They live in a type of wilderness by themselves, like pioneers, struggling against family and acquaintance pressure to leave the church, to not live the Commandments. These S&I teachers all live hours away from each other by bus, train, and plane, so they can't get together for inservice lessons or to support one another. The teachers we've met so far are all incredible women; very inspiring, spiritual, knowledgable, and caring scriptorians.

> We didn't really understand how we could be of help before we got here. But the importance of what we're here to do is becoming clearer every day. There is soooo much work to do!! These wonderful saints are like the handcart pioneers in that they struggle every day against adversity, and only their strong testimonies of the gospel and Jesus Christ keep them going. They love the gospel and dedicate that love and their time and love to teaching a few very special high school-age and young single adult students gospel principles and a love for the scriptures.
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> At home in Idaho, we take church attendance, fellow members, teachers, beautiful church buildings, and even the blessings of the gospel for granted. Here, those things are precious and rare, like gold dust found after sifting lots of gravel in a stream. They shine brightly. Please pray for them.

> Our calling includes visiting, instructing, and bolstering the courage of all the S&I teachers for the nine mission branches. We present firesides for students and investigators. We also hold family home evening (FHE) in our apartment for the Vladivostok youth--our home base. Earlier this week, 19 young people attended our FHE and 29 came to our fireside--members and investigators both. We pray that those numbers continue. Other branches do not have as many young people.

> Cities/branches without senior couples want so much for a senior couple to help their youth. As is true everywhere, young people are the hope of families and the hope for the strength of the church in the next generation. But here, most of our young people come from families--IF they have families--who are not members and do not support them in their testimonies of the gospel.
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> It is exciting to be involved in such a great and worthy work. We feel humbled by the task ahead, but also strengthened by knowing how much the saints here appreciate the mere fact that we were willing to come work beside them.
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> Sent from my iPhone