Fun mission call

At 4:00 a.m. on Thursday morning in St. Petersburg, Russia, we skyped with our older son and watched his 2nd son open his mission call to Fukuoka, Japan, in the midst of family and friends. It was 6:00 p.m. in Ceder Hills, Utah. This picture is one that Brad or Geri took of us on their table. Diane said it is just like that old tv show of The Adams Family where they had 'Thing' who lived in a black box on the table.

This was the climax of an exciting week for us. Our missionaries here were excited to know that we were expecting to hear about our grandson's call. So on Monday at our district missionary meeting the eight of us gave guesses and we wrote them on our white board in the institute classroom. At the top it said, "Where is Kyle going?" That night at home evening two of our district elders were there and so they got the fifteen people there to make guesses also and those names were added. We ended up with twenty-two guesses. Two of them were for Japan, my guess and the Russian zone leader, Elder Zubkov. It was quite a fun week to anticipate and we have had several follow-ups from Russians on facebook wanting to know where the call is. We have grown quite close to our Russian friends and they always want to know all about what is happening to our family.

Last night we had an nice visit with Galea. She is a Russian investigator who is really interested in us and our family and how families are so important in the Gospel. She was raised Muslim but has a belief in God. She was met by the sisters street contacting and has been coming for lessons with them. But she speaks good English and loves to come and talk with us. Since getting to know her, we have found that her attitude has changed quite a bit and can tell that she is being touched by the spirit. Her idea of wanting to improve her English language has changed to her wanting to know more about the Gospel and to understand it more. We showed her the movie "Emma" and she loved it and understood it. She came last Tuesday and watched the "Legacy" with us and felt the spirit. Now she wants to see "Emma" again and then we will watch the "Work and the Glory" series with her. She wants to find a guy who will treat her like she observes in our church. I feel she is going to progress to eventually be baptized and sure hope it happens while we are still here.

We have come to an end of the institute year and classes have finished. We have two weeks now before we begin our summer classes. This summer we will have home evening on Monday, "Words of the Living Prophets" on Tuesday nights, and "Principles of Leadership" on Wednesday nights. We will still be at the institute from Monday thru Friday from 4-9, and it will be a place for the missionaries to teach lessons all that time. It is hard to think of where they used to teach before they had this building available to them. It is rewarding to us to have the knowledge that we have made a big difference in the programs of the youth here in St. Petersburg.

Last week we experienced summer at its best. Warm days and nights beginning to get shorter and shorter as the sun stays up longer. People out in all their summer clothes and complaining about the heat. But this week it turned cool (60's and 50's) and has been raining just to remind us that we are in St. Petersburg. Surprising how nice weather affects our outlook.

We had a special zone conference this week and Elder Sweitzer and his wife, counselor in the Europe East Area Presidency, were there to talk to us. They are both great motivators and, IT WAS IN ENGLISH.

Saturday I had the privilege of baptizing a cute young lady. She has been taught by a couple of sisters, usually at our institute building. So we have visited with her there each time. When they asked her who she would like to baptize her she asked for me to do it. So that was fun. Her name is Alyona Alexandrovna Bakolova. I have been practicing it all week because I always tend to put the emphasis on the wrong syllable.

Next week Brad and family are coming to visit us! Now, that's going to be a fun week!!!

Louis