MEETING OUR NEW MISSION PRESIDENT !!

Pictures make life so memorable. This is our Missionary Zone Conference. Great memories, wonderful counsel and love shared by all. We are so blessed to be able to serve with these fine young men. Heavenly Father has blessed them in their diligent preparation to come to Russia to serve their missions. We are in awe at their leadership and spirituality. We agree with President Gordon B. Hinckley when he said that the future of the church is in our youth and they are so capable. The Lord indeed has Valiant Servants!!!

This is the evening that Pres. & Sis. Pratt and Elder A. left on the train from Khabarovsk. Elder A. going to the MTC. His Mom and 'Granny' are so proud of him and justly so!

July 17, 2009 President and Sister Pratt arrived in Khabarovsk, Russia! They came to our home while waiting to check into their hotel and we had the marvelous privilege of having them visit, attend missionary lessons to investigators and have lunch with us. What a delight! President and Sister Pratt are such great examples of love - Christlike love - and we were so blessed to spend a few days with them as they led us in our Zone Conference. Our Russia Vladivostok Mission has another wonderful leader. We are so blessed. Since we are only branches and saints meeting together in our mission, President Pratt is our District President also. Sunday night, July 19, 2009, we had the wonderful privilege of having Pres. Pratt set apart a missionary in our home. Евгений Геннадьевич Абубакирова was set apart to serve in the Russia Rostov Mission. This young elder represents our Khabarovsk Branch very well. He is in Utah right now at the Salt Lake Temple, Temple Square and the MTC. He will be another great missionary!!!

SPORTS NIGHT IN A PARK

Gleb rode his bike to the park one night and his mom, Lena encouraged me to take a spin. It felt really good to be on a bike again!! I normally take pics, but Elder Sartori has joined in and played Ultimate Frisbee!!! We meet a lot of new people at sports night and it has been really nice to be involved in this missionary effort also. A lot of our English Club-bers come to sports night and everyone has lots of fun. Pres. Hinckley always encouraged us to be happy in this journey of life and share this happiness and sports night is one way that we are fulfilling his counsel!!!

Now that summer is here, we have a "Sports night in a park" and invite members, investigators and friends. They play basketball, but mostly they love to play Ultimate Frisbee. This frisbee game involves a lot of people and they love it.

Hawaiian Activity

Yelena and Elder Temus enjoying fun and food. Hey you guys...did you eat too much of the PINEAPPLE?? The food was delicious and everyone had fun!!!

The group who came to have a good time...members, non-members and investigators.

Старейшина Сартори и Сестра Сартори cooking for the Khabarovsk Branch Hawaiian Activity. Good thing we made plenty!! We had 50 + people come. A spiritual program was first shared, then we played games, line danced and ate "Hawaiian Haystacks". Thanks to all the practice in Relief Society with fixing dinners and ward parties...we had a great success.

A SPECIAL FAMILY

NOTE: PLEASE START AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS GROUP OF PHOTOS AND WORK YOUR WAY TO THE TOP. SISTER SARTORI ASKED ME TO DO THIS POST, AND I DID IT UP-SIDE-DOWN. OH WELL, WE STILL LOVE RUSSIA.

Guess who made the ruble fall into the flour? This is elder Spencer. He is the ZL, here in Khabarovsk. I was really praying that the coin didn't fall when I was cutting the flour. (see, prayers really are answered)

Can you see the value of this beautiful boy and the light in his eyes? God love him so much that he sent us to bring him, with his family back unto the fold. Wow, what a great privilege it is to an insturment in the hand of God.

This is a picture of a wonder family in our branch. "The Chetvergova Family" They had been less active for quite a while. We had visited them many times to encourage them to come back to Chirst. Then one time, the spirit was just right, and we painted for them a word picture about life. We told the that life is like a river, and that we all are swimming in the river of life. We told them the river was dirty and poluted, and that bad people had put things in the river that were dirty. We also told them that we all are floating down stream in the river, and across the river is a bridge. As we float down stream we can see that Jesus Christ is standing on the bridge. He is reaching His hand down towards us and saying "Come unto to Me, and I will give you rest". We explained that in order to get the help from the Savoir, we needed to reach up and grab His hand. If we don't reach up and just float by, He quickly runs down to the next bridge and reached toward us and says again, "Come unto Me". We explained that the way we reach up to Chirst is to say our prayers, study the scriptures, and go to church. The spirit taught them that day. They showed up to church the next Sunday and have been coming every week now. The above picture is when we visited them again this week. We are playing a game with flour and a ruble coin. Each person takes a turn and with a knife and slices a portion of the flour away. The person who makes the coin fall has to get it out of the pile of flour with his nose.

THERE IS NO GREATER JOY THAN TO HELP OTHERS COME UNTO CHRIST....