If you can believe it - last post

Get cooking!

It’s surreal to be at the end of my mission. I am looking forward to this week. I will go to Novocherkassk and show Elder Clement around while saying goodbye to some of the members there. Other than that, it will be a normal week.

I want to sum up a few of the feelings that I have had towards the end of my mission which correlate with something that happened this week, though the beginning of this story happened last January when I was on splits with Elder Golvenkov on his first day in the mission.

I was on splits with Elder Golvenkov and his new trainer Elder Foote. I was with them until my trainee arrived the next day. We spent a day together and one of the lessons we taught was with brother Kuznitsov. He had been inactive for several years and had not shown up once to church in that period of time. We had a great lesson with him. He agreed with everything we said, but at the end of the lesson when we invited him to church, he said he could not make it. I think maybe I was used to things like that happening, but the disappointment Elder Golvenkov felt was almost palpable. They continued to work with brother Kuznitsov in the following months without success, and eventually missionaries stopped teaching him.

Went to have FHE with 2
less actives. One shows up
with an orange cut it half.
Tells her to open it. Ring
inside. I'm getting some
good proposal ideas!

Just a few weeks ago, we started working with brother Kuznitsov again, and his brother too! We set a baptismal date with his brother, but he has shown little progress. We taught a lesson with his brother on Tuesday and realized, after the lesson, that what we were doing was not working. If we wanted to help him we needed to do something else. So, we set up a lesson with Brother Kusnitsov on Saturday. During that lesson, we just listened to him and asked him how we are going to help his brother. Then we asked how he was going to help his brother. Brother Kuznitsov decided it was time to start being an example to his family and go to church the following day. We picked him up for church and drove together to the branch. Brother Kuznitsov came to church for the first time to church in years and he loved it. We watched Conference together and then he went home while we went to Center to see a baptism. When the baptism was over, I checked my phone and there was 4 missed calls from Brother Kuznitsov. We called him back and he was just so anxious to watch Conference and he wanted to know where online he could watch it.

A prayer scepter, maybe?
Not sure.

The reason I wanted to share this story is because it explains some of the greatest lessons I have learned on the mission.

Because of the atonement of Jesus Christ, we can always have hope. That hope was hard to remember my first couple of transfers in cold Red Army when I spent all day on the streets looking for someone that would be interested in hearing the gospel. It was not a lesson I had learned then but something I know now. We can always have hope. It is a decision we make every morning when we wake up. The life of Jesus Christ and his teachings is the ultimate source of hope that we can draw from. I am so grateful for my mission and how much I have seen the atonement work in my life and the lives of others. I have truly been shown what the Savior can make out of people if they will just have a seed of faith. I know that through our faith we all can be saved. If we will just make a step towards the Savior he will always do His part.

When I try to explain my feelings at the end of my mission the only words I can find are that I am just thankful. I am thankful for my mission president and his wife, my family, my companions, Russia, Russian, Russians, the mission. Everything. I have loved my mission.

Elder Weston

p.s. I am praying for grandpa. Tell him I love him. Also, I got letters in the mail from you guys and from grandma. So fun! Love you.

Bought this bottle of tabasco sauce 2 years ago.
Just enough left for one taco night. We are
saving this for you, Tanner.