Miracles happen

Howdy Ya'll!

Greetings from Rostov-no I didn't receive a transfer (at least not yet-we find out next week). Me and Cectpa G decided to come out to Rostov (2 hour "electreechka" or electric train-type-thing ride). We want to go with Cectpa M to the zoo here-apparently it's really big and nice but it's raining today so we'll see....we might just go back to T-rog and get our shopping done. Speaking of shopping 8) um....so somehow I lost my tennis shoes....not quite sure how you do that as a missionary seeing as we NEVER wear them, but yea...not to worry-I've had them since 9th grade and they've been through 4 years of marching band so I prolly needed new ones just....well....the thing about buying things is you sorta need money. Anywho, I was wondering if maybe I could tell you how much they were and you could put the money in my account-as sort of a bday present maybe? Don't worry-I'll go cheap, go to the reenok. I really wanna get them cause it's warming up as I'm sure you know and I want to start running in the mornings.

So the work is going really well-Cectpa G is really improving at opening her mouth, contacting and helping in teaching situations. I feel like we're both really growing and learning from one another and I'm excited to be working together-hopefully we will still be together at least one more transfer.

So a 16 year old boy that we knocked into months ago is getting baptized this Sunday here in Rostov (the elders taught him) and he's pretty golden (at every church meeting, FHE, English,etc). And we found out a really cool twist to the story that I will now share with all of you:

So apparently this kid (Deema-short for Vladeek I think) has been a really good kid his whole life-never drank, smoked, etc. (a big deal at age 16 in Russia) and as a result never had any friends because everyone else did that stuff. He was a believing person and prayed for help, for something to happen because it was too hard to be alone without any friends etc. He said that he heard a voice (whether out loud or in his head I don't know) that said two people will come to you.

Well I don't know how long this was before we knocked into him but I remember this day-prolly in the first week or so of me and Cectpa G being together. We must have knocked 200 doors that day (two big apartment buildings) and I had let the rejections start to get to me. I was definitely feeling discouraged and frustrated. We knocked on Deema's door and I said my shpeel (he later told us he didn't understand me) but I told him about our English classes and gave him an invitation and we moved on.

So we were sitting on a bench just outside his podezd taking a breather before our last podezd (stairwell). He said that he heard the voice saying: you missed them (like, that was them). So he came out and started talking to us and when he learned we were from church he asked how he could join. I'm ashamed to say that the whole time I really wondered about his sincerity-it's not every day a young boy is REALLY interested in our message for religious reasons. But we invited him to church-he called us a bunch of times to double check where and when and when he came the elders befriended him and the rest is history.

It's just sooo humbling when you have experiences like this. You can see that the Lord really is directing this work. I don't think we knew exactly where we'd be this day, but the Lord knew we'd be there and knew that we could help Him answer Deema's prayer. Just goes to show that God really does know us and what we are doing-sometimes it's easy to feel isolated or feel like it's just you out here cause you only see your feeble efforts and little result but then something like this happens and then it's a BIG reality check-oh yea, I'm not alone. He's totally directing this work and it's humbling to know that in this instance He knew that he could count on us to be there. I'm realizing more and more that 90% of the time we don't' even realize that we are being instruments in His hands-but in a way it's important because if we knew exactly why we were saying something, going some where, our faith wouldn't grow half as much, wouldn't be such a big test.

Well, anywho...I love you all and hope all is well with you-you'll have to write and tell me about how Oklahoma was and seeing the kids etc.

Luv, Cectpa Richards