Another Crazy Week!

Dear Family.

It has just been a crazy week, and it is just going to be crazier, as I count the weeks down on one hand. *GULP* The assistants came to our city in order to see how the missionaries and branch is doing towards the goal of a stake. Elders Blake and Mckay are awesome Elders, and I am glad we worked together. Elder Mckay is actually a relative of President David O. Mckay, so of course he is amazing. I wish I could see the stake being formed, but I guess that Heavenly Father has something else in store for me.

First of all, the snow is finally melting! This is a major plus for us, as now we aren't freezing outside, but the minus is all of the mud everywhere. I have also gotten a little case of the sniffles, but I feel totally fine. It think it is just from the weather. It was wonderful to look out the window and see the bright sun, because you don't really see the sun in winter until about noon.

Unfortunately, there were very few meetings that we had with our investigators this week. You can never control if people will meet with you, but you just have to make do. I wish I could say more abour our investigators, but there is really not much difference since last week.

Vladimir, we met and taught the Plan of Salvation. The only question he had is where in the Bible it says we existed before this life. There is a verse in Jeremiah that easily answered that. He is doing really well, and he loves meeting with us, and he has incredible faith. We committed him to be baptized, and he commented about the seriousness of the committment. We agreed with him, and he said he wants to make sure that it is what he wants, and that it is needed. So we committed him to pray about it, whether or not he should be baptized.

Vacili came to church, which was a major plus. We planned a meeting with him that same evening, but he got a last-minute call and he couldn't meet. His involvement with the church is a major improvement than when I first taught him my first transfers in Novokuznetsk. He has been reading the Book of Mormon, a verse a day, so I know that commitment works.

In Sacrament meeting, a member gave a talk about service, and talked about the story of the Good Samaritan. I know very well the story, but she brought a new insight I never thought about before. The Good Samaritan did indeed serve the wounded man, but he did even more. This Samaritan didn't have everything the man was in need of, so the Samaritan gave his all. But when he gave his all, he didn't leave the man, but stayed by him and took him to receive even more. It is like giving your all and THEN some. I never thought about that. We are told to give our all, but we are also told to give our all, and THEN some. How can we give more than what we have? It is through the Savior. The Savior augments all that we do. Only through Him can we change into another person.

I gave the priesthood lesson, about righteousness, and we read and discussed the qualities of Christ in Preach My Gospel. I realized that only through becoming like Christ, we can become even more. We can become who we are meant to be, and who we want to be. I have seen how this gospel changes lives, and even changes hearts.



Artyom

If you remember Artyom, We actually met him on the street before he went to visit his parents, and I saw a completely different man than before. He was smiling. His eyes actually looked brighter, and he was even dressed up for the occasion, just adding to the whole picture. See included picture. Even though we haven't been able to meet with him, He has told us that he is reading the Book of Mormon, and praying every day. He is planning to ask Sundays off from work to come to church as well. I asked him, "Do you see these things helping?" And he replied, "After I met with you, and began believing in God, then I was led to find work, and I am starting to feel better, and I feel that God is giving me new direction and opportunity. It is helping."



Does God Know Me?

I love the other pictures. The one with the words in the snow is a contacting idea, when there is a free couple seconds. The question is, "Does God know me?" one of the questions of the soul in Preach My Gospel. We put an invitation in the snow, and hope that God will lead someone to find that invitation. I haven't seen any visible efforts, but I know that God has miraculous ways to lead His children to the truth.



"Tree of Life"

The final one is my personal favorite. I remember walking down the streets, and we saw this brightly colorful tree, with the white snow all around. We saw that this tree was made of plastic, and would light up. We went back to the tree that evening, and it was beautiful. It was like the tree of life in Lehi's dream. This gospel is definetly like the tree of life. It is a light through the darkness. It is fruit that satisfies hunger and quenches thirst, spiritual hunger and thirst. I am grateful to be a missionary, and be able to lead these wonderful people to the tree of life, which is the love of God. It is definitely the most wonderful gift I have ever received, and it just even grows every time I share it. I know that this gospel is true. I have felt my soul hunger, my spirit weak with thirst, and then I turned to the Lord. I turned to the Savior. He led me to green pastures by still waters. He led me to the tree of life, and I have tasted the sweetness of this Gospel.

I love you all, and I can't wait to see you in 5 weeks. Really this has been such a short time, and the last weeks are just going to be even faster. I want to work with all my might to make the greatest difference. The gospel is true. The Book of Mormon is the word of God.

Elder Hoggan (The Siberian Messenger)

P.S.  Also, tell Adam Bell I am praying for him, and I am so proud of him. He is making the best decision ever. He will never regret the decision

Slow Week

Dear Family:
It has also been a slow week for us, as our investigators have been busy, and unable to meet with us. You can't really do anything but go out and find people to teach. Maxim's job schedule has just changed to three days working, and the next day off. Bryson, people in Russia have crazy schedules and it will drive you insane trying to set up meetings with them. We haven't been able to meet with him recently, but he still reads the Book of Mormon every day.

Dima Pavlovskyi

We have been trying to meet with Vitali as well, but he is very vague with his work schedule. We haven't met with him in over a week, and the only times we have met him are when he came to the branch, expecting to see us there. It is difficult to plan for such spontaneous meetings. He hasn't come to church yet, but he came to an activity, and Nikolai told him to get baptized. That's my guy!

We had a pretty successful activity this last week, which we hope to repeat this coming week. President Shabonov came up with the name. Нескучайний Вечер. The first word is not actually a real word. It comes from the word Скучно, which means "boring" and the word чай, which means "Tea". All in all, it means a "Not boring, tea night." We had a bunch of different varieties of tea, herbal of course, and a bunch of cookies. We invited a bunch of people, and we sat down, talked, drank tea, ate cookies, and watched the church film "Together Forever". People really enjoyed it, and it is how we found our two newest investigators.

Sansar Alxayan

Vladimir was a former contact from other missionaries, and he came to the activity. He is very knowledgeable in the Bible, but he understands that so many truths are not found in other denominations. He really enjoyed the film, and he agreed that God has a plan for all of us. We gave him a pamphlet about the Restoration, and we set up a meeting for later in the week. What a surprise when he came, along with his wife! We sat down, and were amazed at his faith in God and Jesus Christ. He has met with people of different faiths, and he felt that something was not right. He read the pamphlet that we gave him, and he believes that Joseph Smith was in fact called of God to be a prophet. He wanted so much to come to church this week, but his work made it impossible (Again with the crazy work schedules) But he has been reading the Book of Mormon and we plan to meet with him this week.

I wish I could write more, but last-minute things have come up, and we need to leave. I love you all, and I am grateful to be able to serve. I know that this church is true, and that the gospel changes people. I have seen so many people become entirely different because of the Gospel. I love you all, and see you soon.

Elder Hoggan (The Siberian Messenger)

Pres. Drachyov--Novosibirsk 2nd Branch

May we all take the necessary steps towards true conversion.

First of all, what happened to Dad? This is a major surprise to me, but I know that you just didn't want me to worry. I will be sure to include him in my prayers.  Also, I have been getting things for everyone. I have gotten gifts for every single person in this family, and I am also adding nesting dolls for each family. The things I got are pretty awesome. You will love them. It is a little daunting to buy gifts for 24 people!  Did I leave two books at home about the Russian Language? A 555 verb book and one titled Modern Russian. I just want to make sure I do have those books, so I don't end up bringing extra copies.

It has been a very reflective week, looking at principles of the Gospel in different light, and different understanding. I have repeatedly thought about what it means to be converted to the gospel. Maybe it started with a few experiences.

First of all, we had a meeting with Maxim, and we decided to talk about following the prophet. I feel the greatest way to teach this is to share a talk given by the prophet from the most recent Liahona, preferably a conference edition, and leave them to read and pray to know if the prophet is called of God. When we talked to him, we realized that he never prayed about Joseph Smith, whether or not he is a prophet of God. At the end of the lesson, we committed him to pray to know if Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and if Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today. His answer confused me. He said no. I was a little scared, because how can he progress in the Gospel without a knowledge of modern day prophets? What he said intrigued me. "I don't feel like I should pray to God, because I already know that this message is true, the Book of Mormon is true, and I feel so good when I talk to you, so it has to be true." This man, who had never heard of a modern day prophet, already had faith that he is in fact a prophet of God.

Second event, Vitali one day came to the branch building, and we happened to be close by, and went into a lesson about the Word of Wisdom. We even talked about the 10 commandments, which comes into play later in the story. Vitali has accepted the invitation to be baptized, and it was so sudden, I somewhat doubted of the surety of his decision. Baptism is such a big decision, I would think that someone would take some time to actually think about it. But when I gave the invitation, he said, "Yes." I asked some of the questions that someone would give at the interview before baptism to determine his readiness, and again I asked, "How do you know this is true?" I was probably playing the agnostic this entire time. He replied, "I feel good here, and you say you follow the 10 commandments. Thou shalt not lie...So what you are saying must be the truth. Are you lying?" Of course I replied that I was telling the truth. "Well, then it is true." Vitali trusts us to teach him the truth, and hopefully we can help him make the steps toward baptism.

A long time ago, I had an investigator Vacili. I never heard about him, but one day we saw him on the street, and we met the next day. He had many concerns in the past, such as coming to church on Sundays, (He had boxing training those days) and reading every day (He has poor eyesight without his glasses). He actually came to church this past week, and we met with him that evening. We committed him to read the Book of Mormon every day, but now a personal favorite of mine, one verse a day. He accepted, and even accepted to pray every day, to know if the Book of Mormon is true. I have realized that giving someone such a commitment (like reading a verse a day) is much more welcome than "Will you read the Book of Mormon?" It is like baby steps. If they are willing to read a verse a day, then maybe in time they can read more. I believe that one they start reading at least a verse, then it will become more interesting and they will read more on their own. It is a win-win situation.

I had read many times in the Book of Mormon, people such as Zeezrom, the Wife of King Lamoni and Helaman, son of Alma. What they said, dare I say it, concerned me. They said that they believed, according to the words which were spoken by the "missionaries". I thought that someone's testimony shouldn't be dependent on another, for that would be a weak testimony. Then I thought of my own conversion. I relied heavily on my parent's testimony of the gospel when I was young. I felt good when I read the scriptures and prayed, and I knew that I could trust my parents. That was the starting point of my conversion, and after I was baptized, received the gift of the Holy Ghost, I was on my way to my own personal conversion.

I gave the lesson in priesthood on chapter 3 of Teachings of Lorenzo Snow. This man, known as a prophet, wasn't converted before his baptism. He thought the church was good, logically, it made him feel good, so he decided to join the church. It wasn't until after he was baptized, received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, that he obtained the knowledge made perfect.  Our conversion is a life-long process, and sometimes it relies on others to help us along the way. The testimonies of my parents, priesthood leaders, teachers, and the living prophets, helped me to obtain my own conversion. Baptism was my step of faith. I didn't know everything, but I knew enough to make that covenant with God. Our journey in life is to make our faith into knowledge. I imagined the allegory of the seed in Alma, but even more. We have a whole orchard of trees, and each tree is a principle of truth. We have to grow several trees, and we even use the seeds from the fruit of other trees to widen our knowledge, until it becomes perfect.

In a way, I guess I was expecting people to already be fully converted to the gospel, even before baptism. Conversion can't come, without first being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Without that constant companionship, it would be impossible to obtain the knowledge towards conversion. God loves us so much, and He will place us on the path, so that our faith can grow until the perfect day.

I hope that I can be a tool, even with the little time I have left, to help people enter onto the path towards conversion. It is a small path, a long process, but worth it. I am still not perfectly converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but I have made some major steps towards that goal.

May we all take the necessary steps towards conversion, that every day we are a little more converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ than we were before.  I love you all, and I pray for your health and safety. Have a fantastic Valentine's Day! I LOVE YOU.

Elder Hoggan (The Siberian Messenger)

Final Visa trip to Finland = tiring!!

Dear Family,

This has been an incredibly tiring week, as I have spent the last four days on transportation from Novokuznetsk to Novosibirsk to Moscow to Finland to Moscow to Novosibirsk and back to Novokuznetsk. This has been my final trip for a new visa, and by far the most tiring.  Because of new scheduling procedures, we left Saturday for Finland, and left the same day from Finland, getting into Novosibirsk early Sunday morning. We were unable to even leave the airport for anything. The entire procedure was very uncomfortable, and I am just glad that it is over. Because of that, we were unable to meet with all of our investigators. We just got off the train from Novosibirsk about 20 minutes ago.

Sunday, even though two of the three companionships were in a different city, proved to be the most successful Sunday ever since transferring to Novokuznetsk. Six investigators came to church, including a man named Yuri, who I only know because he called us. He came to church with his wife and little child, which was a major "wow" to me. He called me that day, asking about church, and it amazed me that he even came! I guess that I need to leave the country more often. J This just shows that we are not in control of this work. Heavenly Father is in complete control, and we are just channels for him to perform his wonders. It is not our efforts, but the Holy Ghost, the power of God working through us, that miracles happen.

Talking about testimonies, this testimony meeting was very special. One woman, who was recently baptized, bore her testimony of the importance of baptism. She told how she felt the love of Jesus Christ as she went into the water, and that feeling stayed with her for many days. She told of the joy and peace she felt, and how it was a testimony to her of the truthfulness of the gospel. Then this little girl came up, and bore a powerful testimony about the power of the scriptures. She said with confidence, "I find the answers to my prayers through the scriptures." Remember, this girl is about 10 years old, and she has such a testimony of the scriptures. I was taken aback at her faith, and even my faith was strengthened by her testimony. The greatest joy was to hear these little ones bear their testimonies of the gospel. They can even teach a missionary like me about the truthfulness of the gospel. The spirit was very present during the entire meeting.

 I was fortunate to attend sacrament meeting in Novosibirsk, at the branch I last served in. It was a huge surprise to many people for us to come, but it was like coming home after a long trip. There were so many smiles, and there was a special sense of love and belonging in the room. Lena, who is a member in Novokuznetsk, was in Novosibirsk as well, and we saw her in the branch as well. She fit right in, as if she was part of the branch all along. I felt so "belonged". I felt such joy, and I remember thinking, "This is only a piece of things yet to come." In the book of Abraham, as it depicts the account of Enoch, there is a prophecy of when the faithful saints will meet one another in that great day. There will be embracings, and tears shed, and I just felt a piece of that in that church meeting. It was hard for me to leave them after the meetings. There were tears shed, but what joys will be waiting for us in the eternities!

The greatest story I saved for the last. If you remember a couple weeks back, my good friend Artyom, was someone who had gone through a lot. Since then, we had been keeping in contact. He has such little money, he is unable to call us. We can call him at least, to give him support. We had a few times met with him on the street, and walked with him, and just talked with him. We saw him off at the bus station as he went in search for work, and walked the streets to give him comfort during this difficult time. He was recently divorced, has no job, no money, and no one to turn to. He even said, "I would love to read the Book of Mormon, meet with you, and come to church, but I am constantly worried about finding a job. I am so worried, I can't think of anything else." 

On Thursday, we called and met Artyom on the street. After a minute, we found out that he hadn't eaten in two days. I nearly burst into tears, and we offered to get him something to eat, which he refused. He just wanted someone to talk to. As we were walking, I noticed a difference in him. When we first met him, his face was unshaven, his hair messy, and his eyes were dark. He wouldn't even look me in the eyes. While we were walking, I noticed that he was clean shaven, his hair was combed, and his eyes were a little brighter. He would look me in the eyes from time to time. Just from our talking and building of a friendship, I saw a change in his countenance.

After a while, we went to the branch building to warm up. We shared some tea, and some bread that the other elders had left after a recent lunch. At this point, I asked Artyom if we could share a spiritual message. After a prayer, we began to talk about prayer. I opened up 3 Nephi 1, about Nephi praying in behalf of his people who would be killed if the sign of the Savior's birth did not come. One verse says, "Raise your head and be of good cheer." I testified that Heavenly Father knew his situation, and he was waiting for the right time to bless him. Before this time, Artyom had never prayed with us, and he was unsure if God really answered prayers. We encouraged him to pray, and at the end of the lesson, he gave such a simple and lovely prayer. He thanked Heavenly Father for the day he had, for the friends the missionaries, and then he asked if He would help him find work. I have never rememberd such a heartfelt prayer in my life.

Later that night, we got a text from Artyom. We call him, and the first thing he said was, "I found work." Immediately after meeting with us, he went to a potential job offering, and they hired him on the spot, asking him to work the next day. He was so excited, almost in tears as he told us, as was I. He said that he was going to do all he can to meet and come to church, and he was going to pray every day. It was a miracle, and nothing less. I told him, "Heavenly Father loves you, as do I."

Since then, we haven't met, but I am confident we will again. It was the greatest tender mercy of the Lord I had ever seen, and I was so grateful to be a part of it. I know that Heavenly Father blesses His children, that He loves us so much. I am so grateful for these opportunities to share the gospel. I have felt the love that God has for His children, and have felt such a love for these people. I was so grateful that we were there at the right time, to be a witness for the tender mercies of the Lord.

Things don't always work out in the beginning. Artyom went to many different places to find work, with no success. We may want blessings for ourselves or for others, and they don't come. More truthfully they don't come in the way we expect. God loves us, and He has prepared opportunities for people to receive His blessings. Don't feel down that things weren't successful the first time you try with no success. All things will work out. It doesn't matter how many times you fall, just that you get up every time.

Through this experience, I have gained a greater understanding of charity. I felt so ashamed after hearing his trials, and seeing how good I had it. I felt sick for eating ice cream, while someone I loved went without food. I pray that I will have more opportunities in the future to provide relief, both spiritually and physically to those in need. We are so blessed, and I am grateful that God has given me this opportunity to see a different aspect, to grow in charity.

I love you all, and I pray for your safety. Pray for those who don't have much. Pray to be filled with charity, the Pure Love of Christ. Not only pray for it, but search to be a help to others. Don't wait for opportunities to fall in your lap, but actively search for them. There is no greater joy than to serve. True love is shown by true service. I know this to be true.

Elder Hoggan and Elder Harrison

Elder Hoggan (The Siberian Messenger)