Sep 14 - Baptism in Alekseevka

This week wasn't as great as I was hoping it would be, but it's still gradually improving. President Powell and his wife came and spoke to us at our zone conference. He's the President of the Eastern European Area Presidency. They were cool and it was really good. He kind of tore into us a little at the start, but after that it was really good. President has been talking a lot about organizing a stake in Donetsk, it's definitely going to happen soon.

Harkov has a long time before that though. Pres Powell told us some shocking numbers. In the Eastern European Area, we have around 34,000 members. About 9,000 in Ukraine, about 18,000 in Russia, and there's an additional 4,000 on top of that 34,000 that we don't know where they are. But of those 34,000 members that we know of, 25,000 aren't fully active. We were shocked. He said even Elder Perry was shocked to hear that because they had just had a seminar with him and the mission presidents. They talked about a lot of stuff from that and things we need to do to move the work forward. It was really good and hopefully we can put those things into affect.

Friday was my comp's birthday party, and he had a really good idea to have a birthday party at the church with some members and investigators, so they could get to know each other and become better friends. Not everyone came that we wanted, but some did and it turned out really good. One guy came who used to come to church a lot, but we haven't been able to meet up with him, so that was great getting in contact with him again. It was fun and cool.

Saturday, this girl we found and started teaching when I was in Alekseevka was baptized, which was so cool. Her brother got baptized first and then he bore his testimony that now their job is to bring their mother into the church. It turned out really well. I spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then we got to go back to Alekseevka's sacrament meeting the next day to give her the Holy Ghost and confirm her. It was awesome, I loved going back to Alekseevka and seeing everyone again, especially Alla.