"I've never stopped the rain by complaining..."

This week Flew by.
Summer seems to be over. I'm not expecting any more hot days till next June. It's been a little cooler the last day and today is cold and rainy. Which is just a joy... I've seem to have lost my umbrella. It was a long wet walk to the library today. my companion tried to share his umbrella with me... but I’m a little taller than him so i just kept getting poked in the head, and so i gave up and let the rain fall. I've always enjoyed the rain... but i think it’s one of those joys I’ll have to regain once I’m home.
We have a big goal this month for baptisms.. and its looking less and less likely that we're going to achieve it. We've still got some chances with a couple people, so we're not giving up faith yet. We realize that many time our blessings don't come until AFTER the trial of faith, so were trying hard to keep the faith going. The easiest way is just to forget your doubts. Don't let them distract you and diminish your faith. There are many examples of this in the scriptures. In the Book of Mormon there's the account of the 2000 stripling warriors who were all preserved because they didn't doubt. Doctrine and Covenants 6:36 reads "Look unto me in every thought. Doubt not, Fear not." When Peter stepped out on the water to go unto Christ he had the faith necessary to walk on the water. Only when he let the doubts enter his mind did he begin to sink.
We've got 2 baptisms set up this week that i’s thinking are going to happen. The first one is with our cat investigator. We finally found his fear about those he knows that were baptized, and then soon after fell back into their old lifestyles and left the church. That's kinda a problem here. But not getting baptized isn't going to leave him any better off than those who later fall. It's eliminating even the opportunity to become as our Heavenly Father wants us to be.
We also found a wonderful little family of a bobooshka, her husband, and their great grand-daughter. The husband isn't ever too excited to meet with us he's "too old to change", and tells us that he won't be on the lesson. i just tell him "we'll see" and ask his 6 year old great grand-daughter to invite him in. After a few minutes they both walk in the room together and he has a smile of defeat on his face. That little 6 year old is such a great blessing to that couple. when bobooshka wanted to leave church after the first hour the little girl had a good talk with her... they ended up staying all 3 hours.
My companion and I are getting along pretty well. He's still getting used to how things work here in Russia.... it's definitely not Salt Lake City, Utah. I've been remarkably patient with him as he explains to me about the problems here in the branch like I’ve never noticed them. If he could just find a few more solutions to those problems THEN i would be impressed. It's like when our district leader (Ukrainian) rolls off D&C section 4 out of memory (we're all trying to memorize it in Russian before the area presidency visits next month). Say it in English now... THEN I’ll be impressed.
I do like them both though.
Well, i better wrap this up and head to the reenok to buy me a new umbrella.
love you!
love,
Elder Ellis