Ok for all of you that think being on a mission is for the BIRDS you're right. I had this congregation eating out of my hand and I was just giving them crumbs. Just think what it would have been like had it been a feast!
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| Spreading the gospel to some local birds |
Now as promised last week I'm going to introduce you to the Cупep Kонтік (Super Contiek) which is a chocolate covered cookie that can be used as a straw to suck milk through.
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| step one find opening in chocolate cookie |
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| Step two bite a small hole opposite side of hole pictured above |
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| Get a full glass of cold milk and suck hard |
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| After sufficient sucking bite into the mushy goodness Only in the Ukraine!!! This is a missionary treat! |
"The Stump"
It was a rewarding day for we turned that old stump over and loosed it’s hold on old mother earth. What that tree took over a hundred years to put down into the ground we dug and cut off in four or five trips. In the scheme of things it is but a small time but in our life Satan has had many more than a hundred years to put down the roots of sin into this world. He has a tight grasp on the world and would convince all of us that his grasp is far too great for us to over come. But it only takes a small amount of time and hard work then we can cut off the roots of sin that hold us down. We are all in God’s garden. We are placed here so that we can work and progress. We too must strive to over come the roots of sin that bind us down to the world and Satan’s temptations.
After the cutting and tipping over of the stump this day we came upon another challenge. That of getting the severed stump out of a hole that is almost 5 feet deep. We struggled for a couple of hours and made some progress but we were unable to complete the task as quickly as we wanted. That is the way of sin. It is difficult even after we sever our sin from our life. We must not think that all is done. It takes time and effort for us to completely rid our life of the stump of sin. We must struggle and exert ourselves to move the sin out of our life. Much like the old stump, that is still in that hole, we will need to continue to struggle until we can completely remove it and then, after the struggle is over, we will have a clear garden that we can continue to cultivate and nurture until we have the crop that will bring us happiness. A sin Free life.
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| The stump must weigh close to 1/2 a ton |
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| We are rocking the stump back and forth and when it is tipped one direction we fill the dirt in under it and then tip it back the other way It is a slow process but no heavy equipment just strong backs. |
So if you can't tell already the parable is not over yet so stay tuned for the next installment of "The Stump".
On Thursday we traveled up to Kyiv for a mission conference Elder Hallstrom of the Presidency of the 70 was there along with Elder Bennett of the Area 70. He discussed the importance of being a consecrated missionary and challenged each of us to look inside ourselves and see what is holding us back from being that consecrated missionary. I know that I have many things to work on. Each of us, if we are on a mission or at home, are still missionaries. We need to look at our lives and decide what is holding us back from being the type of consecrated missionary that can bless peoples lives. It does not take a lot of change, just a willingness to share the most important thing in your life. We don't want to meet friends in Heaven and have them ask "why didn't you share this with me? I thought we were friends!"
It was a wonderful conference and after it was over we headed to the train station for the ride back to Vinnistya. This is the train we traveled on and as you can see it is very nice.
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| This is the express train from Kyiv |
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| I wish airplane seating was this nice! |
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| This is the type of feast we get at the farm. This is rice plov. The greens were picked just before lunch. They were the best! |
Love you all Elder and Sister Mikkelsen
PS our baby was two months old yesterday.
