Dear Family and Friends,
I think it has been a few weeks since I last wrote about the goings on here in Moscow, Russia. We have had such busy days and weeks, we can hardly keep up. If you have not had the opportunity to read any of my previous letters, that is just ok, but we are grateful that you take the time to read and ponder the thoughts and happenings that have transpired here in the mission field and this part of the Lords Kingdom.
Since my last posting, the Metro bombings have past and things have quieted down and all is back to normal. As many of you may have heard, however, things here are a bit "testy" due to the recent airline crash in Russia of a Russian Airline in a Russian City, where decades ago, 10's of thousands of Polish military and others were massacred by Russians. This plane crash had about 100 on board and 90 or so were Polish dignitaries and prominent Polish citizens who were going to this memorial service of what had happened to their people so many years ago. Now their countries' leaders were dead and like I said, things are a little "testy" over here now. I know that there is not any real reason to blame the Russians, but needless to say, the Russian people are a little concerned how the government is going to handle this situation.
It seems that like the movie series "Men in Black" it's just once galactic crisis after another over here.
We have had a wonderful past few weeks. The sun is out, the place is beginning to warm up and as of the last few weeks, listed below are a few interesting and welcomed/unwelcomed sights and sounds since we have been here in Russia these past 2 months. Here is a short list.
1. We heard birds singing for the first time just a few short weeks ago.
2. Motorcycles are on the road now.
3. There are inches of dust and debris all over the roadways and sidewalks.
4. The snow is all but gone "everywhere!"
5. No more gloves or scarves needed to go outside.
6. We have gone out without our coats in the last couple of days.
7. There are more children in Russia than we have seen in the past 2 months.
8. There is actually grass and bushes in the parks.
9. I have found out where all of the Russians who smoke put their cigarette butts.
10.The sun does actually shine here in Moscow.
In the past few weeks we have had wonderful experiences meeting with investigators, members, and missionaries. As was mentioned in my last letter, we had such a wonderful experience with the number of investigators that attended church with us. We had 5 of our own and the rest of our district had 6 others. This past week (Easter Sunday) we had 3 from the previous 5 that attended and it was wonderful. For those of you who have interest, Paulina was one of them that returned. In fact, she was playing the piano for church which was a wonderful sight. Your prayers for her are so very welcomed. Another investigator that attended again was Svetlana Ivanova. This wonderful lady is an investigator from my parents in Tibilisi, Georgia. Her son was baptized about 3 years ago and apparently she wasn't too happy about it. Since that time, she apparently has been attending church in Georgia fairly regularly, even though her son has moved to the U.S. and is attending school and the Church in California. In a conversation with Dad and Mom, Dad said, "Chad, just baptize her. She attends her meetings, she loves the Church, and she knows in her heart it is true, so just get her baptized." After Easter Sunday sacrament meeting she committed to be baptized if I would be the one to baptize her. What an honor for me. So now we need to teach her "officially" the lessons. She will be baptized on the 17th of April. This Saturday we had our first lessons with her. She has a very good spirit and she is agreeable to the doctrine we teach. Now I just need to learn the baptismal prayer in Russian. YIKES!!! Thank Goodness, the Lord has kept all of his ordinance prayers short and simple!
We have another investigator that seems to be progressing nicely. His name is Alexander (keep him in your prayers too!). I won't go into his story at this point but just remember him and hopefully we will have him as a member of the Lords Church sometime soon.
Again, we want to thank all of you for your continued thoughts and prayers. We see the Lords hand firmly but gently guiding this work along. It is extremely difficult to do here. Every aspect of it is challenging. If you were to ask Elder Larry Gibbons of the Seventy, or any other church leader who has worked over here, I am confident that they would confirm it.
I would also like you all to consider praying for the "elect" to manifest themselves to the missionaries here in this area. A short story: Immediately after the bombings we were in "lock down" if you recall. Once released from that the next day, we were still under restrictions for some missionary efforts. Two things in particular were requested by the Area Presidency. 1. No wearing of Missionary Tags and 2. No contacting people on the Metro or the street. In other words we could not initiate conversations with people about the gospel. If they contacted us, we could then speak to them but we were not allowed to discuss the church or the gospel of Jesus Christ by initiating a conversation with anyone.
Normally in this mission we get 15-18 new investigators each week. During the week of the "lock-down" and No Tags or Contacting people, we obtained 24 new investigators.... It was amazing to here stories from the missionaries about people just walking up to them and asking them about the Church and the Lord's gospel with really no way of knowing them specifically as missionaries due to them not wearing their missionary tags. One Elder was on a split with a member of his branch who was in street clothes when all of the sudden a man came running, yes running up to him pleading for the missionary give him a Liahona! The Elder didn't have one but gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon instead. Apparently this man had been introduced to the church in some other place and had a few copies of the Liahona given to him in the past. This elder was shocked that this man could pick him out of a crowd of people as a lone missionary that might have a Lianhona in his possession. (Landon, this was Elder Morgan's experience. He is one of the Assistants to the President right now).
So with that said... please pray for the Lord's elect to make themselves known to the missionaries by approaching them in some way.
Thanks so very much for all you do to further this work and help build the Lord's Kingdom.
I am going to try and have some additional pictures placed on our blog (chadandbethanypackard.blogspot.com). Sorry that we haven't updated it in a while. We have taken quite a few more pictures and some of you are wanting to see them. If you are not a friend on facebook, become one and you can see many, if not most of them there as well.
We love you all and thank you again for all you do.
Love,
Elder and Sister Packard
