Be like Vlad

December 29, 2014

Hey everybody!! I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!:)  Christmas was great out here in San Francisco! Didnt feel like Christmas though with no snow.. bummer.

So we are working with someone who is investigating the church out here; his name is Vlad. Hes cool, hes from St. Petersburg Russia! Weve been meeting with Vlad one on one during the week, and hes been coming to church on sundays... except he has a really hard time getting there on time... Church starts at 9:00am, and he usually doesnt show up til 12:00... 

So, on saturday night we talked to Vlad. And make one hundred percent sure - that Vlad knew that church starts at nine, and he said he was going to be there at nine. 

Sunday. 9:00 - nothing... 10:00 - nothing.. 11:00 - nothing... 12:00 - text from Vlad "hey guys im here.."

Face Palm. Church is done and gets over at 12:00 lol

So we go upstairs and meet Vlad by the doors, and start talking to him. It just so happens tho, that the Chinese services start at 12:00, so we asked Vlad, "hey would you like to go to the Chinese sacrament?" and hes like "yeah that sounds great"

So we ended up sitting through the Chinese services with a Russian man. It was great though, because there were some other English speakers there, so they broke out the translation equipment, and we got an interpreter for the back row. 

The meeting was great! Very spiritual. I love sitting in on classes and meetings in the different language programs here in San Francisco. 

But the miracle of the day, was that Vlad sent us a text after church. And said "thank you. it was very inspirational, and gave me energy to recover... your spirituality makes miracles... I promise not to be late to meetings anymore." haha I won't quote the whole text, because there was some confidential stuff in there. In this church, we know that when we exercise faith in Jesus Christ, we receive spiritual witnesses that what were doing is something good, and when that spirit touches the heart - hearts are changed. And we want to become more like the Savior.

We haven't asked Vlad yet to give up some of the worldly things hes doing, in order to better follow Jesus Christ. But he told us on his own that he wants to stop those things, so he can draw closer to God. 

Even if you don't want to at first, we know that when we do good - we feel good. That feeling provokes a change for the good within us. Then we feel like doing more good. We have a snowball effect of goodness - and a momentum of goodness. And we want to be good. 

On the flip side. If you do bad, you feel bad, and want to be bad. If you do nothing. You feel nothing. Your agency is wasted. 

Vlad is doing good. Hes making righteous choices that are adding to his spiritual momentum. He is having a "change of heart" and is slowly becoming a "new creature in Christ"

Have a great week everyone!! Be like Vlad:)

Elder Allison