For my second area my companion (Sister Pashina, a convert of one year from Omsk, Russia) and I were called to be the first ever sister missionaries to serve in Petrozavodsk, Russia. Petro is North East of Saint Pete 8 hours by train (yes there are actually people living more North than Saint Petersburg believe it or not!) Our assignment was to start the Relief Society and Young Women's programs and to find new members. We gathered for church my first Sunday there in a music school. There were nine people at the meeting not including the missionaries. I would later serve with Sister Ackerson. Both companions were super amazing workers and we covered a lot of ground in the 5+ months I was there. We were privileged to teach two very special families and some of the most amazing people I've ever met.
Last week I had the opportunity of going back to Petro with Derek and Wesley (age 12) to see these dear dear people I love so much. I was so nervous to see them, but being together it felt like only days had passed since we had seen each other last. Of those we taught some had moved away and others were sick or not in town. I called all the people I could and asked them to meet at the church (yes, an actual official building owned by the Church with a font, chapel and all!)
These two sweet ladies used to help us out on splits only weeks after their own baptism. When I was a missionary they were just teenagers.
When we first taught
Marina Byelova the gospel she was only 18. You can see by her million-dollar smile that she lights up a room when she comes in. How I love her!!!! She has been the Relief-Society President and is currently serving as the Young Women's president.
Age 18
Marina now
Ira Kazakova
We contacted
Irina Kazakova on the street and taught her family the discussions. After I was transferred she and her husband along with her 3 sweet children joined the church. She has been a rock in the branch and in her family.
Derek Luba Sara Katya Dima
I still remember the day we knocked on the
Timofeevy family's door. They are an amazing family! I have to share the most beautiful and romantic love story ever!!! We began to to teach them the gospel and hings were going great. Then when we taught them about the law of Chastity we could tell there was something wrong. They explained that although they had been engaged and intended to marry they learned that under communist law they would lose one of their apartments if they married. Instead they decided to commit to each other as though married and forgo the legal marriage process. 17 years later they were still together and had grown to be a beautiful family of 5 (with 2 daughters and a son). Having already committed them to baptism we were so sad to tell them that being unmarried they were actually not eligible for baptism. The only solution we could come up with was for them to get married for real. It would take effort and money, something that was scarce in those post-communist days, but they made the commitment to do it! It was pretty strange to have to commit these devoted adults to living the law of chastity until their wedding day! They chose to be married and baptized on the very same day! August 29, 1998 was one of those days you never forget!!! Dima and Luba were baptized along with their younger daughter Katya.
Because Misha and Anya were away at a Summer camp they were unable to be baptized with their parents. A few weeks later they were able to be baptized by their own Father!
Little Katya (then 10) is now 27 and served a mission in the Baltic States Mission, she is now engaged.
Misha is a Lawyer and lives outside of Petrozavodsk. He is married and has 2 kids.
Anya also served a mission and is now married and expecting her 2nd child. She lives in Moscow.
Nadezhda Petrovna Kuznitova is my precious grandma. She has endured years of trails and sadness with a husband who was always taking her money to buy alcohol. She has the purest heart. When I arrived in Petro the Elders informed me that she had asked to have her records removed from the church. I arranged a visit with her but when she didn't show up I asked the Elders to take me to her home but she wasn't there. As we walked back to the church I asked the Elders to pray that we could find her. We walked and walked and then I saw her, we had just missed each other! As we met with her she hugged me so close telling me that I had changed her life. I wondered what had happened to pull her away from the church. She told us that she was sick, old and poor and unworthy to be a member of the church from not paying tithing. The inspired Elder explained that she was still a daughter of God. I suggested that the elders could bring the sacrament to her in her home. She resisted but we convinced her to try it once. After the Elders left I listened to many stories of her difficult life and just loved her. I told her that I could feel God's love for her so strongly along with my own love for her. I wished I could just stay there forever or take her home with me so she could always be with someone who loved her. As I admired her beautiful stitch work she insisted that I take a hand-stitched pillow (one of her very few earthly possessions). I assured her that I wold love to have it but that I couldn't take it and would have very little room to take it home. She then went to a drawer, pulled out some scissors and told me to cut the pillow out. I begged her not to give it to me but she was not going to change her mind. I was fighting back the tears then as I am now remembering the tenderness of that moment.
This little pillow case as the widow's might was given with the purest love. I will always cherish it as I cherish Nadezhda. She didn't allow me to take a picture of her because she considered herself unfit to be photographed. To me she was a picture of beauty, I took a mental picture instead. She did allow me to take a picture of this old Soviet-Era photograph of her with her family. Nadezhda is on the middle row, second to the last on the right.
If God wanted me to come all the way to Russia just to see this grandma and tell her how much she is loved it was worth it!
