New senior couple...Elder and Sister Bryson! Overlooking Vladivostok Bay and the brand new bridge built for the upcoming APEC Summit.
Typical missionary apartment. See blogpost for details.
Serving in Sakhalin... Elders Malmsten and Shannon
Elders Bean and Daw
Elders Clark and Owens
Branch Mission Council
First row: Brothers Noble and Lymar; Pres. and Sister Brinton. Second row: Elders Patterson, Owens, Shannon, Brother Letyagen, Elders Malmsten, Collinsworth,
Clark, Bean, Daw, and Brother Igor
Elders looking (longingly) at some delicious desserts! We are focusing on
healthy eating.
On August 29, Elder and Sister Bryson, our new senior couple from Boise, Idaho, arrived. After three attempts to meet them at the airport (we were given incorrect information each time), we finally met up with their plane which was 6 hours late due to a hurricane near South Korea. We are delighted to have them in our mission, where they will serve in Irkutsk (Siberia). They have done a previous mission in Hong Kong and come to our mission with energy, great experience, and strong testimonies. We are so grateful for their desire to serve here in the Russia Vladivostok Mission. They will be such a blessing to the missionaries and branch members as well.
On Friday, August 30, we traveled to Sakhalin Island. Little did we realize the wonderful surprise that would await us. The number who attended Sacrament meeting broke all records, AND there were NINE new investigators who came. Our wonderful elders, Owens, Clark, Shannon, Malmsten, Bean, and Daw are working very hard to bring people unto Christ. Pres. Brinton and the assistants, Elders Collinsworth and Patterson, did splits with the missionary companionships. There is so much great potential for the branch to grow here. We commend the wonderful people of the Sakhalin Branch and our missionaries for their faith, diligence, and hard work. We have told our missionaries there is no substitute for hard work...just work hard.
We are pleased to announce that five new sister missionaries who will report to our mission on November 14, entered the MTC this past Wednesday. We are thrilled to have our sister missionary totals brought to 14 which means we can have one companionship in each of the seven cities we are working in. The sisters bring a wonderful dynamic to the missionary work here, and in particular focus on women and families so that the elders can focus on finding future Melchizedek priesthood holders. We currently have 7 sister missionaries serving in our mission (a threesome in Irkutsk), with the remaining seven arriving Nov. 14 and Dec. 18.
We have also requested 5 more senior couples (our complement of senior couples was increased per our request) so that we will have one senior couple in each of the cities of our mission. The senior couples won't arrive here as quickly as we would like, but we will be grateful for each couple when they do come. Only 3% of mission couples who apply to serve qualify to serve in Russia (from a medical care standpoint). In other words, every couple who comes to our mission, needs to be very healthy and not require access to top flight medical care. What a great blessing these couples will be as many of our missionaries are so far away from the mission headquarters!
We have also requested 5 more senior couples (our complement of senior couples was increased per our request) so that we will have one senior couple in each of the cities of our mission. The senior couples won't arrive here as quickly as we would like, but we will be grateful for each couple when they do come. Only 3% of mission couples who apply to serve qualify to serve in Russia (from a medical care standpoint). In other words, every couple who comes to our mission, needs to be very healthy and not require access to top flight medical care. What a great blessing these couples will be as many of our missionaries are so far away from the mission headquarters!
The picture (above) is typical of a missionary apartment in our mission. One of the first things we wanted to do was "upgrade" the living situation for each missionary companionship. We have purchased brand new mattresses and bed frames from IKEA in Novosibirsk for 6 of the 7 cities. Most of them arrived on the TransSiberian Railroad!! We have received big "thank yous" from several of the missionaries already for this improvement. We figured that if they spend 1/3 of their lives here in the mission field sleeping, then they shouldn't have to "camp-out", have coils poking into their backs or sleep on severely-stained mattresses. We appreciate the church backing us in this request. We are also focusing on eating healthy, exercising every day (except Sunday), and following the PMG missionary schedule.
How grateful we are to have the privilege of serving with such wonderful young men and women. They are all so choice and we love them dearly!
With love,
Greg and Sally Brinton
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