Reflections of a Returning Sister Missionary...Lindsey Brinton.

Saying goodbye to dear friends was a hard thing for me.

On Thursday, May 16, I left beautiful Sweden after completing my mission. I have left part of my heart there. It was very, very hard to say goodbye. I love Sweden. I love the Swedish people. They are among the choicest people on the earth. It was a privilege for me to serve the Lord in the homeland of some of my ancestors.

I flew to Moscow, then flew through the night to Khabarovsk, Russia, where I met my parents. My father and mother are serving as Mission President/Wife in the Russia Vladivostok mission. Dad was in Khabarovsk on assignment, so I met them there. It was my birthday, so it was a great day for me to be reunited with them.

While Dad had mission responsibilities, my Mom took me to a birthday lunch.

One of the hardest things for me was to be released (over the phone) by my wonderful Stake President, Jim Richards. But within minutes, my parents produced a "Сестра Бринтон" missionary name tag, and I was immediately called as a "Short Term Missionary" in the Russia Vladivostok mission.

The past 2 1/2 weeks in Russia have been nothing short of amazing. I have shared my testimony with Russian people on several occasions, most notably in four piano concerts: Vladivostok, May 18; Nakhodka, May 25; Irkutsk, June 1; and Ulan-Ude, June 3. Each of those events was so special. The Russian people love classical music. They also loved hearing about the gospel that was intertwined in between pieces. The best thing of all was performing with my Mom and my sister, Stephanie. Stephanie arrived for the Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude concerts. So the first two were just with my Mom and the last two were with the three of us.

In Ulan-Ude, the concert was held at Philharmonic Hall to a capacity audience. It is an elegant, Soviet-era concert hall with two beautiful concert grand pianos (one a Steinway Concert Grand!!). The people were so responsive and warm. My mother played a Chopin Scherzo to open the concert and immediately a woman from the audience walked up to her as she was bowing and gave her a big bouquet of roses! Subsequently I played and then Stephanie. Likewise, people presented us with flowers after pieces they particularly liked. By the end of the concert, we were happily loaded down with bouquets of flowers. The nicest thing they gave us though was a "standing ovation" at the end of the concert. We had been told that Russians usually don't do that, so we were very surprised to see them stand.

Most notably, we were able to share the gospel on stage with them. Just before I played "Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief", I told the audience about  the Restoration of the Gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith, and that he really loved that particular hymn. My mother told about how important our big family is to us (they applauded when she told the audience she had been married for 37 years and had 7 children and 15 grandchildren...you could hear an audible gasp!) and that families can be together forever.

After Stephanie and Mom gave an exciting performance of "Rhapsody in Blue", Mom and I played "My Heavenly Father Loves Me", an arrangement for one piano, four hands. The words to that beautiful primary hymn were written in Russian on the back of the program. I told the audience that as a gift for their coming to the concert, I had a Book of Mormon for them in the lobby with my testimony/picture on the inside front cover. People afterwards lined-up to get their copy of the Book of Mormon. Best of all, the missionaries had 161 people who chose to write their names and phone numbers to be contacted for a free piano CD of Mom's playing. The missionaries are revved-up, ready to go with 161 contacts waiting!

Elder Patterson (translator); my sister, Stephanie; the director of Philharmonic Hall; myself, Mom and Dad. (The director invited us to come back again to perform. He commented how he wished their regular season concerts could attract as big of a crowd as ours did :) 

We are grateful we had this amazing opportunity to share the gospel through music and the spoken word.

After taking the overnight train (Trans-Siberian Railroad) back to Irkutsk, we boarded a middle of the night flight to Moscow, to NYC, and then back home to Salt Lake City. I would never trade those 18+ months for anything serving the Lord. What sweet, precious memories I have! It was hard saying goodbye to my parents who I won't see for a while, but I can tell you that they are doing a terrific job in Russia. These concerts have brought the church to a higher level of visibility in each of those cities and great things are happening in their mission.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. The Savior is our Redeemer. God is our loving Heavenly Father and cares about each of us.

Thank you for your love and support!

Love,

Syster (Сестра) Brinton