Two Letters and a Terry Update

Guest House in Sweden above
I tried without success to post our Elders letters on Monday due to the holiday and travel plans it didn't work out. So, here are this weeks letters and some photo's of our Elder in Sweden this week. Please pray that Russia will allow him to go back into the country. I hear that now all elders who (Swedish Temple Above)return are given even shorter visa's and must leave every 70 days now. I'm posting Elder Matthew Otis's letter first and then Elder Jason Otis's second. Enjoy!

"Hey Family,

Well, sorry I didn't write you guys yesterday, we kind of crashed after our flight over here. Then in the evening we had a fire side, so we didn't get our emailing done. And I'm pretty tired right now so I'll just write you a quick note, I can write periodically through the week, so I'm not in a big hurry. Well, I just want to say that this place is amazing. We are staying in the guest home, at least I think that's what it's called, and it is really nice. I'm sleeping on a good bed for the first time in....7 months and have access to washing machines, and dryers. But besides that, it's beautiful here. Sweden is a pretty amazing place. We won't be going out into the city until Monday, but the flight in and the train ride was great. Today we did service in the morning, I went around with a big gas powered leaf blower blowing leaves. Then we were in the temple until 5, I did two endowment sessions, the second one they did it in Russian for us missionaries. It was a pretty neat experience. It's really great going back to the temple after not having been to a session in over a year and a half, it was really refreshing.

So I'd like to tell you whats been going on over here for us missionaries. I guess there is a group here from Samara who has been here for almost three weeks, there has been problems getting visas renewed here and we don't exactly know whats going to happen. We are waiting on word from Moscow, and until then we are all stuck here. But it's not like it's bad here or anything, it's wonderful being here, but it's taking a lot away from our missions having so many missionaries here in Sweden. But, maybe this is all meant to be. We are getting so much temple work done. I guess after the Finland temple was built, this temple lost half of it's attendance, and having us missionaries here brought it back up to where it was, so the temple workers just love us. The Swedish people are so nice, most everyone can speak understandable English, so it's easy to get around. It's so weird leaving Russia and seeing how much better other countries are. Most of the times it's just little things that you take for granted, like customer service and drinkable tap water, but it just feels so much different here. Don't really know how to describe it, but there is a tangible difference. But we are just hoping we will be able to get back there quickly, so pray for us to get back into the game. I really wouldn't like to go to another country for the rest of my mission.

I'm glad that dad's surgery went well, glad to hear that he's doing good. Well, I'm just trying to soak up knowledge while I'm here, I won't have another opportunity like this for rest of my life I don't think. We get to regularly talk with the temple president in the temple and ask him any questions we have about the temple or just about anything. This is a great place, and I'm going to try and enjoy every minute of it.

Love,

Matt

Next is Elder Jason Otis's letter from Los Angeles.

"Heya!

I didn't write yesterday cuz it was Columbus day and all the libraries were closed. So that's my excuse, not sure about Matt. I don't think they have Columbus day in Russia ; )
You know, it's really funny how many people keep asking me how my dad is. It's nice to know that people love me! Heehaw. I think for all the people that are praying for dad, God would just heal him to get us to be quiet! HA! You're well taken care of Dad!
So other people mentioned that I bore my testimony? Must've been Elder Moake huh ; ) He's a good guy. Definitely one of the better missionaries here in L.A. It's still really funny to me that you have so many connections mom. If I ever poke fun at you for it just know that I'm actually quite impressed with you. You've done a lot of good for people in the last couple of years and I know the Lord is blessing you now for it. Dad too of course! Our whole family is experiencing the blessings that come from faithful service to the Lord. "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God". You have been serving God by serving others. That's what the Gospel is all about.
Things are heating up around here with the election coming up. Also things are pretty tense about the whole "Proposition 8" thing. That's the bill that will define marriage as between a man and a woman in the California constitution. All the members of the church here have been doing phone calls and knocking doors and handing out signs to support the proposition along with a coalition of other religions. The quorum of the 12 just gave all of California a fireside via satellite asking everyone to give at least 4 hours of work to this effort every week until the vote happens. By far our church has done more for this proposition than anyone else which is really cool. I wish I could help in some way but us missionaries are to stay out of it. In light of the present economy and the election and proposition 8 it seems like California is ripe for the 2nd Coming. ; ) Of course we know that's not going to happen quite yet but the scene is rather intense around here. And it's only going to get worse. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I will never live in California!!
Today I'm on "splits" with Elder Romrell here in Malibu. He's a greenie from Idaho Falls and is an awesome missionary. It's one of my duties as a district leader to go on "splits" once a transfer with every Elder in my district. While doing so I observe the missionary and give feedback at the end of the day. It's always a fun experience. Today we're going to do some tracting up in the Palisades near Malibu. I love driving around in the hills! We also have dinner Scheduled with Rick Schroder finally. He just got back into town from wherever he was filming some movie. I also got to meet Micheal Mclean and his wife at church this Sunday. He's been in Utah at his other home in Ogden for the summer. It's definitely interesting serving in this area.
Anyway I just thought I'd give you some random facts about life recently. I'm having a good time and I'm glad everything is going well over there. By the way mom, did you mean 10,000 dollars or 100,000 dollars in regards to the insurance. You wrote 100,000 and that kinda boggled my mind. That would be a lot of money ; )
Give my regards to everybody! The last email I wrote I sent to everybody who's email address I had.
Just to let you know, I WILL NOT BE TRUNKY TILL THE DAY I SET FOOT ON THAT AIRPLANE! That's a fact! ; ) I may think of home but I just don't get homesick. I think this whole email thing helps with that a lot. That and the fact that I'm still in a fairly familiar place. Life is good as it always is.
I love you all! Ryan I keep meaning to send you a letter that I wrote a while ago. You'll get it eventually. Hunter I'm about to send you an email with some info I've got for you. Some good music that I heard on the Promenade the other day. I think you'll really like it.
Have a great week all! Keep on healing dad! I'm glad to hear the surgery went well. I knew it would. Love ya! Buh Bye!!!!!!!

Elder Jason E. Otis
District leader
District 2
Marina Zone
California Los Angeles Mission
Rockin' the coast!!!!!!!!

Update on Terry......

Terry had his surgery on Monday. It was really tough on him. He was in so much pain it broke my heart. It took us a good 24 hours to get the pain under control. His hand was broken in four places as it turns out, instead of two. So there was a large incision where the doctor had to open him up and there is now three screws holding the blood bearing bone together. After his first follow up apt next week he will have a tens unit hooked up to him. It's an electric stimulator to help his bone heal faster. I keep praying insurance will pay for this as well.
His surgery was on Monday and today it's Wednesday and he is doing really great! His pain is still under control and he sleeps often. He is able to do a lot more things for himself and his headaches are now gone from the concussion. His chest still hurts from the broken sternum. His liver is giving him some problems now and we have to do a repeat blood test on Friday to see what is going on. It does worry me, but I've put it all in the Lords hands and all seems to be improving due to all the prayers going up on his behalf and we are so thankful. Terry heals fast and I can see him returning to work in a couple of weeks time. Another blessing.

We feel so loved by family, neighbors and church family and friends. So many people love this dear man and that includes myself and his boys. My world would be a different place without him in my life, that's for sure. But I also know he would be cheering for me from the other side if things had turned out differently. He's jsut that kind of guy.

Thank you all so much for your love and support. Thank you for keeping our missionaries in your prayers too.

Hugs!
Valora

My Missionary In Russia

Dear Readers,

Sometimes I am amazed at how much we can help a person if we don't have any preconceived ideas going into a situation. We don't judge or adapt our words for a specific situation. We can go in and serve our neighbor, even love them if we keep our hearts and our minds open to the Holy Ghost. We have to continue to remember that we are all brothers and sisters and our Father in Heaven loves each of us so dearly.

I have enclosed the following letter from our son, a missionary for the LDS Church in Russia. I receive letters from him and his elder brother each week. It is a blessing in each of our lives as we read their words. I hope you find something here that helps you today.

Blessings,
Valora

"Hey everyone,

Thanks for the letters, sounds like things are getting pretty interesting for you guys. Keep on going forward in faith, you guys are doing great! So Ryan got the job at Anderson, thats really great. Is he working for Wood Rite day shift? It's a good place to work, I don't have any complaints against it, it's a good honest company. I don't know if summer is over yet, but the weather has changed, it's like it's spring again. It's raining all the time and we've been wearing light jackets/sweaters for the past few days. So maybe it's officially fall here. I'll make sure and fast for both of you next week, I know that with our combined faith we can accomplish great things.

Well, Elder Thompson and I had a great week. We have recently gotten a lot of really solid contacts that will hopefully be turning into investigators soon, we have found a section of our area that is pretty productive for contacting so we have been contacting it frequently. We didn't have any meetings with investigators this week, we had some set up but they fell through. But we are confident that these new contacts will turn out and we'll have some great new investigators soon. This week we were able to meet with a good amount of recent converts and less actives. Nina, Lada, and Artyom are all doing well and progressing in the gospel. We had a exceptional meeting with Zilya this week, she is a long time less active. We talked about faith and testimony with her, which did go over well with her, but the highlight of the meeting was the fact that she took some of our advice and acted on it. We have been trying to get the Holy Ghost back into her life, and most of the meetings that we have had with her she has told us that it just isn't possible because of the place that she lives in. I guess most of the people that live around her really don't like her and swear at her all the time, usually when she is walking around outside, or when her window is open. We tried to give her advice, to just shrug it off and not pay atention to it, but she would just bottle it up inside and explode back at them with similar language. We also talked about how she can't hate everyone around her and have the Holy Ghost at the same time, we are all children of God and you should respect all people even if they do wrong. Well, she hasn't learned quite yet to love her neighbors, but her outlook is changing and she isn't swearing anymore and she found a way to get people to swear at her less. She put a sign up on her door, and on her window, and on her fridge to remind herself, and it says,"Only sin offends me, not sick idiots." And when people swear at her, she tells them that. It's not exactly the best thing to say, but she is making progress and she seemed a lot happier when we met.
She fed us which was really nice of her, and next time I think we are going to make some tacos for her. It's really good that we have been able to become friends, for so long no missionaries met with her, and if they did it turned out really bad because they went in with preconceived notions of her.
I went into my first meeting with her not knowing anything about her, and I think that really helped. She is a really hard women to teach, she is really philyshopical and always examines the scriptures with her mind and not her heart, which is a road block to helping her, but she is starting to change and it is amazing to see. I just keep thinking that if only she could change her heart in the right direction she would become a great strength to the church in Russia, she is very intelligent and knows several languages. I just hope that she'll get straightened out in the future.

Anyway, I thought I said in my last email that I would not be staying in Pervouralsk after this transfer. Just the feeling I got from my interview and the way things are going makes me think that I'm getting shipped out of her in two weeks, I'll have transfers for you next week I think, so we'll find out soon. As soon as we get our new meeting place moved to Revda (the other city in the branch) they will most likely be closing my city and the Elders in Revda will have both cities as their areas. This is happening all over the mission now because no new missionaries are coming in. So it's going to be hard for this branch to lose two missionaries but it's what the Lord wants and they'll be stronger for it, I just hope that they people that I've been meeting with will stay strong and active.

Something pretty funny happened this Sunday, our first counselor was in Moscow (a lot of the branch went to Moscow for a youth/young single adult conference) so I led the meeting, and it was pretty funny to read the program because it went like so:

Presiding on the meeting: Elder Otis

Leading the Meeting: Elder Otis

Playing the Piano: Elder Otis

Leading the Music: Sister Nina Belyaevskih.

So the congregation got a good laugh out of it too. The speakers (Elder Taylor and Sister Nelly Zaitseva) went a little short so I said a few things at the end of the meeting about how the branch was going to be moving soon to Revda, and how it is going to be a blessing for some and a trial for others, and I shared how at one time we had to travel a long distance to go to our meeting too(remember when we met at the Hudson building?). And then to top it off, I also gave the lesson for the second hour since it was a fifth sunday (we only go for two hours so it was a combined Relief Society and Preisthood Meeting). So I had my hands full to say the least, but it's not scary at all anymore, so I can do what I need to do.

Well, I think this is enough writing for me for one day, my brain is starting to hurt. I finally got the package so I've been buying stuff!!!! Yay!!! Now that I have some money I'm going to try and send out that package that I've been promising, I'll tell you next week if I sent it out. I just printed off some pictures the other day for you guys, they are pretty good except the fact that a lot of them have red-eye problems. Well, I hope you have a great week, keep on keeping on! Hey there are some Australians in this internet cafe, Elder Abel is talking with them, you never know who you'll meet here.

Love ya,

Matt"

Grateful and Honored

Here is an excerpt from our son's letter. Elder Otis, a missionary in Russia is proceeded by the official statement from the LDS church about US missionaries going to Russia. This is a bitter-sweet time for the church in Russia. The government has made it difficult and very expensive, to serve humanitarian missions there for more than three months at a time. Our missionaries have to leave the country every three months now to renew their visa's. It is my prayer that the missionaries will be able to remain there until their work is completed. We pray for our brothers and sisters who live in Russia. They are amazing faithful people and we love them dearly.

Can you even imagine the light and hope that the people feel when they learn about Christ? Many there are atheists. Some, especially the poor, feel a sense of hopelessness and drink more than they should. Alcohol is symptom of a much deeper problem I think. Our son has even seen mothers pushing baby buggies with an open bottle of vodka in their hand.

Elder Otis has seen the good and the bad. Joy and the heartache are alive and well in Russia. It has been a journey of faith and often triumph of good over evil. His visa is up in January. I pray he can stay at least that long to help these amazing people. As his mother I have appreciated his journey to adulthood and what a blessing it has been to be a part of it through our weekly letters.

I have loved seeing the happy faces of people who gather in the name of Jesus Christ! Their smiles are beautiful! Just like the sweet sister above who's arms are open. My sons service in this small congregation will not soon be forgotten I think.


"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released this statement Monday about the services of its missionaries in Russia:"

*"A recent change in Russian immigration law now requires foreigners on humanitarian visas (including missionaries) to leave Russia every three months to renew their visas.

The church is working to find an alternative solution to the 90-day renewal requirement. Until an appropriate alternative is identified, new missionary assignments to Russia will be limited to those nationalities not needing visas.

Missionaries currently serving in Russia are not being withdrawn, and the missions are fully staffed. Missionaries needing Russian visas who had not yet left for Russia have been reassigned."


"We haven't had a whole lot of investigator work recently, but we are reaching out to the members, trying to strengthen them and get them ready for the road that lies ahead. Well, I'm glad to be serving here. I know that I'm among the last of the Americans to be serving in Russia and I'm grateful and honored that the Lord sent me here at this time. I'm grateful to be serving in Pervouralsk, there are so many good people in this branch. I just hope that I can have a good effect on this branch and get things going good here. That's kind of bad news that no more American missionaries are going to be coming in. We were told that by April we will only have 50 missionaries in our mission, and that was with a reduced amount of Americans coming in. So now I don't know whats going to happen. The missionaries are working with a sense of urgency, we have to get things done before the number gets reduced. From now on we are going to be losing missionaries every transfer and areas are going to start closing down. So President is going to start closing the areas that are less productive first, so we are trying to make our areas as productive as possible. I'm just grateful that I'm serving here right now, and things are good and will keep getting better. The Lord is guiding his work and everything is happening for a reason. I'm just grateful that I'm a part of it! I hope you guys have a great week, I love you a lot and think and pray about you often. Matt"

We love our kids so much. We also love our Lord dearly and are more than happy for them to serve missions.

Something governments don't seem to understand. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a world wide church. The Europeans and Americans may not be going to Russia anytime soon, but we have plenty of Ukrainian missionaries and soon Russian missionaries who will be preaching the gospel in the streets of Russia. When one door closes Heavenly Father finds a way to open the windows wide!

*Deseret News

Published: Monday, July 14, 2008 6:03 p.m. MDT