Double True

Dear Family,

All is well in Revda. We just got transfers, we’re both staying! I’ve had only two other companions for two transfers and none for three until now. But what’s craziest is that President made me Branch President. I sort of felt it coming in my bones but there were so many transfer rumors flying around I didn’t know what to think. It was very humbling to get the call and at the same time I felt assured about it, pretty strongly assured actually, because I felt assured when I went senior companion and didn’t think I’d be ready for it but that was more of a “everything’s going to be crazy, but rest assured it will be ok” and this time I felt and saw how all our/my work in Revda was leading up to it being the Lord’s will that I have this responsibility at this time.

And that was really special for me because I’ve been specifically seeking assurance lately as I’m “older” in the mission now and it’s not that I was doubting my efforts but just feeling a complete lack of assurance that I was doing God’s will at all. So I’ve been deliberately trying to forget my needs of assurance and just focus on what I feel the people here need, feeling that in doing so assurance would come that I was doing what the Lord wanted, and that is a feeling I have come to cherish here in Russia. I actually talked to president about this in an interview a few weeks back and he had good council as always and brought up an interesting point about assurance, that it’s a righteous desire for us to have, but we cannot demand it, only humbly hope and pray for it, having faith that it will eventually come. He wondered how much Abraham’s wife’s prayers changed after waiting five, ten, thirty or forty years for children, and I felt silly for being slightly despaired for not seeing results for just over a year, but I testify that I only received the assurance after my prayers had changed from worrying about if I was going to get what had been promised in a general way to how I could help the people I’d been called to serve in a specific way.
I love Revda and I’m so pleased to be here for six, possibly 12 more weeks. I love the Lord for my trials and am humbled by how simple they are, yet test me to the core regularly. Thanks for being my family, here’s a quote from the Great Russian writer Tolstoy: “All happy families resemble one another. All unhappy families are unhappy in their own way.” That’s a true gospel principal.

Double true,

Elder Magleby