Aug 19, 2013 Week 29 "Time"

Time is a funny thing. It's constant but sometimes seems to pass more quickly than normal. At other times it passes incredibly slowly. When we wish that we had more of it, it always seems that we run out of it even more quickly than normal. I have a somewhat limited time at this computer, and it always seems to pass very quickly. Ironically, I've spent several minutes of this time talking about time. Maybe I should stop..

On my first day in Baku I met a girl. She asked me my name and introduced herself as Selaing. When we go to Baku, there is one girl that we can count on greeting us. She is not a member of our church and neither is her mother, but she goes to church with her grandmother every week, and quite often beats her grandma there. She learned how to pray when she sat in on our lessons with her uncle and grandmother. She insists on praying at least once every time we visit. When I visited Baku this week, she was singing about how Heavenly Father would help her if she asked for it. The lyrics were her own. She has never once forgotten my name and announces with great pleasure when we come biking around the corner, ''The Elders are here! Elder Vore, Elder Vore! Hi Elder Vore!'' Selaing is 4 years old. She is the cutest most precocious little kid ever. I think shes better about attending sacrament meeting than nearly all of the adults in our congregation. Next week I'll send a picture because this week my time is pretty limited. We love her.

While in Baku yesterday, the group president, Pov, expressed concern because the speakers from Ta Khmau that were expected to come couldn't. I told him this was his show, and suggested that he ask members to bear testimony or if that didn't feel right, he could ask the Elders to speak as well. He nodded and penciled something in. About 30 minutes later after I played the piano and then sat with the members in the front, Pov was announcing the speakers. I was fairly surprised to hear that Elder Vore was speaking last, and would be speaking about love.

 Because the two speakers in front of me spoke for about 2 minutes each, I was expected to speak for the rest of the meeting. It is amazing what you can do when you really have to do it. Being a missionary has really prepared me and helped me learn how to speak. I remember just before leaving Odessa I was asked to speak for 20 minutes in sacrament meeting. I spent so much time working on that talk and when it came time to deliver it I didn't say what I had intended to or how I wanted it and it wasn't quite long enough. Just a couple months later I can whip out a sermon in a matter of minutes and my thoughts are more organized and coherent, well, assuming they understood all the words I was saying. Blessings of missionary work. Cool stuff.

Got into another bike wreck on Saturday. I was riding on the shoulder of the road and a parked car opened their door suddenly. I had just enough time to realize I was going to fall before impact. The impact was hard but my bike took it all. I dismounted onto the asphalt with great skill (practice makes perfect right?) and after deciding I was OK I walked away. The bike was a little beat up but I didn't even get bloodied. However, my shirt was ruined from some oil on the street and my backpack tore. Elder Sin was riding a little in front of me and didn't know that I had fallen. He got all the way over the next bridge before someone on a moto told him I was laying in the street ''back there''. No harm done. I'm a little sore from this one and riding to Baku was a little bit of a challenge but all's well that ends well! I intended to enclose a little spiritual thought but that will have to wait until next week. Time to email the Mission President. Love you guys!!  -Elder Vore