Brian: Nile River Conversion Story

After receiving my call to serve in Russia I was told all sorts of things to prepare for, watch out for, beware of...etc. People told me that it was a hard mission, that I probably wouldn't baptize anybody, and that in general the people, climate, and government were cold and tough. I was stubborn and chose not to believe them. I thought, what do they know? Many of them hadn't been there and were just passing on hearsay

About a year and three months into my mission I began to develop my own opinion about the Russian people. I  recognized that their past was filled with tragedy and heartache. Leaders such as Stalin, Lenin, and many if not all the tsars abused their power and caused the people to suffer. The people lived in fear and lost the ability to trust, especially strangers from the distant land of America. I tried not to judge them, but tried to understand them. I still do not understand much, but I do know that God loves them. 

In my mission it was difficult to believe that cold invites such as gospel pamphlets would bring any success. In fact, I think I passed out thousands of invites on my mission and never had a single person call me back...that is until Ludmila. 

So there I was riding along on a bus with my great friend and companion Elder Okabe when I got a call from an unknown number on my cell phone. I answered and a woman on the other end began asking me really strange questions. Initially I was a little confused due to my somewhat limited gospel vocabulary. However, eventually I figured out that she wanted to know what my connection was to the Nile River. I told her that I had no connections to the Nile River and asked how she got my number. She explained that she had an invitation and that on the back a Staraishina ("Elder" in Russian) Nile and Staraishina Kitchen had left their number. I then realized that she was referring to an Elder Neil who had left the area a little before me and that Neil, translated into Russian, is Nile. I explained to the lady what I had realized but she still insisted that we meet with her. I got her name and we set up an appointment. After I got off the phone I told Elder Okabe what had happened and we both had a good laugh. However, we were just glad to have another lesson to fill our schedule. 

When we met with Ludmila she told us a sad story about how she and her husband were separated. He had left many years earlier as a soldier and was lost in a military operation near the Nile river. She said that when she read our invitation the word Nile stood out to her and that she knew calling this number would help her find some answers. She ended up finding answers all right, but not the type she had anticipated. During later lessons we taught Ludmila the plan of salvation. She really connected with the message. She told us that since she was a little girls he never felt like she was really at home - that she was really just here for a time until she returned back to her heavenly home. Learning about the plan of salvation taught her how this was possible. Miraculously, the misunderstand about the Nile river lead to Ludmila being baptized. She had one of the most beautiful baptisms. Few people were present, but the spirit was there and we all felt it.