10/22/2026
🙏 THANK GOD FOR UNANSWERED PRAYERS!
Growing up, my dad and FOUR older brothers all served missions in South America, baptizing dozens of people and sharing incredible stories of missionary success.
For eight straight years, I listened to their letters and cassette tapes, dreaming of the day I would serve in those same Latin American jungles.
Even my bishop told me, “You're a Lambert. You'll be going to South America!” 😂
When my mission call finally arrived, the only question in my mind was WHICH South American country I'd be assigned to.
With my entire family gathered around, I opened the letter, found the location, and froze.
“Oh my gosh... Oh my gosh...”
Finally, I managed to read:
“You are called to labor in the Russia Moscow Mission.”
🇷🇺 RUSSIA?!
I smiled and pretended to be excited, but inside I was HORRIFIED.
Instead of tropical jungles and dozens of baptisms, I was headed to the freezing homeland of America's longtime Cold War adversary.
And unfortunately, nearly everything I feared came true.
🥶 COLD: We spent hours every day contacting people on the streets in temperatures that sometimes dropped below -30 degrees. Icicles formed on my eyelashes, my hands and feet felt permanently frozen, and I slipped on icy sidewalks CONSTANTLY.
🌑 DARKNESS: I arrived in October, just as the daylight was disappearing. By midwinter, it was getting dark around 2:30 p.m., and we sometimes went weeks without seeing the sun.
😔 LANGUAGE & LONELINESS: I'd gone from being a student body vice president surrounded by friends to barely being able to communicate with anyone. Russian was incredibly difficult, and I felt completely cut off from the people I loved.
⚠️ DANGER: We were attacked multiple times, my companion was knocked unconscious by a drunk man, and authorities sometimes detained us until we paid bribes.
💔 REJECTION: After decades of communism, many people were deeply skeptical of religion. We were frequently cursed at, given fake addresses, or simply ignored. Sometimes MONTHS passed without teaching a meaningful missionary lesson.
I remember one day breaking down in tears in the middle of a city square.
I felt so lonely, depressed, rejected, and completely disillusioned.
My dream mission had become a NIGHTMARE.
Leaving never crossed my mind, but I desperately needed something to change.
And then came an impression that changed EVERYTHING:
❤️ CONNECT WITH THE MEMBERS.
This was the late 1990s, and virtually every Church member in Russia was a first-generation convert—a modern-day pioneer who had courageously embraced the gospel despite tremendous cultural opposition.
Every Sunday, I started carrying a little notepad around church, asking members their names and trying, in my broken Russian, to learn their stories.
And something beautiful happened.
I started falling in LOVE with these people.
A few months later, I was transferred from Nizhny Novgorod. Usually, 10–15 people might come to the train station to say goodbye to departing missionaries.
But when I left, more than 40 members showed up!
They hugged me, waved, and even chased the train as it pulled away.
I was absolutely overwhelmed.
After months of feeling rejected, I finally felt LOVED. ❤️
I arrived in my next area, Zelenograd, with an entirely different attitude.
I was called to serve first as secretary and later as second counselor in the branch presidency. I worked closely with an inspired branch president, visited members in their homes, and prayed for many of them by name every night.
These weren't just people I saw at church anymore.
They were my FRIENDS.
We organized activities, put on a hilarious missionary roadshow, and helped members feel excited about sharing the gospel.
And then something remarkable happened...
The referrals started coming!
My first baptism.
Then another.
Then another!
I even helped introduce a new convert to a single sister in the branch. They eventually married, and I became known as “Elder Matchmaker!” 😂
The very thing I'd been searching for—missionary success—finally began happening when I stopped focusing so much on finding strangers and started loving the people God had already placed in my life.
But the story didn't end when my mission did.
🇷🇺 I fell so deeply in love with Russia that I went on to teach Russian at the Missionary Training Center, earn my bachelor's degree in Russian language and literature, and conduct a Russian choir.
I eventually married a Russian woman and became the father of five half-Russian children!
Over the years, I returned to Russia four times, including a trip when I brought all five children to meet their Russian grandmother.
Every time, I made sure to visit Zelenograd.
And every time, those wonderful Saints welcomed me back like family.
Even 17 years later, they invited me to speak in church and gave me a hero's welcome. It felt as though we'd never been apart.
❤️ Looking back, I wouldn't trade those relationships for ANYTHING.
Yes, many of my friends who served in South America had the missionary experiences I'd dreamed of.
But God gave me something I didn't even know I needed.
A deep love for an entire people and culture, lifelong friendships, a new language, and experiences that shaped the rest of my life.
I love the country song “Thank God for Unanswered Prayers.”
Sometimes the things we desperately want—even the things we sincerely pray for—aren't what will ultimately bless us most.
Sometimes our greatest blessings are waiting on the OTHER SIDE of disappointment. What the Lord has in store for us is way better than what we originally wanted!
🙏 I'm eternally grateful that God didn't send me where I wanted to go.
He sent me where I needed to be. ❤️
