Interesting Fact #22: So far, the graffiti that I have seen here has been really nice and pleasant. Most of it isn't the typical graffiti. A lot of them just say "Я люблю тебя" which just means "I love you". Pretty interesting, I think.
Well Week 22. The weeks feel like they are flying by. Really.
Last thursday I went through the Hermitage!! (Of Vyborg... haha). It doesn't compare at all to the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, supposedly. They were having this really interesting Middle Eastern Art exhibit. They had a lot of interesting artifacts from a looong time ago. It was pretty cool. Apparently when you serve in the center of the City, you do service once a week in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. I can't wait. Oh, and they give this volunteer pass, which gets you into the Hermitage for free, along with all other tourist attractions anywhere in the country.
I am starting to forget what's been going on, to be honest. Weeks are blending together. On tuesday, we had this crazy huge thunder shower. It went from super bright and shiny in the morning, and by night it was pouring and thunderin' and lightnin' it up. I don't think I have been seen it so dark outside so far while I've been here. The days are actually getting shorter, supposedly, but I still have yet to see night. Probably in 2 months or so it will be normal, and then in 4 months, it will be completely abnormal when the sun rises at 11 and sets at 3. We got both extremes here.
Well things are going really good with Igor Shevchenko, the fellow we baptized two months ago. He is permantly here in Vyborg. He got the Aaronic Priesthood a few weeks ago, and we wants to meet once a week or so. He is a very strong guy, spiritually. I am very impressed with him. He went to Latvia (because he is Latvian) to visit friends and family, and he was talking to his friend who wanted him to go and get baptized in her church. He told us he responded that he got baptised recently into the LDS Church and apparently his friend exploded on him calling him a devil and all sorts of friendly words. The funny thing is about this story, as Igor was telling it, he was laughing quite hard. He explained, "yeah, and so then I just kind of walked away". But to have someone who just got baptized who laughs at that kind of situation is awesome. I was fearing that would discourage him. Nope. Not Igor. He's a champ.
We had a lot of meetings yesterday, which is good. We met with that one babooshka, whom of which I spent a picture of. She wanted us to go and buy her a new phone and groceries. And so we did. She is a sweet old lady, but is confined to a wheel chair and stuck on the third floor apartment. Afterwards, we went down south for maybe 20 minutes to a small little village. I forgot what it's called, but it's basically just a village lined with Dacha's (small summer cottages). We had a few families in our ward that live there, both of which are awesome families. One family, The Cummings, (Surprise! English last name!) live in a very small 2 room (no bedrooms. Just 2 rooms. Kitchen, and a living room) cottage. The father of the family, Brother Cummings, is in the U.S. right now because they thought he had cancer, but apparently not. I just feel so bad for the circumstances some people live under. All we can we do as missionaries is to support them and help them feel God's love for them. They have two little kids, one is 4, and the other is 2. They understand English and Russian, so it makes it pretty funny to talk to them. It's a nice combination of Englussian. We did a small little lesson about the story of Ammon and how he had the strength of God.
We then met with the Dimitriev's who live right next door. They are an amazing family. We shared the same lesson with them, but we had everyone take turns reading. We have this small kids Book of Mormon comic book thing and we sent it around. There are two little 8 year olds, a 10 year old, and a 13 year old. So it felt befitting. Well because a lot of the strange rules have been removed from the previous mission president, President Neuenshwander, we can eat at member's houses. (We still probably shouldn't eat mushrooms. Strange things are afoot in the russian mushroom). But anywho, they fed us dinner. It was amazing. This Russian fish dish thing, with noodles and this Russian Salad. (Russian Salad's usually consist of cucumbers, onions, and tomatoes and maybe some sour cream. Its so good). It was most choice.
Speaking of food, I also made Borsh last night. I haven't eaten it yet though, so we'll see what happens next week! haha
Well I just want to leave with all of you reading this silly email/blog post/whatever this is with a nice little spiritual thought. The one thing I have learned so far this transfer is Patience. I have never been so patient in my life. And to be honest, I've never needed patience so much in my life. I just wanted to share with you all that patience is not just a virtue, but it's also a vital Christlike attribute we should all strive to have. So be patient! If there is a little bit of traffic, don't worry! Always know that you will get through it, and it doesn't necesarily matter how long it takes. Just be patient.
Well I love you all, and I pray for each and everyone of you.
Elder Tekulve
A blog about Drew's mission. =)
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Interesting Fact #21: Russians have some really tasty treats. One of my favorites so far is this stuff called Khalva. It's like this sweet sunflower seed block powder stuff... thing.. I can't really describe it. It's this powdery block of sunflower seed awesomeness. It's amazing. I love it.
Well I have been coming to realize that I have really learned how to deal with things quite well. I have found out I know how to really handle this companion. Things aren't too tough, really. Apparently he is the hardest companion to have, and I have feel like it could be worst. So no worries there. Patience. Patience. Patience.
This week was another cool week here in Vyborg. Well I already have a new mission president. President Clark. President Neuenschwander got transfered to be a mission president temporally again in Novovisabirsk, Russia. I found out President Neunshwander also did in an insane amount of work to get a mission here in Russia. He was the mission president of the Eastern Europe mission around the time the Soviet Union fell, and he worked it out with the Russian Federation to get permission for the Church to come here. He is an amazing guy. I got to have an interview with him and he really really encouraged me with goal setting. He really has an awesome attitude about work, and how it is our personal decision. It is, indeed, my decision on how I want my mission to turn out to be. And boy, am I working hard for my mission to be those 2 years that I can look back on and nod and smile and say "Yup. I did that." My ultimate goal for my mission here is to do anything, and everything, I can to get a stake here. We are so close. The problem is in the inactivity of some of the Priesthood holders. Inactivity is the main concern here in this mission, so I am really trying to focus on reactivating people here. President Neunschwander explained it best by using this Chinese Proverb:
"There is a pond that is being fed by a stream. How are you supposed to empty the pond out with a bucket? By diverting the stream elsewhere" (The wording is not or anything like the proverb, but you get the point)
We really need to work to divert that stream, or to change the effectiveness of how we teach. That we way, we can empty out the pond, or reactive those who have become lost.
So all in all, this work has been really interesting. I am really trying to focus on this mission and to really give it my best self. I am really excited to see where President Clark takes us. I have to yet to meet him, but I know he is a very inspired leader and a great guy.
So here is a list of things that were interesting or funny or awesome that happened:
Well we had a meeting with this other babooshka in a wheelchair (not the one in the picture i sent). She is an inactive, and she was just kind of weird. She only believed in the New Testament and said the Old Testament isn't applicable or something. It was a lot of Elder Balabanov and her arguing back and forth, but that arguing was needed. That lady just had b ecome confused. Anyway, she realized that she has been confused (she is pretty old, and has a very loud mouth). She ended up praying afterwards and it was such a nice prayer. I really think that it made a difference in her life, that meeting. At any rate, it was just strange, but at the same time really awesome to see her change of heart so fast.
We had another meeting with Edward Arcyonov. I am not sure if I told you about him. He is the father of a part member family. His family have been members for 12 years, but he has been against it completely up until this point. He has really expressed deep interest in the church, and he have been meeting with him for the past few weeks with his wife. He has been coming to church as well. The problem is that he is pretty shy and queit, but his wife helps so much in the lessons. We were talking about the Restoration of the Priesthood and I had his wife explain how the Priesthood has blessed her life (her son having it) and she bore such a beautiful testimony and asked him if he wanted to bless the family with that. He said "of course". So I pray that things will go even better with them.
This was kinda funny but at the same time ridiculous. We spent an hour cleaning the volleyball court we have at the church building. It's outside, and it's not gated in the church property. It's also the "hang-out" spot.. You know that means. So we spent an hour or 2 cleaning the court, picking up hundreds of beer bottles, and sweeping up cigarette butts. It was nice time of cleaning. It felt good to have it clean. We go to take out the trash. We come back to lock up the church, and there were a bunch of teenagers back already doing there thing.... Haha. Well it just means we are going to have to clean it again sometime soon. Not a problem. But I wish those kids knew better!
Things are going swell here. Juuuust swell! I loved all your emails! I am gonna try to respond to them all! HERE I GOOO!!
Love,
Elder Tekulve
Well I have been coming to realize that I have really learned how to deal with things quite well. I have found out I know how to really handle this companion. Things aren't too tough, really. Apparently he is the hardest companion to have, and I have feel like it could be worst. So no worries there. Patience. Patience. Patience.This week was another cool week here in Vyborg. Well I already have a new mission president. President Clark. President Neuenschwander got transfered to be a mission president temporally again in Novovisabirsk, Russia. I found out President Neunshwander also did in an insane amount of work to get a mission here in Russia. He was the mission president of the Eastern Europe mission around the time the Soviet Union fell, and he worked it out with the Russian Federation to get permission for the Church to come here. He is an amazing guy. I got to have an interview with him and he really really encouraged me with goal setting. He really has an awesome attitude about work, and how it is our personal decision. It is, indeed, my decision on how I want my mission to turn out to be. And boy, am I working hard for my mission to be those 2 years that I can look back on and nod and smile and say "Yup. I did that." My ultimate goal for my mission here is to do anything, and everything, I can to get a stake here. We are so close. The problem is in the inactivity of some of the Priesthood holders. Inactivity is the main concern here in this mission, so I am really trying to focus on reactivating people here. President Neunschwander explained it best by using this Chinese Proverb:
"There is a pond that is being fed by a stream. How are you supposed to empty the pond out with a bucket? By diverting the stream elsewhere" (The wording is not or anything like the proverb, but you get the point)
We really need to work to divert that stream, or to change the effectiveness of how we teach. That we way, we can empty out the pond, or reactive those who have become lost.
So all in all, this work has been really interesting. I am really trying to focus on this mission and to really give it my best self. I am really excited to see where President Clark takes us. I have to yet to meet him, but I know he is a very inspired leader and a great guy.
So here is a list of things that were interesting or funny or awesome that happened:
Well we had a meeting with this other babooshka in a wheelchair (not the one in the picture i sent). She is an inactive, and she was just kind of weird. She only believed in the New Testament and said the Old Testament isn't applicable or something. It was a lot of Elder Balabanov and her arguing back and forth, but that arguing was needed. That lady just had b ecome confused. Anyway, she realized that she has been confused (she is pretty old, and has a very loud mouth). She ended up praying afterwards and it was such a nice prayer. I really think that it made a difference in her life, that meeting. At any rate, it was just strange, but at the same time really awesome to see her change of heart so fast.
We had another meeting with Edward Arcyonov. I am not sure if I told you about him. He is the father of a part member family. His family have been members for 12 years, but he has been against it completely up until this point. He has really expressed deep interest in the church, and he have been meeting with him for the past few weeks with his wife. He has been coming to church as well. The problem is that he is pretty shy and queit, but his wife helps so much in the lessons. We were talking about the Restoration of the Priesthood and I had his wife explain how the Priesthood has blessed her life (her son having it) and she bore such a beautiful testimony and asked him if he wanted to bless the family with that. He said "of course". So I pray that things will go even better with them.
This was kinda funny but at the same time ridiculous. We spent an hour cleaning the volleyball court we have at the church building. It's outside, and it's not gated in the church property. It's also the "hang-out" spot.. You know that means. So we spent an hour or 2 cleaning the court, picking up hundreds of beer bottles, and sweeping up cigarette butts. It was nice time of cleaning. It felt good to have it clean. We go to take out the trash. We come back to lock up the church, and there were a bunch of teenagers back already doing there thing.... Haha. Well it just means we are going to have to clean it again sometime soon. Not a problem. But I wish those kids knew better!
Things are going swell here. Juuuust swell! I loved all your emails! I am gonna try to respond to them all! HERE I GOOO!!
Love,
Elder Tekulve
Thursday, July 7, 2011
new mission president
Hellllooo family.
Interesting Fact #4130 : Irons heat up really really really fast here. Like within maybe 15 seconds or so. BAM! It's nice. Oh by the way, Mom, I have been ironing everday for the past 2 months or so. Guess who can iron now? Me.
Well again another interesting week here in Vyborg. Well to start, I got a new Mission President. President Podvodov's time was up here as a mission president (they serve for 3 years), so he went home. Well there have been some complications here in the St. Petersburg mission. Remember when I told you I met the new mission president in the MTC? Well he couldn't get a visa into Russian because he used to be a test airplane pilot in the U.S. Well, I suppose that's understandable. So they called President Clark, who was originally going to go to Alaska and serve as President there, but got transfered here to Russia. I guess Sarah Palin was right. Russia is pretty close to Alaska. The strange thing of it all is that, President Clark isn't here yet. He may come in a week, or maybe a month. So in that time, they called President Neuenshwander, who was in the area 70 here, to be the Mission President for the time being. He also is the Patriarch for this area. He also does the Church History in Moscow. He also is fluent in Russian. Oh, he served in Finland, so he knows Finnish. And by being the Mission President here, he acts as the Stake President for the whole entire mission as well. This man is a complete champ. So this last weekend we went back down to St. Petersburg and had a mission conference with him. He has changed a lot of the rules and got rid of most of them, but I have never heard more encouragement to work hard from anyone before. Our mission is up to us. We need to choose for ourselves. Be Responsible. It was an awesome conference, and I learned a lot. Yeah. This transfer is kind of strange for reasons that are obvious, but, my loyalty is first to the Lord, then the mission president, and then your companion.
The Conference ended off way strongly as well. They fed us Papa John's. Oh yeah, Russian pizza is different, but so good. That was my first real taste of American Fast Food in Russia. Not bad, my friends. Not bad at all. I stayed the Assistants to the President's apartment in Malookhtinsky. One of the Elder's has a guitar. It felt so good to play. I haven't played on in so long.
To be honest, this transfer is going by very fast, but the work has slowed down a lot. It's just been different. Nothing really exciting has been going on except President Neuenschwander and Pizza. We did have this lesson with an investigator and his wife who was a member. That in itself was just a weird experience. My companion really likes to argue, and it makes it really difficult to feel the Spirit. I'm still trucking through with this. I have really got to him calm down a little bit more, and to be more organized and clean. It hasn't been easy, but for once my apartment is almost spotless. I am cleaning the kitchen every night and picking up stuff. I feel like a mom sometimes. But he's starting to learn that the Spirit doesn't dwell in messy places. It's way true.
He made this soup called Shee this week. It was absolutely amazing. It was like a sour cabbage soup with cream and carrots and stuff. It sounds gross, but it was absolutely amazing. He is really good at making soups. His borsh and shee have been grandiose. My meals consists mostly of chicken and meats and mashed potatoes. Although, i did make enchiladas a couple days ago. Those were pretty great.
Last night, we had a lesson with on my favorite families, the Balkovs. This family wants us to meet with them every week. It's just a mom, an older son my age, and two younger kids at 10 and 12. The dad is in jail, so the family has been just having some rough times. We go there to help support them everyweek and have a little spiritual thought or fun lesson for them. They are seriously my absolute favorite families here. I prepared a spiritual thought using the big Nikon camera I got from Kellie's dad. I related every part of the camera to our purpose in life. They really had fun with it, and it made me happy. We made them these coconut pie things for them as well, which they seemed to like. Meeting with them is seriously the highlight of my week.
Service at the castle is the same old, same old. Moving books around and stuff. It's actually been absolutely unbearably hot here. It's like 40 degrees C or so, at 100 percent humidity. I don't think I have ever sweated as much as I have in my life, with the exception of that one time where Katie, Ryan, Josh, and I went into the steamroom at the Zumat ski resort this last Christmas. That was pretty dang hot. It's relaxed here a little bit, which is good. I am just afraid what -30 is gonna be like in this humidity.... We will see. I am going to be buying my winter stuff this fall. I can't find a thing here. They ain't gonna be selling huge jackets in this weather. haha
Anywho, Things are going by. I like my companion, but there are just things that I am trying to work out. I have definitely have been blessed with extreme patience, and I thank you, dear reader, for praying for me for that purpose. I definitely needed it.
Anyway, I love you all. Like really. and to quote Albert, "Really?" "yes" "really, really?" "yes" "Like... really really really?" yes" "Really times infinite". That's how much I love you, family. Really times infinite.
Love,
Elder Tekulve
Interesting Fact #4130 : Irons heat up really really really fast here. Like within maybe 15 seconds or so. BAM! It's nice. Oh by the way, Mom, I have been ironing everday for the past 2 months or so. Guess who can iron now? Me.
Well again another interesting week here in Vyborg. Well to start, I got a new Mission President. President Podvodov's time was up here as a mission president (they serve for 3 years), so he went home. Well there have been some complications here in the St. Petersburg mission. Remember when I told you I met the new mission president in the MTC? Well he couldn't get a visa into Russian because he used to be a test airplane pilot in the U.S. Well, I suppose that's understandable. So they called President Clark, who was originally going to go to Alaska and serve as President there, but got transfered here to Russia. I guess Sarah Palin was right. Russia is pretty close to Alaska. The strange thing of it all is that, President Clark isn't here yet. He may come in a week, or maybe a month. So in that time, they called President Neuenshwander, who was in the area 70 here, to be the Mission President for the time being. He also is the Patriarch for this area. He also does the Church History in Moscow. He also is fluent in Russian. Oh, he served in Finland, so he knows Finnish. And by being the Mission President here, he acts as the Stake President for the whole entire mission as well. This man is a complete champ. So this last weekend we went back down to St. Petersburg and had a mission conference with him. He has changed a lot of the rules and got rid of most of them, but I have never heard more encouragement to work hard from anyone before. Our mission is up to us. We need to choose for ourselves. Be Responsible. It was an awesome conference, and I learned a lot. Yeah. This transfer is kind of strange for reasons that are obvious, but, my loyalty is first to the Lord, then the mission president, and then your companion.
The Conference ended off way strongly as well. They fed us Papa John's. Oh yeah, Russian pizza is different, but so good. That was my first real taste of American Fast Food in Russia. Not bad, my friends. Not bad at all. I stayed the Assistants to the President's apartment in Malookhtinsky. One of the Elder's has a guitar. It felt so good to play. I haven't played on in so long.
To be honest, this transfer is going by very fast, but the work has slowed down a lot. It's just been different. Nothing really exciting has been going on except President Neuenschwander and Pizza. We did have this lesson with an investigator and his wife who was a member. That in itself was just a weird experience. My companion really likes to argue, and it makes it really difficult to feel the Spirit. I'm still trucking through with this. I have really got to him calm down a little bit more, and to be more organized and clean. It hasn't been easy, but for once my apartment is almost spotless. I am cleaning the kitchen every night and picking up stuff. I feel like a mom sometimes. But he's starting to learn that the Spirit doesn't dwell in messy places. It's way true.
He made this soup called Shee this week. It was absolutely amazing. It was like a sour cabbage soup with cream and carrots and stuff. It sounds gross, but it was absolutely amazing. He is really good at making soups. His borsh and shee have been grandiose. My meals consists mostly of chicken and meats and mashed potatoes. Although, i did make enchiladas a couple days ago. Those were pretty great.
Last night, we had a lesson with on my favorite families, the Balkovs. This family wants us to meet with them every week. It's just a mom, an older son my age, and two younger kids at 10 and 12. The dad is in jail, so the family has been just having some rough times. We go there to help support them everyweek and have a little spiritual thought or fun lesson for them. They are seriously my absolute favorite families here. I prepared a spiritual thought using the big Nikon camera I got from Kellie's dad. I related every part of the camera to our purpose in life. They really had fun with it, and it made me happy. We made them these coconut pie things for them as well, which they seemed to like. Meeting with them is seriously the highlight of my week.
Service at the castle is the same old, same old. Moving books around and stuff. It's actually been absolutely unbearably hot here. It's like 40 degrees C or so, at 100 percent humidity. I don't think I have ever sweated as much as I have in my life, with the exception of that one time where Katie, Ryan, Josh, and I went into the steamroom at the Zumat ski resort this last Christmas. That was pretty dang hot. It's relaxed here a little bit, which is good. I am just afraid what -30 is gonna be like in this humidity.... We will see. I am going to be buying my winter stuff this fall. I can't find a thing here. They ain't gonna be selling huge jackets in this weather. haha
Anywho, Things are going by. I like my companion, but there are just things that I am trying to work out. I have definitely have been blessed with extreme patience, and I thank you, dear reader, for praying for me for that purpose. I definitely needed it.
Anyway, I love you all. Like really. and to quote Albert, "Really?" "yes" "really, really?" "yes" "Like... really really really?" yes" "Really times infinite". That's how much I love you, family. Really times infinite.
Love,
Elder Tekulve
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