Hellooo family!
Interesting Fact #25 - McDonalds in Russia is considered a nice place to take a girl out on a date too.
Well we are still in the Central area. Of course. It's been really interesting being a trainer. In fact, it's very very difficult haha. I don't have anyone to rely on with the language anymore, which is a great thing, but also a difficult thing. I feel like, though, in the past week and a half alone, I have gotten better with the language. I love the Russian Language. Yeah, it's very difficult, but I can do it. How many times? That's right. 9 times. No but really though, I love this language. What's so interesting and fun about is that EVERYTHING changes depending on the gender, case, preposition, verb, noun, etc. Everything changes. So you really have to think really hard if you want have correct grammar. I mean, you could just say it how it would be in English minus all of the spelling and grammar rules and it would still be understandable, but that's no fun, now is it?
Well, another part that has made this transfer intersting already as that we were "white-washed", a term used by missionaries. It basically means you are completely brand new in an area, and you have figure out everything on your own: investigators, members, public transit, stores, who-is-who in the cell phone. I am starting to figure things out here in Central. We actually live on the outermost island off the Neva river. Off of Vasiliostrovskaya island or something. If you look at a map, we live on the island furthest west.
So last Friday we did service inside the HERMITAGE!!!! That was the one place I was so excited to go to before the mission. It's absolutely beautiful. It is basically a Palace. HUUUGE beautiful palace. We haven't looked at the exhibits, but we plan on doing that soon, we hope. We need to get our hermitage pass from the mission office so that we can into it for free. All we do there for service really is check their tickets to see if they are ok. Occasionally we tell them to take off their backpacks and that water is not allowed inside. I got to help and translate a little bit for a few Americans from Texas and California visiting. Speaking of Americans, we were walking down Nyevski Prospect (the main busiest street in the City) and we ran into several Americans from Orem, Utah! What do you know! They gave us some Chewy bars and trailmix. They tasted like deep-fried gold.
Well on Saturday, I also went to Estonia. That was very interesting, I have to admit. You know when you're driving up the 15 and the road is terrible and bumping right up until you cross the border into Nevada? Yeah, it was kind of like that. Estonia is such a nice place. We stayed in a place called Nerva or something for 8 hours. Well, if the bank is freaking out that my card was used in Estonia, just tell them its ok. I put a few snacks and a meal there becaues I didn't have any Euros on me. Only rubles and kopecks. It was a beautiful little city though. There are two big castles there and this big Catholic church there. It's almost like good ol' Vyborg.
Well we finally scheduled some meetings after a few days of contacting in the streets because no-one could meet. We meet with a few investigators. We got a new one yesterday. He is this interesting man named Anatoli who wants to quit smoking. I have never tried to help someone stop smoking before, let alone in Russian. So we are going to be working with him to help him quit and teach him the Gospel. We have a few investigators who are from Africa that came to Russia to work. They are fun to meet with as well. Well nice people.
Well that's been my life so far here in St. Petersburg. I know I have more exciting things to come, and obviously I will be here to tell you about it. We are so close to getting a Stake here. So close. Just pray for us, and we will get it. And after we get a stake here, we can get a temple to be built here in Russia. Wouldn't that be something?
Well it looks like all my paragraphs start with the word "well". Well, that's okay.So it looks like Daniel and Megan got their mission calls eh? They be em Texans! They are going to have so much fun. Honestly. Mission work is so great. I love it.
I hope all is going well with you all. I love you all and you are all such a great strength and support for me. You are in my prayers always.
Love,
Elder Tekulve
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