Monday, January 30, 2012

Week 50! - Most Intense Week Ever! + Petrozavodsk round 2 + A little Gatchina action

Interesting Fact #52 - There really is no difference in feeling when it's -5 Celsius, and -25 Celsius. (23° F / -15° F) It's still cold either way. But thank goodness the only thing on my body that's cold is my face, and there is nothing I can do about that. I gotta breath. 

This week was a crazy one. We had transfers, a general authority coming in, a new missionary coming in, departing missionaries finishing their missions and going home, another visa trip, a small exchange in a city south called Gatchina, and another trip to Petrozavodsk to finish it. In fact, that's where I am right now. It's 8 hours north on a night train. And it's a tad bit colder than St. Pete. 

To start, so we had transfers this week! I am staying in the city as assistant with Elder Hill, which I am more than happy about. I think it has been my favorite transfer so far. We had a new missionary come into the field this week. A Sister Pinkston. She was way excited to do missionary work here in this mission! Something we need! We didn't get any elders, but we will get a few this next transfer cycle. So we went with President Clark and a few others to the airport to pick her up. A set of sister missionaries than took her through the metro back to the mission home. A nice hour trip in the St. Petersburg metro. We were pretty much busy with that the whole day. 

The next day we had a General Authority come in while we were having transfers. We had to organize the transfers this week in a way that would make the fastest they could possibly be, so that they are in and out into their new area with their new companion. We are going to start doing that more often so that we can really maximize our time in our areas that day. That day, we also had to do some training for the new missionary and her companion. It was the same kind of training I got when I became a trainer. It felt like the training really well. We were really put on the spot to do it, so with that considered, it was an A-OKAY performance. 

That night, we had 4 missionaries finishing their missions that stayed with us. We had to play hotel this whole week for other elders. So it's been fun and interesting. I said my goodbyes to Elders Larsen, Melnik, Ylyanov, and Zhilinksiy. I had gone on a few exchanges with Elder Larsen. I am really gonna miss that guy. The next day, because of traffic, Elder Zhilinksiy missed his flight back home so he had to stay with us one more night and wake up at 3 in the morning to get to the airport on time. We said our goodbyes. The mission will miss them. They were all excellent missionaries.

We then went to Gatchina to help that area. We went there to really encourage the elders there and to really lift them up, which I felt like we did. We sat down and talked with them to help them grow as a companionship and to really love their missions. And theeen, because of complications of transfers, we had to bring Elder Rasmussen back to Petrozavodsk on a night train. We left on Saturday night. It's just a train where you just sleep until your destination. We had a whole to ourselves, and I don't think I have ever slept that well on mission. Petro really is a beautiful little city. I would love to serve here one of these days. Yeah it's a lot more north and colder, but it's just an awesome little place. We got to go their branch again and it was just a solid small little branch, but yet so strong. 

Oh yeah, I went to Estonia again this week for my 3rd time. It was a really short trip. But still fun nonetheless. 

I think I have said this every email now, but I really am loving my mission. This is honestly the best thing I can be doing right now. Helping these people come unto Christ, and also to help lead some of these missionaries. It's been really intense, but so rewarding. Unfortunately, we have had barely any time this week to work in our area, but we have been seeing miracles in our finding efforts. People are contacting and calling us. I know, no matter what, the Lord's work will continue when you are doing what is right. Sometimes it may seem that there is too much going on to get everything done, but knowing that it is indeed the Lord's work, and that I am on the Lord's errand, I knew things would be alright. We have a lot of potential new investigators this coming week when we get home, and I have never been more excited to work. The church is indeed true!

Love,
Elder Tekulve

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Week 49 - A Weekend in Petrozavodsk

Interesting Fact #49 - Water freezes incredibly fast. The Neva river, which we see right outside our apartment froze over in a day. We had been seeing small chunks of ice floating for a while. The chunks got bigger over time, but on Friday, in about 40 minutes, the whole river solidified. Don't worry. I am still really warm.

This week was a great week, in my opinion. We are still doing a lot of finding, but we taught some lessons this week. One of which was somebody we found just on Thursday. I was on another exchange this week with some zone leaders. We tracted in our area, and found a few decent people to talk to. We went to the top of this one building, and on that floor we had no success. We saw some troublemakers in the stairwell, so we decided to take the elevator down past them. I click a random floor, and we knock on the next door we see. A man opens up, and you can just see sorrow in his eyes. We shared a quick message about families and he let us in. He really opened up to us. He has about 7 kids, which is big in the states, but it also is GIGANTIC here in Russia. His wife ran on him about 7 months ago, and he has been waiting for 7 months or so for her to come back. He was really interested in having us teach him. We stopped by the next day, and unfortunately he just didn't feel ready to meet with the missionaries just yet. He wants to wait a month. We did all that we can to have us teach him. But I know everything will be fine. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said he would read. He is now a stay at home dad because his children are all younger. In a month, expect for us to meet with Sergiy one more time!

The same day, we did a survey out on the streets to see what people thought about prophets (another finding idea that we wanted to try out). We got several numbers of people that wanted to know more, so now it's all about getting those numbers and setting up meetings to teach, and then baptize! 

This week we also stopped by two other people that we had once tracted. One of which we tracted our first week here in this area. He answered the door with no pants on but we talked to him for a long time. We stopped by again this week, only knowing him as "No Pants Man". He was just as nice and rememberd us. He let us in and we sat down and talked for a while. He has a name! It's Roald Nordstrom. No, it's not a Russian name, but he is Russian. I couldn't figure that one out. Anyway. He is a great old guy. He used to build missiles for the USSR haha. So he is incredibly smart and just an all around genuine guy. We stopped by another lady we tracted named Nadezhda. She was this nice lady who believed in the Mayan calenders. We stopped by and her friend was there, Vladimir, and they both had golden triangles on their heads. We didn't ask, but we went inside. We taught them more about the Book of Mormon and about the prophecies of the Americas inside, which sparked their attention. We got them really wanting to read now, which was cool to see.

Annnnnd then, I went back to Petrozavodsk this weekend with President Clark! We didn't take a train, but instead we drove to there in some thick snow. It was about a 6 hour drive and we get there absolutely starving. So he takes us to this nice restaurant there in Petro. I had an incredibly expensive dish of beef stroganoff, but it was quite possibly one of the best things I have ever had in my life. Totally destroys hamburger helper. But that place is just as magical as when I left it. The lake there had frozen over as well. But it's just a wintery wonderous town there. We had a small fireside for the branch there of about 20 people. The next day, we went to church, and then drove the drive back home to Petersburg. I got back around 10 last night, and again, we were all starving. So we all cook up this German dish that he learned when he served in Germany on his mission. I forgot what it was called but it was amazing. 

Today, there is a visa trip for a lot of the mission, and so we had to organize when people would be coming in to our apartment for it. So last night there was about 12 people in our apartment, so it was a complete mess and chaos, but now there are in Estonia. I have my 3rd visa trip on Friday to Estonia again. That was the fastest 12 weeks ever! It's really scaring me haha. Oh speaking of time. I guess today is my 11th month mark? Again. I still have so much to do! And I honestly am loving it here. 

This week is going to be crazy because of transfers. We have to pick up a new missionary and do some training this week, along with organizing this next visa trip. Business! Well that's it for this week. A pretty packed week, in my opinion. But the church is true! Only in the true Church of Christ will you see God work His miracles! I have seen them many times.

Well I love you all! 
Love,
Elder Tekulve

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Week 48 - Finding new Phones

Interesting Fact #48 - Well this is more of an observation. I noticed that in the U.S., Nokia phones weren't that big there. At least when I left. But here, they are the bee's knees. I think everyone has some sort of model of a Nokia phone. Good stuff.

We got an interesting assignment this week to find new phones for a group of elders. They are two areas south of the city which do District Meetings once a week over a conference call. The are about 4 hours away from each other, but they are one district. The problem is that their phones are pretty shoddy, and one of which doesn't even do speaker phone. So in solution, President Clark wanted us to go find some phones for them! That explains the fact of the week, which, by the way, are becoming more and more difficult to do every week. I will probably end them soon. But anyway, so we had to go to several phone stores looking for some phones. Found a few people interested in English Conversation Group along the way. 

So this week we only had a few teaching appointments. Still trying out new things in our finding efforts. We have been trying everything; tracting, signboarding, contacting, and even surveying. It unfortunately wasn't as successful as we had liked it to have been. I think partially it was because we started conducting it in front of a mall where there was just a lot of women. We are trying to look for men to teach. We soon replanned to find another place to do it and we then went to our favorite spot off of Nyevski Prospect in front of the Lady Kazan Cathedral. Only in the busy parts of the city (which are MANY) can signboarding and surveying actually  be really effective. Elder Hill and I introduced the idea to the mission as we went and tried it out a few weeks ago with a lot of success. There were a group of Elders who are serving in my old area that tried it out and find a man to teach. The miracle behind it all is that he is getting baptized on Saturday, and he has been taught everything and is ready to go. He saw their signboard asking "Where do we all come from? Why are we here? Where are going after this life?". Viktor was really interested as to why two young men were holding such a board and ended up talking with them. Miracles are found with faith, hope, and effort!

There is another miracle that happened recently within the mission. A few weeks ago, Elder Hill and I had to visit some injured elders in the hospital. They were walking out of their apartment when suddenly a piece of wood landed on their heads, knocking both of them down. There were people repairing the ceiliing of their apartment building and threw some wood off the side and it landed right on them. So they got raced to the hospital where we met them. The doctors said it would be a month to a 2 month recovery for them both. The whole mission prayed for them, and they both got blessings, and in a week and a half they recovered 100 percent and working full days in their area. In fact, they have a baptism as well this Saturday, despite their injury. The really interesting and cool thing about this incident, is that those two elders were in unity. They shared the blow. They were walking together in unity, and if they hadn't one of them would have gotten the full impact of that fall. Blessings and protection in unity!

Well needless to say, I am fine and A-OKAY, as I would say. And most importantly, so are those two elders. The new assignments that we get are always really interesting, whether it be to find phones, are support a few injured Elders. Either way, to lead is to serve, and that's what I have been learning, and it couldn't be any better. I love it here.

Well I love you all! This Church is true! The Holy Ghost is indeed our comforter and protector! Faith can go MILES further than professional care. I have seen that here, and I have seen it before. The Priesthood is real, and it is such a priveledge to have this Priesthood here on the Earth, never to be lost!

Love,
Elder Tekulve

P.S.: I just got an email from another Elder Tekulve in Cape Town! Just a little hello to my cousin down south where it's nice and warm! I hope things are awesome down there, Bren!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Week 47 - Tracting and various Fruits.

Interesting Fact #47 - So here in Russia, we got the Julian and the Gregorian Calenders going on simultaneously. I just had my 2nd Christmas here, and that also means I am going to have my 2nd New Year here soon. It's called the Old New Year. And then there are plenty of Chinese here too, so then we got the Chinese New Year on the 23rd. I just called my friend Fu up last night and seems quite excited. 3 New Years!

So every Preperation Day, Elder Hill and I find an interesting fruit in the exotic fruit section in the grocery store. We try one out every week. The first week, we ate something called a pomelo or something. Then we had dragonfruit. We had some weird fruit called a Kiwaia or something. It had spikes on it and there was this green slime pod stuff inside. It was pretty good too. Last week we had starfruit, which was eh. But it's been fun trying out all these new fruits and such. Russian supermarkets got an awesome produce selection and stuffs.

Well this week, we have found that there is more success is in tracting doors than contacting in the street. There was this big rumor throughout the mission kind of that tracting was a no go here. We decided to judge for ourselves, and we have found some solid investigators through it. This week, in particular, we found a man named Alexiy. He has a super awesome family and he is just such a cool guy. We tracted him last Tuesday after our preperation day ended. (By the way, the Hermitage was AWESOME! More about that later). We were just way surprised. We called a random apartment through the domaphone on the outside of the complex. We told him who we are and he let us right in, which is very rare. He, himself, is part of some other church, of which I can't remember the name to. But he is just a stud. He knows the Bible very well and we talked to him a little bit about the Restoration. His son, who is maybe 11 or so, brought out some raspberry tea and some cake. It was awesome. It was pretty interesting too. We had to organize our training for the Zone Leaders the next day and President Clark told us that we could go in early to plan. We decided to stay and find one last person, and that's when we found Alexiy. Blessings come with faith. This last Sunday, he came to church as well! He was really interested in the Book of Mormon and we gave him up and set up a follow up appointment. 

We met with one of those men that wanted to be baptized and the lesson didn't fold out as planned. He got fairly upset about a few things and it was kind of a bummer. BUT! Another cool miracle came out it. That day that we were going to meet with him, we were waiting at the metro exit for him but he never showed up. We ended up talking to a SIM card seller named Pasha who was standing next to us. We talked to him for a while and gave him a broshure with our phone number on it. We left because our investigator never showed up. Andre, the investigator, calls us up late  and we eventually meet up with him. We finish the lesson with Andre with little success, and then Pasha called and we met with right after and taught the Restoration, and it went a lot  better than the lesson with Andre. Pasha accepted everything so well. He unfortunately didn't make it to church, but is really eager to meet again. He has read a little bit from the Book of Mormon and is super interested still. I hope good things will come from our hard work in finding! Next it's teaching, and then baptizing! 

So yeah it's getting a bit nippy here, but you can easily do well with a hat, gloves, and a scarf, and a nice coat. But, it's definitely looking like what I expected Russia to be like. It just happened a lot later than expected. That's all. But at any rate. I love it, and I love these people here too. 

Well I love you all too! I pray for you everyday. 
Love,
Elder Tekulve

P.S.: Oh yeah almost forgot. Yeah. So the Hermitage. Amazing. I never seen a more beautiful interior/art. There are quite a few Lionardo Da Vinci originals and a few other good ones. We didnt' have much time, but I made sure I went inside the Winter Palace. I went in few of the rooms that little miss Anastasia danced it. The palace is a lot better in real life. It was so cool. Hermitage is really a treasure here in St. Petersburg. 

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Week 46 - A New Year, an Empty Street, and a Thanskgiving Turkey

Interesting Fact #46 - New Years is by far the biggest holiday here in Russia. Moreso than Christmas, Victory Day, and the rest of their various many holidays. They celebrate with cartloads of fireworks, which indeed woke me up in the middle of the night. 

Well we had an interesting week, that's for sure. Still a lot of finding here in this area. We have a lot less time than the rest of the missionaries because of some of the stuff we have to do, but at the same time, it's still usual missionary work. We had only a few meetings this week with our investigators. One of which, I talked to on the metro a few weeks ago. He was a really nice man who was really sincerely interested in our message. I got his number a while ago and I called he was really eager to meet. We met in the center of the city, by all the sights, and we took a nice walk with him around the city in the more quiet parts. He is one of the nicest guys I have met here in the city. Cares a lot about his family, absolutely loves them, and absolutely loves his work as a art historian. The thing is he grew up being told that God didn't exist. He honestly expresses such genuine interest, and I am excited to teach him some more. 

We met with another one of our investigators this week named Igor (a very common name here. I am sure you have lost track of all the Igors I am talking about). We met at the branch building and he is just the opposite than the other man in terms of beliefs. He is a genuine guy and really polite but he lives and breaths Russian Orthodox because that is the only thing he was taught. So it's interesting seeing the contrast of beliefs here. But all in all, it makes it much more exciting. His meeting was an awesome one. We taught him the first lesson and answered a lot of his questions. He read a little bit of the Book of Mormon and has very genuine questions about it, which really shows he is interested. A really solid guy. I am excited to work with him some more.

This weekend, because of the New Years, we had to be inside during the celebrations. On Saturday, we had to go in early for the night because of the celebrations in the street. So we got back and I attempted to make Stuffing with a lot of success. On New Years Day, we usually weren't allowed out of our apartment, but President Clark didn't want for us to waste a whole day. So we just had to be back in by 3:30 after church. So Elder Hill and I, curious, set off to go find some people in the morning. We went to Nevskiy Prospect. It was almost empty. A few people here and there, but it was almost something off the Road. All that was really left were small piles of trash and bottles. Sure evidence of a Russian celebration. The night before, I woke up to fireworks that sounded like they were right outside my apartment. I got up and looked out the window (which has an AMAZING view of the river dividing the east part of Petersburg with the Center part) and all I could see were fireworks going off everyway. It was quite the sight. I think they were going off until about 3 or something like that. 

After church, Elder Hill and I met up with the Elders who serve in the Mission Office and we made a turkey. I have never attempted such a feat, but somehow, after 3 and a half hours of sweating labor, out came an amazing, juicy, perfectly cooked turkey with stuffing and mashed potatoes. So needless to say, I guess I celebrated Thanksgiving 2 months later. After I pulled out the turkey, I splured out the words, "Elder Hill! I'm only 20 years old and I made a turkey!". Good times they were. Good times they are.

Well I hope that the coming of the new year has put some things into your perspective. The New Year is always a great way to start on something new, or to change something that already existed, or to improve on something that lacked. I have set some goals this new years to help me develop into the missionary that I want to be, and also to help and further love those whom I teach, with whom I serve, and to grow a deeper love for the Lord and His work that is before me. I hope that this new year will provide everyone with blessings for a better life! I love you all.

Love,
Elder Tekulve

P.S.: I wrote this on a computer inside the Hermitage. In 20 minutes, I get to go through my first time! My dream!