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
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