Interesting Fact #62 - There are such things as milk trucks. Just a truck + tank of milk + spout. They are incredibly rare here in the city but in the smaller cities they are the place to be. No worries. I really only drink Finnish milk here, because it's amazing.
So this week, it was pretty kind of funny but also quite frustrating. We got stood up 6 out of 7 planned lessons this weekend. But nonetheless, one thing that I have learned here is how to plan better, and also how to plan at the last second when things change and unexpected things happen. Since I have been here in the city, that's something that I have gotten really good at. Especially on transfer days. Holy smokes! But at any rate, this week was a pretty good week. We had a night set with President Clark to go proselyte with us, and we were totally excited with 3 lessons planned out, 2 new investigators, and none of them worked out that night. We were sitting in the branch waiting for someone to show up, and seeing that no one was picking up there phone, President Clark pointed to this one painting on the wall that a member painted. It's a beautiful painting of Elder Lyman of the 12 Apostles in 1904 dedicating Russia for proselyting work (which took place in the Summer Gardens here in St. Petersburg!). I have it on my camera but I failed to bring it with me today. I will send it some time. It's a beautiful painting. This member, Ahmin, is an inactive member who is incredibly talented. We had been trying to meet with him for months and occasionally he disappears and doesn't answer. President Clark told us to call him. We gave him a ring and finally, at least, he picked up! I explained to him that we wanted to meet and that President Clark was with us. The next thing you know, we were with him at his studio. He has painted so many amazing paintings of the Savior and his ministry. It's incredible. But in the end, we gave him a blessing for comfort and counsel to help him out. He then told us he is coming back. On sunday, we met him in the metro and we went to church together! It was wonderful. Even if those 3 lessons didn't work out, we were still led to help someone else in need.
It rained pretty hard a few days ago when we were out on the street. I had just gotten new shoes and I hadn't put the waterproof wax stuff on it and they got pretty messed up that night. Since then I have been taking care of them, polishing, waxing, etc. And somehow they kind of healed. I am not sure how, but things are A OK with them. Oh and my companion tried to diet this week by eating nothing but buckwheat, eggs, and fish. Needless to say, it didn't really work out. In the end, he ended up eating what I was eating, and he is deciding to try round two this week. maybe I can be of good use in helping him? Who knows.
We got a new investigator this week! He is actually one of our neighbors. He lives in the same apartment complex, but we didn't know that until after we met with him at the branch building. His name is Andre and he works as a 3D animation film maker, which was pretty interesting to me haha. I guess he works as the graphics leader or something for cartoons? I didn't quite get all what he said. His title was like 10 words long, so I just made that assumption. It was a really cool lesson too. He just had a lot of questions about life, which we answered using the Bible and Book of Mormon. He was really grateful in the end because a lot of his questions were answered that night. He wants to invite us over on Wednesday to meet his family!
That's about it this week! and stuff! Oh wait! Last monday we had an incredible finding experience on the streets. We had no meetings set up, so we talked to people in the center of the city. We kind of wondered off somewhere in the city and were going to make our way back home. Looking at the map, it led us to this detour road that no one was one. Maybe 5 minutes later we saw an older gentleman in laborer clothes. We stopped and talked to him and his eyes were red. We thought, "Okay he either was crying, drunk, or on drugs" Luckily only the first two. He struggled to tell us what was wrong, but told us that his brother had died that morning and that he got drunk to ease the pain. We told him that he could see his brother again and that our message can help him. We walked with him because he wanted us to meet his wife. She wasn't terribly happy to see us, but we told her that we can pray for him right then. She agreed, and my companion said an amazing prayer for that man, and he ended up hugging us crying. His wife didn't want to give us his number, but she gave us the number of her sister for some reason, so we are praying to connect with that man when her sisters comes back to the city.
Okay. That's all. Ha. Well I love you all! The church is true! It's interesting to see: Christ established His church, and persecution was extreme. They all reacted to his loving example with anger. We can see that today, and that is really proof to me that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ once again restored onto Earth!
Love,
Elder Tekulve
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