Novgorod and the World's bumpiest bus!

Interesting Fact - Russia's oldest cathedral is located in a city called Valikiy Novgorod. On Saturday it turned 1150 years old. The city name literally translates to "The Great New City". It is way new! Not reallY!

So this week I was on a lot of exchanges. Elder Barrett and I went down to Novgorod which is about 4 hours east of Pskov. I will first tell you about the road to that great city. There is at least an hour and a half stretch of just straight pot holes and bumps. We are probably going about 10 miles per hour over this deep pot holes. The bus was bouncing so much that you can't read anything, you can't sleep, and can't really think. It was a whole load of fun. haha. But we get there and Novgorod is this pretty big awesome city. I think it is about twice the size of Pskov there and they even have a McDonald's. But we get there and start our exchanges there. We had a service project in the Kremlin there. (Yes Novgorod has a Kremlin, and so does Pskov, and Moscow, and also Kiev. More or less all of the old cities in Russia have kremlins. It was pretty cool serving there. We first we moving tables and chairs because they were preparing for this big celebration on Saturday. We were there on Wednesday and Thursday. Apparently President Putin was coming to town that day, which is pretty exciting for a little (littler) city like Novgorod seeing how Russia is forever and a half enourmous. We then raked up inside the Kremlin. The Kremlin there is a lot nicer and prettier inside with old meeting halls and small fields around inside. We met with a few great families and investigators there in Novgorod on the exchange. There are two Elders there and two Sisters. Elder Branham from St. Louis just recently got called to be the Branch President there in Novgorod because they don't have enough members to find a branch president. That branch is even smaller than ours here in Pskov. Can you imagine that! He is 20 years old and is more or less a bishop. 

So then we take a bus back to Pskov.... On the way back it was about 3 straight hours of intense bumps. The sits in front of me were literally shaken out of place and they didn't remain in place. Aside the terrible bus ride, we get back and continue doing our missionary thing here in Pskov. We went tracting in some small houses out in the outer part of the city of Pskov. I really felt like that that was the REAL Russia. It was in these small dusty streets amongst small cottage looking houses (called Dachas in Russian). I really love this place. I had a moment when I just loved Russia like that a few weeks ago when I had to pick up a few packages for the Pskov branch. I walk into this old building which I think once acted as a Soviet services building, but inside were these run down hallways where there were small businesses. For some reason, inside that old Soviet building, I fell in love with Russia. I love these people. haha I can't really explain why I had that feeling, but it comes once in a while at random times. These are my people! 

This week, we had a lot going on with our investigators and we found 3 new investigators with another kind of in limbo right now as we were unable to set up a return appointment. One of the new investigators was a man named Alexander, who, upon our first visit, took control of the appointment and showed and talked about random stuff and about poetry. He is a very nice and smart man, but a little unfocused. But our second lesson with him started the same way, but I felt like I grabbed (with the Spirit) the lesson by the ears and shook it around. He really couldn't argue with or question my testimony. It was really interesting because he said you can find answers about the book by asking the question and turning to any random page and read any sentence. He asked, "What is The Book Of Mormon", and he turned right to, "Repent, Repent all ye ends of the Earth end be baptized in My name". The Book of Mormon really is the best tool to declare repentence, for us to change, and it helps us come closer to God "by abiding by its precepts more than any other book". But the Spirit was incredibly strong and he was touched in the lesson and we got him to pray at the end and it was one of the most sincere prayers ever. Once we brought in the Spirit, it had already been 40 minutes, we committed him to read and come to chuch and left. I really realized there at that lesson that that was truly teaching PEOPLE and not lessons. Its okay that we didn't teach the whole lesson but just a few points, but the Spirit was there and he was touched.

We have another investigator that we found last week named Andre who is just amazing. He had completely changed his life about 17 years ago and believes and just knows without a doubt that God lives. We had a very powerful lesson with him where he accepted a baptismal date and sincerely desired to become even better and become closer to Heavenly Father. One problem is that he smokes, and we are getting him to commit to take the new Addiction Recovery Program that the Church has. The Senior Couple in Pskov, the Gardiners are actually specialists with this program and have been working with it with others for years. We are going to get started on the program and prepare him for Baptism. He is a professional mushroom hunter. Mushroom hunting here is a PASSION. When it is fall time, it means "WOODS TIME" and search mushrooms like the Hobbits of Old.

Well this week was great. I really am grateful to be a missionary. I am so happy to be here and I love these my people here in Russia. 

Love,

Staryeshina Tekoolviy

Ya tak blagadarin za to shto ya zdec' b Rossiyi. Eta moya lyobimaya strana i eta nye vazhno shto I delyok ot doma siechas. I lyublyu etu rabotu i Gospoda i etikh lyudyei

First Cold in the Field! Yay!

Interesting Fact of Pskov - Every Sunday night, at the statue of Pushkin in the downtown of the city, there is always a gathering of seniors and older couples and they square dance/slow dance. Every sunday. One day, I walked past the riotous group on my way to a meeting, and they were actually listening to some kind of techno, but yet they were still dancing 1940s style. It was tenders.

So this past week, I got sick my first time! Don't worry, it was just a cold. It was my first time getting sick in the field so far in my mission. I got ill once in the MTC, but the MTC and the Field are two COMPLETELY different parts of your mission. But yeah, the cold here in Russia is the same cold back in the U.S., allbeit there is a little more Bear and Siberia in the fact that it's a RUSSIAN cold. 

We tracted a different part of our area this past week that we have been too. We didn't find any cool new investigators that way, but on the way home, we ended up finding a really amazing man who really is prepared; but the problem is that night he is going to Switzerland for 2 months and will be back after that time. He was really interested in our message, and also the Book of Mormon. We gave him one to read in the the travelling time which he gladly accepted. I think it is funny that the Lord will lead you to places at the right time. Maybe you think, Ok, I want to go here to tract/knock on doors, but you were to knock for just enough time to talk to some one else walking the opposite direction on your way back home/somewhere else. The timing of everything is just amazing. Heavenly Father always perfectly sets it up as long as we are ready, prepared, and worthy for such a miracle. God is a God of miracles.

We mostly focused on finding this past week since most of our investigators have disappeared. So we have to kind of start from square one all over again, with the exception of a few investigators we are still working with. As disppointing as it originally was, we have realized that there are still more prepared people in this city of 250,000 people, who will be ready to accept the message and to act on it. We also realized that we did all that we possibly could and right now those people are in the Lord's hands. We did find some really awesome people this week, though. We found a man named Andre and is a mushroom hunter and he invited us over so we could share our message with him, which is very rare here. It was one of the greatest lessons that I have in my mission, where the Spirit was just so strong, and it felt like we understood and were edified with one another. 

Well the work continues here in Pskov and I know things are always going to grow. Of course in a mission, as well as in life, we have those ups and downs, but I always remember that things can and will get better. Prayer is a mighty tool for our benefit; a holy connection that we have with Our Father in Heaven, who knows us perfectly and knows what will and what can happen if we chose the way He wants. This Church is true and this is the Work of the Lord. I am so grateful that I am a missionary that I can represent the Savior in all that I do and say. It is a blessing and a priveledge in itself. I love it here, I love Russia, and I love these people with all my heart.

Oh, and of course I love you guys too! 

Love,

Elder Tekulve

THE SAINT PETERSBURG STAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you can see in the title of this email something REALLY awesome happened this week. Since my last email, we went back up to St. Petersburg for a special District Conference with Elder Nelson from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He had come by assignment to establish a Stake of Zion in St. Petersburg, Russia. He came with President Lawrance, the Area President, and Elder Senkans from the Seventy. On September 9th, 2012, the first St. Petersburg Russian Stake was created. This really is a historic day. This is the second stake here in Russia, but it will soon be one of MANY stakes here in this awesome country. They had called a new Stake President (the previous acting stake President being President Clark, the Mission President) with his councellors, and they called 6 new Bishops (previously being branch presidents before), called a  new stake high council, high priests, and a Stake Patriarch. They is this new spiritual strength here now in St. Petersburg. It really was an amazing experience. When they were announcing this at the conference, the Spirit was incredibly strong. It was almsot electrifying. I can't really explain it, because no words can really experience the spiritual strength that was felt. 

Many many many prayers were answered this day. Thousands of prayers from thousands of Russian members, from missionaries, and from mission presidents. The next step in this whole process now is preparing and building a temple. I can't describe how happy I am to be part of this growth in the Church in this part of the world. The difference of a district and a stake is enormous. Now there is a high council of high priests. There is a stake patriarch so now they don't need to wait for a year for the area patriarch to fly in from SLC. There is a Stake President who isn't preoccupied trying to lead an army of missionaries, or so to speak. But now we can see what it means now for this mission. President Clark has more time now to focus on the missionaries and the mission. He handed over the keys to the new Stake President, President Andrei Klimash, and now President Clark is only in charge of missionaries and 4 mission branches: Petrozavodsk, Novgorod, Kaliningrad, and Pskov. Pretty much all of the far branches that take forever and a half to travel to. There is this new fire that is unquenchable here now. 

WE GOT A STAKE!!!!!!! Elder Nelson said it is Stake number 2980. Ah goodness. I don't really know what else to say. The Church is true. This is Jesus Christ's church and he is leading this chuch through His servants, the Prophets and Apostles. There is no doubt that this Church will just grow here in Russia. This place is thirsting for the truth as they had been kept from the truth, or even knowledge about God, for such a long time. Elder Nelson also explained the story on how the Church got recognition in the USSR, back in 1990. It was a miracle story that involved missionaries baptizing the Russian people in Hungary, Finland, and other countries, all of who just so happened to be a part of the government district in Leningrad, USSR (or today, St. Petersburg, Russia), and because they had enough people, the USSR recognized the Church as a religious organization. And because of that, missionaries were able to come to this beautiful land to teach these beautiful people. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

Today is an incredibly awesome day. That's all I really gotta say today haha.

I love you all! The Church is true!!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

A Gamechange in Pskov, Zone Conference and the Pink Bus

Interesting Fact - I learned that there is a certain type of fly in the city/area of Petrozovodsk (7 hours north of St. Petersburg) that bites people during the summer. It doesn't just bite people, it actually takes a big chunk of skin out of said victim and flies away. Apparently you will fill a sting and look at current wound to see blood. Don't worry, because it didn't happen to me. I am much far away from this monsterous creature. 

The most memorable part of this week was that there was a BIG change in the Pskov branch this weekend. Since it is a mission branch and doesn't belong to a stake or district, President Clark acts as the Stake President for this branch. So he came this last weekend and I was his companion for most of the day. We met with actives and mostly inactives all around Pskov. I was his little translator like the good ol' days when I was in St. Pete. He called a new Branch President who is still fresh from his mission from which he got back last December. His name is Ilya Karzharskiy and he is a champ. Ilya and President Clark got together and gave callings to ALL members who met with and others he didn't. There were two inactive men, Anatoly and Dmitri that haven't been active for years. They have showed up to church every once in a while, but they are inactive still. We met with those two men and committed them to receive a calling. They both came to chruch, both accepted callings, and are ready to serve and come back. The Dmitri man was more of a miracle in my opinion. He had been angry with the church, was in a rut in his life, inactive, unhappy, and then President Clark and I knock on his door. He wasn't expecting either of us to stop by, but he left us in, and his heart was softened. He said he would come back and accept a calling. It was way amazing to see and to participate in. The more miracle of the story is that at that time, we were supposed to meet with two other people but they had cancelled, so instead, I had the idea to try to stop by via SURPRISE attack. And it worked. The next Sunday, President Clark ordained and set apart 20+ callings. Now our little branch is a more functioning branch! It was amazing. We had about 27 people come this week. The amazing part, was when I translating at the podium for President Clark to release the current Branch President, the Spirit was so strong. It confirmed to me and everyone in that room that the Branch President had served faithfully and honorably and that his sacrifice in his service was accepted. It was one of the more amazing moments that I have seen on my mission where the Spirit was strong.

We had Zone Conference this week. It is nice not having to organize every little detail of those conferences and worrying about the travel of other missionaries and organizing where they will stay and go and so on. So I got to be a normal missionary for once during a Zone Conference! It was great and I got really fired up. That night we got back and talked to a lot of great prepared people all over St. Petersburg. I forgot how awesome that city is. There are so many people; millions of prepared people. We just got of find them!  Oh to add, the bus which we took this last week was a bright bright pink. By destiny, the same bus we drove into St. Petersburg, drove us back to Pskov 2 days after that. 

I love being a missionary. I love Russia. I love this language, and I love these people. This Church is true and this really is the Lord's work. 

I love you all! Until next week!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

P.s. Shout out to the HAYLE HAM who got called to DONETSK UKRAINE! Поздравляем!!!! Я рад за Тебя! И за твоё желание служить Господу! Seriously! I have a Russian buddy now! If you be reading this, you will soon realize that Russian is an amazing language, that these people are amazing, and that is where you are supposed to be!!

The Classic Olga, New Elders, and the Byechislav

This week was a great one! A few notable things are that we got new elders that moved in with us on Monday. Elder Sherman and Elder Starostin. I was at the airport when Elder Starostin came in in May. It's crazy how fast time flies! We saw a lot of success this last week finding some really great people to teach.

 

 To start, I need to mention that I had to translate for some financial training an Elder Cook did from Moscow. He came into Pskov to teach the members about finances and I translated. A member brought his friend, Olga, to this training. She was given a Book of Mormon and this last week, we met with her and her friend Oleg. She is good nice girl who is really wanting to know more about Christ. We set a baptismal date on the 15th of September to get her ready to make those steps to become closer to Our Savior. We met this other man named Oleg (just coincidence) who works inside this parking lot hut thing. It reminded me of the good painful ol' days of working in the parking lots of Camelot being bored to death. Luckily for Oleg, he has a little shack. I had a barrel and a barstool. Camelot! So of course this man invited us inside the shack of parking lot wonder and let us teach him. He is a really really sincere guy who has gone through a lot. Probably one of the nicest guys that I have met here. But he taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. He came to church yesterday and we had a Gospel Principles lesson with him. He asked in the very beginning a question about baptism, so we decided to change our plans from teaching the next lesson in the Gospel Principles book to talk about Baptism. He also is very eager to be baptized and agreed to be baptized on the 15th of September as well.

 

We are still working with our previous new investigators who are also progressing. One of the couples we are working with, Alexandr and Alyona, are doing awesomly. They came totally prepared in the last weeks lesson and want to meet some more. There are people coming out of the woodworks here and it's almost too much to handle. I don't think I have taught peope this much in my mission so far. I am really really really loving it here, and that really is an understatement. It's pretty interesting to notice that for the first half of your mission you are learning to become a good missionary. You practice, you learn, you study, and than you put everything that you have learned into action, and things start happening that weren't happening before. It really is an amazing feeling to see that you are really just a tool in the Lord's hands.

 

The new convert Byechislav was given to us to continue to teach. He really is such a cool man. He was given Priesthood a week ago and is just so ready to help out the branch. Yesterday, we practiced with him blessing and preparing the Sacrament. It was actually kind of hilarious because he wanted to practice as close to the real thing. He told the pianist, Ilya, to play an opening hymn, and we practice on hymn books "breaking" the invisible bread and blessing it. He really is such a cool guy and I am glad I have the opportunity to teach him after his baptism. Although I didn't find and teach him, I am just glad that I can support him even in this critical time. I am not sure if you remember, but last summer we were teaching a new convert the new convert lessons which was awesome as well. It was a new convert named Egor who is 19 and is now planning to go on a mission. His mom's summer house is in Pskov, and he actually came to church with his mom a few weeks ago. I was really happy to see him.

 

I realized that you really make so many cool friends on your mission. With members, nonmembers, new members, investigators, people on the street, babooshkas, taxi drivers. I can't believe that time really is winding down which is really disturbing me, I guess you can say haha. Well fall is about to kick in, which means rain, rain, rain. I am glad I am not in St. Pete during the fall. Its really quite windy there. The only news coming up is that President Clark is coming down with the assistants to do some recalling and reorganizing of this branch. It really is struggling, but nonetheless I love this little branch. It's like family. Yesterday, only 14 people came to church, 4 missionarys, 3 investigators, and 7 members. So we are going to make some changes and get this branch going.

 

That's all I can really remember about this past week. I made Hawaiian Hay stacks for the Elders in my apartment. Also Mom's Pasta Salad. Talk about tasty tastes.

 

That's about it ! I love you all! The church is true!

 

Love,

Elder Tekulve

 

P.S. - Give a big hello to the Rick Francis and Braeden Carter who just got back from their missions! If you have the Russian strength, give them a bear hug. Hello my American Friends!

More Rain, Pskov, New Transfer!

So this is the last week of yet another transfer. They are just flying by like geese. It is rather scary to be completely honest. It feels like 2 days ago when I was washing the blackboards at the MTC with some vinegar spray on a Friday night before we went back to our dorms. (Yeah, I know. Random memory. But yeah, it did happen). But I am so grateful to be here in this mission, in this city, at this time. This is a beautiful place where the people are just amazing. Their hearts are so full, and our role is to touch their hearts for it to turn back to Our God, and to praise Him. 

Anywho, while everyone is having a ball on the great lakes of Powell, I have sent some pictures! We stopped by the Kremlin today before we went to internet today. It actually is right outside of our apartment, but it was pretty cool to see. Well some explanations:

 1. Before we did service at this grandma's summer thatch. I was trying to do the Russian smile. I can't do it. My companion can though.

 2. Our district with the new convert, Byechislav!

 3. It says "I heart Pskov!"

 4. That is the main Russian Orthodox temple inside the Kremlin

 5.  again.

6. minus thumbs

So this week we stopped by a lot of addresses of less actives, previous investigators, and actives. We stopped by an address we had of a man named Yuri Priobrezhenskiy that we met a few weeks ago. Yesterday apparently was the Day of Transfiguration, and his last name means "The Translated", so we put the two and two together and stopped by his place last night. I have never seen someone so excited to see me before. He was so incredibly happy to see us that he just wanted to sit and talk all night long. We had only ten minutes before we had to run to another meeting with a man named Serkis. But we set up a meeting this week with him and his wife who are just the greatest. They are 75 and 71 but they act like they are 20. It is hilarious haha. 

We had a great meeting with that man Serkis last night as well. He is from Armenia and has a very strong faith in Christ. Everything he says is in harmony with the restored gospel. When we taught about the Great Apostasy, I compared it to a vase, which is filled with water. It was as if the vase was dropped and it broke on the floor. All that was left were pieces of the vase, big and small, but not a full vase to hold the water, or in other words, the Priesthood Authority that has been restored through a Prophet. They are as many pieces of the vase as there are churches in the world. Everything clicked in his mind and he grew very excited to know more. We were actually running out of time, because the one thing about time is that it goes incredible fast, so we set up another meeting with him this Friday. He is a great man. 

There were a lot of people that we stopped by with and I can probably go on and on about them all but I will try to keep it a minimum, as much as 40 minutes can give me. We got our transfer calls this weekend. I am still training Elder Barrett, but we are getting two new elders moving in, and the other two moving out. Soon there are going to open up an area for the sisters, and we got a senior couple moving in as well. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, I had to shop for apartments this week. I had to dive into the realm of real estate and "home" shopping. It wasn't the funnest, but it needed to be done. I got called to be district leader, which is new. I have never been a District Leader before, which will be fun! Pskov is transforming into a real area with a real district, which is awesome to see such growth. Things are really picking up in St. Petersburg as well. I will let you know when I can with what is going on. But things are amazing here. I love it.

The Chruch is true, and it always has been. I love being a missionary.

Love,

Elder Tekulve

The Nikolais and the Day Trip to Saint Petersburg

Interesting Fact - Russians love cowboy hats. 

Well this week was actually a really awesome one. In the beginning, we weren't having too much success. A lot of our lessons that we had set up with people fell through. This was a pattern that carried on from last week. It happened almost everyday, and it really was wearing us out. I just remember one day this week, where I felt like that we can't find anyone to teach today. It was a bummer day, but that night, before I went to bed, I plead with Heavenly Father to help us find people to teach, to help those come to those lessons, to have them feel the Holy Ghost and sincerely want to know more. The next day, we were blessed with just that, as we met with 2 new investigators, Nikolai Nikolaovich, and another Nikolai whom we named Nikolia Champ. They are sincerely interested in knowing more and they are incredibly nice men. We meet Nikolai champ a few weeks ago, and after our 4 minute talk on the street, he came by with his Explorer and picked us up and talked some more. He came to church last Sunday and was rather confused what was going on, but was interested to know more. The other Nikolai, we also met on the street. He is another very sincere nice man who likes talking to us. Both of their lessons that day were excellent with such a strong Spirit, and it really was answer to prayer. 

 We also met with another new investigator named Anatoli who we talked to our 2nd day here in Pskov. We met in a park with him in Pskov with a member returned missionary who is still on fire from his mission. It was a pretty interesting lesson as well because this Anatoli knows the Bible incredibly well and does not associate himself with any Church because there is something not all true in each. We explained the Apostasy with him which he had a problem understanding, but once he did, he understood very well. It was kind of a miracle as well, because the meeting started out with him wanting to give us back the Book of Mormon we gave him on the street that first week we were here, but in the end, he had a desire to read it and to know if it is true. The powerful point of the lesson was when he prayed at the end to know if this is true. He is still working for his answer, but he teared up at the end because he understands that prayer is a communication; a conversation with our Heavenly Father, of which people believe and understand differently here. It was wonderful.

My companion is awesome! Elder Barrett picks up on all of the strange sayings I say here. It is hilarious to hear. I am a big fan of saying words in Russian that don't mean a thing and try to formulate sentences out of it. He has picked up on it as well and speaks like a Russian (In Russian, there are a lot of thinking words like "like" "um" "so"). It's pretty hilarious to hear some times. He also picks up on my strange English phrasing, namely my great habit of shortening words and adding "S" to the end of words. 

We had to do a day trip to St. Petersburg and back. We had to take a bus about 7 hours into the city, with traffic, go through the metro, have some interviews, take care of some visa things, and then race back to the Bus Station and take another 6 hour bus back. We were in the city all for 3 hours I think, including travel in the metro and trams. We were hoping to have a little more time so we weren't running around the city. We had to buy some Subway sandwiches and literally ran to the bus station with 5 minutes to spare before our bus left, leaving us 5 minutes to stuff sandwiches down our throats. It was a memorable little trip haha, but I am glad to back in Pskov not having to worrying about backing such kind of trips for a LONG time. Back in work!

Well that's about it for this week! The Church is true. This message is true and it can bless, it will bless, and it IS blessing lives all over the world. 

Love,

Elder Tekulve