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!
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