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