Monday, November 19, 2012

New Transfer and I am 21 now. Strange.


Interesting Fact - The blue stamp here in Russia is very important. Any kind of important document (identification, registration, contracts, etc.) require a stamp of the organization and it MUST be in blue ink. Blue stamps are super vazhno, as they say.

I had a great week this week, let me not lie. Although we had to go to Peter, and had a little funny luggage mishap while there, this still was a great week with a lot of teaching opportunities. I guess to start out, our trip to Peter was kind of a miracle too. We have a new convert named Slava, or Byachislav, here in Pskov. About 3 months after his baptism he had disappeared and hadn't been to church for a long time. We had found out that he had been evicted out of his house and was staying at some babooshka's apartment who happened to be very against the church. She was going to kick him out as well if he went to church or did anything church related. During this time, it was very difficult to get a hold of him. Our Branch President had known that this was going on and had a plan to try to find him a new place to stay near members, which he did. All that was needed was a copy of Slava's ID to register to live in a new apartment. Anyway, after 6 weeks of trying to get a hold of him, and not seeing him ever, he called us on Tuesday, right as we were about to leave our apartment to the bus station to go to St. Pete. We had about an hour and a half before our bus left but he called and wanted to meet. He eventually got kicked out of the apartment. But anyway, he wanted and wants to come to church but that was preventing him. So met with him at the bus station, and now he is back. He came to church this Sunday. That was probably the coolest thing that happened this week.

So we get to Peter, and it is 8 o' clock at night and we have no place to keep Elder Sherman's luggage and no food to eat, so we park our stuff right outside the assistant's apartment and sat Russian style eating Armenian bread (lavash) and frozen butter. It was actually very tasty. On Wednesday, I got a new companion, an Elder George! He is a great elder who is kind of hilarious. On Wednesday, when we were trying to make it to a bus back to Pskov, they had no more tickets left. So we had to go across the city with luggage and in the rain to a senior couple's apartment and stay there for the night. Good thing I knew St. Petersburg well enough to get where I needed to go. We probably walked for about an hour, but it just was hilarious to me. Transfer days probably look hilarious to the normal viewer. These missionaries in suits lugging luggage all over the city, and even in the metro, which is the weirdest thing to see. 

So we wake up at 5, and left to Pskov, finally! We have had some cool stuff going on. A lot of lessons that were not planned. We just went and stopped by our investigators. We met with the Priobryezhenskiys (The Transfigureds) and a few other investigators this past week. We also stopped by our good friend, Oleg, to cut some more firewood. It's getting darker and darker every week we go. The sun doesn't come up fully now until about 10 in the morning. The Russian black nights begin.

Yesterday was my birthday. Yeah! Mission birthdays are just like any other day. Although, the whole branch knew it was my birthday. The branch president gave me a MP3 disk of all of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir music, which I was really stoked for. I have grown to really really like Motab on my mission, since that is the only stuff we can listen to haha. Another babooshka in the branch gave me a chocolate bar and pinched my ears. I was alarmed. Her hands were cold. And then I taught Sunday School from the book of Ether, which was a lot of fun. Someone had made brownies, and then we took some pictures. Probably one of the funnest sundays on my mission haha.

We stopped by our favorite investigator Sergay and his wife last night. We had one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever had on my mission. It was about the Plan of Salvation and the understanding we can get from it. He is a great brother that has changed so much since I have been meeting with him. I will try to upload some pictures today but I cannot guarantee anything. This is the slowest computer in the library and it throwds is in D's randomly when it is not convenient ddddddddd that just happened on it's own. ddddddddddd so did that.

Anyway, we had a great week and the work continues. I love being missionary even if things don't work out how you want it to, this is still the work of the Lord and his Hand is ever present. The Church is the only true and living Church of Jesus Christ in the world.

Love,
Elder TEkulve

Monday, November 5, 2012

Novgorod... again! Moving apartments, and Operation Knockout

Interesting Fact - The old soviet holidays are still celebrated today but with different names. Today is the Day of Unity, but it used to be the Soviet Revolution Day.

This week, we spent most of our time moving. We have moved to a different apartment and we still are not finished moving the mission's stuff over to our new apartment. We have been living in this apartment for 3 days without beds. (We are moving the beds today). I felt like most of this week was packing and cleaning and moving around in the snow. We also went to Novgorod this week (4 hours east of Pskov). Novgorod is part of my zone here. We had to do a Zone Training again for this month. Once we got back from Novgorod, all of the snow has melted here in Pskov, so now it is a muddy mess all over the place.. yay! :)

Well that was the bulk of this week to be honest, but some very cool stuff happened this week. First off, we finally met with Karl this week. We taught him the message of the Restoration of which he asked a very golden question "How do you know that Joseph Smith really did see God the Father and Jesus Christ?" That testimony came through testing the waters. I read the fruit of the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, with a promise that if you read, ponder, and pray with a sincere heart and real intent, having Faith in Christ, that God will answer. "By the fruits ye shall know them". Karl really understands incredibly well and know he has a desire to read the Fruit of the Restoation to really know for himself if Joseph Smith really was a prophet and that this it the Kingdom of God once again established on the Earth.

Well anyway, we also had a great lesson with our investigator Stepan. He has been slowly doing progress and this last weekend we did something called Operation Knockout. We got a few of our members in our branch together on our meeting with Stepan and did a testimony meeting how they all came to know the truth of this message, this Church, and the Book of Mormon. It was a powerful lesson we had with Stepan and we set a baptismal date with for next Saturday which he hasn't fully said yes, but he will pray and ponder before that date. We are planned to make as much contact as we can so he can be ready by this Saturday. He honestly is ready, he just needs to have the desire to be baptized. He comes to church every week. 

Also! We cut some more firewood this week at our less active brother's old dacha. Cutting wood is incredibly fun for some reason. I am a big fan! On our way back, we were planning to take a small bus back to Pskov (it is 30 minutes away), but we missed the bus, so we did the nice hitchhiking trick back to Pskov. It was my first time! Now don't worry because the guy was incredibly nice, allbeit that every other word he said was some form of a Russian cuss word. But when we left, the neighbors asked the less-active brother about those two men cutting wood. He told them that we were missionaries and now his neighbors are really interested in meeting us and hearing our message. It's a potential family of four!! I really can't wait to meet them, so I hope that it works out.

Things are really looking up here in Pskov with a lot of cool miracles happening right and left. I love being a missionary and sharing this message with everyone.
The Church is True!

Love,
Elder Tekulve

Winter Came Early

Interesting Fact - St Petersburg is the furthest north metropolitan city.

Winter came early! We were out on the streets contacting in the rain. And then the rain turned into snow, and the snow stuck and it is everywhere! It snowed incredibly early this year wheras last year it wasn't until the mid-end of December that it finally start snowing. Needless to say it has gotten really cold really fast. I am already in my thick winter coat haha. The thousands of thermals that I have received in packages are coming much more in use lately compared to last winter. I really like the winter actually. It has a really awesome feel to it here in Russia. I think of all the seasons, winter was my favorite here, which is weird because I hate the cold. Summer is just too hot. In spring I am sneezing too much. Fall is too muddy and I have to clean my shoes and pants every day. Winter is just too cold but, hey it's better than the other two in my opinion haha.

Well this week was a good one. We got a lot of our investigators to church this week which happened to be a cool miracle. To start off explaining this, we have a less active brother named Oleg who lives in very trying circumstances. After about 2 weeks of searching for him, and trying to get a hold of him,we were finally able to get a hold him! He needed help cutting firewood so we got together with the branch president and left really early in the morning and took a train to him (he lives in a neighboring village about 30 minutes ago). We got our jeans on and grabbed some axes and chopped away. Cutting firewood is incredibly fun, by the way. I am a big fun. Maybe i should just live in a cottage somewhere in the woods. So after about 2 hours of cutting wood, he was incredibly thankful and was committed to come to church the next day. We brought with him two friends, one of which we are already teaching who is actually really interested. So we go to church, 2 of investigators that usually come are there: Stepan who is really close to a baptismal date, and the Karl, which is alwasy a pleasure to see him. (By the way, he has the strongest handshake I have ever experienced. It is fairly intimidating, but he is a joyful old guy!) And then a couple we have been working with showed up as well! The Priobrizhenski's, which means Transfigured. So the Transfigured family came to chuch as well! Our little branch had 21 come to church this week which is a lot for Pskov. I think at its height of activity, there was 30 somerthing members coming to church. I love this little branch. It's just like a family here.

We also had a great experience serving on another dacha (cottage) for one of our babooshka investigators, Glefera. She is a funny little lady. She is convinced that a pervious Elder Albee that served in Pskov is going to become the President of the United States in a decade or two. She is honestly a little riot. She is so funny and she just teaches us Russian as we pull weeds and carrots. She used to be a Russian teacher and so she makes sure that our pronunciation is perfect. We had another branch activity this week at another babooshkas place. We did a nice spiritual thought about repentance. 

We did a lot of finding this week and had a few interesting experiences searching for previous investigators that live in old Soviet Communal apartments. I love it here in Russia, but I love the privacy that we do enjoy back in the states. I sometimes forget that I am in a country that once was the USSR. This used to be so forbidden for Americans to walk the streets in this country, but now I am here preaching the Restored Gospel. The past 20 years for this country have been dramatic, especially relative to the growth of the Church here in Russia. It grows one heart at a time. 

I love being a missionary and I know without a doubt that this church is true!
Love,
Elder Tekulve