Interesting Fact - Russians never sit on the ground. Instead they do the Russian squat. It's actually pretty difficult to get down, but I have successfully mastered the Russian squat. It's not the usual squat where you are on your toes, but the whole foot is on the ground and you balance your weight on your thighs. It's really hard to explain. The crazy thing is that they can sit for hours and hours and talk and smoke with each other. But sitting on the sidewalk is a big no-no. You gotta squat.
This week, we saw a lot of good stuff happening in our area. The only downer is that our investigator Kostya didn't come to church yesterday which means that he can't be baptized on the 15th. He couldn't afford the 2 hour trip to Pskov, which I understand. There is still a lot of hope for our main man Kostya! So with the bad news first, there was a lot of great things that happened this week!
We had set up a meeting with a man named Misha this last Thursday. We get to our meeting spot and he brought 2 friends, Genya and Vova. So we sat down in our branch building and taught the Restoration and it was perhaps one of the most spiritual lessons ever. It turned out, when we had contacted Misha on the street, he had actually gave us Genya's number, and that Vova was just there by accident. But Gennya is the one who is the most interested of the three. He actually came to church with us yesterday and sat in for all 3 hours, with a smoke break outside after each hour. He is a great guy who is incredibly interested. He really wants to find true meaning and peace in his life and when he heard about the Book of Mormon, he had the strongest desired to know more and to read it. He called us last night actually to wish us a good night and to see when we can meet again. He has a STRONG desire to follow Christ in his life and change for the better. That desire is the best way to break any addiction. I am not worried about him quiting smoking. To quote the hippie priest in Casper, "It will be a piece of cake... piece of crumb cake."
We met with our newer investigator, Sergay, who had called us his himself a few times this week. He has had some psychological trauma but he is a sweet spirit. He came to church this weekend as well and thoroughly enjoyed it. He gets really nervous in bigger groups so if it wasn't for the Mission Driver, Bishop Balashov (Bishop in the St. Pete Stake), he would have had a terrible experience. President and Sister Clark came to Pskov this weekend and went to church with us all. Pskov really is the coolest branch. I love it here. It's the best non-blood family I got in Russia. But anyway, Bishop Balashov just loved the trash out of Sergay and Sergay really loved church.
It's getting colder and colder everyday! That's why we got thermals. It's funny, I have already used my thermals and boots more this winter than last winter. This is gonna be a great cold-baloo. The boots I got last year were a bit too much for Peter in a very week winter, but they are perfect here because we are literally treaded through a foot of snow everywhere we go. Even on sidewalks, well the places that were once sidewalks.
This was a great week! We are going to Novgorod this Thursday do some exchanges and zone training. The Church is true! Tserkov' Iisusa Khrista - sammaya istinaya Tserkov' ha zemle, i Kniga Mormona est' Slovo Boga a Plod' Vosstanovlenniya Yevangiliya Iisusa Khrista. Josef Smit byl Prorokom Boga!
So Lyubov'yu,
Staryeishina Tekol'vi
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