Frost and the Old New Year 2013

Interesting Fact - There is a popular trend here in Russia. It is the 24 hour flower shop. They have them all over the cities; a flower shop that never closes, in case you need to get that last minute rose at 4 in the morning.

There were many awesome miracles this week. Seeing how I wrote last Wednesday, since Wednesday we have been incredibly busy. We found a family to teach this week! They are actually the neighbors of our investigator Karl, and they are incredibly interested in our Church. It is a family 6, the father Sergay, the wife Yulia, and their 4 young daughters. I have been praying and searching for the past 7 months to find and teach a family here in Pskov. They are incredibly interested in how the Church and the Gospel blessed families. We showed the husband the primary room, which goes unoccupied on Sundays because of the lack of children in the branch, but it made him even more excited to bring his family. We had a great meeting with him and and his family last Thursday, albeit a little loud, with 3 young children running around, a strange uncle, other things, etc. But the Spirit was there and Sergay prayed awesomely in the end.

We also found a few other awesome investigators, namely Volodya and Vladimir out of no where.Vladimir invited us to his work place the next day at the hospital and we met and taught him there. We invited Volodya to the branch to take a look and also sat down and had a great meeting. (Well, at this time, I was on an exchange with another elder teaching that family, but the other elders found Volodya). Volodya then came to church for 2 hours, and Sergay eventually came for the last 20 minutes of the 3rd hour. Our investigator from Moldova came back from Moscow and we had the chance to teach him again. He is about 50 something pages into the Book of Mormon now. 

So last night was the Old New Year. Well today is, rather. It is not a terribly big holiday, but it was once celebrated back in the day before they adapted to the modern calender. There was a lot of frost all over the trees yesterday which made Pskov look rather remarkable. The trees were all white and beautiful. Last night, we met with some of our other investigators Sergay and Raya. Sergay has recently fallen back to alcoholism, so we got there, woke him up, and did a power atonement/power plan for him to quit and to realize that he is sick. He has difficulty admitting that he doesn't need alcohol, because he had been an alcoholic for 33 years, but had quit for another 3 years, and recently fell back in old dangerous habits. He was really grateful that we stopped by and are there to help him. We are meeting again soon.

The more and more I have lived here in Russia, the more my testimony about the Word of Wisdom grows. The difference of someone who lives the Word of Wisdom and someone who doesn't is black and white here. I know with all my heart that was indeed revelation given to Joseph Smith almost 200 years ago. Our bodies are indeed temples.

That is about it for this week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

I survived New Year's!

Interesting Fact - When you weigh your fruit, you got to weigh it yourself and print this sticker from a machine that you put on your bag, and then they scan it when you check out. They sometimes sell pre-weighed fruit. One time I spent 20 dollars on 4 apples because I didn't realize they weighed it wrong. I got my money back, of course, but I was in shock when my 4 apples costed 600 rubles, weighing 7 kilograms. 

So this week, we found ourselves talking to a lot of people! We hit the turf this week and did a lot of finding and street contacting. It was the post-holiday season, meaning the hang-over season and we got a lof of interesting reactions to our procelyting activities this week, but nothing is bringing us down here in Pskov. I really do love this place and I love these people and I am doing all that I can do help them. This last monday we had to stay inside most of the day to stay out of the partying crowds for New Years. I finished the Old Testament finally! I didn't get to finish in 2012 unfortunately, but I am glad I am done. That book was rather intense. Ezekiel has been quite the endurance test.

We found a really awesome new investigator this week. His name is German and is around my age. He has like 8 cars or something like that and just loves everything to do with cars. We had an awesome lesson with him and a member and taught him the Restoration. We really tried to explain it to his level, which was a lot of fun. At the end, he understood really well and made the comment, "Why doesn't everyone understand this?" We haven't been able to meet with him in a while because of our conflicting schedules, but our investigator and that member have been talking a lot on Facebook. The member fellowshipper even taught him how to prayer! I really love this branch. All of the active members are so solid and do so much to help out.

We a funny little meeting with Karl. We took him over to the senior couple's apartment to have them get to know each other. Karl is just.. Karl. But I love him to death. He doesn't really want to hear the gospel, but loves the people in the branch, loves the missionaries, and loves coming to church. He finds everything so interesting. So we tried to get him to meet the senior couple here and the conversation got kind of political as I was translating for both him and the senior couple. It was actually pretty hilarious, but we kindly changed the subject to something more gospel-related... like families! Karl and the Gardiners and some branch members got together again last night, while we were in Petersburg. Karl came to church this last sunday and wants us to meet his neighbor who is interested in hearing the message. He has 7 children. I have been looking for a family to teach my whole mission. Maybe the Lord led me to Karl to find this family? We will be meeting with them tomorrow.

We had a great sunday this last week. We had investigator come with a friend, and Yan come who hasn't come for 4 months or so. The Gardiners took him and has family iceskating and I think he is starrting to open up since then. That's great success! We had 22 people at church which is a lot for us haha. I love these little branches. They are just great.

We went to Peter and back this past few days, which explains my absence of writing. It was great to go back to my old area. We met with one of my favorite families in Center, the Bagdasrayans. We had a great spiritual thought about repentance and the Assistants there are helping them share the gospel with their friends. I had my last visa trip yesterday. I was with Elder Clark during the trip which was nice. He is my first companion in the MTC, and it was great to catch up with him. I haven't talked to him in some time. That's about it for this week!

The Church is true without a doubt. I know that with all my heart. I know that I am on the Lord's errand and I am so blessed to be here in Russia.

Love,
Elder Tekulve

New Year Madness and Building a Bed

Interesting Fact - again, I will repeat this one from maybe last week or the last year's email. New Year's is the BIGGEST holiday in Russian, with Victory Day in second place. We have to go inside and stay inside at 5 tonight to stay away from the crowds and crowds of people.

So this week, we didn't have too many teaching opportunities, with the exception of our Moldovan friend, Yulan (Julian in English). He is incredibly sincere and really wants to know that Jesus Christ really is his Savior. He explained that he is thirsting for something in his life and really wants to know if the Book of Mormon really is true. I don't think I have taught someone with that much of a desire. He is awesome. He is left to Moscow yesterday, but should be coming back on the 8th or 9th. We hope to make contact with him throughotu the week. Honestly it feels like weeks are flying by and I really don't remember what happened this week or last week. Time really is a funny thing.

I think I told you on Christmas that I made this big rice dish called Plov for Christmas. It's this Uzbekistani dish with carrots, onions, and chicken. It's probably one of my favorite things to eat here in Russia. That and Borsht. Holy smokes! Well we have been eating that pretty much all week this week. It's fun training a new missionary again, because I get to show him all of the treats and foods of Russia. He is highly allergic to peanuts, like Kyle was, so he has to avoid some things and I am constantly reading the ingredients in our foods to make sure there are no peanuts haha. But luckily, you have to really search hard for peanuts in Russia. The strange custom of eating peanuts at sport events or  at texas stake houses aren't terribly practiced here. So good for Elder Abbott!

On Saturday, we had an interesting service opportunity. Our new convert, Byachislav recently moved to a new place without any kind of bed. So we got him a roll up mattress and then got pieces of wood and built him a bed. While he was at work, a few members of our branch, namely the Babooshki, the Senior Couple, and we all went into his apartment to build this bed from scratch. Luckily Elder Gardiner (the senior couple missionary) is a Aerospace Engineer and knows how to build stuff, so under his direction and the leadership and devotion of Sister Vera Pavelna (the coolest Babooshka in Pskov), we built Byachislav a pretty sturdy bed. It failed it's first test with one of testing it and having it snap.... But we enhanced and now Mr. Byachislav has a great bed to sleep on. The fun thing about this project was transporting the pieces on over to his place. We had to stand in a PACKED bus with pieces of 2x4 and bags of tools for 20+ minutes. The bus was far more packed than any metro ride in St. Petersburg.

Like in America with the last minute shoppers for Christmas presents, they are thousands of last minutes shoppers here in Russia shopping for New Year presents. All of the malls and markets are just packed. It's relatively warm now in Pskov. +3 degrees celsius which is 30 something. So there is a lot of slush and water, but the air is a lot more tolerable. The windchill doesn't rip your face off right now... How great a blessing! hahaa

Well that's it for this week! I love you all. I know this Church is true and that this is a gospel of change and progression. We can progress and become better everyday. The New Year is a great way to set those goals to improve and become a better disciple of Christ. I have got some goals for next week, and a goal that I set last New Year's that I need to finish... I need to finish the Old Testament! I have 100 pages left.... Wish me luck!

Love,

Elder Tekulve