Novgorod trip... again!

Dear Family!

This week we had yet another trip to Novgorod and back.. I think I was done with those 3 months ago... Nevertheless we had a good time working there. I had to conduct a Zone Training meeting there, which is always fun. Novgorod is about 4 hours east of Pskov. It's a bigger city than Pskov, but it is just an ant compared to St.Petersburg. Fact - There are even two McDonald's in Novgorod, Russia.

Our Investigator Kostya is progressing SOOO much! He was supposed to be scheduled on the 15th to be baptized, but it changed to the 22nd, but now it needs to be changed again to the 29th. He is so set on being baptized, but the problem is coming to church. He has to come at least twice to qualify for baptizing. He was set on coming this weekend, but his aunt passed away this weekend and he had to go to a funeral, which is an excuse that I am not going to push. He is still strong amongst all of this and he has such a strong desire to be baptized. He has agreed to live by the Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, and Law of Tithing. He is set! We met with him a few times this week, which was always a pleasure.

We have another man, named Sergay, who we are working with who is very close to baptism. We had two super lessons this week with him and our branch members. We call those super meetings "Operation Knockout". We had this super awesome lesson with Sergay about the Word of Wisdom and we had 3 members to support him. He has some struggles with tobacco and alcohol but he really wants to quit it all. We had him say three times "I will not drink!" and then we had him take his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and crumple them and then throw them away. It was way fun actually haha

We also met with our pals Misha and Genya this week. Well, we had a nice walk with them around town in the cold. We are meeting with them tonight, but we hope to set some solid baptismal dates this week. 

Last Preperation Day we went to the Zoo! It was basically just two rooms in this building and some cages with a few monkeys. It was great. I can't get the computer to upload pictures, as usual. So I will try next week. 

I love you all! Soon it will be Christmas! How grand!

I know this church is true!

Love,

Elder Tekulve

I forgot to mention..So we got our transfer calls this week. I am staying in Pskov for my 5th transfer, and I will be training a brand new missionary.... named Elder Abbott!! I guess Tyler gets to serve a second mission in St. Pete with his pal Dsu.

Icicle-ville and the Genya

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

Snow!!!! Ugol Chudyes (Corner of Miracles!)

Interesting Fact - It can snow a lot in Russia. A lot is an understatement.

This week, we got a truckload of snow, in just one day. We left Pskov and it was snowing slightly, not too much. When we came back to Pskov from Peter, there is giant piles of snow. I honestly think it snowed maybe 1 foot or 2 when we got back. I like the snow a whole lot better than the rain, that is for sure. And plus, just pack yourself up with thermals, scarves, gloves, socks and boots and you are set for hours. No but seriously there, there are giant piles of snow piled up by the street sweepers and stuff. It is awesome! Oh and the river officially froze on December 1st. Just in time.

This week, we saw a lot of miracles. Namely one man named Kostya, or Konstintin. He is a friend of a member here, but he has an incredible desire to be baptized. He was already set on being baptized even before we met him, but set a baptismal date on the 15th of this month and set up a plan for these next 2 weeks. He has had a lot of trials in his life and because of it, he is incredibly humble now.

Miracle number 2: We also received a phone call this week from a man named Sergay. He received a Book of Mormon a long time ago and somehow got a hold of our number. I am not sure how, but he called and wanted to meet. He is a very discouraged man searching for light. I felt like our meeting last night overwhelmed him with light, but in a good way. It is not every day that you get a phone call from someone very interested. So we accepted this miracle very very appreciatively.

Miracle number 3 and 4: We also had 2 previous investigators, who Elder Barrett and I taught, call us wanting to meet with us, which is always an amazing miraculous thing. One of which is a man named Fyodor (yeah Like Fyodor Dostoyevskiy) who happens to be incredibly interested and understands very well. When we first met with him, he didn't have a phone and lost contact with him. But he called this last Monday, and we met 2 hours later. It was actually pretty cool because we had a meeting fall through 5 minutes before he called. We were supposed to meet with someone else but he called to cancel, and then Fyodor called and we met with him at the same time we were supposed to meet the other man. God always has a perfect plan. We just need patience. Sometimes for only 5 minutes, maybe for months, even years. But either way, it will always work out. 

We went to Peter this week for a Zone Conference! Those are always great. It was really strange to see that some missionaries, who I was in the MTC with, are getting ready to go home in the next few weeks. (They are taking their early dates, and it also helps that we are in the MTC for 12 sticking long weeks). Time goes by way too fast. But during Zone Conference, I had to teach "How to Contact someone on the Street" which was a fun little teaching. It wasn' as great as the Elder Biff and Elder McFly skit that Elder Hill and I did, but it was still fun.

It looks like we get to Skype this year! So Ma and Pa, you will get some more info about that. 

All is well in the snowy plains of Pskov.

Love,
Elder Tekulve

Visa Trip + Service Project Combo + Thanksgiving Borscht Inbox x Drew's emails x

Interesting Fact - There is no Black Friday here in Russia, obviously, due to the fact that they do not celebrate Thanksgiving. It is also due to the fact the unwritten American rule that you can't play Christmas music or even THINK about Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving does not exist. So, hence, no Black Fridays.

This week actually was a very great week. To start, you are probably wondering "well what did Elder Tekulve do on Thanksgiving in Pskov, Russia?" . As the title so clearly states, yes, we did eat borscht. I actually haven't made it in a long time, but this was by far the best borscht I have ever made. Maybe because it was to replace the longing of turkey, who knows, but nonetheless it was fantastic. The great thing about it too is that there are still left overs, which I do plan on eating today after emails. :) That day was a lot of fun as well because we had no meetings set up so instead we went and street contacted most of the day. We asked everyone what they were grateful for, and most of the responded families. Families are indeed, the best.

We also had an interesting moment with our phone getting stolen this last week. It is actually kind of a hilarious story because we still have our sim card, but the phone is gone. It all starts out on a cold Monday evening on a cold wet bridge in the small city of Pskov, Russia. We contacted a man who was very interested in our message and wanted to meet the following day. "Of Course!" we thought. So we set up a meeting, and he comes to our branch saying that he has 8 people going to be coming. "Excellent!" we then thought. But the problem was that his phone just broke and that he needed to use ours, so he switches out the sim card, puts in his, uses his, calls his friends, takes out his simcard and gives us back the phone. He then left to go meet his friends. He seemed really excited too so we thought nothing of it. He comes back to use the phone a 2nd time, switches the sim cards back out, gives the phone back and leaves. He comes back a third time, and this time we had set up chairs, we had gotten hymn books out, we had been discussing what we are going to talk about, and he says he is going to be right back with the phone. Yeah, we should have left with him, but we were caught in the excitement that we disregarded the notion. But we waited for him... And waited... and waited..., and he never came back. We were bummed that we had gotten tricked, but laughed about it 10 minutes after it. I was more worried about him and his problems than I was about a cheap cell phone. I really didn't care for it, but I just wanted to teach him and help him feel the blessings of the Atonement. Interesting burglary story!

Also, this week, we had a great service project/visa trip. Here in Pskov, we live a lot closer to the border, so we had organized it so that we don't have to drive up to St.Petersburg, get into a bigger group of missionaries, go down to the border of Estonia, came back up to St. Pete, and then back down again to Pskov. You are looking at 20 hours of bus and travel time when we live an hour from the border... So we organized it with the branch so that the few missionaries that needed new visas go across the border, while I wait (my companion needed a new visa) with members from the branch in the car. We then drove back to Pskov and then a little bit further to a city called Karamishcheva where a less active brother lives. We went there and organized his shed which had built up with books. It was almost entirely filled with Bibles, interpretations of the bible, and religious literature. It's interesting to think that we can have sheds full of various understandings and various interpretations of the Bible and yet not contain the fullness of the truth that the Bible and Book of Mormon contain together. I also got a Hebrew Bible out of this project. :)

Anywho, I love being a missionary! In fact, I am incredibly eternally grateful for this experience.

Love,

Elder Tekulve

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

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