Pic-Chores

Happy Birthday to Andrew (Dec 10th)

Cool monastery in St. Pete

Church of Spilled Blood (in St. Petersburg) at night

Cool little church in Pskov

Elder K's present to himself

Christmas Week

Well, it was Christmas week in the states. Another normal week here. Christmas is "celebrated" on January 7th here, so there was nothing big here going on. We were in St. Petersburg last p-day, and we went to a bunch of shops there but I didn't get anything. So pricey. On Christmas Eve, we went to the Mission home at around 11 and we had Cafe Rio beef burritos for lunch! It was so good. That was a great present. Then we went over to the stake center and watched the First Presidency's Christmas devotional, and had some musical numbers by some missionaries. It was cool. Then we got back on a bus and rode home to Pskov. Pskov feels like home now, it's really strange. I guess I'm just used to it here and I know where things are and I know people. We had a lot of lessons fall through again this week, but it's understandable with the holidays being a few days away. On Christmas we spent almost the entire day at the Branch Building because we had to set up for the christmas party that we were having. It was awesome, Russian people singing Christmas songs is really funny to me for some reason. I got a cool christmas present from one of our investigators, it's a 5 Kopeck coin from 1991 with a big ole hammer and sickle on the back. From the last year of the USSR. It's cool. On Thursday we went tracting and it was great! Found a lot of people that would talk to us, and one girl who knew the Beatles and might come to English. It was maybe the most sucessful tracting I've done so far. On Friday we just had a ton to do with the branch finances and organizing for the audit next month. Our branch president is pulling out his hairs becuase he has to do it all alone, so we helped him all day, got all of it done. Saturday we contacted and tracted. It was the first day when I said "Hey, I'm gonna talk to everyone" and it wasn't too bad. I just hate not knowing what people say. I can do well in lessons becuase I know gospel things. But it's hard to just cut to the chase like that on the streets, and I don't know what to ask about or what. It's getting better. Yesterday we called a ton of people. It was crazy. We just split up into teams and went crazy calling people setting up appointments. We got a few for tonight and next week, but everybody is really busy around new years. Oh yeah, and we can't go out tomorrow night. We have to be in by 6 and stay in until the next morning. The days are getting brighter, the sun is out for longer, the winter is halfway over and there isn't any snow. A little rain here and there, but nothing too bad. I think that the winter will either last until July now or I just lucked out my first Russian winter. I found an old calender from another missionary who kept track of the temperature every day he was here, and last year around this time it was -20 C (-4 F) or worse every day. I hope we don't jump right down to that, I'm not ready. Anyways, another good week here. You all have a great New Years!!!

Andrew

Hey-O

I'm glad to hear that everybody's doing great. So this morning we woke up at 4 and got on a bus to St. Petersburg, Elder Kartchner and I had interviews with President Clark. We spent our p-day here. We didn't actually have time to do much, St. Petersburg is an awfully big city, but it was good. We are right now on Alexandra Nevskovo Prospect in a cool little hipster library with free internet. So that was a nice find. We're going to run to a few more stores here, see if I can't find a cool Sochi shirt or Zenit something. Anyways, it's going to be a good few days. Tomorrow we have a Christmas devotional/meal that should be really good. I'll like it I'm sure.
So this week has been a long week. Lots of tracting. Lots. We had a good amount of meetings scheduled, three a day, and all fell through but four... the whole week. So that was a bummer. The lessons that we did have though were great. We talked to one investigator who is really sad. He's forty and not married, he's on pension and doesn't get much money, and it's hard for him to find a job becuase he has some problems in his head. It's sad. We had a great lesson with him, and we'll help him know that baptism is the way to go. We just did lots of encouraging and we got him to pray at the end which is a little rare for him I guess. He says he's got nothing to be thankful for and when he asks for things he doesn't get anything. We'll work on it. Really, it's been a slow slow week. I'm glad this little Christmas break came when it did, It'll be good. On Wednesday we're having a little party at our branch, we'll be spending most of our day there. We are in charge of enchiladas for the feast of food from around the world. There will also be karaoke and a spiritual thought. What a blast that'll be. Then... yeah, I don't really know what else to say. Elder Kartchner and I just keep on keepin on. This mission thing goes by so fast it's crazy. Love you all!

Andrew

Hello Errybody!

It's been another good week here in Pskov. Our special guest last week was for the city, not just the missionaries, it was President Vladimir Putin. We didn't see him, we just heard on the TV while we were getting haircuts that he would be here. We don't know what he did, or if he did anything, just that he was in the city limits. So that's cool. Yeah, so that was that. There were people on the streets selling Russian flags everywhere, so we knew he would be here. Kinda a slow week for us. Not too many meetings, and most of the meetings that we were supposed to have fell through. Wednesday, we went through Preach My Gospel and made a list of things that we need to do better, or do in general. So we've started doing those things, and it's been better. I did start voicing my opinion more as far as how our investigators are doing, and we had some disagreements about them and what they need to do to progress, but we worked them out and now we're great. We met with a former investigator in a park here and just got to know him, we wanted to see if he would be interested at all. We'll start to meet with him more often. Then for english class we taught Christmas carols. That may be the funniest thing ever, Russian guys singing Rudolph at the top of their lungs and then asking afterwards "Why couldn't he play?" "Poor Rudolph." It was a great time. Then on Thursday, lots of contacting, we had a meeting late at night so we contacted all day. Our Branch President came with us, and he gave me a good pep talk and helped me talk to people. Friday had some more appointments fall through, but one of our investigators still could meet with us. He wants to read the whole Book of Mormon before he gets baptized, and there's nothing else holding him back. Just that. I wasn't so sure. We meet with him and just read, but we also use some of our dinner time to play ping-pong. He would only read when he was with us, and he was still in Mosiah moving very very slowly. So we said that he needed to read at home every day, a certain number of chapters, in order to play ping-pong with us twice a week. He got mad, said "Blackmail", and then didn't come for our next meeting. Then came on Saturday night, but smelled like he had been partying. So we'll work on it. Saturday morning we had a good meeting with a less-active member, and we read the Elder Dube talk from October conference with him. He really liked it, told us thanks for not wasting his time, but then said it's better if he doesn't come to church often becuase then he learns more. It's hard to listen to the same 3 active members talk every week, he said. So we told him to become one of the active members, and research something new, and he said no. Then Sunday we had 15 people at sacrament! A record for my mission! Branch President also made me his M.L.S. assistant, he said he doesn't have time to do all of the financial things for the branch. Dad should be proud. 

Basically, this week defined in a sentence: Go home Americans, we have our own religion.

Interesting thing about that. It's really interesting how Russian Orthodox people react to us. Most treat us like the plague. They want nothing to do with us. Others are nice, others don't care, but most are just awful to us. Our Branch President told us about a book written by a Russian Orthodox man called "Мормоны в России" (Mormons in Russia) that has a lot of quotes from famous Russian people (Pushkin, Tolstoy, etc.) about Mormonism, and he said they're all really positive. There's an especially good one from Tolstoy, I forgot it though. Anyways, we just think it's funny that people here don't know that famous Russians like us for the most part. B.P. told us that Pushkin had a Book of Mormon, according to the other book. 

I was reading this morning in 1 Nephi and I came across a good story for missionaries and for everyone. 1 Nephi 15:7-11 is how to get an answer. Not by comparing the Book of Mormon to the Bible, not by physical evidence, but by honest, sincere prayer.

Love you all!

Andrew

End of Transfer #1

It's crazy that I've been here a whole six weeks. It's crazy. So here's my week. On Tuesday, we were pretty busy. A good change from the last few weeks with lots of tracting. We had 2 meetings. One with an investigator really close to baptism, just wants to finish the Book of Mormon first. We just meet and pump out some chapters and talk about them with him. We started up a weekly FHE for our branch, and we had a few people show up. One of them was a member from Pskov who got married and moved to Moscow. She's here to find a job, so we just got another active member added to our branch. Sweet. Also, I had my first slip on the ice. We leave our nice shoes at the branch building so they don't get wet and dirty, and we change shoes whenever we go there. We had a meeting set for right after FHE, so we were in a hurry to get out the door and forgot to change back into our boots. So I was the unlucky one who figured that out, with the help of a nice big patch of ice. Nothing too bad. Just funny. We met a man who believes that Christ has already come again, in the form of a woman (I forgot her name) and wrote a book. He only wants new religious news, the bible is old news to him. So that was interesting. Wednesday we tracted into a really nice lady who was willing to listen to us, and even let us pray at the end, at her door! That was sweet. Taught English class, had another lesson that night with an investigator who is different every time. Sometimes he is really sincere and asks good questions and all, and sometimes he goes all communist/athiest on us. Wednesday was the latter, so that was an interesting lesson. Thursday we read more chapters with that investigator, and I got a sweet video I'll show you later. Our Branch President has been visiting his mission for the last little while, and he came back that night and shared stories with us and gave us his gameplan for the branch. On the way home, at the bus stop, there was a drunk man who wanted to get some money to get home. He grabbed Elder Kartchner's nose, that was pretty good. On Friday, we went to Novgorod for Zone Training, and that was fun. Novgorod is a bigger version of Pskov. It's nice there. We met a very nice man while contacting and he offered to show us where the grocery store was (that's what we asked him about) then he gave us his number. We had some really good Shaverma. If you want a taste of something Russian that I eat, find a good Shaverma recipe. It's like tacos here. There are taco stands everywhere there, here, it's Shaverma. Good stuff. Saturday morning took a bus home then we went out on a few appointments that our branch president set up for us with less actives. That was really cool, to meet a few new people. On Sunday there were 14 people at church, a record for me! More members than ever too. Busy Sunday, then some good ole tracting at night. So I didn't email yesterday because we went to Печоры for our p-day. We were going to come home early, like at 3ish, but we missed the bus... because 30 minutes before it came the Sisters wanted to eat at a diner type thing. It's about an hour out, and we got home at 5:30ish. There is a really cool monastary there.  I'll send a few pictures. 

One thing that I've been doing lately that I like a lot and maybe you can try is to mark and write down phrases in the scriptures with some power. Just short phrases that you can remember easily that could come to your head in a time of need. For example, in Luke, just "Lord I believe; help thou mine unbelief". Just little things like that. I like that a lot. I remember them easily too.

TrAnSfEr NeWs: I'm staying here. With Elder Kartchner. So is our whole district. Not too much shakeup in the mission.

Also, we'll have a special guest in Pskov on December 12th. Not from the church. See if you can find out who it is.

Love ya all!

Snowflakes when they land here

Snowflakes after about a minute

Pushkin's House

Here's one of the churches in the Monastary at Pechory.

A faraway view of the same.

Another Great Week!

Hey Y'all! It's been another great week here in Russia. We had snow for the first time this week! Don't remember the exact day, but there was snow! Snow here is like nothing I've ever seen... the flakes are so big. I took a few pictures, I'll send them next week. The computer doesn't like my card reader this week. The snow here is so big and wet and heavy. So it snowed really good one day, then melted the next, then it came back last night. Today is also really windy. We've hit the negative temperatures after the sun goes down. Fun fun. Still wearing my Mr. Mac coat, so I think I'll be good with the one I got later on. Kinda another slow week. We didn't have too many meetings, lots of tracting. So the scary thing about tracting is just that we're talking to lots of crazy people.. and Russian domes are really freaky when it's dark. Yesterday, a lady yelled at us and said she was coming down to talk to us, but she just watched us from a window. So a Russian 'Dome' is what everybody lives in here. It's like a big apartment, with anywhere from 2-10ish floors. There's a little phone on the front of every one, and we have to call people to let us in. Usually we get let in when somebody is expecting a guest, and they just unlock the door. But hey, we get in. One man yesterday asked us how we got in, that people there weren't supposed to let us in. Needless to say, a rough night of tracting last night. But hey, people have agency and can choose what they want. We had our Branch Thanksgiving Party on friday night, it was awesome. We couldn't find a turkey at the store.. so we used a goose and didn't tell anyone until after they ate it. Sweet. The Russians loved it. There were a few investigators there, a member, and a less active and 6 missionaries. My potatoes were all right. There were rolls and cornbread, some veggies, and some great desserts from the member lady. Our Branch President is visiting his mission (Samara) so he's been gone for a few weeks. So that was our week.
We had a lesson last night with an investigator who is a seventh day adventist who loves the bible. It's amazing how well he knows it. Anyway, we taught him about the restoration and it went pretty well. We defended some of our doctrines (baptisms for the dead, etc.) using the bible and he seemed to accept it. We also these last few days have had an investigator call us and say that he's been reading every day but needs help to understand it. He's been calling us a lot and wanting to meet, he called at 6:20 this morning. We'll probably stop by tonight, he's got some good potential. So that family that we tracted into that was really nice, we were going to meet with them yesterday, but when we called the man said that he doesn't see a point in us meeting anymore. Darn it.
Our #1 guy right now, who we gave a blessing to, is doing great. Shooting for a baptism before the new year. He's done great with the smoking, he's not smoking anymore. He just wants to make sure that he's kicked the habit and prepared for baptism before he does it. Another investigator just needs to read the whole thing, that's what he says, and he'll be ready. He's already helping us try and share about the Book of Mormon.
Good week here, getting chilly. It's great, I love it here! Love ya mutchers!

Andrew

This week....was crazy.

So this week was a weird one. We had zone conference in St. Petersburg on Wednesday. Didn't take the night train again, we took a bus that left in the afternoon. So we took about 37 hours away from Pskov for a 3 hour meeting... yay. I don't like how our mission is so big, but I like it at the same time. We only taught about four lessons. That's not too good for us, but it's not bad. On Thursday, after we got back, we had our weekly planning, so we didn't go out until 6. That was a long day. Then we tracted for 3 hours. Tracting here is kinda scary, but if I can do that, I can do anything. That 's what I tell myself. People are generally really nice though, at least they reject us nicely. Same kinda thing on Friday. Lots of contacting and tracting. We had a meeting as a district and we decided to start focusing on reactivating members, there are about fifty in Pskov with only 2 or 3 active. So that'll be our push for a while. Saturday... lots of tracting. People say some funny things here. The mayor in Novgorod got on the TV and said that our church was a cult. The missionaries there have had some struggles with that, and they might have to move out of their newly finished branch building because of it. In the past few days, we've seen that attitude towards us creep into Pskov. Last night tracting especially, "CULT CULT" was heard often. There was a very nice lady that was talking to us at her door, then her daughter came in and started to yell at us because we are a sect (russian for cult) and all this stuff about how we were bad people. To leave them alone. "We don't need it". Rough few days. Some people are mean, just like in the US. Most just don't want to listen. But they don't punch and shove us and things. The worst I've had was a guy open the door, look at us, then laugh and close it. Also, a drunk man talked to me on Friday night. I gave him a handshake when our bus came, and he pulled me in for a hug and kissed my cheek. Hooray for drunk people!  Nothing too much happened besides that... we're having a branch activity for Thanksgiving, and I'm in charge of mashed potatoes. Last night I did a test run, and I think Grandma Bryan would be proud of me. I have the potato touch I guess. Also, for Christmas, we heard a rumor that half of the mission will go to Peter on the 24th and the other half on Christmas for a party. Fun stuff. Well, this keyboard is awful, sorry I didn't type too much this week. Not too much happened. Love you all.

Andrew

Pictures--Finally!

Andrew has to be careful about sending pictures so there aren't many but we will take what we can get! This week we get some old mixed with the new!

Our Teachers and District from the MTC

Our Branch Presidency (Sister Peer ( in front of the tall guy next to me) wanted me to tell you that I'm a good kid, and that you did a good job.)

Traveling in Style  (In Germany)

Our Toilet

Bathroom Selfie (Editor's Note: you gotta love Andrew for sending this--he loves to make fun of people who post these kinds of pictures on IG)

Elder K at the Kremil

Mr. Lenin

Hunger Games Poster (for Emily)

Week Number 3 in Russia!

Hello Y'all! I'm here in Russia still, it's great here. So.. to answer a few questions first. The days and weeks here fly by! It's really crazy, what happens to you while you're on a mission. Things get better and better every day, and the time just fles. Church is usually the same, with about 9-12 people there every week. It's hard to help people to understand that our church is weekly, not just on Easter and Christmas, like the Russian Orthodox church. I gave a sacrament talk last week, and the first week I bore my testimony. That was awesome. My companion and I usually speak English, but if we know the Russian words, we'll speak in Russian. Same goes with our branch president. Sometimes he has to come to lessons with us to translate, especially when people have lots of questions. Elder Kartchner's Russian is really good, I hope I can be close to him in at the end of my first two transfers. He was trained here, so he knows the places to go. We have district meetings with the sisters every week, but other than that we don't do much with them. We aren't supposed to be with any other missionaries in public, so they did not come with us on the train to St. Pete. They took a bus the day before, we just had lots of lessons so we took a train at night. We are going to take a train up to St. Pete tomorrow for zone conference. So many trips. I try to send some pictures every week... sometimes the computers that I'm on don't work with the USB thing. I'll try again today. To go through our week: Tuesday, lots and lots of meetings. We were meeting almost all day, skipped some meals to get it done. They were all really good. Wednesday we didn't have too many meetings, we started tracting buildings here. That was really scary. It was at night, in Russia, knocking on apartment doors. Dang. We met a very nice family there though, they let us in and we went back yesterday for another meeting, with President to translate for us. We also taught english, with about 15 people showing up. That's actually how our branch President met the missionaries, when he was 14ish. He waited four years to get baptized becuase his parents wouldn't allow it. Thursday, meetings. Lots of Restoration lessons. We're trying to kinda rekindle some interest in our investigators that have been meeting with us for too long. Trying to help them understand that we are here to teach them and to help them come to Christ through baptism, not by chatting about any old thing. Friday we went on splits with our zone leaders. Elder Gatrell and I had a lot of lessons planned, but a lot of them fell through. We spent lots of time on the street. On Saturday we had district meeting, talked about our investigators, and taught some more lessons. Yesterday we had a lesson/hang out with some American girls here who are teaching english at the Pskov University. So that was weird, talking to them in english. Our sisters came so we could hand them off to the sisters for teaching, I don't think they're too interested in our message though. One of them got a degree in college in bible studies, and she had to choose four religions to study deeply. She chose us, and needless to say, she knew our approaches to introducing the gospel. She shut us down pretty good a few times. It was interesting. Then we went back to that family that we tracted into, and we talked about our families and asked if they would be interested in our message, and they said yes. So we have high hopes for them to be the rock-solid family here in Pskov. Today we went to the Kremlin here, went inside the Cathedral. It's very beautiful, I'll send some pictures but I don't want to spoil all the surprises :) Love you all! You're the best ever! See you soon! 
Elder Gwilliam

Everything You Wanted to Know and More (But Not Much More)!

So after Andrew's teensy-weensy e-mail last week, I (Sarah) wrote him and asked him a bunch of questions to try to get more deets (that's short for details, mom!). Anyway, here are the questions I asked and his answers--plus a little extra info from this past week:

Where do you live? What kind of place is it? Is it just you and your comp or are there 4 of you? 

I can't tell anybody my address.. But we live on the outskirts of town. It's just my comp and me.

Does your apartment have a fully equipped kitchen? By that I mean does it have a real oven and stove? Or just a microwave and hot plate? Also, do you have a clothes washer? Or do you have to go to a laundromat?

We have a microwave a stove, an oven, and a fridge. And a washer. We hang dry our clothes.

What do you eat? Do you ever eat at members' homes or just at your apartment? What did you buy at the grocery store? Have you eaten anything strange or new yet?

We always eat at our apartment, we go to this store called Lenta which is like Costco and Walmart mixed. I buy things there that I know how to deal with like potatoes, pasta, apples, eggs, yogurt, juice, ham, bacon, things like that. The meat here is a little different. I had some bacon for breakfast with eggs and the bacon was strange. But it's good. Just a little strange. Same with the other meats. Also, the bread goes bad really fast here. They don't use preservatives like we do in America. I had some bad bread on Friday night (the back half of the loaf was moldy, I didn't check the part that I ate) and so I had some nice pains on Friday night. But nothing too bad. 

Is your branch that tiny or was no one there? Were the other two missionaries sisters or elders? What did you do for your church meetings last Sunday? 

Our branch is pretty small, I think there are around 35-40 members in the city, but there are 2 active. There are supposed to be 6 missionaries here (us, then two companionships of sisters) but the sister that had trouble with her visa can't leave Peter until they get that all figured out. So it just us and some sisters for now. We had fast and testimony meeting last week, and then sunday school. Not enough for priesthood or relief society. Plus, everybody just left after sunday school. So we just talked to our branch president. He's been a member for a while, he went on a mission to Samara. I don't think he ever left his mission, he helps us all the time. Either in lessons or by setting up meetings with less actives. He's the man.

What type of building do you attend church in? Is it an apartment? A storefront?

We go to church in an apartment turned ward building. I'll take some pics.


What did you teach your investigators? How do you contact people? 

We have in our area a bunch of eternal investigators that have been meeting with the missionaries for years now, so we have gone on a restoration run to help them rekindle original interest in the church and try to get baptisms. We have around 26 investigators, all but two have had all the lessons before. We mostly contact on the streets or in domes (tracting). Tracting is super scary, especially because we do it after dark usually. We've seen some crazy things.

How long has your comp been out? (I don't know what it means that he's on his 3rd transfer) and how often are transfers? What is he like? Do you get along pretty well?

Elder Kartchner his on his third transfer (so month number four in the field) and he's awesome. We get along really well, we have lots of fun together. 

How do you get around? Walking? Bus? Train? 

We usually ride the bus places, but we have to walk a lot too. There aren't too many convenient stops for the places that we have to go.

What do you do during the day when you aren't contacting people? Are there places you go to do service or anything? 

We don't have any service structure here in Pskov, we just try to help out less active members whenever we can.

Since it gets dark really early, what do you do after dark? 

It gets dark pretty early, but we still stay out and do things. Not too much crazyness. Usually contacting, unless we have lessons.

Have you seen anyone you know?

I saw Sister Boud (Laura Boud's sister). She came up to me right after our first meeting together. I saw Sister Eyring, the granddaughter of President Eyring that Elder Jaynes told me about. That's about it. 

Where did Elder Jaynes get assigned? 

Not sure about where Elder Jaynes is. Maybe Gatchina?

How is the language? Do you feel like you understand much of anything at all? 

I can understand a lot of what people say, but It's hard to talk back. Sometimes our investigators go crazy into some things like the economy or politics that neither of us know anything about. We like to have President with us there, becuase he speaks english really well. We think he wants to go to BYU. 

You have had a lot of rain I see! Is it just rain rain rain all the time? Or off and on? 

Rain is off and on. Not all the time, and it's always different. Sometimes intense, sometimes just a sprinkle.

Does Pskov seem big? Small? Does it seem pretty well off? Poor? What are your impressions of the people there?

Pskov is big compared to what I'm used to, but it's really small for our mission. It's like thirty minute bus rides to everywhere. I'd say it's more ghetto than other parts of our misson, but it's not that bad compared to what I've heard about Samara and other places. The people here are nice. Really nice. I'd say it's middle class here.

What will you be doing on P-days? Where do you do your e-mailing from? 

We Email from a library right across from where we live, and we just kinda do what we want to on P-day. I think we're going to the Kremlin today, that looks really cool. Here (at this library) they also give away all of their old books for free. I've gotten and old copy of Crime and Punishment in Russian and a book by Tolstoy. We'll look for more today.

What do you miss from home that we can send? 

I don't miss too much from home, other than the people there. And you can't send them :)


And now for the bonus material: 

So about this week. We got six new investigators, which is sweet. We found 4 of them tracting and two by going to an investigator's house to teach, and they were there and listened. We also did a ton of less-active member lessons, those are always fun. On Friday we had a zone training meeting in Peter, so we crammed a ton of lessons into the evening and then at 8:45 ish got on a night train to go to the city. It was so Russian. That was the first time where I was like "Heck, I'm in Russia". It was total stereotypical Soviet style train. It was sweet. I didn't get a picture of it, but I will next time. It took ten hours. We got to the city at 6 A.M., buses only take 4. But it was so cool we want to do it again. And we don't have to waste a whole day outside of our area. So we did that, came back on a bus on friday, then lessons again right away. Whew. Not too much else. Spent five hours at the church yesterday in meetings, tracted all night. Fun week. Busy week. Love you all, the church is true, and listen to the Messiah! We love the one song of it that we have on my Ipod. Love ya. See ya soon. 

First Week in Russia

Russia is super great. I love it here. Oh man. It's just so cool. 

So traveling was boring... people were strait up rude to us in Germany. People will at least talk to us here. Haha. Good ole Germany. So, after we landed here there was a little bit of mayhem. A sister that was traveling with us got stuck in the airport because her visa said that she was a man. Whoops. So she was stuck by herself in the airport for a while, but it all worked out. President Clark was there to greet us with his wife and the assistants, that was awesome. Elder Jaynes and I went with one of the assistants to go to the mission home, while the others waited for the sister to get out of the airport. We rode the bus and the metro to get there. We were forced to talk to people. Haha it was fun though. Then we got a little orientation, then we slept over with the assistants after dinner with President and Sister Clark. The next morning we went to President's apartment again (which is really nice) and had breakfast. Then we met our trainers and found out where we would be serving. I'm with Elder Kartchner (from Virginia, on his third transfer) and we're in Pskov. It's awesome here. Our branch president is the man. We got settled in and went to work. Pskov is about 2 hours from Peter by bus. We had a few lessons last week, the investigators here are sweet. On Sunday, there were 10 of us at church (4 missionaries, 3 investigators, 2 members). It's very small here, but it's awesome. I felt the spirit pretty good during testimony meeting. The days here are already getting shorter. Shopping is crazy. I don't know what anybody is saying. We went to a supermarket today, it's like the Russian version of Wal-mart. It's awesome. I'm glad to finally be out in the field like my buds. This is the real deal here! Russia is the bomb, I'm coming back for sure! Love you all so much!

Andrew

Andrew Has Arrived!

No email from Andrew this week as he was traveling on his P-day! His group met up at the MTC travel office at 4:30 a.m. yesterday to depart for the airport. He received his visa that morning with his paperwork (my sigh of relief was heard 'round the world!). He has been issued a 3 year visa but will still be required to leave the country every so often to keep it valid. He left Salt Lake City at 8:55 a.m. and arrived safely in St. Petersburg at about 2 p.m. local time Wednesday (about 4 a.m. here in Utah). He traveled with four other missionaries (2 elders and 2 sisters) through Washington D. C. and Frankfurt before reaching his final destination. We were able to talk with him a couple of times and he sounds wonderful! He spoke a little bit of Russian for me and I was amazed. He shared part of what he might say when bearing his testimony. He was ready to head out and begin his work. He wanted me to thank everyone for all the love he felt while he was in the MTC with letters, emails, and packages. He would love to continue to hear from all of you. Letters can be sent to the Mission Home address at the top of this blog; packages, however have a different set of instructions. Please email me if you need to know how and where to send a package at sarah.gwilliam.7@gmail.com .
We haven't heard anything from him yet, but the mission secretary sent us a picture of him with his MTC companion, Elder Jaynes, and a short note letting us know that he arrived safely. He looks hammered! I guess traveling for 24 hours will do that to a person. Anyway, we are so excited for this next leg of his adventure. We can't wait to hear from him again!

PICS!

The view from our classroom

Our Classroom

Elder T-Pac!

Temple with tha district

Silly Picture

Last temple trip for two years!

Ukrainian temple name

Cool mountain--I don't know what it's called

Missionary Cut

LAST WEEK HERE

So... it's my last week at the MTC. We had a pretty interesting week. Which is good. On Tuesday night we had a devotional given by Elder Oaks! Elder Jaynes and I have waited in line for the past few devotionals... a few hours early. We don't have much to do on Sundays or Tuesday nights. So we have waited in line. And no apostles. I guess the weeks before we got here was a freNzy of apostles, so we were hoping to hear from one. So Elder Jaynes was not wanting to wait in line so much... then I finally convinced him to come with me. We were the fifth row! It was awesome. I've never seen him smile so much. He kept calling us his fellow servants, that was pretty sweet. He speaks so simply about things that might be really confusing. I really liked it. On Wednesday Elder Jaynes continued his streak of spitting out Russian cusses during lessons. This week it was the s-bomb. Haha. Funny Funny. On Thursday we got our TRAVEL PLANS! So guess where I'm going before you look.

I'm going to Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. Sweet. I've been there before in the air museum. Then I'm off to the Fatherland, good ole GERMANY! I'm flying from D.C. to Frankfurt. That'll be great. I was thinking that Dad passed through there 20-something years ago, and now 20 years later I will also pass through the airport. What a great moment that will be. We'll spend about two hours in both places. Then we'll arrive in Pete about 3 p.m. local time. I'm so excited, in exactly a week from now I'll be sleeping in Russia. Not much else this week. We did get to hear from a former mission president from Kiev. He told us a little about the culture there in Eastern Europe. He showed us a video that totally smashed the stereotype that Russians are a cold, harsh people. It's on youtube somewhere. I'm not sure what it's called. It's got a bunch of little acts of service by Russians. If you can find it, sweet. If not, that's ok too. I'll be in good hands. On Friday I saw Elder Mat Butterfield. That's about it for the week. I'm excited to go to Russia, but I'll miss my teachers and my time here at the MTC. To those who will be here sometime in the future: Eat it up. The MTC is a great place that maybe has a negative reputation. It's an awesome place if you will just dedicate yourself to the work that is done here. It may be tedious at times, but it's awesome. 

 A funny quote from Elder Oaks:

     "No good deed goes unpunished"

Love you all. In a week, I'll be emailing you from Mother Russia!

13 DAYS!!

I've got thirteen days left. I'm so excited. So we moved up to the Main Campus today, that's pretty exciting. Not too much else happened. Just another week. I've noticed that my emails have been getting shorter and shorter. I'm sorry. I just don't have much to tell. We're at the MTC. So some funny things did happen here this week. On Friday we were teaching a lesson about the Plan of Salvation to one of our investigators, and we used one of my cool San Francisco gloves to describe the how our spirits are different than our bodies. I took off the glove to show death, and Elder Jaynes grabbed the glove and said something like "Our bodies feel like... #%&@" but in Russian. He used a normal English filler, but in Russian it was the F bomb. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH we laughed so hard when he told us that after the lesson. Oh man it was fun. A bad thing about having a ton of sisters in my district is that the teachers won't tell us scary stories or words that we shouldn't say, but sometimes they'll tell us during a lesson or when we're the only ones there. So that was pretty funny. On Sunday night it rained really really hard here, and we had to run across the street from Wyview to grab something from our class. We decided to run back despite the rain. As we were going to our class, we found some elders who wanted help giving a blessing. One of them was sick, and the other wanted somebody to help him do the blessing. So we helped em. It was nice that we decided to go back to class, they were pretty desperate. That was cool. So yesterday was our last day at west campus, that was nice. And here I am, sitting at Main Campus, now as a resident. Nothing much else this week. I saw Elder Merrill within a few minutes of being here, that'll be nice to see him more often. He said his branch is moving to west campus after he leaves. Yes. Love ya all, you rock. In thirteen days I will be on my way to Russia, living the life.

Andrew

Epic Mount Timp

Our new room

Pictures of the Week

Thanks from my district

Elder Buonocore (Drummer from Wyatt's band. We hung out once, that time I went longboarding, and now we're buds)

SNOW!

Three MTC Pals

Three Ward/MTC Pals

Elder Merrill and me with Samuel Smith, first missionary (Joseph's little brother) 

My roomies like these.. I had to lock them away. I share everything else.

Hey dad, I stole one of your prank ideas. It used to say Elder Gardner, now it says Sister! Hah!

Early Morning Laundry

20 More Days....

Hello y'all! I'm getting to the end of my MTC stay and I'm so excited to get out into the real world! So, not much has happened here since last week. More class. More devotionals. More fun. So, here's some cool news. THEY'RE MOVING ALL THE RUSSIAN SPEAKERS BACK TO MAIN CAMPUS!! Most likely next week. This is strange, because the day before I got here they moved Russians from Main Campus to West. So most likely, next p-day, I will be packing up all my belongings and heading up to Main Campus. I guess they want to make West Campus a haven for Spanish speakers. So I'll get to do two intense packing sessions in the next three weeks. It'll be good practice. On Saturday, for General Conference, all of the missionaries went up to Main Campus. We all watched it together, it was awesome. I got to see my pal of a few weeks Elder Buonocore! That was cool, he just sat down right next to me without looking at me and then we noticed each other at the same time. Super cool. Same deal for Sunday conference, all of us together feasting on the words. I met a Sister from Latvia at lunch there. She started spitting Russian at me, and I was able to understand a lot of it. Our teacher served in her area, and he knew who she was. He said "She's the short, blonde, pretty one, right?". He was really excited that she's here now. She's serving on Temple Square. On Sunday Night, our devotional was by none other than Vocal Point of BYU! It was pretty crazy. I rolled my eyes when the sisters in my district ran to the front to get seats, but it was actually a really good meeting. Speaking of devotionals, tonight is a special devotional. Our Branch President (President Peer) married the sister of the MTC President's wife, so he usually knows what's up here at the MTC. He knows the cool stuff, the dirty deets of the MTC. So a few zones from the West Campus get to walk up to Main Campus to watch the devotionals live, and it's usually every few months. There are lots of West Campus missionaries. So we went up a few weeks ago, and it was awesome. Our Branch President told us that he pulled some strings to let us come up to the devotional tonight, and he said it would be super awesome. So I'm excited for that. It's gonna be awesome. General Conference was awesome. It was insane how everything applied to missionary work. EVERYTHING. I'll never watch another session of conference the same again! I'll be paying more attention, taking better notes, and hopefully learning more. General Conference is such a blessing and I'm glad I was able to experience it here in the MTC. An experience I will never forget.

Well, until next week,

Elder Gwilliam

PiCS yO

HALFWAY THERE!!

Old zone leaders. (Elder Rawlings going to the Baltics, Elder Greenburg (the tall Nate Kelley) going to Samara)

Elder Jaynes enjoying his Martinelli's

This is the Famed Elder Jorgenson

That's Elder Hale

Our District + Samara District

Elder Sant + Elder Davis. Good Elders, I miss them already.