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