What week wow

It was great to talk to you all on Christmas! That was really fun. It'll only be a few short months until Mother's day! Fun fun! Here's the week. So on Monday night we went to a new convert's house and just got to know him. He's a 21 year old guy from Ajerbayjan (I don't know how to spell that one) and he's planning on BYU I or BYU Provo. He knows english perfectly, he's just saving money. Plans on starting August 2015. Anyways, we just met him and had a good chat. He's got a lot of family problems and just wants to get away from this place. His dad died when he was younger and ever since he's lived here and not liked it at all. He's a really fun immaturish boy. We talked to him about church and how he felt about it all, he's starting to not come to church and that's bad. So we're trying to help him out there. Tuesday we had district meeting, the first one with our new district. Went and got some contact solution, I ran out. Then we went to a few addresses that night and there was a drunk man blocking the door of one of the apartments with his unconsious body. That was interesting to see so early in the season. We'll see more of those on Thursday. Wednesday was really fun. We had our staff meeting with the office missionaries, we had a lot of issues. President Childs has kinda been out of the loop on a lot of problems and we let him know of a few that had boiled over, so he did some digging and we have lots of problems with the area workers in our office that we're going to be working out. We had a meeting with a return missionary that night, he served in our mission then moved here. He's married and has a kid now but there are lots of problems, or there seem to be, but he won't talk about them. It was really really fun to just talk with him though. He asked about people from all over the mission. He got on his computer and showed us lots of his pictures. It was fun. Thursday was Christmas! We had that cool experience in the Hermitage that morning for service. We went and were grabbed by the head of the volunteers and he took us to a kind of chapel inside the hermitage that was restored a few weeks ago. Inside they were having a prayer service and kinda dedicating the room or something. It was really cool to hear them sing. We got a treat. Then we were leaving and we got taken into another room where we heard a military band and got to see some marching and old artifacts from the Napoleonic wars here in Russia. A museum in Paris was giving the Hermitage some old flags that were taken by the French as they left Russia (on Dec. 25, 200 years ago). It was great to see. We came home and had lunch with the Childs at their apartment, it was great to have a fun celebration with them. We had some goose and potato goodness and sugary cake... as close to America as I've gotten. Then we took a gift box with some food from the Childs to a new convert in our ward and doorbell ditched them. It was great. Then we hustled back and got to talk to you! That was great! Friday was pretty quiet. We had to translate some documents into russian, so we were in the office for a lot of the day. Then we went on splits with a few of the zone leaders. I was with Elder Kartchner and it was really fun. We taught a lesson to a cool guy I knew in Nevsky who is going to be baptized in January. He's just having a hard time quitting smoking. We answered his questions about tithing and why we don't use the bible so much... haha that was a funny question. Saturday was nuts... there was a visa trip of people that hadn't gotten their second passports yet, so they were told that they were going to drive to Talin and get their passports and come back. Turns out.. the passports were in Moscow... so they're been in Talin ever since and will be there at least until tuesday. So I just went into my OCD mode that I discovered on my mission and made plans for the EIGHT MISSIONARIES who were left in our apartment without companions to go meet up with other missionaries and do splits and so they've been there for a few days now, and they'll be there for a few days. That took the whole day, people just need to listen and do what I say and go to where I say. It should've taken an hour, but people were gong crazy. Yesterday was good. We had ward council, the bishop told us the area goals for this year and we didn't say one word about how we would accomplish them in our ward, we'll talk about that next year. We don't need to worry about that now... silly ward council. Anyways, then I was in my ward for the second time in 2 months and it was good. I really like our ward, we have lots of really nice, open, and strong members. Lots of youth too which is cool. Then we went by a few addresses to no avail. It was a great week.

Dad, thanks for sending me that quote about leaders leading by example and how there's no other way to go! I've been noticing a lot of that going on here ever since you sent me that email, and I've been trying to do a better job of it myself. Be good examples! Even if you aren't a leader, somebody out there is watching you. Love ya!

Have a good week!

Andrew

Skype with the Fam!!

Flashback to Kizhi

Flashback to Manifesta

Ё МОЁ!

Hello everybody! Thanks for the great emails. Like always, I can tell that all is well in the US of A. It was a good week here for us. We were very very busy, we were busy inside the Childs apartment and not out in the rain, so it wasn't so bad. We started off with the North Zone conference on Tuesday. So actually we had North then Center (my zone) then South all back to back to back. We were at all of them because we had 25 minute teaching portions. So I'll just run you through the schedule of the Zone Conferences once instead of 3 times. So we started off with President Childs teaching and testifying of Christ to invite the Spirit to the  meeting. Then we handed out flash drives for all the missionaries as the gift from the mission. Then President spent some time talking about a few area rules and the spirit of the rules and commandments and things like that. Then Elder Doxey spoke for a while about How to Begin teaching. We then had a short break and then I spoke about teaching clearly and effectively. It was really fun to use the last week to study this topic. I'll give a recap about what I found at the end. Then Sister Childs spoke about proper Elder and Sister relations (DON'T FLIRT) and other such good things. There was this rumor that got out that this Zone Conference was going to be a little awkward, so all thought that was the awkward part. They were wrong. We had lunch after that chat and it was good. We had some ham and funeral potatoes. Fruit salad and other goodies too. Then we separated into Elders and Sisters and had the real awkward part about the Law of Chastity. For the sake of the readers, I won't dive into that one. It wasn't really that awkward, it was just a really big surprise for us the first time. Then we had the Christmas celebration part of the Zone Conference, we watched the video of the world's largest live nativity scene that was filmed in Utah, and the Church's He is the Gift video. Then we read a Christmas story called A Christmas bell for Anya or something like that. Then we shared our testimonies and had some goodies at the end. It was really fun to have that over and over again, it never got boring or repititious. It was just fun! Tuesday was the day the ruble really took a dive. The banks had lines and they turned off their conversion boards so people couldn't see how bad it really was. It's a really sad thing. On Thursday we met with an interesting man who is very well... interesting. He always comes to english group and is an eternal investigator. He invited us over for a discussion and tried to make us rethink our beliefs using science and other secular knowledge. It was so dumb! He kept telling us that we needed to use our modern knowledge to think about the bible and how because time has changed, the bible has too. It was weird. Anyways, friday was crazy. We set up chairs for the nutcracker production of the stake members. Then we spent the rest of the day in the office working out problems. That night was the nutcracker play, we had a good time. There was a lot of confetti and I felt bad for the poor guys who had to clean that up. Saturday morning we're informed that we need to go clean up after the play... I wanted to say no, but I  knew that if we didn't nobody else would and there would be lots of problems that would need to be dealt with. So we showed up and NOTHING had been cleaned. There was confetti tracked throughout the whole building... we spend a good chunk of saturday cleaning that mess. Sunday was really fun and refreshing. We drove up to Vyborg with President and Sister Childs and there was a special guest.. their son Chandler! He's pretty cool, he went on a mission to Wisconsin and thinks that the weather is weak here. It was fun to go up there in the morning and have church then the devotional by us and then drive home. So yeah. That was the week. It was a good one!

I taught about 3 things that the Savior does as He teaches...
1. He has a knowledge of what He is teaching
2. He understands the audience
3. He has a KNOWLEDGE (testimony) about what He is teaching
So that's what I taught. I used scriptures and such to help and encourage participation. It was really fun.

Love ya! Have a great Christmas and talk to you soon!

Andrew

Russian Nativity (the birth of a collection)

Vyborg

This is an email about my week.

Hello family. You all had a fantastic week, I can tell. I also had a very good week. Here is the recap. Monday was good. We had a fun p day. I honestly forgot what we did, but it was fun. We cleaned a little I think. Tuesday was a good day as well. That started the crazy of the week. We had a meeting for the new trainers at 11 in the morning, there were two missionaries there. One that was going to start training the new missionary, the orther that was just going to finish the training of a different missionary. We just talk about the 12 week training program and answer the questions that they have. It was a good meeting. After that we had district meeting, it was the last one of the transfer. We had a good time together. After that we left for the airpoort to pick up the new missionary. We drove to the airport, met him at the gate, then Elder Doxey and I took him home using the metro and the busses while the Childs went back in the car with the luggage. It was fun to see this new missionary get his first really big gulp of Russia. He was so so overwhelmed, I'm sure we were all like that. Anyways, we were with him for the rest of the day because he was alone. He came back to the office and had some talks about money and passport and visa and blah blah blah then we went to the Childs apartment and had a nice dinner with him. It was the second or third time ever that I've had borsh, and it was really really good. It was funny to see how he thought that missionaries should act. He was really really stiff and it was kinda funny. Wednesday was a crazy one. We had breakfast with the new elder and his trainer. Then we were in the office running around like mad dogs because the office workers did not prepare the documents for transfers that they needed to. So that was crazy. Then we had transfer meeting which was a lot of fun. It was kinda a small transfer, so there weren't too many people there. But the quality of the people was good. Elder Castleton played a cool song on the piano for all of us. It was cool. After the meeting there was more business that we had to take care of in the office, and we took care of it. Lots of boring paperwork. That night for my birthday we had a fun dinner and I got a CD with some songs on it from the office elders (they are our next door neighbors). That was fun. We then had a lesson with the man who wants to become the king of Russia. It was an interesting lesson, but he's not so willing to change his religion becuase the Russian King must be Orthodox. Thursday we spend another whole day in the office preparing for Zone Conferences that will be tomorrow through thursday. Every missionary is getting a flash drive that they can use for sharing movies with people at lessons, and we loaded them up with a few movies. But we had to fill 85 of them... so we were in there for a while. It was super boring. Friday morning we drove up to Petrozavodsk. It's a six hour drive, that was no fun. Then we went out there to meet a member that we both know (we both served there) so we meet them and had a good time catching up. The guy that we really wanted to see wasn't there, but that's ok. Saturday President Childs came to our companionship study and that was interesting. We didn't have much time because we had to meet the other missionaries at lunch at the nicest KFC in the world, I swear. It's in a huge nice building. We then went to the church and prepared for the fireside that was on Saturday night. It was great, just like last time. There were quite a few people there. After the fireside, we cleaned the branch building and that was great. There were a lot of us and we cleaned fast. Sunday we woke up and went to church there, I translated the talk for President Childs. He gave me no warning. After church we had lunch with the senior couple, then we came home. The sunset began up there at 3:30 pm! That was insane. I was there on the longest day of the year, and now coming back near the shortest was so crazy.

It was a good week. The lesson I found out that I needed to learn is patience with everyone. In the office all the mistakes/messes/problems are blamed on whichever missionaries happen to be in the office, and the workers sometimes treat us like we're dumb and that we are just the worst. It kinda irks me sometimes, but I'm working it. That's all for the week! Love ya!

Andrew

birthday dinner

the cake

for Sam

Oh My Travel

Let me just start out by saying that travel really really wears me out. I've never felt so tired before... I'm sure that I have been, but being in new places all the time just really does it to me. Anyways, that's just how I'm feeling right now. The week: Tuesday was good. We were made aware of a showing of the Nutcracker at Mariinsky Theater on January 5 and we immediately bought tickets... later in the week when word got out so did all the missionaries in St. Petersburg. We were very excited about this because it's on a Monday afternoon, and that's our P day. In other missions they are allowed every once in a while as a mission to go to a cultural event at night because they are rarely during the day. So that's why it was so cool for us. Anyways, we got our tickets for that and then had district meeting. It was good, one of the sisters in our district is getting transferred so it was our last one together. Then we were supposed to have a stake missionary coordination meeting but the stake guys didn't show up because the meeting was moved to Wednesday. So, we just met with President for a few hours and talked out our mission. Wednesday was another day of meetings. We had a meeting with the office staff to go over the logistics of transfers on wednesday, then we had a short meeting with president and sister childs to go over a few things for the upcoming christmas zone conferences, and then didn't actually ever talk about them. They're going to be next week, so we'll have to really get going on them this week. So that night we had the stake meeting with the stake leaders. It was a good meeing, and they were asking for a lot of suggestions and President Childs was giving them. He mostly tried to help them know how to run a meeting and how to make it more worthwhile for people to come, because in general here it's hard to get people to come to meetings. Thursday morning was really really fun. We made transfer calls, so we called all the companionships in the mission, and President told them their transfers. After that we went to the office and just did some organizing for the upcoming month of craziness. We planned out the dates of when we will do what and where we will be and all that jazz. That night we walked out to see the Mariinsky Theater, it is really cool. It will be really fun. Friday was really cool as well. It was the international day of volunteers at the Hermitage, so we got to go have a little celebration there. It wasn't anything super huge, we just went and got a letter of thanks. The cool part was that yesterday was the 250th anniversary of the Hermitage! We got some really cool gifts from that. We didn't get to go because we were in Kaliningrad, but I feel like I was a part of it. I helped set up chairs. That night we had another great english group. I think I said this already, but we switched the english groups so that we are teaching the lessons in english and I really love it. It's so much better than the other group was. I love it. Saturday morning we flew to Kaliningrad. During the day we had a great little activity put on by the missionaries there, a mini MTC for the youth. There were about 8 that came, 2 of them are not members (yet). So it was really cool to see the youth getting excited there. I don't know what it is, Kaliningrad is just the best. That night I went out with Elder Saxton for a while and we talked to this cool lady selling flowers. He bought a cactus. The next day we went to church. It was great, it's probably the biggest branch in the mission. After that we set up for the Christmas Fireside that we came to put on. I was the Emcee. It was fun to have a go at it this first time and see how the people liked the songs and displays. I think it went well. We'll be going to all the mission branches and doing one devotional for the stake. It's going to be an every weekend sort of deal. Anyways, this morning we flew back and now we're here.

I realized this week why Kaliningrad is such a magical, mystical place that everybody loves. It's because the members smile! They are nice and don't treat newcomers as rejects! Sadly, that seems to happen here a lot. People are just ok with their ward the way it is and don't want more people they have to take care of. Obviously this is a small amount of people, but when there are none of them it's just so much better! Be nice to everyone at church or anywhere for that matter. Just smile and say hello, it seems dumb and small but it makes a difference and will rub off. Anyways, cool stuff.

Love ya all! Have a good week.

Andrew

coolest sunset EVER

the post fast meal put on by the members and missionaries

Time flies

Hello!

Hey! It was a great week! I hope you all had a good one. Here goes! Tuesday we had our district meeting and that went well. We had to cut it short because we had a meeting with President Childs that afternoon to talk about transfers and the upcoming MLC. We ended up getting stuck in the office all day because of some problems with the police in Pskov. We had to stay in contact with the missionaries there and let the office workers know what was going on. So that's pretty much all that went on on Tuesday. Just busy work at the office waiting for news. Everything ended up being fine after all, and we slept well that night. Wednesday was another day in the office, we actually were in more meetings with President. We talked about the upcoming Christmas Devotionals that we will be holding in all of the Mission Branches in December. Here's the Schedule: This weekend to Kaliningrad again, the next to Petrozavodsk. Then to Vyborg. The next weekend (right after Christmas) we will stay in the city and put on a devotional for the stake members. The weekend after that we'll go to Novgorod on Saturday and Pskov on Sunday. Then we'll be done with traveling for a while (I hope). All of December will be crazy, we'll have 2 or 3 major events every single week. It'll be nuts. Anyways, the devotional will be about the church initiative "He is the gift" and it'll be great I think. I'm really looking forward to it. After our meetings and business, we went on splits with the Nevsky Zone leaders. It was really fun to be with them, the four of us get along really really well. I was with the older of the two, and we went to the Institute building to teach one of our investigators. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we've been really focusing on that as a mission. The Gospel and why it's so important. Thursday was a blast! Dad, even though you didn't participate in a Turkey Bowl this year, I did! We played in the small cultural hall at the stake center right by our house. There were 6 of us and it was so fun. I did learn however, that you can't go 100% and smack into people and dive for touchdowns on hardwood floor without feeling the pain the next day. Let me say... it felt SO good to be all beat up after a nice bout with some other big elders. I miss that. Then we had MLC and it was great. Elder Doxey and I taught the Doctrine of Christ to the Zone Leaders, it was really great to study that for myself. One of my former companions didn't like to study it because he didn't feel that he ever learned anything new about those 5 points (Faith in Jesus Christ, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Endure to the end). I love studying it because I learn something new every time. This time I realized why we invite people to be baptized. We are all able to gain a testimony of Christ and feel guilt and repent of the sins that we have committed, but we cannot be baptized by the Light of Christ. We practice the baptismal invitation in conjunction with the Doctrine of Christ because we hold the key to allow people to accomplish all the steps that we need in order to receive salvation. Anyways, that was good. We ate dinner with the office elders, who are also our next door neighbors. That was fun. Then Friday we had a zone training, and it was nice to just be a listener at that meeting and not a teacher. We then went to the Hermitage with Pres. and Sister Childs to meet the head of the volunteers there. We know him well, but the Childs wanted to get to know him. He's a really interesting man. We found out that missionaries about 10 years ago actually organized the whole volunteer organization at the Hermitage. Cool fun fact. Saturday we drove to Novgorod and they had an open house for their new building. It was really neat to see the changes that they made from a few months ago, it looks so nice now. Sunday we stayed for church services. Actually, my companion and I stood by the door (inside thankfully) for 3 hours and guarded the coats, because the door has no lock yet. Then we had a fun lunch with the missionaries there and had a grand ole time on the drive back. Dad, I now have a connection with a senior couple who lives in Sandy but owns a house and a small apartment in Whale's Pass, Alaska. We'll go up there and fish sometime. They rent out their apartment to fishermen and I think you'd really like the guy. That's about it. It was a great week! I'm so happy to be where I am, I learn so much every day! Love ya all!

Andrew

Open House in Novgorod

Thanksgiving dinner. We made the twice-baked potatoes.

Thanksgiving selfie

$1.50 a bottle. Elder Doxey and I are SET!

Flashback to the Summer days

Wow

It was a week. I'll just jump right into it. It's going to be a long email this week. So after we emailed, we got on a plane and went to Kaliningrad. I like it there a lot. It's really pretty. So we got in about 8 at night and had to drive an hour to the city, so it was pretty late. The Porters and Childs decided to have us eat with them, it was awesome! We ate at this really nice little restaraunt and had a great time. We were super late that night, but it's ok. We had permission. Tuesday morning we had a meeting with the missionaries there in Kaliningrad that went well. we got to talk in a really small group which made it more fun. After that we split up into a few groups and went out and made some visits, I went to meet the branch president there and give him a blessing. It was fun, my comp served in Kaliningrad for 9 months and he was just in heaven the whole time! It was fun. After that we all met up and said our goodbyes and we drove to the airport. The Porters flew back to Moscow straight from there, and we had our flight about an hour later. I sat by this young guy on the plane, he was really cool! He works off of the coast of Norway on an oil rig, he's the only Russian and so he had to learn english while he was on the rig. He loves america, the only problem is that he lives in Murmansk, so I gave him my email and told him that I'd email him in english if he wants to practice. That was a really fun time. Wednesday was the day of meetings. we had district meeting (without our district leader, who was on a visa trip) and we all just got to know each other. Then we had staff meeting, which is a meeting with the office elders, couple and the Childs to organize and get the logistics of the mission all worked out. Then we (the assistants) had a meeting with the Childs and talked about some things. We finished the next transfer already, which will be on my birthday. Then we had a few other things we had to take care of to organize Christmas things, so we were in the office for a while and then went to get some groceries. Thursday was good, we had Hermitage service in the morning. Nothing too exciting. Went on splits with the north zone leaders and had a good time. Friday was kinda our p-day. I got another pair of pants for my suit and a new white shirt. My companion got a whole new suit. Then we found some skippy's peanut butter for $1.50!!!!! We're going back today to find more, usually it costs about ten dollars here. We were so happy. that night we had english group. We just changed our english program to have it more effective, now we basically just teach the lessons in english. It's fun and it went really well! There was a woman there who had never prayed before, but she did and she actually started to cry! Saturdayy we drove down to Pskov and it took 8 HOURS. A guy that was driving with us forgot his passport so we had to go back and get it for him. Then the weather was bad and we were an hour late for the 7 pm fireside. It was ok though, all was well in the end. The whole mission presidency came down with us and it was fun to meet them. I'd never met any of them before, but now I know them. Sunday was good, I loved being back in Pskov for church. That was great! It was fun to be in a small atmosphere again. I loved it. We had lunch at the senior couple's house and then we came back and got here at 9 pm. It was a crazy crazy week and we did so much, but this email is shorter than I thought it would be. I guess maybe it just seemed busy, but whatever. 

We learned a lot of cool things from our time with Elder Porter. He's great. One of the things that stuck out to me the most was when he taught us the gospel of Jesus Christ. Especially about agency... we knew that agency would bring all the bad into this world and that by other people's choices we would be hurt... yet we fought for agency and we shouted for joy when we leared about this life. There were a lot of other things that he taught us too, but I don't have time to type them all out. Love ya! Have a good week!

Andrew

For the Christmas card :)

Church building in Kaliningrad

Hey...Awkward

So here goes I guess. Monday was good. we played floorball, I don't know if you already knew that, but there ya go. It was really fun, there were lots of us there and we had a good time. That night we met with the less-active guy who we've been seeing for a long time. It was a good lesson, I hope that all goes well there and that his life gets better. On Tuesday we had service in the Hermitage in the morning then headed straight for our final district meeting. It was a good meeting, kinda boring because the other companionship just told my companion about their area and about what they should do there, because there is now only one companionship in Nevsky. That night we met with an investigator that will be passed off to Elder Castleton and his new companion. It was a really fun meeting and there were some great testimonies. Wednesday was a crazy day. We woke up at the normal time and we were just up and running all day long! We didn't have any extra time to spare. We had a meeting for all of the people who have never been leaders in a mission setting to help them know what to do. We started that meeting an hour later than it was planned to be started. We then had transfer meeting. It was a good one, this is the point in my mission when everybody that goes home I knew pretty well. And let me say, it was so weird to get emails from some of them. Just crazy. After transfers we were just going around like crazy doing all sorts of things in the office. I honestly don't even remember what.. It was just crazy. That night we had a meeting with an investigator who claims to be of the royal line of King Nikolai who was killed at the beginning of the revolution, and his dream is to one day become the King of Russia. So we'll see about that. But he's really interested in the Gospel, he just won't get baptized because the Russian king cannot be a mormon. Strange. Thursday was good. We had a slower, more relaxed day in order to prepare for the craziness of the weekend. We had weekly planning and got a few things done in the office that we needed to, then went out for a lesson at night. The man didn't show up, so we just ended up going contacting. It was fun. There were actually a few people who approached us and we got some phone numbers. It was a good night. Ok. Here goes. Friday. At 8:30 we were at the stake center, got in a car and picked up Elder and Sister Porter from their hotel. We then drove to Novgorod. It was a really cool experience getting to talk to them in the car and just have a good time. We got to Novgorod and had some lunch before meeting up with the missionaries from Novgorod and Pskov for a small Zone Conference. We had a great time there, Elder Porter is a really smart man. We then had a nice dinner of Hawaiian Haystacks and had a member fireside at the church. Saturday morning we drove back to the city and got some things done that we needed to, including cleaning our apartment so that it didn't get so so messy. Then that night we had a Mission Leadership Council and that was great. I'm sorry I haven't given any details about what was said, there was so much to do. Sunday was great. We got to do a full round of studies, that was the first time of my mission. Then church was good. We don't spend too much time in our own ward, so my companion and I were both meeting people at the same time. That night was a stake fireside. It was good. This morning we also had a good meeting with Elder Porter and the missionaries in the city, and now we're going to Kaliningrad. It's going to be really fun. 

It's been really cool so spend time with Elder Porter and to hear his stories. It's also really cool to see how hard he works. He has really bad health, and he's an older guy, but when he's speaking to a group of missionaries, he's all animated and it's really cool to see that happen! It's really like night and day. One of the coolest things of the week. 

Have a great time! Love ya!

Andrew

hello hello!

So it was a good week. On Monday night we had a good lesson with the less active that we've been working with FOREVER and nothing seemed to be helping him too much. He is still having a really hard time with work and so that's kinda a killer. Tuesday we had a good district meeting and right after that we ran to the same less active's house to pick him up for our WARD ACTIVITY! It was national unity day in Russia, so we had a day of Russian Folk Songs. It was really really fun, President Childs even came up and participated with us. There is a guy in our ward who used to play in a rock band and was voted the best guitarist in St. Petersburg in 1990, so it was cool to hear him just jam. I liked it a lot. After that we went on splits with our district leader and his companion, it was fun. I was with the older of the two who is actually going home this week. The other is a brand new missionary who has been here just as long as my companion, but we put them together to see what would happen... and there was a huge miracle! They were all alone without somebody who spoke good Russian, but they managed to find a man who spoke English, who also happened to be interested, who also happened to be free that night and they got a lesson with him and set up the next one! I still haven't met this man, but I soon will. That was crazy crazy! We couldn't believe it. Huge miracle and huge confidence boost for them. On Wednesday morning, still on the split, we went to the Hermitage. Nothing too crazy. Then we met up with our companions that night at english group, and we left to go to a stake coordination meeting for missionaries. It was a good meeting and we made some good decisions. Thursday we went to the Hermitage again, and we took a survey for President Porter, who is coming in next week right after transfers. Friday we went to Novgorod and had another Zone Training. It was really fun, the Assistants were down there with us and it was fun to have a bigger group. We left early in the morning and came home that night. Saturday we had some TRANSFER NEWS. I'm going to the Center ward, I'll be an assistant to the President. I'm really excited to get to spend lots of time with and learn from President Childs, but at the same time there will be lots of new responsibilities and it will be GO GO GO from day one. We are picking up the area president Thursday, Friday in Novgorod to do a training, Saturday MLC, Sunday church, Monday a missionary conference with him then we fly with him to Kaliningrad for 2 days. I'm so excited! It's going to be great! That night we had another really big miracle. So remember the less active, the one who is tough to get to do much? We got him to come to the opening of the Family History Center in our stake center AND HE BROUGHT A NEIGHBOR, WHO HAPPENS TO BE INTERESTED! It was really really cool! We showed him the building and taught him a quick lesson. It was great! Sunday we had church and a great ward council. All missionaries but my companion are leaving, so we didn't all have time to say goodbye. The one who is going home is the only one who was able to speak. 

This week I read in Galatians and something that was really cool was in chapters 2 and 3. We can't just go through the motions! If we do, we will be wasting the greatest gift that we have all been given. Elder Packer once said something along the lines of "we need to be active in the Gospel, not active in the church." These few chapters really drive this point home. I love you all! Thanks for the love!

Andrew

I'm Bad at Choosing a Subject

Hello everybody! I am so glad that you had fun at disneyland! That sounded like a great trip, and I'm happy all went well. Here's my week! Tuesday was intense... we had Hermitage service in the morning, then we went right to a meeting with Brother Ridd from the YM Presidency, and Elder Kleibengat from the seventy. It was a really good meeting, really inspiring. Elder Kleibengat used to be the Mission President in Kiev. He's awesome! He taught us some great principles that my companion and I started applying right away. We then went to pick up a less active to take to a fireside being put on by those brethren. It was a really good fireside, and it was about families. Kinda awkward that our member is single... but that's ok. The spirit was there and we all learned good things. On Wednesday we had weekly planning, and we started to apply the things that we learned and all has been going great so far! I've loved it. We are just more focused on helping the people rather than hitting the goals I guess.. I don't know how to describe it all that well. We had english group that night. A few people came and it was a fun time. Thursday we had another MLC from morning til afternoon. It was mostly to hand out new materials that we will be using and to explain how to use them. The two big ones were a new english program, where we teach the missionary lessons in english. The other was the beginning of family history work in our stake. We now have a family history center (kinda) and we'll be able to take people there. After the meeting, I was with one of the office elders on a split. It was a really intense split, because the transfers were finished that day and the other elder had my fate in his pocket. So that was fun, trying to weasel it out of him. We finished up our split on friday and then we went less active hunting that night. On Saturday, we had zone training for the missionaries in the city. That was fun. We all had a good time and we got all the information out. Good stuff. That night we went to the local clinic to get our flu vaccinations, under the orders of the area doctor. So cool. Hooray for flu shots. Sunday was ok. We had a good church time, but our bishop is just too nice to say no or to take control of situations! It's kinda frustrating. I got to see a return missionary who served here who came back from Ukraine for a week or so. It was fun to talk to him. Then we broke our fast with the senior couple, it was really nice of them to make us a great dinner of chicken and mashed potatoes and other goodies. Then our lesson fell through... lame.

I thought a lot this week after the meetings on tuesday... I'm in the best place that I could be! I am where I need to be, and I need to take advantage of every single second of it! So that as my big thing of the week. I hope I can give it my all on my mission, and in everything else. Love you all!

Andrew

Hyello, Friends

It was a good week. Tuesday we had district meeting, that was pretty good I guess. We talked a lot about the ward and what we can do to help. We had some "language practice" for an hour after that. I added the quotation marks because I was with two missionaries going home in a few weeks and Elder Jaynes, so we just kinda chatted it up. It was a very interesting conversation. Less-active hunting, to no avail. Wednesday we had a Hermitage mix-up, we usually have service that day but the other Elders in our district went instead of us. So... we showed up and went right back home. We will now have service on Tuesdays. We finished studies at home, then got on a bus to Pskov!!! It was really fun. Well, the ride was boring but I took picture number 1 after we got off. It felt good to be back. Thursday I was with the Missionary Branch President in Pskov, we stopped by some less-actives and had branch presidency meeting. It was really interesting to see that and how it worked. The missionary did a really good job, I think. Then they had english that night so we stuck around and helped out. On Friday we went with the other Elders in Pskov, one of my former companions, Elder Holman, and a newer missionary. I went with my old companion and we stopped by some addresses. There was actually a crazy thing too... a lunatic, a pair of mormon missionaries, and a potential investigator who is also a JW all in a small, DVD store... it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but that's what happened. We stopped by the potential investigator and a man walked in who believed he was God. It was a wacky and wild 10 minutes. Wow. The good thing is, they had DVDs for 50 cents and I got the Bourne movies and some Star wars ones in Russian. Coool. That night we got on the bus back to the city. Saturday was a laid back day. We did some training for my companion on the internet. Did some weekly planning. Then met with our less active. It was ok with him, he's doing better now. Sunday was good. We had a great sacrament meeting with a lot of people. Ward council was a little less than fun, there was a lot of arguing going on. Nobody listened to anybody else. Then I translated a temple recommend interview for an american girl living here. That was interesting. Then, best of all, we had a great meeting with our family for Sunday nights. We taught them how to make enchiladas. They loved it, and we all had lots of fun.

A cool thing this week. A brain blast of sorts. I was reading 2 Nephi 10: 20 and realized that we are commanded to repent because God knows that we can't return to Him unless we do. We need to use the Atonement of Christ and use it often, daily. It is a commandment of love. I don't know why, but that just sunk in last week. So that was good. It made the week better.

LOve you all! Have a great week!

Andrew

Night

Day

My Companion

как работал, так и заработал

Hello y'all! How are you doing?! We had a good week here. Now for the rundown. Tuesday we had district meeting. We had a great chat about our ward and the things we need to do to help it. We will talk more about it this week and come up with a plan. The problems are that 8 of the 9 people baptized within the last three years are inactive, and that our bishop doesn't know 85% of the members on the ward list. So we're working on in. We then did some language practice with the BYU-I professor. That was fun. We went home and had some dinner, and the rest of the day was spent at the doctor for my companion's ear. It was a really really nice little clinic that we went to called EuroMed. Everybody speaks english and there was some good music in the background (Queen, Frank Sinatra, All you need is love, etc.) and even newspapers in english. President Childs has given us the green light to catch up on events in this area if we have the chance because we know absolutely nothing about it and it's kinda important. So I hadn't read anything about it until then, but when I saw some english papers I had to. On Wednesday we went on splits with the assistants. It was mostly just a 24 hour Q and A with me. I was with Elder Doxey, a South Jordan man, and it was great. I like him a lot. We had english group and a meeting with our bishop to get some ward lists. The Area Presidency has asked all the wards to get lists of less-actives and inactives to them, they'll do something and probably give those lists back and say "go to work". Thursday we met up with our real companions. We went home and prepared for a lesson with that less active, that was kinda sad because he lost his work between the time he came to general conference and the time we met. Which means he has more free time to meet, but also more free time to do things he shouldn't. So we had a tough lesson with him and encouraged him to keep on going with the basics. Friday was fine, we had to come to the library and do an online course for training. That took a while and so did weekly planning. So then we went out to confirm that night about members who had moved to help clean up our ward lists. Saturday morning we had a stake service project at the Alexandr Nevsky Square in the city. It was fun to see all the members and the missionaries there. We had a good time. We played the spoon game, which made it fun. We had a spoon. The point of the game is to get the spoon into the pocket of somebody else without them noticing. Once you get the spoon, you have to pass it on. It was really fun. We came home from that and did some studies then continued the member hunt. Sunday was interesting... the chapel was "really cold" (it was fine) and all the ladies in the ward were complaining to ME about it. I was the greeter at the chapel door this week and they all made some snarky comment to me and I just bit my tongue. Then, to make matters worse, a window was left open on the second floor and that caused some fits. Other than that it was normal. There was a big change up in callings in our ward. The relief society presidency got reorganized. After church we went to the less-active, who didn't come to church, and taught him. He had been sleeping all day long... so that was kinda sad. Anyways, not too exciting but a good solid week.

I read Alma 29 this week and thought about it a lot... Sister Childs taught us about the word Remember in the scriptures at the last MLC and I've been noticing it more and more often. It's in this chapter a few times. I made a connection... at least I think I did. We are told to search out our ancestors and find out their stories and do temple work for them because we remember them and how merciful God was to them. We notice patterns and see that we, from that very same God, have recieved great blessings. That's why the law of Moses was there. To help Israel remember the things that had been done for their fathers and how they were led out of captivity. That  was a cool thing to study about this week.

Well, that's it. Love you all!

Andrew

SNOW!

Hello Y'all

Hello! Let's get to the week, shall we? Tuesday was good, we had district meeting and language practice with the BYU-I professor after that. I really like the language practice, we learn some good words and phrases that we would never learn otherwise. Mostly stuff that we don't ever need to use, but it will be fun to hear. Not bad words or anything like that though. That night we went on splits with the other elders in our district to help them out. They had two lessons planned, and we came to the rescue after our lesson fell through. It was really fun. We taught our lesson in English which was really strange... it's really tough to teach when you know all the gospel words and phrases and you are fluent to describe what is going on and define words. I'll stick to my basic Russian vocabulary. The lesson went well, we had it at a member's house and they knew english as well, so it was great fun had by all. On Wednesday we went to the Hermitage... nothing too crazy to report there. I had to go to the office to get my new registration to live in Russia legally after my visa trip nullified the old one, and it wasn't there. So that was awkward. We had english group that night and it was probably the most effective one yet. Effective as a missionary tool I mean. It was great. There were members and non-members, so it was a good mix and there were a few teaching opportunities at the end. Thursday morning we went to Novgorod to do Zone Training. We taught, and all went well. We did splits with the elders down there. I was with a new missionary who is just a stud. It was really great to be with him and to see his level of dedication. That night there too they had gamenight, which is a thing they have to get investigators and members talking together. It's at the senior couple's appartment. We even got to watch the little segment about those sister missionaries from our mission. That was cool to see. Did you know that Emily Winder's sister was in that program too? I just caught a glimpse of Emily and her sister at the airport.. also the Childs know the Winders... small world. That was really fun, there were lots of people there. The next day we were still in Novgorod. It was raining really really hard. We went out to meet this woman, but we forgot that we needed to bring a male with us... so we just had to go to the door and give her a Book of Mormon. That was a bummer. Then we hopped on a train for home. Saturday was general conference day part one. We spent almost all day up at the stake center watching conference. I watched in English. I'm glad I did. That night we went to a less-active's that we have been meeting with for a long time and taught a good lesson about prayer and read some scriptures about it. Sunday we were at the stake center literally all day and our less-active came! Two transfers of weekly lesson, and he finally came! It was great to have that happen. In between the afternoon and priesthood sessions (we watch priesthood on Sunday here) there was a pot-luck dinner with all the missionaries in the city. We brought fruit salad, and it was about the only choice that didn't include meat or potato chips. It was really fun. I caught up with Elder Jaynes there. I guess Elder Kartchner is having a tough time in Petro, he's the district leader there now. Lots of drama.

Well that is about it for the week. Now for conference highlights. I really liked Elder Ballard's talk about the old ship Zion. It was a great talk. I especially love it when the speakers give lists so that at least one of the applications to the talk is handed to me. I could relate to the story about the rafting, I was thinking about my experience with Tyler that whole talk. Another one I really liked was Elder Christofferson's about goals and having direction. It was cool that he said that God can't help us become someone if we haven't decided who we want to become and how he won't compell us to make a decision. We just need to make a choice and go for it! God will help us. It was a great conference. Love ya!

Elder Gwilliam

A few weeks ago

Train station at 5 a.m.

Wow. Just, wow.

So, I'll start off with this. If this is going to be the next 3 months of my mission, me as a lone Zone Leader and trainer, it will be the most hectic, busy, fun, strange, difficult, uncomfortable, wacky, and fulfilling time of my mission (probably in my life thus far). It is so busy. I don't think that I've had free time to even write in my journal since last Monday. It's also really really fun. I love it. It's just so hectic. Here's the week. Monday we went to the Peter-Paul Fortress after we emailed. It was really fun and really pretty. We went to the Cathedral and the prison. It was fun to go to the prison and see the history of that place (plus everything was in english and russian, I felt like I learned more than I usually do in historic places here). That was it for Monday. On Tuesday we had district meeting bright and early, we had a good time together. It was our last district meeting with those guys because we have our own district now. Right after that we had a meeting for the trainers, really similar to the one that I had six months ago. We just talked about how to be a good trainer. Elder Kartchner was feeling like Father Abraham because he was there, I was there, Elder Saxton was there. That means he has a great grandson in the mission now. It was really fun. That night we went to our less-active's house and taught him a good lesson. We committed him to start reading the Book of Mormon again. He said ok. To be continued... On Wednesday, we had breakfast and met our new companions. Here's the stats. My companion is cool. He's a teeny bit shorter than me. He played soccer at Brighton and then at Corner Canyon his senior year. He's right out of high school. He is the second youngest, with 7 siblings. His dad has been stake president for 10 years now. He's a cool guy. His eardrum burst on the flight here, so we're going to the doctor in a few weeks to check that out. I don't know what else. He's better at Russian than I was when I came. So we met them and had breakfast, then we went to the office to have our visa training for the new ones. Then we got lunch fed to us, that was good. I liked that part. Then we had transfer meeting. It was good. There were 8 new elders and 4 Elders left. None of them were too special. There were almost no sisters there, they all about stayed put. But not next transfer, they'll be all over the place. So after that meeting we went home and had a bite to eat. Then we went back to the church and had english group. That was fun, three older citizens came and we had a good time. Thursday was ruled by MLC. It was good to have some changes in the leadership with the big talkers and chatters gone, now we're all thinkers. It was really great and we got a lot of things done. That night we went back to our less active and checked up on the reading. He wasn't doing it. DARN IT. So we read Alma 34 with him and he really liked it. Then we set up a service project at his house for Saturday. Friday I had a visa trip, pretty uneventful. I was with two new missionaries on their first trip, so it was fun to help them out. Saturday we had zone training for the missionaries in our zone in the city. It was good. My companion helped out quite a bit and it was cool. He just jumped right in. We then helped the less-active clean out his kitchen. COCKROACHES is all I have to say about that. Sunday was good, a little strange though. There's been this burst of Russian pride in our ward and one of the prelude songs was the Russian National anthem and everybody but the young members and missionaries stood up. I think some people got more emotional at that point than at any other. That night we went to a family in the ward that we've gone to a lot, and it was fun to be with them. Next week I'm making Enchiladas for them.

So we didn't get to watch conference, but we'll watch it at the stake center this next weekend.

This last week I read 1 Nephi 18:21, and I really thought about this concept, that prayer can calm the storm. I really love the last phrase of that verse. I know that whatever storms are whirling around us, temptations, deaths, homework assisgnments, we can have peace through prayer.

I love you all! Thanks for the emails.

Elder G

The buds (Elder Butters and me)

Summer Gardens

This is where Russia was dedicated for missionary work.

Oh my wow

So hey! Monday was fun. We had a meeting that night with a less active who is very... political. He has strong views. He doesn't come to church because one time in the last few months he had an online chat with a 16 year old Ukrainian (this man is 45-50) who claimed to be a member of the church and has very anti-Russian feelings. He really likes American members of the church, but Russians and Ukranians are liars. So that was an interesting meeting. Tuesday we had splits with the elders from Pskov, we did more shed service. This time was better, we didn't do shoveling. We just moved the floorboards out. I am not having any bad effects. Had some less-active lessons. Wednesday we had Zone Conference which was really cool. I really really like President Childs, he knows what is up. That night we went on splits with the other Elders from Pskov, and we went to another less active. This one is a 17 year old girl who is basically the mother of her family. She's got a tough situation. We had to have another man with us, so we took other elders from Novgorod who were in town. I was bummed a little... we asked the first Pskov elders to help us with that because they were already with us and we needed a man... but one is going home this week and said he'd rather go shopping than teach a lesson. So that was a bummer. Thursday we had Hermitage Service. Nothing too crazy. Then our investigator came an hour late to our lesson, so we were already heading home at that point. Friday, we were TRANSFER NEWS>>>> Elder Butters is leaving... he's going to Kolpina, a small town outside the city, and he's training. I'm sad that he's leaving, I really like him and this has been one of the best transfers of my mission. I'll miss him. I'm staying. I'll be training a new elder as well. I'll be the lone Zone Leader in our zone. It's going to be crazy. I'll have 1 or 2 splits every week, this is going to be the craziest transfer of all time I think. I don't know anything about my companion, I'll fill you in next week. That day we did have a lesson with the investigator who came late on Thursday. It was a good lesson. We only talked about the Book of Mormon and we're making progress. Saturday we had apartment checks. Our apartment was super clean. In Avtovo there was a baptism, my trainer baptized a cool young man. We invited lots of people to go, but nobody came. It was a bummer. It was really awesome to see the baptism though. That night we had a really cool lesson with a less active. We've been meeting with him for a long time, and he hasn't made much progress. We both felt like we needed to take a different approach. We were teaching him about Church and why it's important to come. We changed our focus (because coming to church is hard here, there's travel and stuff) and we want his testimony to be remembered. So we just asked him to read the Book of Mormon. I felt the spirit really strongly saying that we had done the right thing. Let's hope to see some results this week. Sunday was fun. We had a good day at church, a frustrating thing though is that there is this one member who changes every topic you could ever teach a lesson about in church back to the people starving in Ukraine and southern Russia. He's been 6 for 6 at Elders Quorum lessons since I've been here. A member of the bishopric grabbed him afterwards, so I hope that's the end of that. We went hunting for less actives that night.

The experience with the less active was really cool. I know have a stronger testimony that we just need to make a decision, pray about it to get confirmation, then do it and you'll feel the spirit even more and you'll know that what so did was right. I love you all! Keep being awesome!

Andrew

what happened?

action shot

inside the shed

Hallo

Hello! It was a good week! Let's get down to it! Monday was a great day, I got to talk to all of you and we capped off the day with a great lesson with a guy who called us out of the blue. I don't remember if I told you about him last week, but he was drunk walking around with his wife about a year ago and some missionaries helped them out. He finally got around to calling us last week, and we had a good meeting. He knows english pretty well, so we invited the senior couple and taught him in english. He was really excited to get his own copy of the Book of Mormon. On Tuesday, we had district meeting. After that Elder B and I had interviews with President Childs, it was great. It was just kinda a chatting session, but it was a good one! I really like President Childs, he knows what he is doing. We went on splits with the APs that night. We (Elder Dibble (lax player from JHS)) taught two less actives, one of them who is sick and has bad legs and can't come to church because of that. He said all he needs is a ride, and that missionaries haven't talked to him in a while and he wondered why. So, we're going to get him a ride. On Wednesday we had service in the Hermitage in the morning, that was really really fun. I like doing it, we meet some cool people. We met a huge group of english speakers from DOWN UNDA which was fun. We ended our split after that and met up with the others. Had english group with lots of people this time, we made books about our lives, with pictures and all. It was fun. On Thursday we did weekly planning and we planned good. We have Zone Conferences and 2 splits next week, so we wanted to make sure that all will be in order next week. That night we met with a nice babushka member and she fed us dinner. It was fun to be fed for the second time my whole mission... she cooked good food too. Friday we went to lots of addresses that we found in our area book. We had a meeting with a less active, but we got to his house and his dad wouldn't let us in because the member was sleeping. He wouldn't answer his phone either. Bummer. That night we got an interesting call from the man we met on Monday night about Ukraine... that wasn't a fun call. He will still meet with us, but he read something somewhere that said we were spies or something. Lame. Saturday was good, we had stake conference and I went to the adult session for the first time in my life. It was good. We had a great talk from the Bishop in Avtovo, my pal, and from the 2nd counselor in the stake presidency. He talked about self-reliance and about debts, and how they weigh us down, It was sweet. Sunday we had another great session with awesome talks. The Stake President got up and blew everybody away. I loved his talk soo much. He spoke about the commandments in our everyday lives, with some little words here and there about how we need to be clean to grow as a stake. And he addressed all the concerns that I was having about our ward. It was so great! It really strengthened my testimony that these men are called of God and are given strength beyond their own. It's been a great transfer so far, and I really hope that next week I will tell you that our situation is staying the same and we aren't leaving! This is great. I love it here. I love you all. have a great week!

Andrew

A stone's throw from our apartment,  the Neva.

Hermitage Courtyard

Hello!

Hello! It was a good week here. Here's the update. On Monday we went and got our faces drawn by those goofy cartoon drawers. It was fun, and we took pictures with our pictures. I'll send them to you. That night we went to a family who has been sick for the past few weeks, and we gave them blessings. It was a great experience. I love being with them, and they even invited us to bring investigators to their house whenever we want. They are great. On Tuesday we had district meeting, I taught about commitments. It was good. We did some service for our ward mission leader. He has a shed kinda thing that he keeps nothing in, but now he wants to keep things there. He just had us clean it out. There were rats... that was fun. That night we just had a few addresses that we went to check on. On Wednesday we had hermitage service, nothing too exciting happened there. We had a lesson that night with one of our investigators and a member that went well, but the member just did a lot of talking. That wasn't so good, but the lesson overall went well. After that was english group, and it was fun. There were lots of people there this time. On Thursday we went on splits with the Office Elders. I was with Elder Wilkins again, that was fun to see him and how much he has grown. We had a lesson with a less active and it went really well. He didn't come to church though, that guy. Friday morning we ended the split. That night we had a lot of addresses to go to, and we didn't have too much luck. On Saturday we went back to our WML's shed and he decided that we was not going to leave the wood on the floor, he wanted us to tear it out and he would later lay asphalt. So, we did that, and we found more rats. Hooray! don't worry, we had masks on. We came prepared for that. In fact, I found 3 little babies while we were digging through the garbage. I couldn't thow them away, so I put them by a hole where the big rats ran in and out and they came and grabbed their kids. That night we had more addresses, and again not so much luck. Sunday was good. I gave a talk about how we can all be missionaries and how we just need to live the gospel, and if somebody asks us why we are so happy or what is up with us, we need to be ready to share the gospel. I think it's 1 peter 3:14 or 15. I forgot. But, that was the verse that I shared as the theme of my talk. It was ok. I felt better about my russian that time. We had a strange gospel principles class with mostly American girls there... everybody in the class knew english, so we taught in english. The girls are here teaching english until December. That night all of our plans died, so we hit the pavement again and went for addresses. It was cool though, we got a random phone call from a guy that met with missionaries a year ago on the street and just got around to calling. We have a meeting with him tonight, that should be interesting.

I read in the book of Acts this week. Acts 3:6-7 are good verses. Peter makes an invitation (more like a command), but then actually helps the man get up! He grabs him and helps him along the way. We need to do that same thing, no matter what it is that we're doing. Whether missionary work or your career, when we want somebody to change we need to help them up!

I love you all, you're the best.

Andrew

                     

Here ya go

                     

A cool bridge