Privyet fsyem (Hello to all)

Hallo how are you all doing? (Imagine Andrew here speaking English with a Russian accent): I doing fine. Here recap week: Monday we went to the hospital to get my comp's heart checked out. Let me just say, I won't be having any health problems after that trip to the hospital. Yikes. Then we had FHE with our ward mission leader and his daughter who is 4 and bouncing off the walls, that was really fun. On Tuesday we went back to the hospital to get an ultrasound done and some blood taken. they take blood here from the finger and use a normal needle to make the prick... yikes. That night we were walking and there was this grandma lady who wanted us to help her get a drunk man away from her, and it turns out she was drunk too and didn't remember us as soon as we got her to her door and wanted to know why we were there. Crazy. Wednesday the Zone leaders came. It was fun to be with them, we did more service at that lady who lives in a sauna... it actually wasn't so hot last time. Fun. We started puttin up the wallpaper. On Thursday Elder J and I (MTC comp) went to do service while the other two went to the hospital to get the results of his tests. Apparently there isn't much wrong with him, he's just too anxious and doesn't have enough magnesium. So that was interesting. We had a fun english class that night. On Friday we had a lesson with a new investigator, we walked along the shore of the lake and had a good time shooting down crazy Ideas about the church. It started to rain really hard, and we found shelter in a little restauraunt where they sold skewers of meat.. so he was nice and bought us some. It was super tasty. We set up another meeting too. Saturday was fun. We had an activity for the kids in the branch and their parents, it was Irish themed and I was the Leprechaun. Tallest missionary. Great choice. Anyways, that was fun. We just ran around and did different activities according to the rainbow colors and had to do service things and things to work together as a team. It was fun. On Sunday we had church, my comp gave a good talk about the apostasy. We had lots of encounters with drunks because there was some war holiday yesterday. So we saw some guys passed out on the street. 

So, I read a talk from Elder Bednar this last week. It said that when Christ told us to take His yoke upon ourselves, it was an invitation to work. You need two oxen for a team, and so we need to do some work too. Obviously nothing that we can do will ever match up to what the Savior does or did, but we still need to put the effort in. It reminded me of the quote that Mom sent me last week "If the wind will not serve, take to the oars." We need to put in some effort as well. 

Love you all! You're the best.

Elder G.

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Hello!!! It was a fantasmic week here in the city of Petrozavodsk! I'll tell you all about it. Here goes. On Tuesday we had district meeting and did some contacting to finish off the day. I learned a phrase that will stop any Muslim, anywhere in the world. I will tell you and you can try it next time you are on a tourbus with one. "Salam Alekom" (Saul-AUM uh-LEK-um) It works every time. On Wednesday we had a meeting with the Elders Quorum President and it was interesting... he had lost his Skype password and that's all he could think about. It was hard to get him to focus, but we still had a good spiritual thought and talked some business. After that, we had some service at this grandma's house. Her one room apartment... in the heat... with no windows open... taking down wallpaper. It was soooo hot. I was sweating like a pig, it was worse than a sauna. My gosh. It was really fun and the lady was very nice. On Thursday we had English group. It was pretty good, but it could have ben better. Not too many people were there, and it wasn't very well organized this week. Bummer. I also found peanut butter in a store here... guess what brand.. Reese's. I didn't even konw that they made jars of peanut butter, but I got some. On Friday we had weekly planning and it was great. We just talked (I mostly listened) and I think I really am going to have a good rest of the transfer. We're getting along well now, and I've seen improvements already. It's great. Listening and really wanting to help works. Saturday was fun. We had our normal Russian study together, then President Childs came with the assistants and the mission driver. It was fun to be with them. They had a little meeting with our district, they talked to us about how we were doing and things like that. We then met with some members and went on splits to go meet some less actives. It was great, I was with a member and an assistant, and we had a good lesson with a less active member working on quitting smoking. He's doing better. Then we all met up again and had some pizza and pies and tasty Russian food. We just talked and had a good time. On Sunday, we taught gospel principles. It was really... interesting. Some people (including members) just like to disagree with us. I don't understand. They all agree with each other, but not us. It's frustrating sometimes. A member that had gone with us on splits brought two of his friends to church yesterday and one will become a new investigator for us. YESS! Finally.. my goodness, it's been a long time coming. President Childs taught everybody during the third hour, and everybody was very quiet and agreed with everything that he said. After church, we had small interviews with president and talked out some things. It was really good. Right after that, we went to dinner with them at the sisters' apartment. I made some mexican rice, the main dish was tacos. Really tasty. Again, just talked. I really like the Childs. They are really nice and funny. They aren't always really serious, but when they need to be they are. That night we just went contacting, one of the assistants and I ended up talking to this guy on the street for 2 hours. He was really interested in religion, just not changing his. So that was a bummer, but he was really nice and smart and full of common sense. I really liked talking to him.

Well, that's it for the week. I wanted to say something that I learned this week. The atonement is for all of us! Sinners and Saints. We should remember that we can use the atonement to strenghten ourselves even if we're living by the gospel standards. We can become even more like Christ through the power of the atonement. Love you all! Here are some pics.

Andrew

On the bank of the river

flashback to the Pskov days 

(with Elder Kennedy, who we (Andrew's family) got to meet yesterday!)

Hey Hey Hey

How is everybody doing? I'm going to shake things up a bit and we'll start on Monday night... we had a FHE with our branch president and his fam-bam, it was pretty fun. I did the whole spiritual thought while my companions ate all the candy that we brought. Hooray. Then on Tuesday, our companion who was leaving had to pack up his stuff, so he packed and I cleaned and our other companion slept. That was great. We met some interesting people on the street the same day. We talked to some guys who didn't believe that our Russian companion is from Russia because he has a strange accent. I kept saying "show him your passport, prove him wrong" and he didn't want to. So this guy ended the conversation by looking us all in the eye and saying "satan is the father of lies. Think about that." What a goof. That night we got on the night train and went to the city. Wednesday morning we had transfer meeting, that was fun. There were 12 missionaries leaving (9 sisters) and the Elders were all pals of mine. Elder Kennedy, Elder Brooks (from Seattle, his parents are not members, he's a convert of 2 years. Also my political conversation buddy. We're going to watch the next Presidential election together at BYU) and the Russian elder from Pskov while I was there. It was even crazier than usual, becuase we had to stay in the city for one more day for a visa trip for my companion, so we got to see their last night in Russia and how they were feeling. The departing missionaries stayed with the assistants, and the visa trip people stayed with the office elders. So that was a bummer, but then the Russian elder came over and slept in the same room as me to talk with me. He's actually not done with his mission, he just got reassigned to a new mission... one that is now part of Russia but wasn't when I left... so he was nervous and wanted to talk. It was really fun, I'l miss those guys. Thursday was pretty boring, I just went on splits during the visa trip and we walked up and down Nevsky prospect for hours. Got some good burgers from a place we ran into. Friday we had district meeting, that was good. It was our turn to clean the chruch building, so we did that then had Talent night. I played the piano while my comp sang what I will call a "Neon trees" version of Imagine. It wasn't so bad, but wasn't close to the original. The members really liked it though, and there was a movie going around at church yesterday of us. We're using that as leverage to get lots of meetings. On Sunday we had church then in the evening got a call from one of our members asking to give a member of her family a blessing. So we went and gave her 2 year old, (maybe 3), grandson a blessing. He was sick. When we walked into the room he started crying because he thought we were doctors and were going to stick him with needles. It was a good experience, and her less-active daughter and husband invited us over for FHE after their kid gets better. So it was fun. Good week. 

I read Jacob 6:5 this week, and I thought it was cool that it's written there that the hand of God is always outstretched to us in the light of the day. So, if we open up our eyes and look for blessings in our lives, we will see them! The trick is to look. In the light of the day, if you open your eyes, you will see things... and God's hand is always there, so just open your eyes. I feel like a child when I read things like that and FINALLY get it. I'm 19! What the heck. So my advice: look for the blessings, because they are there. That helped me this week. Number two, read the scriptures more in detail NOW and you'll learn these important things NOW. Love you all! You're the best!

Andrew

The hot has made its way up north... uh oh

It was a good week here. Here goes the recap. On Tuesday, like I said last week, we got to meet our new mission president. He's a great guy with a solid testimony and a great attitude. He and his wife spent about 3 hours telling about themselves and sharing their hopes for our mission, then we got to have interviews. It was good, he talked to me a lot about charity (just what I needed) and asked me just a few questions about myself. After the interviews, we went on splits with the assistants, I was with a fellow lacrosse guy. We had a great lesson with a less active member. This less active member has a pug, and the pug has digestive problems. Made for an interesting lesson. The stake president was also with us for that lesson, he's super great. I've never really been able to talk with him outside of shaking his hand at stake conference, he's an amazing guy. He's the brain doctor on the I'm a Mormon videos of Russians. The one with a daughter and a wife. It's cool. On Wednesday we did some contacting and calling people to invite them to English group for the next day. We made a deal. One of us would be calling, two cleaning (we only have one phone) and we would take turns. So we started, I got to work in the bathroom, came out and found one companion asleep on his bed, not cleaning. Well, whatever. Thursday was fun, we had a good weekly planning session where our Russian companion said something nice about me! He usually won't open up his feelings, but when our other companion went into the bathroom, he quickly told me something nice about me. That was cool to have happen. We had a 2 hour chat with some young Jehovah's Witnesses in the park, we nicely shared scriptures with each other for a while, then one of them started talking to me and we just had a nice talk about life and asked each other questions and exchanged emails.That night we had English group, that was pretty fun. Three people came after about 200 promised to come over the phone. On Friday we had some fun and TRANSFER NEWS: Russian is going to Novgorod, our zone is staying almost exactly the same. I am staying with the American for another transfer. I'm excited. We're also going back to something we call the Law of Moses (counting all contacts and conversations and giving them up the line of leaders every week) and so it'll get us working harder. We woke up to the National Anthem that day, and played patriotic music all day. It was great. We also went to this little lake in our area and took a few pictures. I felt like I was back in America. I caught a small lizard. Saturday we had a picnic with a few investigators and members. It was really fun, I liked it. We got to play soccer again. It was great. Luau. Sunday we got to go to a less active member's house after church, and just had a good chat with them. It was fun and I enjoyed doing EVERYTHING (smalltalk, spiritual thought, saying that we have to leave, etc.). It was strange as well because he showed us his new Ecigarette. He's trying to quit, but I don't think that well really help all that much. But it is better than normal cigarettes. That was the week I guess. I'm at a place where I can send pictures, so I'll send pictures.

 

This week I spent lots of time reading Matthew and I really like it. I finally am reading it deeply, thinking about what is written, and I finally realized that Ask, Seek, Knock means more than Pray, Pray Pray. Or at least that's how I understood it. We need to ask (pray), seek (be worthy and want the Spirit), and knock (act when we get a prompting or opportunity to serve). That's the process as I understand it. It was a great week!

 

Love you all!

 

Andrew

Lawn mower #1

L.M.#2

Fajitas

Cool Lake

Lizard

Me on a hill with some grass

Me pretending to eat a frog I found

Me in a Hobbit hole

All-American coleslaw on the Fourth of July