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

Great Week!

Hello! It was a great week here, I'll just get down to the business as usual. On Monday night we had a great lesson with the Grandma investigator who we visited a few times last week. It was great, and she agreed to be baptized on October 5th! She really really wants to get baptized, she's just feeling sick. She's going to be in the hospital for a while, so we hope that after some resting and relaxing that she will be feeling up to baptism. It's really cool, I like teaching her a lot. We like to hear stories from her life as well. She was forced to move to Leningrad when she was 24 to help rebuild the city after the war. She was paid very little, and things were so hard that all she could afford was a bottle of water every day. She said that was the hardest part of her life, because on top of that she had a young daughter and a husband who drank and beat her. It was sad to hear that and sad to realize that these stories most likely won't be told or remembered, they aren't written down. We're trying to think of a way to help her record these stories. On Tuesday we had lunch with the Glausers at a nice italian place here, they wanted some tips and tricks on learning Russian, and wanted to just chat with us as it turns out. It was fun to talk to them and get to know them more. We had a good district meeting after that. Then we met with a less active man who lives in an awful apartment. There are large, small, colorful, brown, you name it and that bug is probably in there. Wow... It was so bad. I tried to squish as many as I could with my feet. On Wednesday we had service at the Hermitage. Let me say, service here in the fall is better than in the summer. There aren't as many people, and the people that do come were really fun. There have been lots of American tours lately. That night we had a stake missionary meeting with the ward mission leaders from the stake and the other Zone Leaders. It was a good meeting, the only bad thing was that our Ward Mission Leader was the only one who didn't show up. He is a soviet grandpa, and I'm not sure how commited he is to the church. I guess we'll have to meet with him and find out. He asked us to help him clean out his shed this last week, and we were super busy and told him that we would call him when we could. He's called us and others multiple times asking when we would help and complaining that we hadn't come yet. On Thursday morning early we went to Novgorod to do Zone Training. We basically just retold and taught was was said in the Mission Leadership Council. It was fun. After that, we went on splits with the Elders from Novgorod. It was a blast! They're doing great. One is from Texas, the other from St. Louis. It was fun to be with them and to be in a small city again. That night one of the Elders and I went to a less active family's dacha and dug up potatoes for 2 hours. That was a good work out, lots of squats. We had dinner with them afterwards, that was really good. On Friday we were still in Novgorod and we had so many meetings. We went running around like crazy and I spent so much money on the buses. I'm glad that I got receipts. Whew. That night we came home on the train. On Saturday we did weekly planning. That was good. Then we had a lesson with one of our good investigators who's pretty new and has good questions. He's a younger guy. We tried to review the restoration and introduce the book of mormon but he got caught up on a question that young Joseph Smith posed in the restoration video that we watched.. He wanted to know how a man could know if he was saved. So we talked about that FOREVER. We spent way too much time on that topic, and it was crazy. We got home super late that night. Sunday was great. Really good. I forgot that in the city there are usually too many people to keep the meeting to an hour long, that is great. I translated for our senior couple too. That was a good test for me. A really really really cool thing that happened. So we have three areas, and we have too much to do. Last week I expressed a little bit to Mom that I was nervous that we were forgetting somebody. Well, we were. But the ward wasn't! There is a lady who is an investigator in one of the areas and we didn't know that she had been meeting with the sister missionaries. The RS sisters in the ward did, and they TOOK HER TO CHURCH!! ALL BY THEMSELVES!! It was a great miracle, it was actually this woman's first time at church. She had never come before, but the sisters in the ward have been meeting with her and chatting and got her to come! It was soo cool to see. And our friend from Peru, Juan, came to church looking good in a suit! I hope that he's back in church to stay. I am so happy! There are so many great things happening here, I am so glad to be where I am. I love you all!

Andrew

Hello

It was a good week! Here goes... On Monday, we went to the big famous church here in St. Petersburg (the big colorful one) and met some members from America on the street! It was fun to talk to them, and I'm glad you got the picture that they sent you. On Tuesday we had district meeting, but Elder Butters' phone is acting up so we didn't get the message that it was starting early this week, so we came about an hour late. It was fun, we have a big district. That night we were supposed to have a meeting with an older woman investigator, but we couldn't find a male member to come with us so we couldn't end up going. It was sad. This lady is really old and lonely and she almost cried the first time we came over because she hadn't seen missionaries in a long time. So that was a bummer. Wednesday was an exciting day.. we had Hermitage service in the morning, and it was good to be back. I like the people there that we work with, they're fun. After our service, we got to go to this cool exibit thing called Manifesta, it's like a yearly european modern art festival, and this year it is here. It was cool to see some of the rooms. Some were interactive, and that was fun. After that we tried to go get my package. There was this lady there who didn't describe too well what I needed to do, but then I figured it out. I went to the window that I needed to and the guy looked and my papers and turned me away right away, and said "send it back". Then the lady found me again, and I asked for her help. She went and grabbed my package and took a picture of my last name on the box and gave me a copy to show him. He saw it and said again "send it back", this time he was mad because of an angry customer that was in line before me. The lady took my paper from the customs, wrote my name on it (super illegal) and said come back on Friday, he won't be here. So that night we had english. It was good, we only had one guy there, but he is an investigator and so we got to have a lesson with him afterwards. Thursday we had Mission Leadership Council and we talked all about effectiveness and efficiency. It was a great conversation, and we had some great lunch. I really like President Childs, he's got his head on straight. We'll now be heading out to the outer areas to have Zone Training meetings for the missionaries who were not at MLC, so that will be fun. We basically relay the message that we heard and get ideas and input from the missionaries in our zone. Then we'll do splits with a few of them. That night we got to meet with the investigator grandma from before. Her situation is so sad, but so full of faith and hope! It's crazy to me. She has no money (somebody stole her passport and her pension funds for the next few months) but she is happy and she loves her Heavenly Father and it was a great lesson. She's got diabetes, she's going blind, she had surgery on her leg not too long ago, and she's had a tough few years. It was really sad, but a great experience. She reads the Book of Mormon even though it makes her eyes hurt, she's wanted to get baptized for the longest time but she always is not feeling well or in the hospital when her date came around. She's going to be in the hospital again soon for an eye surgery, and so we hope that after that she'll be all ready to go. She is a great lady and is grateful for all that she has. Friday we served at the Hermitage again and went for my package. The lady this time took my paper and said that the box was addressed to the church, asked me what I did here and got all suspicious. She said I could get my package, I just needed to get a letter from Mom. So they'll open it up and make sure all is well, and hopefully give it to me today. That night we had a meeting with a less acitve who hates america and americans. It was interesting... he thinks that Obama was elected president becuse he would make a good president of the world... he's kinda african, kinda muslim, kinda christian, cultured, educated, kinda hawaiian, so that was an interesting conversation. He has no desire to come to church though. "Too many fakes". Saturday we went over to the grandma's house again to try and do some service for her, but she just wanted us to teach her a lesson. She can clean on her own, but she can't teach herself. So that was interesting. Good surprise. We had a ward picnic during the day with a few families that came. It was fun to hang out with members and one of our investigators. sunday we had church, there were some american tourists who brought their tour guide to church! Good missionaries. That night we had a fun meeting with a less active and his active family. He's a twenty something year old who's trying to figure out life, and he likes to argue. We took it easy this week and just had some fun. It was nice. Great week.

I read Alma 29 verse 10 this week. I don't remember if I have the right verse or if this is a different one, but this made me think that as we serve others and see good in the lives of others, we see how much we have been blessed. And I thought about my mission and how it's true! The times when I lost myself in the work, I've learned the most. I've seen more blessings even if the situation wasn't changed too much. I think that's one of the reasons we are told to serve, because we help those around us and we help ourselves more than if we were focusing on our needs. Love ya all, have a good week.

Andrew Gwilliam