Here comes the sun!

I think that's what I said last year at this time. Oh well. It fits. It was a good week! Here goes... Monday night we had a really fun FHE at the Carters' and had about 9 people come. It was really entertaining and got people involved. The Carters introduced themselves, shared their testimonies, and we played farkle. It's a really simple game with dice. You should try it. Tuesday we had a fun tennis tournament with our investigators and the Carters (after a lesson of course). We don't have an english group here, so we are able to do that instead. And yes, I was the champ. One of our investigators is really good and he always beats me handily but for some reason in the championship he choked. Wednesday was really cool. We went out to one of the cemeteries here and helped one of the less active members clean the gravesites of his relatives. It was a really cool experience to see how much love and respect Russian people have for their ancestors. Last week was some kind of church holiday here. Everybody goes to the graves, they eat some snacks and drink some booze (we had 7 up) and they leave some for the ancestors too. A lot of the graves have little tables and benches next to them to leave the food on. Interesting. We then went and served the babushka friend who can't do much on her own. We cleaned the floor, the windows, and the bathroom. That night we had a pretty awful lesson with an investigator who only wanted to talk politics. I just kinda sat there. I guess he said some things that got my comp pretty riled up on the inside, and when we went home it was a thirty minute rant about how awful America is. I just sat there and bit my lip while my blood boiled and then when he was done just went into the other room and sat there. It's all ok now, he apologized and said that he just couldn't let the opportunity pass by to make his mind known to an american. Interesting. Thursday we took a bus to Novgorod for some splits. Fun stuff. In Novgorod we taught a cool man who has been an investigator for a while because he really wants to know everything before he makes a choice. He's a really humble guy who had great questions about the Book of Mormon. Saturday we took the bus home and got TRANSFER NEWS. I'll be staying, my companion will be staying. I'm actually glad. It will be fun. Sunday was great, we had a small branch council before church. We're starting to focus on teaching more basic things to the members to that they can on their own learn the gospel and be spiritually self sufficent. It'll be a challenge. Yesterday we focused on the scriptures and learning from them which was great. After church we did the finance work and had another dinner with the Carters, this time with an investigator who knows english so that they could communicate more openly and freely. I guess he's not really an investigator, he's a missionary friend I guess. He has known missionaries forever, he lived in San Fran, has been to Provo, etc. He just isn't too interested in all that stuff. It was good though, they now have a good relationship and hopefully we can grow off of that.

It was a good week! This week I asked my companion a ton of questions about the Russian Orthodox church after I found out that he was a very active member before baptism. I was very suprised to learn that they have most of the same rules as we do... especially about Chastity and the Word of Wisdom. He said that for some reason most people just don't follow the rules. There is a difference between those who do and those who don't. I've really come to see on my mission that this is true. I've never been exposed to so many people that don't keep the commandments and it's easy to tell that they lack something and try as hard as they can to find it. Sadly, they search in the things that give them this lack of peace. I remember that Sister Porter (Elder Porter's wife) told us that as we live the commandments, we'll have a special feeling about us. We'll attract people or they'll at least notice. We don't even need to say anything. Try this week to let the people you associate with see that light in your eyes and "never let your faith be difficult to detect!" Love ya all, have a good week.

Andrew

Cemetery

Cool trees

bus to Novgorod

Novgorod

WW2 stuff in Novgorod

Hello y'all

It was a good week! Here we go. Monday after we emailed.. I gave myself a haircut! It was a fun ordeal. We found clippers at the branch building and so I just decided to go for it. Because of the strength of the ruble right now, we're tight on money. So I decided to save ten dollars. I started off by just doing a part of it then showing my companion. He was just reading the scriptures and I got him pretty good. Tuesday we went out to a member who lives in a small town just outside Pskov. Actually two members. They're a couple who just moved here from St. Petersburg. He was born there, she here, and I guess she won the battle. He got really sick towards the end of last week so we went over there to give a blessing. That night we had a double lesson. One with a less active, and an investigator. Wednesday we did a lot of things. We first had a lesson with the father of the old branch president. We've been teaching him for a while. He just kinda laid down all of his concerns and questions, most of which are not all that serious just kinda menial things. I tried to tell him that I don't know everything, we all have questions etc. but he just wanted to talk. SO yeah. Kinda a bummer. A member with some problems was supposed to have a meeting over skype with President Childs, but he dogged us. Thursday we took a bus to Saint Petersburg. We had splits with the zone leaders. Also that night the senior couple moved here! Hooray! We were alone here but now we have a high energy senior couple! The Carters are awesome. They're almost done with their mission, but they're here to work. Friday I had to go to the office with some recipts and such for the financial secretary, then we had a lesson with a man who is more interested in English than the Gospel. We had a pretty heated lesson with him because he understood the Holy Ghost as something else. That night in the city there was a seminar for strenghening families that we got to go to. It was a good seminar put on by President and Sister Childs. Saturday morning we took a bus back to Pskov, had a quick meal then met with two very intense investigators at the same time with a member of the mission presidency that came down for the weekend. We talked a little bit about everything with them and didn't get anywhere. We were supposed to have a meeting with taht same member who dogged us on the Skype, and he did it again! Dang. But then another investigator called and was able to meet right then, so we did. He was ready to get baptized a while ago but then moved to a different place, and he just appeared again. Cool. He's forgotten a lot and is more worried this time about what his friends and family will say. We'll work with him. Sunday was good. WE had a meeting with the carters before church started just to kind of fill them in on what's going on in pskov. I spoke during sacrament meeting about the Word of Wisdom. It's a pretty simple commandment, so I mostly focused on the blessings that we receive. We have a few investigators and members who have a really hard time with this, and they were there, so it was good. We then watched the priesthood session for the second and third hours. We had a lesson with a less active at the Carter's apartment! It was great. The Carters are going to do so much good here in their two months left. He already loves them and is feeling better about the church. We then ran over to a semi active member's apartment and taught him a great lesson. It was just a good day! He served on a mission from 2006-08 and just told us some of his favorite stories and it was fun. Great end to the week.

This week I've been listening a lot to general conference in english. I LOVE LOVE LOVED Elder Bednar's talk about fear. Someday in the near future, I'll be studying fear. It was great. I also learned this week that you need to really prepare for talks and think about them and read scriptures and pray to get your message accross. I had 2 four hour bus rides to think and read and pray... so I did. It was a good talk, I think. Be prepared, right? Boy Scouts. Have a good week!

Andrew

Yo my yo

It was a good week. Here's the rundown. We had a really fun little FHE on monday to celebrate the Church's birthday. We just shared our testimonies with each other and read some stories from church history. It was fun, almost all of the active members in our ward were there. We met at a babushka member's house. Tuesday we spent a lot of the day getting general conference ready. We had to download all the sessions and burn them on to discs. That takes a really long time. During that we just cleaned up a little bit of the branch building. That night we had a meeting with of the middle active members and talked to him about repentance. It was a good lesson and I hope one that he needed to hear. We'll see. Wednesday we did some service for a babushka who had a stroke a few years ago and can't do much on her own. We took that middle active member with us and he helped a lot. Thursday we did a few things to fix some financial problems that we had in the branch. I've never used MLS before my mission, my companion's never been a branch president, so there were a few mistakes that we made that needed to be corrected. My companion got a haircut from the Relief Society president before we had a mini ward council with her. There are a few members here who have some major spiritual/financial problems so we talke about how to help them. Friday we did some more to finish conference preperation. We had a lesson with an investigator set up, but he dogged us. Saturday and Sunday we watched conference. There was a pretty bad turnout. Number one because it's easy to just watch on the internet, number two because it was Russian easter yesterday. We had a little one hour gap in between the sessions on both days and just had some lunch. Other than the two of us, there were only four people total at all the other sessions. So an average of two missionaries and one other person. It was pretty bad. But the messages were great. I really liked Elder Eyring's first talk (we will watch priesthood next week) and Elder Oaks. I watched it in Russian and understood most of it, but it's hard to digest it. Even in english the first time it's hard. So I downloaded all the mp3s and will be listening in english for the next few weeks.

THis week I spent a lot of my study reading the story of the week before easter. So on wednesday I read what happened many wednesdays ago the week that the Savior was resurrected. It was so cool to read that a lot of the most touching and consoling words that He spoke came at a time when He knew that the Apostles would have a rough few days. IT was cool to notice that at this time He was preparing them for what was to come. He does that with us too. He prepares us for the things that are going to be hard for us, and He supports us through those times.

Love ya all, have a good week!

Andrew

PING PONG ACTION

Dacha of an investigator

Dachaland

They say it's your birthday.

Hello everyone! Thank you for your wonderful emails. I'm so glad that all is going well with y'all and that conference was great. I'm excited to watch it. He's a recap of the week. Tuesday we had district meeting in Kolpino. I really like the District leader there, he's a young missionay who is awesome and will do great things. After we emailed you last week, we had a little activity with the young men at the church building. We made pizzas with them and asked them what they were doing now to prepare for missions. It was a really good one. That night I got a call that we would be going back to Pskov the next morning, but I hadn't been informed of this and was an hour away from the city. They wanted to leave really early, but couldn't because I wasn't there. So about 11 Wednesday morning we hopped in a van and drove down to pskov. The senior couple that is there right now is going to be changed out for another in a week. So we reunpacked all of our stuff and got some food and had a good day. Thursday we hit the ground running and had a ton of meetings, all with members. A few of them were confidential that I couldn't be at (just about welfare help) so I practiced piano and such during those times. I'm now the branch pianist. Hoorah. The branch building is really unorganized, and in the last audit we were told that we should try and do something about it. So we spent a lot of time on Friday after a lesson with one of our progressing investigators (that went really well) just organizing and cleaning the building. That evening we went on a walk with one of our not so progressing invesigators. He's really into philosophy and it's hard to work with him. Saturday we had a birthday party for one of our members at the building. She cooked us some good food and we played some fun games that I'll teach ya'll later. Also on Saturday we usually clean the floors of the branch, so we did that too. Yesterday was great. Maybe the best block of meetins that I've been at in pskov. All of the testimonies were short, meaningful, and it was great! A couple from St. Petersburg moved here during the week, they're going to be a huge support in the branch. He taught gospel principles, it was one of the best sunday school lessons of my mission! Basically it was a great week! We also did some finance work after the meetings were over, I don't know how clerks do in in wards of 400 members, it's hard for me to understand what's going on in a ward of 5 active members.

Yesterday I read Helaman 4. Verses 11-13 really stuck out to me, as I've been studying this week about humility. If we're going to have pride and swim in iniquity, we will be left in our own strength, so without the strenght of the Lord. All of the war stories where the nephites are victorious usually include "in the strength of the Lord". This of course doesn't just apply to war, but to our spiritual, moral, daily battles as well. I'm glad that a few of the speakers (or many) talked about the Atonement. Without the enabling strength of the Atonement, we are left on our own. We can't do much. We really do rely so much on the Savior and Heavenly Father for everything that we have, can do, etc. As we are more thankful in our prayers we will begin to recognize that. I've been on a slump with my prayers lately, but that and an article by Elder Christofferson really helped me this week to amp it up. I challenge you all to do the same. Have a good week!

Andrew

It's glorious

So here's a quick recap of my crazy week: Tuesday we had district meeting, I really like the other elders here. They're younger missionaries and really cool. We then went to get some groceries for me, then all of our lessons for the night fell through. Wednesday, we had a split with the assistants, so we went up to the city after lunch to meet them and bring one of them back with us. We got home really late because of rush hour traffic, and we didn't have time to do much of anything else that day. Thursday was fun, we went out in the morning first thing contacting and had a great time. We were more awake for studies and we were just ready for the rest of the day. We had a lesson with a fun less active member who is huge and doesn't have any legs. He's a really joyful man and likes to have fun, even though he has some major health problems. It was a good example for me to see that we can be happy even when we can't do anything, or we feel like we can't do anything. That night we had a lesson about prayer with a very nice south african woman, she is an oceanographer and moved here with her russian husband. We then went to St. Petersburg for the night because my companions right now are zone leaders and had MLC. Friday morning for exercise we found an outdoor basketball court and balled! Only half court, of course. After the long MLC, we went back to Kolpino and had youth night with... well, the youth. There is a big, strong youth here and they're really fun to be with. We made titles of liberty and marched around the church with them. Saturday we had another lesson with the south african woman, this time with a few members. We went walking and stopped at a park for this woman's child to play. We talked with her about prophets and invited her to general conference, but she already has plans because it's the weekend of easter here. It's a week later than in america (both conference and easter). Nobody came to english group that night. Sunday was fun. I liked seeing a different ward in the stake and how they work. There was a recent convert from our area who came, it was good to meet her. That's the week! Yesterday I had a visa trip. That's about it.

So as I moved to this area it kinda died... but the area that I left had some growth! A less active/new convert (there are too many of those here) came to church in Pskov and passed the sacrament! I actually started teaching him while I was there and he got baptized right after I left, but he soon after went less active. He got offended by a few of the members. That was probably the best part of the week! Hooray! I still don't know what's going to happen with me, I hope to know by the next time I email you but I'm not sure. I might even find out later tonight, we'll see. Anyways, all is well here! Love ya all and have a good week!

Andrew

Kolpino

a couch