Hyello my friends!

Hey hey hey! It's Elder Gwilliam! Here's another recap of another good week! The week started out really interesting and never really died down. On Monday night at family home evening, President Childs decided to give us a call. So we answered with shaky, sweaty hands (as you do when the President calls). He informed us that my companion's registration was running out in Pskov the very next day and that we had to leave. The landlord did not want to register him again, so we had to wait it out in St. Petersburg while the negotiations were taking place. So he just told us that we had two possible situations: 1. We get the go from the landlord, we go back. 2. She refuses, I go back with a new companion. So that was pretty intense. Tuesday morning we hopped on a bus and went to the city! I was in Shuvalovo, the northern part of the city. When we got to the bus stop, the other elders met us and I was separated from my companion. He went to Avtovo. I went straight to their district meeting, which was good. Kinda all over the place, but good. That night we had a really cool lesson with their investigator who is really close to baptism. He even commited softly to a baptism on June 20. He's a really quiet, humble guy. I liked talking with him. He's a really cool guy! We taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ with a member family and it went sweet. He told us that he'd drive us home, so we went with him. And I heard this funny song "Don't you worry child" that the other two very young elders belted while I just sat and enjoyed. Wednesday we were in the Hermitage, it was fun to be back. That night we took some tasty cinabon sorta thing to their bishop... but he wasn't home. So one of the Elders ate it. That night we got the go to return to Pskov. So Thursday we had interviews and we met up at the office to head back to Pskov. We had some time before the bus, so we went and visited the former Pskov Branch president at work there in the city. Then we took the bus home, it traffic and were 2 hours late. Friday we went and got the registration done, which is a very long and annoying process, but we got it done. While we were in the city we had a random phone call from a Ukrainian who knows missionaries in other cities and found our church in Pskov. HE's a really cool young kid, a hipster one may say, The bummer of the story is that he's only here until Wednesday this next week. HE's going to Turkey to work. But we had a good lesson with him and the Carters. Saturday was service day! We cleaned the brach with one of the members and the carters, then went with the carters to the babushka that we serve and did the standard service for her. Windows, floors, dusting. This time we cleaned some of the kitchen too. Sunday was good. I gave a talk on Fasting and I think it went well. I really like that topic, and used some quotes from President Eyring's talk from this last conference. I really like his talks. We had a good Sunday school lesson about the life of Christ that got everybody asking questions and thinking. Then we had dinner at the Carters with the Ukrainian fellow and said goodbye, left him with our testimonies, etc. I gave him some CTR rings because his grandma likes to throw them away when he takes them off. So yeah. 

I had a cool realization this morning while reading the Fourth section of D and C. Verse four reads: For behold the field is white already to harvest; and lo, he that thrusteth in his sickle with his might, the same layeth up in store that he perisheth not, but bringeth salvation to his soul;  I don't know why I always thought this, but I always thought that what we lay up in store is baptisms. Well, I'm sure that's one of the things that we lay up in store. But the thought came that we're not only putting up baptisms in store, but all of the spiritual experiences that we have, especially on missions. The quesiton also came "Well what if my field wasn't white and ready to harvest?" Yes it's true, some missionaries do the harvesting and some the planing and some the watering (see Corinthians) or the "offensive lineman missionary work" as I like to call it. But then I got to thinking.... everything about my mission is white and already to harvest for ME. My mission president, my companions, the members, the areas, everything was ready when I came. It's my job to thrust in my sickle with my might and I'll lay up in store. Maybe not baptisms, but in friendships, experiences, and conversion. That's the miracle of a mission in my eyes... everything was personalized for me just as it was for all my companions and all missionaries. I don't know if these thoughts make sense to you, but it was really cool for me to think about my mission like that this morning during studies. 

Have a good week! Love ya bye!

Andrew

The morning breaks!

Hello! It was a good week. Here's the update for y'all. On Monday night we had a really good Family Home Evening at the Carters apartment. We had more people there than we had at the meetings on Sunday a week ago.. that was kinda awkward. I guess only one more person came to FHE than did to church, but still. That's kinda silly. We watched a movie about the Book of Mormon and then played some fun games with M and M's. Tuesday was good too. We had a branch presidency meeting at noon at the branch building and it wasn't the best one we've ever had. There were some opinions and some words flying and I was having a fun time trying to take notes of all the ideas and suggestions that were made. We then walked over to the Carters and had a district meeting (finally) with the Novgorod district over skype. It was fun. It was obviously a little weird at first, but we'll make it work. We then ran home and had some dinner. Then we met with a member that we gave some welfare help to, had a chat with her at the bus stop. She recenly had a baby and her husband left her... well, it's just a really complicated situation. She was active last summer, but after she got pregnant and had to work to support herself she stopped coming. So we're trying to help her out. Then we had our "sports night" with ping pong at the branch. The Carters are really good. We had a small fun tournament and they were in the championship together. We only had one less active come, but a few active members came and it was fun. Wednesday in the branch we set up the new computer that came from Moscow. We also helped the first counselor clean some windows here. It was really really rainy this day... just like Utah weather. Raining cats and dogs now, but in five seconds sun and it stops. The russians with me were amazed and didn't believe that it happens like that in Utah sometimes. We went to an old babushka in the ward and ran some errands for her. We grabbed some water and groceries. She lived in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) during WWII and is the sweetest lady ever. She was happy to show us the letter and medal from Putin that all who lived during the war recieved. Thursday we finished downloading programs for the new computer and did more window cleaning. Then that night we met with a less active member who's pretty flaky when it comes to church, but will always meet with us and in fact calls us to meet with him. He's the one that I started to teach while I was here the first time that got baptized right after I left. He's super nice. We pulled a quick one on him and had him teach us the lesson. We just handed him our scriptures and said it's your turn to teach us. So he did. He knows the chruch pretty well, he knows his stuff but for some reason just has a tough time coming to church. HE's a really shy guy and we think that might have a lot to do with it. Friday we hopped on a bus up to St. Petersburg. We got there pretty quick and had a few hours to spare so I took the chance to get almost the last of my shopping done. Almost there! And my shoes were dying, so I got some new ecco kicks. There are no ecco stores in Pskov and the pair I had bought at a non ecco location died in two months, so I decided to get some ecco for the homestretch. That night we went to Avtovo's activity. They do a ward activity every Friday night, and we both served there so we asked if we could go. And we could, so we did. Saturday was a long one. We had a seminar about MLS and finances from 10 AM until about 5:30 PM. It was a killer, but we learned a lot. We'll be able to solve a lot of our problems now. Two members from Moscow who work in the area office came and helped us out. It was good. But too long. Way too long. That night we bussed back to Pskov. I don't know if you're aware of this, but the US played against Russia in the semifinals of the Hockey World Championship that night. So everybody was just checking the score on the bus. At the stop that we make at the halfway mark, the gas station was playing the game. For the next 24 hours, my comp was telling me that Americans stink (to use a soft word) at hockey. We lost 4-0. It only lasted for 24 hours because Russia lost 6-1 against Canada in the finals (ouch) and we beat the Czechs in the third place game 3-0. So that was a fun little drama in our compaionionship this week. We got home at midnight so we were super pooped. Yesterday was good. There was a member here from St. Petersburg who came to visit the Carters. She's a good strong member who served a mission. She gave a good talk. Yesterday was Elder Carter's birthday, so we had some brownies after church with those that came. We also had dinner with them and a few members last night, that was fun.

This week I learned a lot. Too much to write about. I read some great verses in D and C that I'll talk about. D and C 93: 27-28. These verses talk about obedience and the importance of it. We can't come to a fulness if we don't keep the commandments. This section also talks about how Christ wasn't born with a perfect knowledge, that He recieved line upon line. I remember reading somewhere, whether a talk, a book, I don't remember, but that Christ was untainted and unhindered in His learning because He was free of sin. That's a really cool concept. I've seen the same in my life and in the lives of investigators and members. As we keep the commandments we have the Spirit with us and we're able to learn from it.

I love you all! Have a good week!

Elder G

Me at the kremlin

Cool monestary

Мир такой красивый и такой замечательный

Hello! It was so fun to talk to you yesterday! You all looked and sounded really good. That was fun. Here's the weekly recap! Tuesday was fun. We were supposed to have a meeting with one of our investigators at the church building, but he didnt' show up. We went from there to a bus stop to pick up the Carters and the first counselor in the branch presidency to go to our main investigator, Victor. We went out to his really pretty dacha. We had the grand tour for the Carters who had never been before, then we had a really good lesson about faith. We read with him Alma 32 and talked about it. Elder Carter made a really good observation about faith. Victor, while he was showing us around, had told us that he had done a little work at a time on the dacha. That the project as a whole was just too hard to tackle all at once, so he did a little bit every day. After a period of time, he had a beautiful dacha! Elder Carter compared that with faith and how it's a huge task but we can take it step by step. That was good for Victor to hear and he seemed to really think about that analogy. Elder Carter rocks! Wednesday afternoon we went to Novgorod for splits and a zone training. that was about the whole day. We studied in the morning, packed up, paid the rent and we were off. Thursday we had double split action with the zone leaders and the Novgorod Elders. During the day there were some branch errands that had to be run (Elder Dibble is the second counselor in the branch presidency there, so even in Novgorod I can't get away from branch business). That night we went contacting and got to talk to some people. I also had sushi... it wasn't half bad. Friday we had our Zone Training. Mostly it was just about some new rules as far as area boundaries go and some discussion about how we can improve some of the aspects of our finding (English group, etc.). It wasn't all that exciting. That night was really fun, we got together with some members and threw the frisbee around in a park. There were a lot of people out walking and we invited many to play with us. Some of them did and it was really fun. None of them were too interested, but it was fun to just play with them. Saturday was good as well. We left at 8 to go back to Pskov, we had to sprint to make the bus on time. It was victory day so we weren't sure how everything was going to be. We had to meet up with a member and get some receipts from her, so we met up with her. We then went home, had some food, then studied. We went out for another hour before six because we wer not allowed to go out after six. I just wrote in my journal, read the scriptures, etc. I also made some banana bread. That was pretty good. Sunday we had church, I taught the second hour lesson. We didn't have any finances this week so we didn't have to go to the post office. We went to a sick member with the Carters and gave her the sacrament and a blessing. She's a really nice lady and she had a good attitude even though she was sick. We then went to the Carters and had dinner then talked with the fam! That's the week!

One of the things that really stuck out to me in the sixth chapter of the Teaching of Ezra Taft Benson book was the fact that we won't be able to understand HOW the Savior performed the Atonement, but it is very important to understand WHY He did. I got to thinking about that and realized that we don't know much of the details of a lot of major events of time. The fall, the creation, and some others we don't really understand how or in what way or details about them. But we do know why these things happened, and that's important for us now to understand. That was the thought of the week. Love ya all!

Elder G

Victory Day!

Me at the dacha

It was a good one!

Hello y'all! As always, it was a good week here and as always i'll get right to to it! Tuesday was great. We spent a lot of time in the ofice at the branch building cleaning the ward list and calling all the members. It wasn't very long because most of the numbers are really old and don't work anymore. So that's that. Administrative work in the church is is really tiring. I was so exhausted and all I really did was call some people and change some numbers in MLS that we found out were wrong or added new numbers. We had tennis that night, oh not tennis ping pong, and it was good. Not too many people came, only one member and one investigator. The investigator is reallyy good and my comp kinda isn't so he got really mad when this other guy played him at full force and tried to teach him what to do better. WEdnesday we went to the first councilor's house and made some lunch with him, talked about his mission, and talked about the ward. He and my companion had this idea to travel to Sst. Pete for the stake conference taht will be there in a few weeks, but after calling Presient childs that got shut down because it would cost too much money. . That kinda upset them and they started being kinda rude and so I just ended the conversation for them before they said something really awful. He lives about 20 minutes away on bus and after we met with him we went strait to a less active's house. HE's a really smart guy, he's just lazy. He plays video games and doesn't ever come to church. We were pretty firm with him. We askeed him some questions, he answered correctly and we found out that he knew what he needed to do, he just doesnt really want to do it. He's a tough one. Thursday the crazy part of the weeek started. We met with a new convert from St. Petersburg that my companion knows. He just came down here to see a few things and to help the missionaries. He's kinda a strange guy and when he goes contacting and tracting with the missionaries he does strange things. He commands people to open the door in the name of Heavenly Father. Things like that. Knowing this, I wasnt too thrilled about teh week. But it turned out ok. He actually stayed with one of our investigators out in the woods. So wee on Thrusday night took him there and had a lesson with them. Friday he decided to go to Pechory, so he was there all day without us. We had a branch presidnecy meeting at noon where we made some decisions abou tnew callings in the branch. Then we went and did some service for the babushka that we usually go to. Then we met with a less active woman and herdaughter. It was the less active's birthday! It was a really good meeting. The carters were with us and we got to know each other, had some laughs, then talked abou t the church. She's had a pretty tought life, her husband died not too long ago. She wants to take on all of her problems one at a time and all by herself, she won't accept any help. It's obvious that she needs it, but she won't accept. Saturday we spent most of the day on the dacha of wone of our members. WE did some digging, I assembled a greenhouse, some more digging then ended with digging. Sunday was great. We had dinner at the carters after church with the member from St. Petersburg and with the investigator who took him in. It was a really good chicken and potatoes meal, I like the sunday dinners. We then sent off the member to st. petersburg! THat was the week. I think I took something like 200 pictures this week. It was a good one. 

Thank you for all your help on the scripture study ideas! This past weeek has been the best so far of my mission as far as studying the scriptures. As I was reading an old general conference talk, I thin from President Eyring, I had this sad feeling that I hadn't really written down many of my spiritual experiences before my mission. The first time I felt that the Book of Mormon was true, the first time I really prayed, things like that. I've now been writing in my journal for a year and a half and it's cool to go back and read those cool spiritual mission experiences. I would suggest taht you all write down your experiences somewhere, preferably in a journal! You'll remember those events more clearly and you'll be able to draw from that for years to come. Have a good week.

Andrew   

p.s. forgive my spelling, this scomputer is real slow.

my tag in the woods!

dacha land

the woods leading to the dacha