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
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