BONUS!

So, we got this email yesterday (Tuesday) and it was so wonderful to hear from someone who has actually laid eyes on Andrew and talked with him. I am so grateful and touched that she took the time to send me this email and photo. I know I am biased, but I think he looks great!


Hi,

My name is Becky. My husband and I are visiting countries near the Baltic Sea. We are from Las Vegas but we grew up in Utah. I grew up in Gunnison and Steve, my husband, grew up in Salina. As we were walking down the street near the iconic Spilled Blood Cathedral, we saw these two Elders walking towards us. We enjoyed talking to them for a few minutes, then asked if we could take their picture. They were very willing on condition that we send it to their moms. Your sons seem to be doing well and I am sure that you are very proud of them. They are thinking of you as they are sharing the gospel with the people of Russia. 

IS THIS REAL LIFE

Hello all, I was happy to hear from you. Thank you so much for the emails. Here is what has been going on in my life for the last week. On Monday, I had a great time on the beautiful island of Kizhi. I was so glad that we had the chance to go there, I learned a lot and had a great time. It was fun because the tours were in Russian and I understood a lot of the info! It was a good confidence builder. That took up all of Monday. Tuesday we went and got haircuts so that we didn't look like hobos at the transfer meeting, we spent most of the day finishing up packing and writing notes for the new missionaries who are now in our area. That night we got on the train and said goodbye to Petro. On Wednesday we had transfer meeting and 10 missionaries were leaving, so we were there for about 2 hours. Usually we shoot for one hour, but these missionaries shared long, good testimonies. After the meeting, we took a mission picture because it was the first time the whole mission was together  with President and Sister Childs. We then went to our new apartment, and hit the pavement. We have the work and investigators and less-active members of 3 companionships, so we never have down time. It was an amazing few days, maybe the fastest and most satisfying so far. Thursday we had to go grab a key because we are in a new apartment and didn't have a key to get in the building... it was great and a tender mercy that every time we needed to get in a person was leaving and opened the door. That night we had a good lesson with a potential investigator who became a new investigator. It was a good time and the first real lesson I've taught in a long time. On Friday we had to go clean out the old apartment that the other elders were living in and so that took up most of the day. Back and forth. A really really cool thing happened that night. We were on our way to a less active's house, and we didn't exactly know where to go. We got on the wrong bus first. Then on the right bus, I was trapped by a horde of people and couldn't get off at the right stop, so I missed the stop. Then, after all that, we were running down the metro escalator and this guy looked at us and said ELDERS! and so we stopped to talk to him. His name is Johan. He is from Peru, got baptized with his sister and some friends when he was 13. Went strong until he was 15, then chose to stop attending. Now he's here in Russia learning and I'll talk more about this later. The next night we had a meeting with a guy we contacted on the street on friday, and now he's a new investigator. Cool guy. On Sunday, we took the new senior couple to chruch (The Glausers from Draper.. they said they knew Uncle Bruce) because they don't know what's going on. It was fun to be with them for the first time on the metro. We had church... the ward is great. Full of return missionaries and they all want to help and have fun! I was so glad to be in a big fun functioning ward again. So, that guy Johan said that he might be able to come to church.. but not this week, he had other plans. THEN HE CAME! HE CANCELLED HIS PLANS! He remembered the missionaries he had met and the feelings and how much he missed the church so he came! We're going to try and get his records moved here. He even defended us and the church during Gospel Principles! He said that we should always come to church because life without it is empty and boring. He said he didn't think the church was here, he wanted to come back he could just never find it. I'm so glad to be here with a companion who is obedient and wants to work and is great! Elder Butters and I are a lot alike. And so yeah. It's good.

Throughout this transfer, I'll be traveling to some other areas to do splits and zone trainings. We'll go down to Novgorod and Pskov, and that's all for our zone. There's 8 companionships. 4 Sister missionaries, and 12 elders. We this week have a Mission Leadership Council at the mission home, where the assistants and zone leaders and sister training leaders get together and discuss things. I'll tell you what things next week. I'm really excited to be here! NOw it's picture time. Love you all!

Elder Gwilliam

It's Me!

Petro from on top of a hill

That's a tank

It's a double rainbow!!!

Wooden church at Kizhi

Welcome to the Shire

A cool windmill

Broccoli & Swiss casserole

(That one's for you, Grandma Bryan! Nice to see he's able to cook some of his favorites from home!)

HELLO BRIGHT AND EARLY

So, as you know, we're going to Kizhi today so we don't have so much time to email. We will be heading there soon, so I don't have too much time to write. I'll do the best that I can to cram in all the info that I can in this short time. On Tuesday we had district meeting. We were supposed to go do some service, but that fell through. So we had a district meeting. We did a good job of trying to combine our missionary efforts instead of all working as different companionships. So that was good, we all have one goal now for the branch. Wednesday was good as well, we did a lot of contacting and had english group that night. There were a lot of people there, it was the best one yet. On Thursday night we had sports night activity for members and investigators, but they didn't let missionaries participate. So we just watched for a minute and then left. Friday was pretty crazy we had TRANSFER NEWS. We weren't expecting it until Saturday, but I guess President Childs likes doing it on Friday mornings. So, here's the news. Elder Holman is heading for Petergof, he'll be there with a missionary he was in the MTC with. He's really excited. I am on my way back to the city. I'll be in the Nevsky Area (it's right next to Avtovo) and I'll be a zone leader with Elder Butters! My main man! We're the zone leaders of the Center Zone (that includes the touristy part of St Petersburg, our area, Pskov, and Novgorod). So I'll get to go back to my old stomping grounds and see it all nice and green. I'm really excited for that. So that ruined our whole day, Elder Holman was freaking out. We packed for the rest of the day. On Saturday we did more packing and apartment cleaning. We had russian practice for the last time, that was fun. We went to a less active member's house and got let in and played some fun games with them. Sunday was great as well, we all said goodbye during sacrament meeting and shared our testimonies. It was really fun. That night we had a fireside about family history, and it was really interesting. We had to say goodbye to our good friends in the branch. And today we're off to Kizhi!

You guys are the best, I'm going to have to read your emails later, I took a picture of them all. I won't be able to respond to each of you personally. Love you all! Have a good week!

Andrew

hello...hello hello!

Hello everyone! It sounds like you have all had a great week. Here is the update. Tuesday was a tough day. We had to give up our friend the Yamaha (we named her Ahamay, say it with a polynesian accent) electric piano to the sisters. I was using it to learn hymns and a Tchaikovsky song, but they asked for it and I thought it would be the for the best. It was a distraction to some. That night, we had a meeting with a less-active grandma in the ward with the whole Elders Quorum. That was big!!! There are some hurt feelings in our quorum due to the release of the president about a year ago, and we all got together and did some service and uplifted someone and laughed! It was great!!! On Wednesday we went back to the dreaded sauna apartment, with the hope that it would be the last time we would be there to put up wallpaper. It wasn't so hot this time, but there were other problems. We had to get all the small places that were covered by furnature, and that was tough. I was on the floor, in a wet mess, covered in wallpaper glue for about 2 hours. On top of that, we had to move the sink in order to get up to a part of the wall and the sink didn't want to go back to where it was before... the pipes seem to have magically changed. Also, it won't drain now either. I tried every trick in the book that I could think of, but to no avail. We're going back tomorrow, so I'll try one more time. Thursday we had Zone training. It was fun, we talked a lot about rules and obedience. Here's a cool thing.. WE GET TO GO TO KIZHI! Next week that's what we'll do for P-day, it's going to be super fun! I was with an Elder who was here, then went home for a transfer after being diagnosed with diabetes, and then came back. This is his last transfer, and it was fun to spend some time with him. We did some good work. That night we had english group, where one of the investigators of the sisters came.. but the sisters weren't there. We know about what's he's thinking and feeling, so we took the chance to teach him a lesson after english. We talked about the book of mormon. He's read things online and just has a hard time changing from what his parents taught him about religion. It was a good lesson. On Friday we had a meeting with our Branch President to talk business, but he forgot and didn't come. Bummer. So we ended up setting up a meeting for that night, and we showed up and he handed us a mop, said get to work, and left. So that was no fun. We are trying to meet with him and just talk, have a good chat about needs in the branch, but he doesn't seem to want to. We tried to go find a new convert, who is our new ward mission leader, to teach him about his responsibilities, but we got on the wrong bus, and we ended up so far away. We eventually got to his house, but we didn't have too much time to teach. On Saturday we practiced Russian in the morning with the russian, and we did weekly planning. It was good to have a solid weekly planning session without breaks or meltdowns or naps. That was good. Sunday was fun. We heard a talk about our language and how important it really is, even if we don't think it is. After the talk, I went home and read James 3. It's so true, all that is written there about our language. It's so insane! I love the imagery that he uses. Our mouths really are the most powerful tools that we have, and we need to use them wisely and appropriately and cultured-like. We praise God with our mouths, but they can also be used to say vile curses. We need to watch our mouths! That was a good message for some of the people in the congregation to hear, and we all learned from it! Love you all. Have a great week.

Andrew

Hello

Hello! I'm glad to hear that everyone had a good week and that you all are safe. Here's a rundown of the week. On Tuesday we had some good service at the sauna where the grandma lives. We put up wallpaper on two walls, so we only have one wall left. Man, I'm going to be glad when that is over. It's fun to serve, but I enjoy the fluids staying in my body and so yeah. We had a district meeting before that, it was good. We talked about prayer and that inspired me to try and improve my prayers. I picked up a liahona to read that night, and whadda you know, one of the first articles was about improving personal prayers. So that was really great. That night we had a lesson with a family in our branch. They have been members for over 15 years but still have attitude problems, Ever since the husband stopped paying his tithing and got released as the Elders Quorum President, they feel like the new guy is super duper bad. He's better, I would say (the new guy). Anyways, they were hunting for a reason to get offended and stop coming to church. We tried our best to watch our step, and we did a good job. I just feel like sometimes for those people, they NEED someone to just tell them how it is. But, we were told not to by the Branch President. That was an interesting lesson. On Wednesday, my companion slept and I did some calling and organizing the area book. Boring day. Thursday was good, we had our weekly planning session and it was long and painful, in a good way. We got some good progress made, and I helped my companion to set some goals, and I set some for myself. It was good. We had english that night, only one guy showed up and he had to leave early. So that was no fun. On Friday we went to the dacha where we usually do service, and I got lots of bites and nettle stings. We had a lesson with one of our investigators fall through, then he called us and we agreed that we would call each other the next day. So on Saturday we called, and he didn't answer all day. Bummer. We had russian practice that morning. It was fun. It was a russian holiday for war people, and my companion is scared of drunks, so we didn't go outside too much that day. We did go and help a member clean the church. That was fun, the guy we were with was really quiet and a goof. It was fun to be with him. On Sunday we had a great fast and testimony meeting, there was a member there who served a mission in Sacramento and has since gone less active. He hasn't been to church my whole time here, and I only saw him once at a party. He got up first and bore his testimony and it was pretty powerful. Hopefully he's making some changes in his lifestyle and getting ready to return to activity. That was great to see.

I read part of Matthew this week, and I really like in chapter 26 verse 10 when it says that Jesus understood, then responded. That's a good pattern that we need to follow in our lives. We need to first listen to what is being said, and listen until the end of the statement, before we respond or try to change what was said. I tried that out this week and it was great for me. It really does work, there's just a better feeling when there is understanding. 

Love you all! You rock,

Andrew

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!)