Changes

So this last week has been really crazy with our first trip to Finland and we found out transfers.  So basically the only thing that will not change is that I'm staying in this same area... Other than this, it's crazy.  So first, Elder Drasso is going to Baraul to finish up his mission as ZL there.  And guess who my companion is going to be... A new missionary!  Straight out of the MTC, haha.  Yeah.. that means I'm training next transfer.  That's pretty crazy because my language is still not good at all.  I'm starting to understand better, but I still don't understand a lot.  But I'm really excited, because it means both of us are going to have to learn really fast, or else we are in trouble, so I think it will help.  I just hope my kid will have a lot of energy and be okay with some mistakes/epic failures to start.  We'll see.  I know president Gibbons is really into having younger missionaries train.  It forces both missionaries to learn faster.  Elders Davis and Walker from my MTC group are also going to start training this transfer, so it's pretty crazy.  Elder Davis was trained by a 3rd transfer missionary also, but as far as anyone knows that's the first time that has ever happened in this mission.  So it's pretty scary.  So, if anyone has any advice for me on what I should do to train, or help us survive, much less be successful, I would appreciate that.

Oh yeah, I'll also be district leader for the right bank of Novo next transfer... But I'm not so worried about that.

So Finland was awesome.  It's like a magical fairly land.  It's even cleaner and nicer and the people are friendlier than Americans.  Everyone there speaks English.  And even the biggest punk looking guy would help us out and show us how to get places -  it's amazing.  We got in Monday afternoon and we left Tuesday afternoon.  The temple was closed Monday, so we had some time and we went and toured an awesome medieval fortress island right outside of Helsinki it was really cool, I'll try to send some pics.  Then the next morning we got to do a session and baptisms at the temple before we left.  We ate at a pizza buffet that night and TGI Fridays in the Moscow airport, it was really awesome to have real food.  I really can't describe how fun it was to see everyone and relax for a little bit.  It was awesome.

Definite Progress

Hey, so I'm leaving on Visa trip early tomorrow morning, which means that one of the days I'm gone is my p-day.  So I went to the Snigeri branch building tonight with Elder Walker because they have a computer and we are taking turns using it.  Sorry I didn't find out this was the plan until recently, so don't feel bad for not having your emails sent yet, it's not your fault.  I'm just sorry I can't answer any questions you have or anything until next week.  Next week's email will be much more exciting anyway because I will have experienced Finland and we will have gotten transfer calls by then.

 

So there were a few really cool things that happened this week. 

 

I went on exchanges for a day with our district leader Elder Bounous.  And it was awesome, I learned a lot, he helped me with my accent, we had a good time.  We also had a great meeting with Tamara (more details to come).  But here's the best part.  Elder Bounous is an amazing singer.  So more background.  President Gibbons called a meeting with all of the district presidencies and branch presidencies in the whole mission at his house.  So it was basically all of the strong active men in the mission almost.  He was going to discuss how they wanted to have a plan to make a stake in this mission.  And here's the best part, President wanted Elder Bounous to sing a musical number to start off the meeting, and it was on the same day as our exchange!  So I got to go too! Then after he sang, President told us we could stay and sit in on the meeting until lunch.  That was awesome because not only did we get to eat some awesome food, but we got to see what was going on.  The AP's were the only other missionaries there.  It was a super high powered intense meeting.  I wish I could have stayed there for the afternoon session too.  Basically, they are going to combine all of the districts into one super district and combine a lot of the small branches into what would meet the requirements to become wards and then the whole mission would be organized like a stake already, and they just need a few more priesthood holders before it would meet all the requirements to become a stake.  The only other one is 80% home teaching.  That seems really high to me. But I guess there's a new stipulation in the handbook that talks about home teaching can be a call if you can't visit the home.. anyway, pres spent a lot of time talking about home teaching, and there's a lot of work to do because most branches, including ours, do not have a home teaching program in place.

 

So one time when we called Aleksei recently he answered and we were talking about the Book of Mormon.  He said that some lady at the hospital saw the Book of Mormon and told him that is wasn't true and was not real scripture.  But Aleksei told us not to worry about it because she's a "simple" woman and she does not understand.  Hahaha it was hilarious. Aleksei is the best.  He's always awesome to us.

 

So this Visa trip will be interesting.  I'm the travel group leader, and I'm still not sure exactly what that means except to make sure that everyone gets back to the country and I bring all of their passports back to the office.  It was crazy, Sister Olga from the office sat me down and gave me all these crazy directions about what to do in the Moscow airport and in Finland so it will be interesting and a little stressful, but it will also be really fun. I'm excited to see everyone. 

 

They just made a new rule from the quorum of the 12, I think it applies to only the Europe East area, but I'm not sure, that no missionary can ever travel alone.  It messes up missionary work a ton, especially because we already have visa trips, so everyone in my MTC group (except the two Omsk elders who will fly directly to Moscow together) has to travel to Novo with their companion, and their companions have to stay here for two days and work with the Novo missionaries until they get back and go to their cities together, it's crazy. 

 

Oh yeah, so I was supposed to say a little more about Tamara.  She is awesome, we've been meeting with her every once in a while since my first week here.  She hadn't been to church in years and years but she is really nice and has nothing against having the missionaries over, so it was suggested that I go over there and practice teaching her the discussions.  So I have been for a while, but anyway, she has come to church for 4 out of the last 5 weeks! And last meeting she agreed to ask the branch president for a calling.  And today, I didn't even have to remind her or anything.  She even waited outside of his office until he was done talking to someone and then asked him.  She is one of the few people that I can clearly see definite progress and I can look back and feel good that we were able to help her. 

 

Well love you mom, and rest of family, sorry this will be unexpected, but no worries I'll hear from you soon!

 

Elder Topham

We Still Have A Lot of Work to Do

Hey everyone! This week has been really good.  

First before I forget I had some logistical questions for Mom.  If you could please, if it's not too hard, and don't worry about rushing it, send me everyone in the extended family's birthdays and addresses.  Also a good thing for the next package whenever it might be would be just a sheet or 2 of return address labels for letters. Maybe one sheet with the mission home address and one sheet with the pouch mail address, that would be really nice for me to have.  Elder Drasso wants the caramel corn recipe and we both say thank you very much.  We usually enjoy it during companionship study.  Also, if you could find and send me the addresses for Tom Randall and Riley Littlefield that would be great.   Also, I'm going on visa trip soon.  And I've heard from the older missionaries that its a good idea to sign up for (I'm pretty sure it's) Delta's frequent flier program, because we can just check in with that card or number every time we fly for visa trips and it really adds up I guess.  

 

OK, cool, so here's what was really good about this week.  Both of our other investigators met with us and Sergei has a baptismal date now.  I don't think I've told you about them much so I will a little now.

Elder Drasso found Sergei in Omsk and Serg said sorry I'm moving to Novo to go to college, and Elder Drasso said great so am I, so we've been teaching him sparingly ever since.  He speaks English and likes to talk to us in English before and after lessons, but we teach in Russian, so he will understand better.  He's in some kind of architecture program.  Anyway, last meeting we talked about Gospel of Christ and we worked a baptismal date out of him.  He doesn't "know" that it's true yet, but he's getting there.  His girlfriend, who it sounds like he will probably marry soon, is really anti Mormon, and he smokes, so we still have a lot of work to do, but it's moving forward so that's awesome.

Then Ruslan is our other one, his dad is Muslim, and also very anti- Mormon, so that is also tough and he is also a college student who works at a bank.  I have a special attachment to Ruslan because he was pretty much my first successful gospel contact who we got a meeting with - he's moving forward to. 

Aleksei is still in the hospital and doesn't answer our calls much.  

We are getting better at contacting, and I can get numbers pretty well now, but we are having trouble on the next step and actually getting people to agree to and come to meetings with us. So that's been our problem and that's why we haven't gotten any new investigators recently.

We've also spent some time this last week, and will this week, to contacting specifically for English club.  there is a big sign up, Halloween party, English club orientation thing in a week, and we spend a few chunks each week and all the missionaries in the city go out in street clothes with t-shirts that say "free English" and clipboards getting people signed up for English club. Hopefully it will get a bunch of new people there and we can just baptize them all.

It's been pretty warm here this last week, I'm kind of surprised.  But supposedly it gets cold here, so we'll see.  Oh, here's the worst part, they already turned on the central heating for the city, so every time we come into the apartment it feels like a sauna and we have to throw all the windows open, but after we do that its fine.  It's weird - all of the Russians always wear one layer too much of clothing, and look at us funny when we are "under dressed" but totally fine.  But funny story, that's how the former district president here met the missionaries.  His wife stopped them and asked them where their coats were, and they talked to her and ending up baptizing them.  So when it gets colder we are gonna try going out really under dressed to try to use it as a conversation starter.

I bought some boots this week, they are awesome! Fur lined, have a nice zipper on the side for convenience, they were pretty expensive, but I got them from a good quality store, and they are big enough, so I'm really happy with them, they should work really well.

So I had a really vivid memory recently about the first time, I recognized a distinct answer to one of my prayers, and I'm really happy that I didn't forget about it.  It was when I was taking my black belt test for tae kwon do, and it was at the very end and we had to break a series of boards with about 6-8 different techniques, some that I had never done before.  And if I remember right, I was practically hiding in the corner while other people volunteered. and I was crying because I was so afraid.  and Dad called me over and usually in that kind of situation he would tell me to suck it up and just get out there.  But I distinctly remember that he told me to pray and ask for the strength that I needed.  And it worked.  I don't remember exactly what happened but it was like something came over me I got like all but 2 boards in my first try and it only took me a second on those.  And I remember that Alfonso and Bernard's dad was filming it and he asked us if he could show that to his kids, because that was the most aggressive and intense he has ever seen anyone.  Just remembering that experience was a good testimony builder for me.  So when I remembered that I thought it was really cool.  And I was wondering if you remembered that, Dad.  I think you were the only one there, but I'm not sure. and I wanted to see if I remembered it right.

Well I'm still loving it out here.  I love the other missionaries and our investigators and the members.  It's been tough, but it's awesome.

-Elder Topham

I Love it Out Here

Well, we hit a new low in almost every stat this week, so that was definitely disappointing.  But it's interesting, because I feel really good about the effort I put in and we did do a lot of good things this last week.  And just overall I feel good and love being here. So to accurately describe how I feel, I am definitely disappointed and anxious with how things have been going lately, but I'm not discouraged and I'm still very hopeful, because I know we have been doing good here and I just really love being here, it's kind of hard to explain actually.

 

So guess what Mom? I got both packages on the same day! haha.  Last Friday, who knows, one might have gotten to the mission office a few days before and sat there.  But thank you so much! They are awesome, and getting packages is the highlight of the whole week, so having two was even more of a surprise.  They both arrived in good condition and unopened.  The pictures you sent are awesome and I already added some of them to my small photo album that I always take around with me, for when I meet members and just new people in general, I guess.  The only thing that happened is that a lot of the individual baggies that the caramel corn was in ripped, but it was all still in the box, so its all good! It is is all very good. Thank you so much!

 

So some more ideas or advice on packages is probably more candy, especially chocolate. I wasn't big on candy and treats before I got here, but I think it's different now that I have to always cook on my own and there's not just stuff laying around the house. Also if you have a candy bar in the middle of a long day especially when you are contacting or what not, it can be a really good morale booster.  Some candy is found here, especially Snickers are very prevalent, but Reese's are definitely not, so I would have to request, some Reese's Fastbreaks because they are a little more convenient than the cups, and Paydays, and just any other variety of candy.  Also you cannot buy note cards here. and I like to make flashcards out of them to if you could just send a small pack of 3x5 blank on both side note cards, that would be great. I have enough for a little while.  Also Ziploc bags, don't send just bags, but like if you are doing caramel corn or something, put a Ziploc bag around it too, 1 its a stronger container and 2 we can reuse it.  And those fruit bars or something like it are awesome. 

 

So to answer some questions mostly from Mom's email last week

 

So as far as activities with other missionaries here, we see them a lot between English club and district meeting, but now we only see 1/2 at district meeting.  We are invited to FHE every week.  But we've only ever gone twice,  the first week here just to meet people and we brought Grisha one time when he was still being reactivated.  But we don't go usually unless we have a good reason or investigator who wants to go, which hasn't happened yet.  I've talked about some of the P-day things we do.  Usually the missionaries like to get together and do something,  even something small, we haven't done anything big or really fun recently. 

 

So Aleksei has been in the hospital all week.  That was a big part of the reason we had no investigator meetings at all this week.  We tried to call him every day but he only answered once.  But the good news is that he brought his Book of Mormon, and before he went in he said that the only thing he will have time to do in there is read it and pray, so I sure hope he's still doing that.

 

One of our previous investigators wouldn't answer our calls, so we went by because "we were in the neighborhood and needed to use the toilet" which was actually true, he was very nice and let us in but said that he didn't want to talk to us about religion at all but we were welcome to come by and hang out, so there is not much we can do there, just stay in contact every once in a while, but we don't meet with him.

 

Another figged us once on a meeting, and has been totally uninterested in any gospel conversation.  Explanation: Rob said the french term is "posing the rabbit," in Russian the "fig" is a rude gesture made by sticking your thumb through your fingers as if to say "I got your nose." It's mildly rude, so like it's really rude to do it to a stranger or someone older than you, but its' appropriate for us to do to a teenage member who we are friends with who is messing with us or something.  Anyway in Russian the term for standing you up at a meeting is "they gave us the fig" or the more English version, they figged us.

 

Which leads me into my next story.  Another reason for no investigator meetings is that our two others who we actually consider investigators both had back to back meetings set up and they both figged us and had their phones turned off, so that is extremely frustrating.

 

We spent a lot of our time this week more like private investigators than missionaries, because yesterday there was a big ward council where they finally went through the branch list and got off the names that moved and the bad addresses and numbers and stuff which hadn't been done for years.  So we were going all over this week trying to hunt down these inactive families that nobody has ever heard of.  Banging on apartment doors and finding out where they moved and stuff, so we accomplished a lot from that, but it didn't help our proselyting numbers very much.  The best thing that came out of it is that we found two young adult men with whom it looks likes we will be able to have some consistent meetings and really be able to help.  Also, my contacting is getting better and better,  which is good because we need it.  And I've felt really good lately about the effort that I've been able to put in contacting and in general.

 

I watched general conference this weekend and it was awesome!  Its amazing how much more excited I was and how I thought it flew by now that I'm a missionary, and it used to seem so long.  My favorite talks were Elder Packer, the Japanese 70 in the afternoon session, President Uchtdorf, and Elder Waddel, probably because I thought all of those really applied to me personally and missionary work, and of course I loved both of the prophet's talks and pretty much all of them.

 

I love it out here and I'm really happy so that's good, hopefully next week will be better.

 

-Elder Topham

Making Good Use of My Time

Hey Guys,

So Mom's bold questions first, (if it's not bold there's a good chance I'll miss it first time through).

So here's the deal.  There are no restrictions on what kind of player it can be, so ipod, mp3 whatever.  I found in my apartment a small set of portable speakers, headphones are not allowed.  I think I will use those, and if I need better ones I can buy them here so don't worry about speakers.  Electrical charger is probably better.  I have a converter already, and I also have a converter to USB already for my camera, so any kind of chargeable would be good.  We also have a CD player, and it can play MP3 format CDs (they hold much more audio).  And 1 more suggestion for music, please send the Jericho Road I already have and maybe some more. They are by far my favorite Mormon boy band.

So we watch general conference next week, so I'll see it by next email time.

Here's something cool. I got stopped by the police for the first time on my mission the other day.  We were at the domaphone trying to stop by an inactive member. We turned away to leave and two ununiformed cops come up behind us and show us their ID and start asking us questions about what we are selling and stuff. So we answered them and cleared some stuff up, then showed them the copies of our passport and registration.  They looked at them for a while and let us go on our way. So it actually wasn't too exciting but it was still pretty fun.

President Gibbons has been doing awesome.  He came in and said all the rules are only what is written in the white handbook and PMG.  He had a leadership meeting with all the ZLs, DLs and trainers and he had a list of a bunch of questions he received and he just had them find the answers in those two books.  Most of them were debatable, but apparently he never gave his opinion or interpretation.  So I think that's really cool.  Just to give people agency and trust to interpret and keep the rules as written. He also has been spending a lot of time, personally going with some priesthood leaders to visit inactive families.  He is really awesome.  He is going around to all of the apartments and interviewing all of the missionaries.  Ours was awesome, he just told me to keep lifting up others because that's a natural skill that I have and to keep doing it and being a good positive example.  He was more specific, but it was really cool.

So when that leadership conference was going on, Elder Davis (from my MTC group) came in from Tomsk, and I spent the day with him and Elder Walker, it was Awesome!  We visited a babooshka and she was great and we went contacting.  Or should I say, Elder Davis gave us a lesson in contacting.  He is amazing, he just gets every person to stop and talk to him about anything, then all the sudden they are best friends and giving him their number. It is incredible.  I learned so much from him in just a couple hours.  It was just an overall really fun day.

So Aleksei supposedly has tuberculosis and went into the hospital today.  Dad, I would like you to tell me a little about tuberculosis, because it's hard to tell what's going on with Aleksei sometimes and it's hard to know what is really going on with him.  But he looks and sounds really sick.  But he did say the only thing he would have time to do in the hospital is read the Book of Mormon, so that's good.

But we did recover one promising investigator!  This 18 year old, Ruslan.  He is awesome, his dad is Muslim, and he's a little middle eastern/ Asian looking.  We had a good first meeting with him, but he lost his phone and we couldn't get into contact with him for 2 weeks.  We were about to move his record to the former investigator tab and we called him and he had gotten his old number back, it was awesome, and we've already had 2 more good lessons and a soft baptismal commitment from him.  So that's awesome.  It looks like the biggest problem is that he doesn't think his parents will like it.  H is 18.. but its important to him, so that's 1 big trial we will have to overcome.  

We met an American the other day. That was really fun.  Leo, he is teaching Russian here on some kind of study abroad grant.  He's Jewish, from upstate New York, He wasn't interested in hearing much from us, but he was still really nice and knew a lot and had a good opinion of the Mormons.  But he's here for a full year so we'll see if we can't work with him a little in that time.

Anyway, our week hasn't been great, but I've been having a really good time and I feel like my Russian is improving very fast.  I've learned how to make good use of my time and squeezing in some extra study, and Elder Davis showed me what he does, which I've been doing some more of and that's helped too.  Elder Davis was trained by someone who was only on his 3rd transfer, so I think that's part of the reason he is so awesome, because he is a hard worker and they both just worked really hard.  I have a feeling that President Gibbons is going to do that with a few missionaries in my group.  So that could be pretty crazy.

Thanks for the emails.

- Elder Topham