The Members Here are Awesome

Well I guess this was the end of my first full week in Krasnoyarsk. Its been a good week. Serving with Elder Rubow has been really good. He's easy to get along with and is very funny with all of his stories and how he always speaks his mind.

I feel like the work has been going slow, and Sunday was very disappointing again. We had found two new investigators on our own this week and both of them committed to come to church. And not only did both of them not show, one basically dropped us over the phone five minutes before the meeting started. So it has been pretty slow with investigators.

The good news is that the members here are awesome. And we have been able to go to the homes of some great families who really love the missionaries, and those are always really refreshing experiences. In addition, in the process of us going through the branch lists and with some assistance from the branch council we have worked up quite the teaching pool of inactive men. We've got about 5 who we have met with and taught and agreed for us to come back again. So we have been spending a lot of time working with and visiting them and that can be really rewarding, so it has been a good experience so far and hopefully we will see some big progress. Also we have been doing a lot of service and things for members. Like there is a member here in a wheelchair, and one thing about Russia is that there is no handicap accessible anything. So we help her get to church and back. We gave a handful of sick blessings yesterday, because there are many, many women here without priesthood holders in their family. Also, we take the sacrament to an old woman and she is a saint. 94 years old, and really all she does is sit there and listen to the Book of Mormon and New Testament because she can't read anymore. And she always tells us, "Make sure you call before you come over, because who knows I might not get up next week!" But she says it in a really funny cheery tone.

It feels like the Russian government, media, and church have picked up anti-Mormon efforts recently. I guess there was a big TV special on the network channel last night all about the Mormons. Where they tried to make it look like journalism, but you know how they do it, where they show all the parts of the clips from us to make us seem weird and the way the anchors talk and the words they choose show that they are clearly against us. Then they ended the program with an interview with an orthodox priest who told everyone that we were a cult that doesn't believe in Jesus and blah blah, and they just ended it on that with no commentary or rebuttal. And I feel like you can really feel the effects of that in the everyday person that we talk to in the street.

Thanksgiving was awesome. All the missionaries spent a couple hours on Thursday afternoon at the Noels. They went huge, and had everything you could imagine, which I'm sure was really tough to find all that stuff out here. After the meal I had to sit on the couch and just veg because I ate so much I couldn't do anything else, so it was awesome.

I accidentally missed Dad's question from last time. The new assistant is Elder Probst. He's really cool, came in 6 weeks after me. He served in the office for a while and he's really good and thorough.

People and weather seem about the same here as Novo, although it seems like we haven't gotten much snow here. Transport is a little tougher here without the metro and there is always traffic in the city, so sometimes its pretty inconvenient to get places.

-Elder Topham

 

Here are some pictures from my last week in Novo with Vanya, and some members, and by a statue thing.

Krasnoyarsk

Hey this has been a really interesting week.

I feel like this is the first time that I have ever gotten a transfer. Although it has happened twice before it felt like a totally new thing because it has been so long.

The last few days in Novo were really good. On P-Day we made the Webbs dinner which consisted of plov, fruit salad and dessert blini. It was a really good time, and it was good to make them food after about a year of them feeding me. We had some good lessons with some members and investigators right before I left. Especially Vanya is looking really good and will probably be baptized soon. It was definitely sad to go and leave some of the people there. On Wednesday we went to the airport really early to get Elder Yatsiuk. He is Ukrainian so he didn't get delayed with the rest of the group coming in. And we did the normal orientation stuff with him that day and that night I took off on a train with Elder Kelly to Krasnoyarsk.

Krasnoyarsk has a very different feel to it than Novo does. Our area is everything on the south side of the River. Most of the newer stuff and the main business center of the city and even the majority of the population is on the North side of the river, but the branch building and most of the members live on the South side. Out of any of the Russian branches that I've seen this looks the most like an American branch with some families and a bunch of kids running around. The members here are really special and there are a few really strong families.

In fact, we didn't have any investigators to start out with, so we have been spending a lot of time meeting with members, and we do our regular talking to people and street contacting. Also, in order to advance the creation of the stake we have been helping the branch trim their records of people who actually don't live here any more, so we have been going around visiting all the members that nobody knows and seeing if they still live there. And usually if nobody knows them it means they are long gone by now.

The Noels are great. I'm going to miss the Webbs, but the Noels are taking really good care of us. And there is a lot of talk going around that Sister Noel is going HUGE for Thanksgiving. The missionaries here are really young. We just have 4 Elders and 4 Sisters. All of the junior companions except for Elder Rubow are being trained. And I feel really old because I picked all of the missionaries in the city up at the airport except Elder Kelly. So that means 2 Elders 4 Sisters and the Noels. So that's a weird fun fact. Because of everyone being so young, Elder Kelly and I have to share all of the translation responsibilities for the Noels. Which I don't mind doing at all, it's fun and a good challenge.

We found 2 guys this week that we contacted, later taught, and they both committed to come to church but neither of them showed.

Elder Rubow is sweet. He is a southern gentleman from North Carolina. He's from Durham but he likes UNC. And he is a wonderful story teller, and I love sitting there listening to him tell stories. I'm sure you already know more about him if you read his blog.

Well I think that's about it. This week should be a good week and hopefully by the end we can get a couple investigators on the program.

Oh hey Mom, guess what, right before I left Novo I got 2 packages. The Halloween one with all kinds of candy and oreos and stuff and the long skiny one with the popcorn. Thank you! Love you.

-Elder Topham

Transfer This Week

Hey,

I noticed when I was rereading last week's emails that I didn't answer one of the questions correctly. You mentioned how the new missionaries come in a week later, and that's true, the transfer is this week on Wednesday, but the new missionaries won't come until next week on Wednesday. Everyone is going to go to their assignments and the trainers just have special arrangements for the week. So that doesn't effect the transfers for the rest of us. I mentioned about something that might effect our transfers is how the MTC is probably going to shorten the length of everyone's stay at the MTC in order to deal with more missionaries. And if that does happen then it could change the pattern of when missionaries come in, and that would change all of our transfers and release dates, so we'll see about that.

Commenting on Grandpa McCoy's email. I noticed in Russia that people are much less likely to give tips and they are not expected, but only given if you are actually impressed by the service. So either you did a really good job, or that lady comes from an area of Russia with people much politer than where I have been.

What part of Lenin Square does the camera show, what's the angle? That's in my old area so I used to be there a lot, now we don't go there as much.

I feel like I got a package of candy and note cards a while ago, but not within the last month or two. But it's ok, even if they come late, they'll get here. Yeah, any time we or the zone leaders go to cities we take all their mail and packages with us. Or if anyone else is travelling through the city for any reason like visa trip or transfers or anything they take all the stuff, so you never have to wait more than a couple weeks.

Really I haven't kept in touch or written anyone who are on missions. I kind of feel bad about it, but it is what it is. I have sent some letters back and forth with Jordan Dudley since the beginning until now. He should be going home pretty soon.

This week was pretty good. We spent all day Tuesday in Barnaul and parts of Monday and Wednesday traveling. I think the Elders down there had a really good time with us, especially because they are the only companionship of elders down there right now. Elder Terry and I had a great day together. We taught one guy who looks like Jack Sparrow, but with a clean hair cut. He was in the slammer for a while but cleaned up his act, he had attended the baptism they had in Barny a few days earlier and he said he really felt the Spirit, so we set a baptismal date with him, and he is looking really good. He has a family and he is really humble, so it's the perfect situation.

Wednesday was the last day of English for this cycle and we got another investigator, Vanya, from it. In fact, he was probably the main highlight of the week. We taught him on Friday and on Sunday. He is my favorite investigator because he does all of his reading assignments and he has really good, intelligent and logical questions, so you know he is really sincere and wants to know. He couldn't come to church on Sunday but we taught him in the evening a half hour before the little Youth and Young Adult fireside started. Artom and Misha both came to the lesson and Misha did a really good job testifying about his "re"conversion and that was really cool. Then afterward Vanya went to the fireside with them. So it was really the perfect situation. But it was just so scary dumping him off like that and just hoping that the members would be nice to him and talk to him and make him feel comfortable. I've noticed that I have a much more complete perspective like that now, having seen those situations from the point of view of the missionary, to help make me a friendlier member.

We got our drug addict investigator to come to church again, but it's been tough with him, and that may be about all we can do for now.

Today we are going to make the Webbs dinner. It will be really fun, because they have fed me for over a year this will be really fun to have them over at our place and feed them. We are going to make borscht and plov and dessert blini and fruit salad. It should be really epic. Hopefully they will mention it on their blog, but we'll see.

Ok, I think that's all I got this week. I'm taking off Wednesday for Krasno so I should be there next Monday.

Elder Topham

The Book of Mormon: Epic and Powerful

(Note from Mom: much of Drew's letter that follows is answers to questions we asked based on information we had from either the news or other missionaries, I've added a few notes to help clarify what he is talking about.)

Yeah it's getting pretty cool here. It's been snowing off and on. Everything is pretty covered but not too much yet.

Yeah, it was a pretty interesting week with the protests. (Note: for info on the protest that we asked Drew about see http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/11/01/mormon-missionaries-young-guard-kremlin-protest-moscow/1673775/). On Wednesday night we got a call in the middle of the night from President waking us up. He said, "Elders, we have an emergency that we need you to take care of tomorrow morning." And I thought it would be a huge deal from that first line, but he just told us that there were protests planned for the next day. The area presidency and the physical affairs department of the church had all the missionaries in those 7 or so main cities all stay inside that day. So we just had to call the Novosibirsk missionaries and tell them to stay inside. From what he said later on in the day, stuff only happened in St. Petes and in Moscow. Only 10 people in St. Petes showed up, but I guess the Moscow one was pretty good. Everything here was just anticlimactic.

So yes, the new group is going to get the 3 year visas and they will mess up our transfer schedule, but we still don't know how much. So that could possibly mess up my release date. We still don't know exactly. But if it changes I don't think it can go any later. Because it can't be pushed back past June 18. Without special permission the president can only set the release date within 30 days either way of the report date. But hopefully we'll find out soon and I'll let you know. I don't know if we will get those next time or not, but probably.

Book of Mormon is going well. (Note: President Gibbons challenged the mission to read the Book of Mormon in 85 days). I just decided to knock it out quick and so I'm almost done. It's been a really cool experience reading it really fast because everything that you read before is still on your mind and it all links together more. For example, the last two days I've been reading in 3rd Nephi, and it is so much more epic because the whole book has been leading up to the point when Christ will come and it has been extremely touching, and I think you lose that feel a little when you just read a little each day. Carrying it around is cool. (Note: The missionaries in the Novo mission have been asked to carry a Book of Mormon in their hand at all times when they are out.) You just have to make sure you have really good gloves so your hand doesn't freeze. Usually I do the Michael Jackson one glove approach where I put a glove on my left hand to carry the Book of Mormon, then I leave my right hand uncovered and just put it in the jacket pocket so it is more accessible to use the phone, shake hands, write stuff down, etc. Some people have asked about the book. For me it has only happened after I have started the conversation, but there have been some experiences in the Mission where people have come up to missionaries asking about the book.

Well the Thursday lock down day was the most unusual part of the week. It was actually really nice, because Thursday is planning day anyway. And it gave us a little time to study extra and clean out the closet, it was a nice little rest. We kept making jokes all day about the angry mobs coming up to our apartment and how we would deal with them, but they never came :(

Wednesday was my last ZLC. President had Elder Kelly and I each share out testimonies at the beginning. Then we discussed some issues in the mission. President shared some epic stuff about how the Angel Moroni is a great example of a missionary in his dealings with the prophet Joseph Smith, and how Joseph was like his investigator. President also nailed it and gave a really moving lesson about love in leadership that made a deep impression in me.

Victor is still doing well. He hasn't been able to come to church because of work. But this week we went over the baptismal questions, and we really just need to help him start living two of the commandments and he will be good to go. The change that he has continued to make is incredible, he is nothing like he was when Elder Anderson and I started teaching him months ago. Our other promising investigator is Aleksei who came again to church, so that’s a good sign. He's still moving forward well. We got a couple new investigators this week from our street contacts, so we will see where they end up. One of them came to church with us. He is in a really tough situation, has problems with narcotics and I can't describe the place where he lives. But he is very humble and he already had a testimony of the Book of Mormon. He can't concentrate on anything for very long. But when we showed him the Book of Mormon he said that he had once had that book and he remembers that right when he opened it and read one verse everything became easier/lighter (it' s the same word in Russian) but he had lost the book a while ago. So hopefully we can help him.

That’s about it, it was a really good day a church, a big turn out from the recent converts and less actives that we have been working with. Even Mixael the one we have been home teaching for months finally came.

 

We are heading to Barnaul tonight. and we will come back to Novo on Wednesday and be here the rest of the week, so it should be good.

Elder Topham