Monday, August 27, 2012

Member Missionaries Needed

Hey, how's it going. I did my email to President first today and I noticed that I wrote way more and more detailed than usual and it took me a while, so for the sake of time, I'm just going to send that to you too and that will probably be the bulk of the email.

This week has been really great, we got Elder Davis moved in and all of the new missionaries oriented fairly smoothly. Elder Davis and I had a few good days at the end of the week to work in our area and we have been having a lot of success, including baptizing Aleksei yesterday.

You always talk about how when we get a new assignment we are bombarded with revelation and that is exactly what has been happening to Elder Davis concerning the whole mission and our area. We need to make member work our top priority. We spend too much time finding and teaching street contacts who are just weak investigators. What the church needs here is for members to be strengthened by us teaching them and for us to find quality investigators through them. Obviously, we will not slacken our contacting efforts, but put much more effort into teaching members, and working with them to find investigators. We made some great plans and goals about this on Thursday during planning then and we were both very excited and optimistic about it.

This week we did the regular new missionary thing. There were a ton of them, about the same as when I came in. Saturday we also had a great experience. One of the members has his girlfirend in town for a month from Kazakhstan, and we taught her and it was the best first lesson that I've even been on so, we are going to see how that goes. Sunday was amazing because we had 5 investigators at church, the most I've ever had, and of course Aleksei's baptism was awesome. At also worked out well because Elder Anderson was supposed to have left earlier in the week but his visa got delayed so he was able to stay in the city and baptize Aleksei before he left. It was a really powerful baptismal service. Sorry, hopefully I'll have more time to write next week, I had a lot that I wanted to say.

We haven't done anything culturally recently.

We memorize a ton of scriptures in Russian, some are the same as scripture masteries and when I work on them in Russian it helps because I already have this English framework in my head. So I don't know to what extent, but they help.

Elder Topham
This is a picture of me out in the boonies where our Armenian investigator lives.


Various pictures of Aleksei's baptism...





 

Monday, August 20, 2012

A Good Week

Hey what's up? It's been a good week.
Answers first today:
-Russians like Obama ok, I don't think they would like our president no matter who he is. They like the democrats more in general it seems.
- Yeah, they have been doing under-the-table little "Preach My Gospel"s at some kind of printing place in Omsk for a while. I inherited one in each language from Elder Drasso. They also make a size smaller in Omsk. They are only black and white, but they still work well.
- We haven't switched companions yet. Elder Davis will move in on Wednesday so we can go to the airport early in the morning to pick up all of the new missionaries and Elder Harris. We don't know when Elder Anderson can leave because his Kazy visa hasn't come in yet, so we'll see. 
- No, not ready for winter... I'm dreading it.
- I like Dad's story about the referrals. Do you have some kind of weekly correlation meeting with the missionaries? Or what have you been doing as a ward missionary recently.
Ok, everything else:
We picked up 2 new investigators who look pretty promising this week.
One dude, Timor was a street contact that later on the phone invited us to his home, which is very rare for a street contact to just trust us like that. But it was was really nice he showed us all his pictures and we got to know each other well and gave him the Book of Mormon.
The other one, we were at the park waiting for a guy that was supposed to meet us there and we talked to this old Armenian guy and he was very nice and very receptive we sat down on a bench and started teaching him, by this time we assumed that our meeting was not coming. Then in the middle our guy came and sat down by me and I taught him while Elder Anderson was teaching the Armenian guy on the other side of the bench. We are going back to his house tonight. 
Aleksei is still looking pretty good. He has been swamped with his job recently and was sick this weekend so we haven't seen him for a while and he didn't make it to church but he should be on board to be baptized soon. Maybe this weekend. 
We haven't seen Evgeni for a while maybe even a month, just talked to him on the phone. We had a meeting with him this week. At the beginning I asked him if he prayed about whether or not he needs to be baptized. Honestly I expected him to say something like, "Yeah, I think it will all come with time," or "I don't have a definite answer yet." But he just sat there for a while kinda looking up a little bit, and I started thinking to myself dang, I think he might have gotten it, then I started praying "Please, if he hasn't gotten an answer yet, give him one right now" and it felt like that silence lasted a long time and he said, "Yeah, I got the answer. I need to do it." It was actually kinda a scramble after that because we were trying to congratulate and reassure him and at the same time trying to pick a date and explain what needs to happen before he can be baptized. So it was pretty sweet.
Saturday was really interesting. We went down to Akadem Goradok for a day. 
We first had a lesson with an investigator, then Evgeni (the first time at his house), then Vitali, the member who is 84 years old. He is sweet, lived down by the Black Sea during World War II. He's still really active and teaches priesthood every other week. It was nice because we were able to have 3 people to meet with who all lived down there and stopped by some other people to make the trip worth while.
At church Victor and Andrei both came, Andrei sat in the front row of Sunday School with me and didn't hide in the back, so he's still warming up. Sorry, we need to go, we are going to TGIs.
Elder Topham
Me with our fruit lady.

Me cooking some wonderful plove.
 

Me in front of some awesome Mario graffiti.

Us and our investigator Paval.

Us with member Vitali.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Back from Kazakhstan

Hey Everybody, Hows it going?... Sweet.

Well this week was good. We finished up the Kazakhstan trip and got back to our apartment in Novo on Thursday afternoon. So we were able to spend Friday through the weekend here.

We had a really good time in Almaty. That city really reminded me of California, the way everything was really green and there were these green hills around it. Then it's really cool because there are even mountains that are snow capped around it. While we were there we even went up to the hill where Russel M. Nelson dedicated the land of Kazakhstan for the preaching of the Gospel. In Almaty they have a tutor that teaches them Kazakh for 2 hours a few times a week, so I got to go to one of those classes and it was awesome. It was really tough for the newer missionaries because the lady only teaches in Russian. Everyone in Kazy is really nice and friendly and happy and they actually smile and like to talk and stuff so it was really cool to be able to talk to some people down there. When we were there people were pretty pumped about the Olympics because Kazy got their 6 gold medals really early in the games and were up in the top ten of the medal count and everyone was really excited about that. Probably the best experience was when we tried fermented horse milk with Elders Brinton and Hansen. I guess it's some kind of national ethnic beverage there, they are really big on horses. Anyway, it was incredibly nasty. It smelled like bread dough. We each had a glass of it and I decided to just chug mine which I think was a good choice because it went down tasting like just weird milk, but then after I swallowed it just had this incredibly nasty taste and I actually started gagging and ran to the open window. But it stayed down. Elder Brinton almost lost his too. So that was a really good experience.

While were were there we did Zone Leaders Conference. We were in the branch with the Kazy ZLs. The Novo ZL's were in President's office. It worked really well through the webcam program, as far as us being able to hear, but it was pretty tough to discuss things with the lag. They have an awesome senior couple there who fed us before district meeting. We were pretty busy down there with English club and English lessons, Kazakh class, and we met with a few less active members.

Friday we had a nice long meeting with President and kind of debriefed on how everything is going in Kazakhstan and made some plans for the future there. We stopped by Aleksei's house and had a nice conversation with him, he was really happy to see us and we set up an appointment for the next day.

Saturday I was on exchanges with Elder Blake. We had a nice meeting with Andrei and family, also with young Aleksei. He's feeling much more confident about baptism and we had the date for next week but we are going to move it back a week because all of the young adults are going to be out of town at the conference in Krasno. Then the day finished very poorly because Other Aleksei stood us up and when I called him he just said it wasn't going to work out today and he wouldn't tell me why and he was with a bunch of other people. It was really frustrating because we even had Brother Paval come out there with us to help teach. We scrambled and got a home teaching set up and went over and did that at Mikael's but it was really disappointing.

Sunday was great because young Aleksei and Andrei both came. Misha blessed the sacrament, and Marina got a calling - she's now a Gospel Principles teacher. On the down side, one of our investigators disappeared and we went to his house and he was home but told his son not to let us in. So we'll give him some space for a while and just pray for him, that's all we can do. I'm curious what happened I assume it was a social thing, that it usually the problem. At church the recent convert, Giorgi, was telling me all about the Olympics and especially volleyball. He's really big on all that so that was a fun long conversation. He invited me like 6 times to come over and watch the final with him.

There will be the same number of missionaries in Kazy. Anderson is replacing someone who is going home. Harrison is going to Astana and one of theirs is coming to Omsk. Anderson goes home 2 transfers before me, or about 3 months before me.

Cool video of Matthew shooting - it worked really well on the computer. I think the horse milk was the only crazy food. Their Shaurma is a little different there and really good. My next comp is Elder Davis. He's the blonde from my MTC group from Arizona. He's awesome and I'm just still really grateful about all of the awesome companions I've been getting.

Well I think that's it.

-Elder Topham

 
PS. I just got a text from President that says we are stopping all English and not doing any baptisms in Kazy effective immediately on advice of our legal council as to not hinder registration efforts.
 The Huffaker's final district meeting.


Me shining my shoes.

 

  The ones in my had are a pair that I got here.

The horse milk before we drank it.
 

Monday, August 6, 2012

Greetings from Astana, Kazakhstan

Hey What's Up,

Greetings from Astana, Kazakhstan. So I guess that answers one of Mom's questions. We have missionaries in Almaty and Astana but that's it. Astana is the political capital and is in the Northern Part of the Country. Actually pretty close to Omsk, almost directly South. Elder Anderson and I flew here yesterday after church. We were originally going to fly on Friday with President Gibbons. But we delayed the trip a little because he was waiting for his Russian Visa. It's interesting actually because he had a Kazakh visa, but the visas that we have for Russia last 3 months and you can only enter the country twice. The first time is always to activate the Visa and President had already made a trip to Kazy maybe a month and a half ago, so he was out of re-entries until his next 3 monther comes in about 3 more weeks. But he planned this trip any way because he has been working for many months on getting a 3-year, unlimited entry Russian Visa. He has had to go to the immigration office multiple times, done background checks, blood tests, all kinds of absolutely crazy things, and when he submitted that all they said that he would receive the Visa on August 1. So he was planning on that (so was sister Gibbons). But on the first, when they went down there, they just told him that he had been rejected. No explanation or anything, they said they would send a letter. So he had to cancel his trip here with us, and sister G went to America anyway, but will have to stay a little longer than she wanted to, until the next 3 monther comes in. So it's been pretty crazy. And because of all that, it ended up that Elder A and I just flew here alone yesterday. We go to Almaty tomorrow and leave from there on Thursday.

There are 4 elders here in Astana and 1 humanitarian couple.
There are 4 elders 4 sisters and 1 humanitarian couple in Almaty

Natalia is right, people in Russia are always grumpy (except for church members), but in Kazakhstan everyone is happy and nice. It's crazy, it's like a mixture between China and Russia, with Islam splashed in there. Astana is a very unique place. The city has only existed for about 20 years and President Nazerbiev (who is president for life I believe) has been pumping a ton of money into Astana the last 10 or so years to make the new part of the city amazing. I hope I will have time to send you those pics, we spent the day touring the new city. It's crazy - it is basically a mixture of Washington DC, Las Vegas, and Disneyland with this amazing modern architecture, Oh, also something that's amazing here is they actually have grass and flowers and lines on their roads. I haven't seen that stuff for a year (besides Finland).

I'm doing well and feeling well. I guess at this point in the Mission the challenge is that now I'm more comfortable with everything to not relax, to still maintain the hunger to keep learning and keep improving and keep working hard. I'm really happy, Elder Anderson and I have been together a long time and are totally used to each other. By the way, he is going to be transferred to Almaty in 2 weeks. That is the only part of the transfer that has been made public knowledge yet. But my new companion is awesome and we are already great friends so I'm looking forward to it. We've still been hitting the stairs every other day and on the off days just doing push ups and the resistance bands so it's alright. Actually, this morning was awesome because Elder Mitchell took Elder A and I on a jog, probably about 1.5 miles or so through part of the city, a beautiful park and across a river to this exercise park that has these machines that use your own weight. The machines weren't amazing but they were still pretty cool and the jog was awesome.

Other things that happened this week.

Elder A gave a gospel sports analogies lesson at the Webbs for the FHE on Monday.

We reset baptismal dates for both Alekseis for August 19. Young one is looking really strong, older is on board but we can't see him as much with his new crazy work schedule. We had more meetings that didn't work out, or people who stood us up this week than usual. It felt like it was back to the me and Elder Hyde days.

Sunday was great because both Alekseis were there as well as Andrei, so we were pretty busy making sure they were doing well and answering their questions and stuff. Then two more awesome parts were that Misha passed the sacrament for the first time, (he was just last week ordained to the office of priest and it's awesome to see him back on track and participating in the ordinances of the priesthood.) Also Marina, who has been struggling a little and with her work schedule not made it to church sometimes, was not only there but bore a wonderful testimony during sacrament meeting and was very happy. I think that is pretty much it.

Elder Topham

Astana, Kazakhstan

This is the new city Astana with the 4 elders.
That big tent is a huge mall. It is the largest tent in the world. The highest floor is an indoor beach. It is sweet.






The one of my hand in the thing - that is in that golden ball tower thing. That is the imprint of the presidents hand and I don't know exactly the significance of it but like everyone in Kazakhstan has a pictures like that.



The one building is the "white house" where the president lives (original I know).