This week was pretty crazy. Tuesday we took off from Krasno to Novo. I was in Novo Wednesday and Thursday. Then on Friday morning I took off for Finland and returned Saturday morning. Then that night we had a train back to Krasno and got in Sunday morning.

While we were in Novo on Wednesday President had a meeting with all the trainers. Then after that ended Elder Jones and I went with Elder Smith and Yatsiuk to help them move a member. That was pretty chaotic as usual for Russian moves. She lived on the 9^th floor. There was a little elevator but it only went to the 8^thfloor. Plus, she had 4 dressers and a piano. But probably the worst part was outside was about -30 C and we had to keep going in and out freezing then sweating then freezing then sweating. Ok but other than all that everything went really well and was all pretty fun. We got the whole thing done, loading and unloading in a couple hours.

Thursday was interesting because I was on the other end of the trainers and new missionary orientation thing. But it was really cool. I got to meet Elder Jurkovenas finally. He's sweet. It turns out that his English is actually really good. He understands everything and speaks almost like an American. His Russian is pretty good too. He understands really well. He speaks with a good flow and accent. His vocab is limited and his grammar is probably what needs to work on the most. But he is much better than a new American missionary coming in. He's a big guy. I've only got like two inches on him and he has a little weight on me. But he doesn't play basketball, even through it's huge there (Elder Jurkovenas is from Latvia) and everyone told him all growing up that he should play.

After we did the orientation and the Assistants took us out to lunch, I took the new missionaries shopping in Novo. Everyone got some coats, a few got boots and hats and stuff, we also got some Bibles. We did a little work that night with Elders Smith and Yatsiuk.

The Visa trip was pretty tough. Just going through 4 airports, 4 securities and having lay overs in each one. Thankfully by the last flight I was so tired that I just fell asleep before the plane took off and didn't even notice that it took off. It was nice to get to see everyone from the MTC and catch up on things. Talk to them about the release date decision and everything.

Yesterday was Elder J and I's first day together in our own area. We went to church, then visited our babooshka. We set up a lesson that night with our Uzbek family. Only the dad and son were home, everyone else was working. Elder J was pumped, he had the pregame butterflies a little before the lesson. I think he was a little disappointed that everything didn't go perfectly. I remember that is exactly how I felt my first couple days on the mission. But he had fun and liked it.

The next couple days should be really fun. We will spend a little bit of time at the Noels both days. And they will probably feed us really well.

I got Grandma's package that she sent. Tell her a big thank you from me. She sent us a little tree. I set it up in the kitchen with the ornaments on it. It brightens up the apartment with a little more Christmas spirit.

Everything that dad said about the Skype is correct. I don't know what the time difference is. But I'll be calling from here at 11AM and I'll use the name that you gave me. Last week we did that boiling water thing too. It's really cool. About half of it vaporizes immediately. The other half turns into snow immediately.

OK, that's all. Talk to you soon.

Elder Topham

 

Here is a picture of Elder Rubow and I with the Vetzels on our last day together. They are an awesome family that lives close to us. 

Me with their older son.

 Then Elder and I at the mission home together.

Then Elder J and I at our apartment by our Christmas tree.

 

Zone Conference Cake

Hey, I just emailed you what I got from President. (Drew forwarded us an email regarding a change in his release date.) He told us each personally about it at zone conference. He explained it all well here so I thought I would just forward it. Let me know what you think about that. Now, let me know what you think, if there would be anything for me to do for that month, or just in general what your thoughts are about the dates.

Also, I sent out some pouch mail at zone conference so let me know when you get it. Also I sent one to Rob's family but I used our address. Because I don't know if I have their new one.

Also at zone conference, I got my Christmas package. I cheated though, because when I unpacked it back in Krasno I unwrapped the one that felt like wool socks because I figured I could use those right away. Well done on the packing. Nothing broke. Elder Rubow and I have been enjoying the toffee. Still tastes like home.

Zone conference was epic. President owned it with a really deep presentation about the symbolism of the manger, swaddling clothes and the three gifts. Especially in the way that they relate to the temple, the atonement, and our personal spiritual development. He has an amazing ability to do something that is so scholarly that it is mind blowing and interesting, with all the while being very spiritual and applicable. Sister Gibbons, the Zone leaders, assistants and all the musical numbers nailed it too. I had a wonderful time because it was totally stress free and I just got to sit in the back and enjoy it.

I met the most recent group of missionaries from the MTC. They said that they knew Elder Jurkavenas and that he actually speaks English decently and Russian better than all of them, so we will see this week when I meet him.

Then, what might have been the cherry on this zone conference cake was during lunch when Elder Huntsman came up to talk to me. He told me that the guy we found contacting that night when we were on exchanges up in Omsk about 2 months ago got baptized last Saturday. I was really glad to hear that, and I made me feel good to see a direct result like that.

Then on Thursday I was on exchanges with Elder Johnson. It's the first time my whole mission that I've had a chance to work with him and it was awesome. I don't know if you remember but he is the one I was friends with at BYU that I would always play basketball with in the fall. We had a tough day, but a good time none the less. We rotated 45 minute contacting sessions with 30 minute defrosting sessions where we would put our feet on the heater and drink tea while we called old contacts.

We did a service project this Friday and Saturday. We put up wall paper in a couple rooms at a homeless shelter. Sorry I've been bad at pictures but the sisters and the Noels took some. It was kind of crazy and Russians are very honest and always tell you what they think you are doing wrong. Everyone would come in and say what we were doing wrong, but then they would all argue with each other because none of them agreed on the right way to do it. Anyway it all got up and looks good and I know how to hang up wall paper now.

Sister Brown put on a concert Saturday night. She is an amazing singer and did several songs, some while playing the guitar and some while playing the piano. The missionaries all sang one number together too.

Yesterday I gave a talk in church. I think it went alright. I talked about the concrete things we can do to share the gospel and told some experiences and emphasized how the Holy Ghost always helps us.

Everything is going well with our investigator family. Our teaching appointment before zone conference was interesting. We didn't get to teach much because the wife was cooking for us, and people were in and out the whole time. She fed us plov, which was awesome. And apparently the real Uzbekistani way to eat it is just out of one big common dish. Also, that it is usually done with just your hands. But she gave us all spoons because we were there. It was a cool experience and really good. Then yesterday night, the mom wasn't there because she got a new job working all evenings (which will make it tougher for us) but we had a really good lesson with the father and the youngest son.

Next week will also be crazy. Tuesday night I'm heading to Novo with Elder Jones and all the sisters. Then we have a trainers meeting with Pres there on Wednesday. It's cool all 3 new missionaries are coming to Krasno. The 1 elder and 2 new sisters. Sisters Karachova and Brown are the other trainers. Then Thursday we will meet our new companions and do the orientation with them and everything. But Friday morning I leave for Visa trip. The area presidency came out with a rule that you are not allowed to leave the airport on visa trip, so we fly to Moscow then Finland, then right back to Moscow then Novo. It will be about 24 hours straight of going through airports and flying. Saturday night we take off back to Krasno and my first day with Elder J in Krasno will be on Sunday.

Well, It is extremely cold. I think Jack Frost just covered wagoned Siberia and won't lift up the blanket. The days in Novo were I think the coldest I have ever experienced.

Yeah, you can always feel the difference even between -30 and -40. Everything feels the same, but you notice that it takes less time to get frozen on various parts of your body. But don't worry mom, I'm staying warm enough. I don't really use the hand or foot warmer things because it's just too cold. I feel like those would be optimal if you are outside for a long time and it is pretty cold. But we are outside for a half hour at a time or so.

Yeah, the Book of Mormon is still in hand, it's fine I just wear my leather/fur mittens and carry it and it's all good.

There is snow everywhere, but more in Novo.

So they don't clean off the sidewalks so it is just a layer of what I call "permafrost" just layers of snow that have been beaten down by people walking on it so it's just a hard snowy/ice path. We usually walk no more than half hour to appointments. If it would take longer than that we will get on a bus.

Being back to Novo was pretty cool. It was nice to know where I was going. Plus I got to see Misha at the branch while I was there.

Ok that's all. Would that be ok if I called at 11 am Krasno time on Christmas day? I think that's what I'm planning on. I took the last shift because I'm calling the west coast.

Well talk to you and see you next week!

Elder Topham

This is a picture of Drew that Elder Rubow sent to his family, captioned, "Elder Topham says study the scriptures!"

 

The Area is Going Well

Hey everybody, this week has been pretty good. It seemed to go by really fast.

Carson had a good question about how we keep our legs warm when its so cold. There is really not much you can do but wear thermals. So I just wear a pair of thermals under my pants. I think the legs just don't get as cold as the body for whatever reason. I only have a problem with my feet getting cold. And when I wear thermals it helps my feet stay a little warmer too. There were a couple of weeks last winter when I wore two pairs of thermals at a time. I will probably have to do that this week.

Our apartment doesn't have an oven, but it's no big deal we do all stove cooking anyway.

We found the apartment for the new companionship, and signed on it so that's all done. I'm very glad that its all done too, because that was a really stressful process. We went out with a Realtor to look at a couple places and we picked the best one. Then the next day we came with our "visa registrar" (that's the member of the church in each city that handles the registering of each missionary and the apartment signings), Olga and we worked out the contract with them. That was super long and intense, but Olga got it all worked out. I'm still not used to the way business is done in Russia, just long sessions of yelling and saying rude things to each other but then in the end it gets settled. The new place is nice. So whoever goes there will be lucky.

There is only one new elder coming in this transfer, and a few the next couple transfers, so I think the influx will come in later. Probably from those who are receiving their calls around now.

This week we found some new investigators and they all had a similar theme to them -- all through our efforts to find and teach the inactive members. I'll tell you about each one.

The first is an inactive member that we have been trying to help. His mom lives with him and she is legit. She worked in a factory that built Soviet rockets here in Krasno. Anyway, she has been participating in the lessons and if we can get him to come back we are confident that she will come with them.

Then we found a new inactive guy this week who let us when we checked his address. We came back a few days later and during one of our lessons his friend showed up. So the guy invited him in to come meet "his American friends". So it was a really sweet comfortable setting to get to know him and begin teaching him. And he ended up being really interested. And even if the inactive member wasn't the best doctrinal or testimonial support for the lesson, he made all the difference just showing his friend that he was comfortable with us and trusts us, and that its not weird to come to church and stuff like that.

Then the coolest one happened Saturday night. We had a really awesome busy day, but we couldn't get any lessons scheduled for the evening, so it was looking like it would be a tough evening. But we went to the first inactive guy on our list and they let us up. And without saying much to us at the door let us in. Then after a few seconds of talking and introducing ourselves. it became pretty clear that they were not members. So I don't know why they let us in because on the intercom Elder Rubow specifically asked for that guy. Maybe the people living there didn't understand, or maybe they were just prepared somehow and felt like they should open the door. Anyway, we find out that the apartment was sold recently and they are renting from the new owner. The family living there is an Uzbekistanian family with a mom and dad, and 4 kids. Three of which live at home still. The dad is Muslim and the mom is Christian. They are the nicest and happiest family that I have seen in Russia besides members of the church. We spent a good while getting to know each other and taught a little about prophets and families and they invited us back for tonight, so hopefully that will go well. We are really excited about it.

The area is going well and it's cool because we are usually pretty busy and don't usually spend too much time just tracting or contacting. We have a handful of consistent investigators, less actives, and there are a good amount of active members that we visit every now and then. Also I did both exchanges this week so I spent a day with Elder Kelly, and Elder Jones.

Well, that's about all I can think of. We will be in Novo Wednesday for Zone conference and Thursday to do exchanges with the Zone leaders.

Still nothing solid for Christmas, but it will for sure involve the Noels feeding us :)

I'm planning on skyping with you our Christmas morning and your Christmas eve night if that's still cool?

-Elder Topham

A Good Time Serving

Hey I got those videos that you sent last week to work. Whose gun is that and what is it? I was not expecting the videos to be of Mom and Dani so that was really cool too.

Dani, keep up the good work. I don't know your calculus friend. That's awesome that you are having so much debate success although I am a little worried when I get back that you will own me if I ever try to argue with you. But I hope my height advantage will still give me the volleyball edge even if I'm rusty.

Oh yeah and Mom, that Reese's desert bar mix was awesome. It was just sitting in my bag and I hadn't whipped it out because we don't have an oven then I glanced at it and it said, "delicious no bake recipe!" So it was really easy to make and really good. You might have to send that for my birthday too.

Well, I feel like the week has gone by pretty quickly. Elder Rubow and I are still having a good time serving together. We had some nice investigator success this week. I'll give the rundown.

A is probably the only pure, no effort, free, member referral investigator I've ever had and it's sweet. A less active member just called us up and told us that he wants to bring a friend to meet with us. And he set up the time and they both showed up at the branch for a lesson. So we were able to teach him twice this week with his friend.

Then we found the most convenient investigator ever. V, who we contacted close to the branch, lives in the building right next to the branch, so he should have no excuse not to come to church and it's really easy to get to his place whenever we need to.

Then S, an English investigator from before, is back on board, but he is going to Novo for a month for work. So I've got him hooked up with Elder Davis down there for the month.

Then the most exciting one is S and Z. They came to the branch when the member who is in charge of maintenance was here and he gave us their info and invited them to church. They showed up. And this member has been really nice to them and helping them out with some of their problems. He's 60 and she's 50 so it's quite the interesting couple. They are extremely nice and accepting. They love to chat and get off topic easily but they said they want us to come over every day and we set baptismal dates with them on our first lesson. So that will be very fun to work with them.

Other than that it's just been the regular struggles, like getting first lessons to work out with seemingly golden contacts, who just don't show or answer their phones or anything. We've been working with a realtor to search for an apartment for a new companionship of elders.

I think the rest of the transfer will go by really fast, probably even the rest of the month. Because next week we go to Novo for exchanges and Zone conference. The week after that is visa trip and the transfer. Then the week after that is Christmas, so there is a lot of stuff to look forward to.

Well love you all, have a good one.

Elder Topham

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