Hey everyone. Whats up?
This week was ok, everything is still just moving along. We still haven't been seeing the kind of success that we want to see. We got stood up on a few meetings and people who promised to come to church just don't come and stuff like that.
I did go on two exchanges with members of the district this week. I spent a day with Elder Kelly and a day with Elder Terry. That was nice because both of them have been on the mission longer than I have. Elder Kelly goes home this transfer and Elder Terry right after him. It was also nice because we already know each other well and have worked together before, so they were both really good days.
On Friday we had a pretty long day, and nothing really was working out. But the last guy we talked to right before we got home stopped and talked to us for a while. Elder J gave him a short little something and asked him if we could tell him more some time, and the guy just stood there and said yes, like tell me now. Then the look on the face of Elder J was priceless because he looked at me like "what do we do now?" because even our successful contacts are usually pretty short and because of the cold don't really stay and talk more than a couple minutes. So we started teaching some things and discussing some things right there. He was great because he has strong faith. And he even asked us before we invited him if he could come to church, and said he would come. So Elder J was really pumped after that one, I was too obviously, but not quite as much. But then, as has been the theme recently, the guy's phone was off Saturday night and Sunday morning and he didn't show to church.
English is picking up. It was a slow start because of the winter but its getting better with some people coming - a few investigators for the other missionaries from it.
We had some good member and less active lessons this week. The members are definitely the highlight of Krasnoyarsk. So that keeps our morale up sometimes when we have a tough day but a good member meeting to end the evening.
We had one lesson with an inactive family this week. The woman saw one of the shows about the Mormons on TV and decided not to go to church any more. Usually it doesn't affect the members like that, just the people who that is all they know about the church, so that was an interesting lesson. Elder Kelly was with me for that. We made a lot of progress with her. I'm really concerned about that family. Their 10 year old is really cute and whenever we come over he shows us what he read in the kid's Book of Mormon. So we really do not want to lose him because of one TV show.
Ok I think that is all. Sorry not too much interesting or miraculous this week.
As for summer term, sign me up. I don't really know what to take. Could you let me know what the first Russian class is that I need to take or what the Russian options are? And I'll need to decide what I want to major in soon I guess so I can know what else to take, especially in the fall. Whether it be business classes or science or a lot of Russian classes or what, so I guess I'll get back to you on that. But let me know if you have any ideas for summer.
Love you all, especially Mom
Elder Topham
This week was ok, everything is still just moving along. We still haven't been seeing the kind of success that we want to see. We got stood up on a few meetings and people who promised to come to church just don't come and stuff like that.
I did go on two exchanges with members of the district this week. I spent a day with Elder Kelly and a day with Elder Terry. That was nice because both of them have been on the mission longer than I have. Elder Kelly goes home this transfer and Elder Terry right after him. It was also nice because we already know each other well and have worked together before, so they were both really good days.
On Friday we had a pretty long day, and nothing really was working out. But the last guy we talked to right before we got home stopped and talked to us for a while. Elder J gave him a short little something and asked him if we could tell him more some time, and the guy just stood there and said yes, like tell me now. Then the look on the face of Elder J was priceless because he looked at me like "what do we do now?" because even our successful contacts are usually pretty short and because of the cold don't really stay and talk more than a couple minutes. So we started teaching some things and discussing some things right there. He was great because he has strong faith. And he even asked us before we invited him if he could come to church, and said he would come. So Elder J was really pumped after that one, I was too obviously, but not quite as much. But then, as has been the theme recently, the guy's phone was off Saturday night and Sunday morning and he didn't show to church.
English is picking up. It was a slow start because of the winter but its getting better with some people coming - a few investigators for the other missionaries from it.
We had some good member and less active lessons this week. The members are definitely the highlight of Krasnoyarsk. So that keeps our morale up sometimes when we have a tough day but a good member meeting to end the evening.
We had one lesson with an inactive family this week. The woman saw one of the shows about the Mormons on TV and decided not to go to church any more. Usually it doesn't affect the members like that, just the people who that is all they know about the church, so that was an interesting lesson. Elder Kelly was with me for that. We made a lot of progress with her. I'm really concerned about that family. Their 10 year old is really cute and whenever we come over he shows us what he read in the kid's Book of Mormon. So we really do not want to lose him because of one TV show.
Ok I think that is all. Sorry not too much interesting or miraculous this week.
As for summer term, sign me up. I don't really know what to take. Could you let me know what the first Russian class is that I need to take or what the Russian options are? And I'll need to decide what I want to major in soon I guess so I can know what else to take, especially in the fall. Whether it be business classes or science or a lot of Russian classes or what, so I guess I'll get back to you on that. But let me know if you have any ideas for summer.
Love you all, especially Mom
Elder Topham
