Beautiful Russia!

Beautiful Russia!


Our great friend, Roma made dinner for us!

Our great friend, Roma made dinner for us!

Elder Rasmussen is very excited to see real food!

Elder Rasmussen is very excited to see real food!


Companion and friend, Elder Jake Rasmussen

Companion and friend, Elder Jake Rasmussen


Trifecta's Last Time In Estonia

Trifecta's Last Time In Estonia

With my wonderful friend, Faik.

With my wonderful friend, Faik.

Sunrise, at One P.M.

Sunrise, at One P.M.

Petrozadovsk District

Petrozadovsk District

Lake at Petrozavodsk

Lake at Petrozavodsk


North Zone Conference Nov. 2011

North Zone Conference Nov. 2011

Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

Thanksgiving Dinner 2011

First Zone Conference with President Clark

First Zone Conference with President Clark

Neva River Fall 2011

Neva River Fall 2011

Visa trip, Oct 1st 2011

Visa trip, Oct 1st 2011

Oh my aching jaw...

Oh my aching jaw...

Hermitage Museum on P-day!

Hermitage Museum on P-day!

Me, Svetlana and Elder Loskutov

Me, Svetlana and Elder Loskutov

Birthday lunch with Kostya

Birthday lunch with Kostya

My friend, Grisha

My friend, Grisha

Service for Babushka

Service for Babushka

MTC Missionaries in Estonia

MTC Missionaries in Estonia

Waiting in Estonia...

Waiting in Estonia...


Visit from Elder Russell M. Nelson

Visit from Elder Russell M. Nelson

Elders Larsen and Anthony

Elders Larsen and Anthony

Our MTC teacher surprise visit!

Our MTC teacher surprise visit!


Podvodov family gave powerful talks!

Podvodov family gave powerful talks!
Pskov, Russia Branch


Vyborg Castle

Vyborg Castle

St Olaf's Castle Where We Do Service Work

St Olaf's Castle Where We Do Service Work

Beautiful Vyborg on the Sea of Finland

Beautiful Vyborg on the Sea of Finland

Vyborg

Vyborg

Misty day in Kaliningrad

Misty day in Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad District May 2010

Kaliningrad District May 2010

Russian MTC Group

Russian MTC Group

Russian MTC Zone at Provo Temple

Russian MTC Zone at Provo Temple

20 July 2011

President Clark Arrived!

Great to hear from you again as usual! I can't believe how things are going to be different when I get back with all that you explain in the backyard. Also I want to see Cody Ryan! That is really cool to hear about him. 


I haven't been to the office in a while so I don't know if my package has come yet. We will be there tomorrow so if it has arrived, I will have it tomorrow. Yay!

Thursday we went to a famous alley in St. Petersburg that they called the Den of Thieves and now is a famous souvenier shop. Everyone there just attacks the people that come in and tries to sell you something... Very funny actually. They speak broken English, but they don't give up... If they find out you speak Russian, they try even harder. We also stopped by St. Isaac's Cathedral, but the line was too big to get in so we just took some pictures outside. Friday we had a breakfast with all the zone leaders at President Nuenschwander's to talk about some leadership training and some other things that he felt were happening in the mission. He first talked about the principle of delication, and gave the examples of Moses and Jethro. It was good. He and his wife are very nice and friendly and approachable and love the missionaries!

 We had a split with the AP's, and I was with Elder Bervan. It was good to be able to serve with him again! We met with an investigator and talked about prayer. He has some interesting views about prayer... It kind of sounds like he thinks they are like spells or something, but after he understood and it was an okay meeting. We met up at a baptism down in Center Zone to switch back companions on Saturday. We expected an investigator to come to the baptism, but she didn't make it. I love seeing baptisms... The only people that I have really taught that have been baptized are Igor, Ana and Yarislav, all from Vyborg... No wonder I love Vyborg so much! We met again with Vova, but only for a little bit, because we both didn't have much time and talked about how Heavenly Father is literally our spiritual Heavenly Father. Then we had a meeting with an active family, the Lukiyanovs, and got some ideas from them as how we can work better with the members after we had a spiritual thought about unity with them.

Sunday we had a conference with all the Zone, District Leaders and Branch Presidents her in the St. Petersburg district and discussed the Goals we have so we can all be working together on the same page, not as if the missionaries do one thing and the branches do another. President Nuenschwander really helped us understand the importance of working together, even if he was here for a short time. He was a mission president before and he knew what he was doing. Monday I was on a spit in Sesteretsk with Elder Nelson. We met with a less active family and also did a lot of service for them. Cut lots of wood for them... I shoud be a logger now because I'm an expert at chopping wood. Ha ha.


The next day the other Elders came down and we switch back after doing a little more service for them. Elder Anthony and I didn't have an umbrella when we left and it was pouring rain. We were lucky to catch our bus quickly or we would have been soaked. We met with a less active member who just moved here from Armenia. He was super happy to see us! He said he came to Russia a while ago, but did not  know where the church was or who to ask and fell away from the chruch since he did not have contact with them. He really wants to return and repent and he really wants to help us with our Armenian investigators.

Yesterday was the usual Wednesday service at the Hermitage, but that is a good thing. I really like doing service there. So many people from so many countries! Later we had a good meeting with Vova, probably the best one yet. He was really focused and interested. It was a meeting about how we find answers to problems by studying the scriptures, and we applied the scriptures to his personal situation.

Today again we are in the Hermitage. I have never seen past the entrance at service, so we are going to look around with everyone in our district. ~ Elders Nelson, Way, Anthony and me with Sisters Lane and Parker. Tomorrow we have interviews with the new mission president, President Clark!  He will be my 3rd mission president, and only 2 weeks ago I only  had one... ha ha. Not many people can say that. We all wanted President Nuenschwander to stay, but we are sure that President Clark will be great too!

Well that's about it for me this week. I'm really glad to be on my mission!! I can't believe how fast the time has gone, even if it does seems like I have a long time left, because it just keeps getting faster and faster and i will be home before you know it!


  I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. The happiness that the Gospel brings can't be replaced with anything in the world. I will always be grateful what the Lord has done for me and I hope that everyone can understand what He has done for them.


Yikes. Gotta Run.
Love you all. Be of Good Cheer. Keep Smiling!

Love,
Blake

07 July 2011

Interim Mission Pres. Arrived ~ President Dennis B. Nuenschwander

Hello! Another week has come and gone... Just keep getting faster and faster...

This week I've been reading from Articles of Faith by James Talmage, Isaiah 36-42, Mormon 6- Ether 3, D and C 50- 56. Lots of reading. Isaiah talks very differently than we do but if I ponder things I found, I learn more than I would think. The biggest lesson I learned from Isaiah was the story of Hezekiah. He was going to die, but prayed tot he Lord and received an extension on his life. Some blessings only come when we ask the Lord for them. Mormon and Moroni testified of Christ to the Lamanites, and they told them that the Book of Mormon will come to them through the Gentiles. Moroni said that if we ask in the name of Christ, listening to the Holy Ghost, we'll receive whatever we ask for. And Jared and his brother in the Book Of Ether cried to the Lord and were not confounded. They also learned how they were to build the ships that they needed. When the brother of Jared didn't pray to the Lord for 4 years, he was chastised for 3 hours by the Lord from a cloud. From my study, you can definitely see the importance of prayer in our lives!

Last Thursday we did not have any meetings after P-day, as the metro closed and so we called the member, saying we were going to be late, and he said that he couldn't wait and so we just ended up contacting.

Friday we met with some members. The first is Anatoliy who is blind and hasn't left his house for 8 years. Really nice guy who still has a strong testimony, but doesn't know how to get to church due to his vision and sicknesses. The other is Raisa, who just started to come back to church as we help her every week. She is in a wheelchair, so she can't come herself. We are trying to find a way to take both Raisa and Anatoliy... We will have to work with the members better. The last is McCartney, an African from Namibia. He is going home this week, so we just wanted to support him and tell him we are here to help any way we can.

Saturday we had our interviews with President Nuenschwander and then I conducted the baptism for Zhana, a girl the sisters found and baptized. We had an investigator come to her baptism and we had a meeting with him afterwards and did the first lesson. He is really nice and already thinks our church is true, but he doesn't have a testimony about prayer or Joseph Smith Yet. The McArthurs were there and even though they didn't understand everything, they said that they could feel that he has a good spirit about him.

Sunday was a day help Raisa to church, and doing weekly planning

Monday we had a good conference from President Nuenschwander, his wife and the branch presidents. (By the way, yes, he is from Centerville/Bountiful. He lives in the same condos that the Salmonds lived in! I had an interview with him, and as I was leaving he said, "It's good to serve with a neighbor I never knew."  I learned a lot about the Atonement and Unity. He also just went over who he was and got to know us better. He took away all the rules that we had with President Podvodov, almost 60 of them, saying, " You guys have the scriptures, the White Handbook, and PMG. Also, you have brains! What more do you need? If you want to serve the Lord, you'll do it. If you don't, adding more rules isn't going to help." Let's just say we are really appreciative of that... and it was kind of ironic that he got rid of all those rules on the 4th of July. ha ha. I can email Cody now! That night we met with our branch president and discussed what we can do to work better together, and we will continue with branch council.

Tuesday I had a visa trip so I was in Estonia all day. It was cool though because we saw the Elders serving in Estonia and actually attended there District Meeting. (They invited us) We also took lots of cool pictures at a castle near the border of Russia and Estonia. I'll have to try to send you some. Maybe the Senior couple in our district, the McArthurs' can do that for me?


And yesterday we did service at the Hermitage and met with McCartney one last time before he leaves. We also met with Anatoliy Myakishev, a less active member who is a great potential Melchizedek Priesthood holder. He loves the missionaries, but feels like he already knows everything at church and doesn't want to come. He is afraid of commitment, I think.

Sorry to hear that your 4th was kind of not so good ... But next year WE will be there for the 4th!! Thanks for the pics of Cole! He does look like Al! ha ha. Made me miss fishing. Also the pic of Nate. He had a BAPTISM! That is fantastic!

Well I don't have much time left, and want to write Code-man. Yay!

Love you all! Be of Good Cheer. As Grandpa C. said-Keep smiling!!

Love, Blake.

02 July 2011

Travel, Meetings and Good-Bye's to Podvodov's and Luna's.


Already a week of the transfer is over... This is going to be a fast transfer!

Things are going pretty good for Elder Anthony and I. This last week we had a lot of meetings and we also had a lot of traveling around. Thursday night we met with McCartney, my Namibian friend. He wanted us to come over and give him a blessing. Elder Anthony annointed and I gave the blessing. It was kind of weird to do it in English... All the words that would come to my head when I was giving the blessing were in Russian... He called us the next day after his analysis and said that everything is okay, and thanks for the blessing. McCartney just graduated from a international medical school and he will be going back home soon. Happy for him to go back to his family, but sad that he won't be in our area anymore. Great guy.

Friday: We met with a less active named Anatoli who is blind and hasn't left his house in years... He loves the missionaries, but we had no idea who he was until we were searching the area books and found him. We are hoping that we can find a wheelchair to take him out of his house for his birthday. We also stopped by the house of our investigator, Valeri, and we met his family there, his daughter and his wife. He didn't have time to meet with us, but wanted us to come in and pray with him. He is a really funny guy, very energetic. We think he might be trying to set one of us up with his daughter though, so....yeah. Yikes. Ha ha.

Saturday: We met with our investigator, Galina, who belongs to a religion that is a lot like Hindu and other Indian religions. She is very religious, but she doesn't have much of a Christian background and it seems like she is trying to convert us more than listen to our message. She said she wants to hear our thoughts and she wants to read the Book of Mormon, so we are slowly teaching her, one step at a time. She just has very different understandings of God, so it takes a long time to talk to her. Very nice lady though!!!!

Sunday: We helped Sister Raisa come to church, and the Podvodovs and the Lunas spoke, kind of a farewell from the mission if you might say.  They were really good talks. I was impressed with Sister Luna's testimony in Russian. She did a good job! After we took Sister Raisa back home, we had a meeting with our JW friends, and after that meeting, we decided that we are not going to meet with them anymore.  Something changed during this meeting, and they pretty much were attacking us and the Book of Mormon.  They didn't want to try to read the Book of Mormon, and they pulled out a bunch of anti-Mormon pages and began to read them to us. They had taken verses from the Book of Mormon and read them out of context so they sounded like it was made up. Even though these guys prepared this whole thing, and they have a mastery of the Russian language over me and Elder Anthony, we somehow were able to show them that these papers that their Church had printed about us were false and construed, and we testified that the only way that one can know if the Book of Mormon is true is by reading the Book of Mormon, not reading some paper that someone wrote about the Book of Mormon. They wouldn't even touch it, they acted like they would burst in flames if they did. Would not even try to consider it. They said they only read the Bible, but couldn't give a reason why the Bible should be the only book of scripture.  I respect others rights to worship how they want, but you can't tell me that it isn't true if you haven't studied it and prayed about it and received that answer from God. I can honestly say that I tried to listen to them and see what they said is true, but I cannot deny the testimony that I have gained through the knowledge that our Heavenly Father has given us through the Book of Mormon. One saint in the days of Joseph Smith said,"Satan could not have written this book (The Book of Mormon). It surely is from God."

Monday we had a special family night to say good-bye to President, but Elder Anthony and I could only stay for about 5 minutes, as we had to get to another appointment that we had scheduled with a family two weeks ago. It was weird to think that that was the last time that I will see President and Sister Podvodov and also the Luna's on the mission... But we'll see each other again!  We had a good meeting with this family that invited us over for Family Night, were the husband invited his non-member friends. She just had a normal family night with them, with a lesson from Brother Pyecheski's son, but we got to know his friends really well, and they want to meet with us! They even invited us to come on a trip with them. Ha ha. I felt the difference it makes when members get involved and help the missionaries with the work. It works SO much better.

Tuesday and Wednesday we were on a split in Vyborg with Elders Balabonov and Tekulve. I was with Balabonov and we got to meet with Igor, my friend who just got baptized, and we saw Sister Balkova on the street, after we went to the branch family night. I love Vyborg!!! I feel like if I moved back to Russia for some reason and had to live somewhere, I could live in Vyborg and everyone would already know me. The branch remembers who you are and genuinely loves you.  Tuesday we came back and had enough time to meet with Vova, who had lots of questions about prayer. He is nice and wanted us to pray so a girl would fall in love with him. Ha ha. We had a lesson about prayer, about Heavenly Father's love, and about free agency.

I did wish Dad a Happy Father's Day, but it was in a letter and seems to have not gotten to you yet, so Happy Father's Day (BELATED) I hope my letters are getting to you? I still haven't had a chance to send off that letter that was sent back to me, Mom. Sorry! As soon as I can, I will.


Yeah... It' weird that my family hangs out with my friends... But it is a good weird. Hope that the concert was good, Lee!!! Tell Kallie that if I had time, I would write her a million and one letters. But Heavenly Father has a different message for me to bring to other brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews, so I will just tell her lots of stories when I get home, and I will write her a letter especially for her soon. Tell Cody that I'm not ignoring his emails, but my mission president wants us to only email parents... Don't know why that rule came out? Sorry, Codes. Miss you!

ARGH! Just not enough time to write... I've got lots more to say, but I've got to run! Love you all a ton! Thanks to everyone back home for the love, the examples, the prayers, the good memories, and most of all, for sharing the Gospel with me in my life. That's the number one important thing, and if we apply the Gospel in our lives, we will be happy and feel the love of God, no matter who we are or were we live. The Gospel in and of itself is the Love of God.

Love you all! Be of Good Cheer. Keep smiling!
Blake