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

23 September 2011

Happy To Serve With Elder Ash.

Hello! Bonjour! Salut! Privyet! Zrastvutye! Allo! Dobree Dyen! ZdarovHella! 'Sup! ( I can keep going if you want... :) ) ha ha. Good to hear from you as always... And I'll be talking with you again on Monday! Our P-days are being changed to Monday.


Jayden is going to Manchester? That's where my friend Kevin Ballantyne is on his mission! He'll be home soon, but maybe they will be able to see each other in the mission field at least really quickly. Ha ha. Tell them all CONGRATULATIONS for me!


Walk for NF? That's great! Do they have Runs? I'd gladly do a marathon or 2 when I get home for that. What kind of things is Meleea going to do for that?


The Branch President's name is Aleksay Yurkov, but I don't really know him yet. Only introduced myself to him... It's fun to have Elder Andersen in the Branch with me!  He's always fun to be around and he is really helpful. His companion is really cool too, Elder Woodard. He gave up baseball to come on his mission and he has a really strong testimony. He's my height, but he's huge! Really strong. I'd feel safe if he was my companion.


Ha ha. It's funny that Cody is teaching himself songs on the piano, because I have too! I've actually played a couple of times when we didn't have anyone else in Elder's Quorum or district meeting. ha ha


Nope... still can't think of anything that I need yet. I'll for sure let you know if I need something... Actually just thought of something. My watch got stolen the other day on the bus last transfer and forget about it because I just have the phone to look at for the time. I dozed off and when I woke up my watch was gone... They are good. REALLY GOOD. I was asleep maybe 5 minutes.

Well, it's been a little harder to pick up this area, as Elder Ash and I don't know the area very well. Our branch is 2/3 female, and we are serving in the sister's old area, so our area books are filled with female investigators. I've called around to find members of the Church that can meet with us, but most of them say "I'm busy or working until 8 o'clock everyday." Or "Let's agree on a time Sunday." and then leave before I can talk with them or don't come. I see what President Clark means that this area needs some reviving, and we are going to keep doing our part and help the members understand the importance of missionary work. Our district wants to be REALLY excited with the members, and help them see the joy in the missionary work that we receive, so we are planning on doing that... Once we can get a meeting or two.

So far the only people that we have been able to meet with are 2 former investigators. One is a retired war veteran and loves the missionaries, but the first thing he said to me at the meeting was," I won't be a Mormon. It's not a good thing to change your religion." And the other person doesn't follow through with his commitments. I think we won't work with him because a couple others have before and we are under the impression that he just wants to try to convert us... We do have a meeting scheduled with an investigator who came to church for tomorrow but it's with a female and we are still looking for someone else to come too. The other Elders in our area said that they can come for the meeting if we can't find someone, so we might have to do that. We've called all the members in the area books at least once and many from the former investigators, so we'll find some more meetings as time goes on.

We are happy and know that if we keep working, the Lord will bless us in our efforts. Elder Ash is already a really good missionary and I'm happy to be serving with him. Helped bring some of that "fire" from the MTC back to me, and I bet that will be a great asset to the branch too. He's really funny and reminds me of Cody a little bit. I miss Cody. 


Well. That's what's new with me. I love you all and miss you. I'm really glad to have come on my mission and to have served the Lord so far for this long. I can't explain the joy that I feel knowing about the Gospel of Christ, and I hope that more people will accept it. But the Lord gave us our choice and we have to want it for ourselves.

Keep Smiling! Be of Good Cheer!
Love,
Blake



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