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

19 December 2011

The Spirit of Christmas is the Holy Ghost, Who Testifies of Christ.

Well first things first. I am a little confused at what time it will be for you when I call, because this year Russia got rid of Daylight savings time and i'm all mixed up. It will be between 7 and 8 here when I am calling, so I think it will be between 9 and 10 back home YOUR time. Elder Rasmussen might call first and gets to call his Mom and Dad, so It will probably be closer to 10 when I call. What are you all doing for Christmas other than waiting for our calls and going to church? Invited anywhere for dinner? When is Cody calling? Probably earlier or later than me since he has to get to Church in New York.


Natalie Bonner is a girl I went to school with, yes. That's great that she is going to the Canada Toronto Mission! I bet you congratulated her already, Mom! ha ha.

I don't think that I have seen the sun for at least a month... The clouds always are covering the sky and that is all I see. But we fixed that problem. We made sure all the lights in our apartment are new and together with the help of 2 Christmas trees we have plenty of light to get our spirits up at home. Christ helps too! He is the Light and the Life!

You'd get along with Russians with your essential oils, Mom. That kind of stuff seems to be getting big here too. Must be a global thing.


Say hi to all the "mission friends" who are back home now! Weird that will be me soon. Ryan Nelson called me to ask a question about the mission. I didn't know it was him and was confused when I heard English in the phone, but it sure was great to hear his voice. The banana bread recipe that Natalie Parker (that's weird to call her that! ha ha) wanted is one that I got from Sister Drenan and changed to make it my own. Ha ha. One thing that I've started to learn how to do on my mission is cook. I think things are usually healthy when you cook them yourself anyway.

Well I have a train to St. Petersburg on Tuesday and will be there until 
next Tuesday due to the Christmas Party, an exchange with the Zone Leaders, and a VT on Monday. (Last time on my mission.) I hope to stop by Grisha and see his new baby girl, and see some other wonderful friends from Shoovalova! Things are going by soooo fast.

This week we found 2 new investigators from people we contacted on the street. The Lord is helping us more and more as we put our trust in Him as "we open our mouths and testify of Christ." Both really nice guys, one named Maxim, the other Mihail. Humble guys with great questions.

It's so weird how you are meeting so many people who speak Russian now that I'm in Russia. That's great though! You will know who I can talk to to keep it up. I've been thinking about school and I decided I'm going to probably major in Chemistry and Minor in Russian, or even double Major.

Remember to keep the Christmas Spirit with you! The Spirit of Christmas is the Holy Ghost who testifies of Christ, who died for our sins, because He was One with the Father, who is God. As John said, God is Love. Remember to LOVE this Christmas and ALWAYS! 


MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I LOVE YOU !
Keep Smiling. Be of Good Cheer!
Blake



12 December 2011

Burn Out Brighter

Well, I'm staying in my same area for my very last transfer of my mission just like Code is, and I'll still be with Elder Rasmussen. This will be a busy transfer. Christmas, New Years, vt for both of us, exit interview, etc... WEIRD! I just realized BP is going to be home this month!!!! What's going on?!!


You'll have to save the letter that President Clark sent to you this week, because I definitley want to read what he said! Ha ha. I'm really happy to have served my mission here in the St. Petersburg mission, and I will never forget all the friends and things that i've come to know here on my mission! I was thinking about that yesterday and I realized one of the biggest things that my mission has taught me is the importance of hopes, dreams, and faith. You can't live without hopes and dreams and goals. Heavenly Father wants us to choose to learn and grow and create ourselves, and what is important to us is important to Him. He wants us to build our talents no matter what they are, if they are used for righteousness. Among all of our personal, righteous goals should be centered the main goal of returning to HIM.

Tell everyone at home to please stop getting sick. That's funny  about Kallie's "emergency" though. She is getting big! Tell her that I'll be coming home soon and to save me that piece of her cherry pie that she can't eat. Yum!

I'll take Chris as an adopted brother. Ha ha. He was one of my favorite companions on my mission. Funny, down to earth guy.


The weather here is a constant light snow, with some days just above freezing, some just below. They say it takes a while for the weather to change here because of the humidity, and this year has been a warm year, but they say it will be SUPER cold soon enough, and not just cold. They keep telling me to not forget that winter really doesn't start until the 20th of December technically.

This week we saw probably the most success that we've seen this whole transfer, with respect to numbers and the Spirit. 2 investgators came to sacrament meeting and 1 of them is finally progressing in the Gospel. We received contacts actually from investiagators and former investigators. We got more members to help us on lessons with less-actives and investigators. In short, we're seeing success! I hope we can keep it up so I can "Burn out Brighter" on my mission.

I'm really impressed with our investigator Yuri, who came to sacrament meeting. He accepted commitments to read and pray everyday, and also come to church. He wanted us to call him everyday to remind him, and has been doing them everyday when we call.

We've made a goal to ask people for numbers while contacting, since we do a lot of it, eventhough we are getting more success with lessons and meetings, and we've gotten more numbers the past couple days and given out more Books of Mormon than we have the whole transfer. Something is going down in the mission!

Elder Ash is the only one to leave our district, which is a bummer. He's a really good missionary and we'll miss him. He is so fun to be around. He's rubbed off on Elder Rasmussen and I and we find ourselves saying Elder Ash quotes (especially "That's a joke!") We will have a native Russian elder here in his place, Elder Bogaretskiy who came in the same transfer as Elder Ash and was trained by Elder Loskutov. It will be a good transfer still though.

Elder Rasmussen and I have 2 Christmas trees in our apartment. We made one and his mom sent him one for christmas. Along with my stockings and tinsel, our apartment looks ready for Christmas. The landlord liked it too. ha ha.

I have a question. Who is the Presiding Patriarch of the Church? I've been trying to better understand the organization of the church as we are helping another do the same thing. I've read about Patriachs in Articles of Faith by James Talmage and now understand more about them, and know that the presiding patricach is not the President. So who is it?

Well, I've gotta jet! We'll be talking in 2 weeks on the phone! Tell all my friends and everyone in the family hi for me! Love you guys!

Keep Smiling. Be of Good Cheer!
Blake



07 December 2011

Conference was Very Cool!

Wow! 102 winds there? We heard that it was only in Davis county too. That's crazy! How is everything there now? You said that nothing happend to the house other than a tree and that you still have all the shingles, roof and power restored, but anything crazy happen there at home? And I thought I was in the place with crazy weather! Wow...

Coming to the end of the transfer now and sadly we pretty much know that Elder Ash will be leaving our district, as he has a v.t. next week and they told him to bring his stuff with him. I have a feeling that I am staying here my last transfer, maybe with Elder Rasmussen... Hopefully Elder Ash won't become the next Elder Gillett and move every transfer... almost... We'll really miss Elder Ash in Petro... Look at me. I act as if I know I'm staying... Better say something now before I jinx myself.

Well, this week was busy of traveling again! Serving in Petrozavodsk I've learned that you become a world traveler all over again. Ha ha. It was good to go down to St. Petersburg and hear from President Bennet, both at the meeting with the missionaries and especially at the conference for everyone in the district. I really learned a lot about how close we are to getting a stake here in St. Petersburg! Number wise, concerning priesthood holders, we need 8 more actives! ONLY EIGHT. They are making sure that it will be a strong stake and they are reorganizing things to look more like a stake here, but I have a feeling that not too long after I leave from my mission we will have a stake in St. Petersburg, RUSSIA! The St. Petersburg District is now a preparatory district/spiritual stake.

On Saturday in between meetings for the missionaries with President Bennet, I went on an exchange with Elder Davis from Ogden, Utah and we had a cool experiece talking with some Africans. They only spoke French and Russian, but were fluent in both of them and spoke a little English, so I could converse with them well. I felt really happy talking with them and they said at the end of our discusion and after giving them a Book of Mormon, that they were both so happy that they could talk  openly about Christ with someone. I don't give myself the credit for anything though. It was the Spirit!

The thing that stuck out to me the most this week was something that we talked about during the conference that reminded me of what my dad told me about a year into my mission. He said that the Lord wants YOU to do the work and to do it with YOUR personality. He sent real people to be His missionaries, not robots dressed as missionaries. They talked about how the Lord prepared the people here in the Church to help those in this area of the world to bring the gospel to others. They encouraged the members to help bring in people, because they know that they can do it because God is helping them. I can't explain it very well due to lack of time, but it was cool!

The conference put it into perspective about how long I have been here on my mission. I hadn't seen many people in a while, so Elder Rasmussen and I were walking around everywhere, I was saying hi to people or they to me. I've met so many wonderful people here!!!! And a lot of them I didn't even get to see. Elder Rasmussen asked me how I knew so many people. I told him he'll understand in 2 years...

On Monday we had a great meeting with a member who was baptized a little over a year ago. It was a follow up lesson about the Priesthood as we had talked about that with him a week before, and all of a sudden he is SUPER interested in the Priesthood. He has the Aaronic and wants to understand all the things about the Melchezidek, so he can get it soon and go to the temple. I think we'll have another Priesthood leader here soon. !!

Earlier this week before the conference, the Zone Leaders came up on an exchange and we did service at an investigators house. She really appreicated the work we did cutting wood and bringing water from the well. Elder Rasmussen and Telkulve went to meet with an investigator while Elder Shirbeana and I went and gave service to a less active family whose husband is sick, bringing them firewood, water and also giving blessings. Humbling. 

A lot of traveling this week! Well, running out of time. I love you all and miss you! NO time!
Love,
Blake