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

24 January 2012

Time Warp~ Coming Home


Well, this is it... I'm coming home... Time warps happen on a mission. It couldn't be that time already. I'm about 90% excited and 10% sad to be coming home. I've been here for so long now and it's become a part of me.

So this last week was really crazy week, and a good way to end my mission. President Clark, Sister Clark along with Brother Balashov came up for the weekend to Petro where they met with the branch for a fireside Saturday and came to sacrament on Sunday. The fireside they talked about the importance of families, and that didn't make me trunky one bit, (Nope, not at all *suspicious look on my face*) where I translated for them and it was a great meeting. I had to say good-bye to everyone in Petro on Sunday as I had all my stuff packed and was leaving with President Clark right after church. It was weird, knowing that I'm not going to have a chance to be "transfered" back there or anywhere else in the mission, but I'll come back to Russia someday and until then there is always Facebook and "Contact", (Russian Facebook)

We got back late, and hadn't eaten anything, so the Clark's made us some German noodles called... well I don't remember. It started with "S". but they were really good! That's were Elder Clark served on his mission. (1st)

Yesterday was Elder Rasmussen's vt, so I was on an exchange with Elder Ash. That was fun! I think the craziest things happen to me when I am with Elder Ash. We came home for lunch and to warm up, when Elder Ash heard a noise and the toilet was overflowing with water and the bath was filling up, rising up from the drain! I wish someone had recorded us, because it would have been a really funny sight to see us. We shut off the water but that didn't do anything, so I ran around looking for the telephone while Elder Ash was grabbing towels and things to stop the flood and we talked with Sister Yefimova, our housing lady for the mission and with the apartment security and we got it to stop. It was a good thing that we were there or water would have filled the apartment. We found out that is was because the river has frozen over along with most pipes here in Peter in that part of the city, so it didn't have anywhere to go. Elder Ash and I were laughing, wondering why all the crazy stuff happens when we are around each other or serving with each other? ha ha. They will probably be shutting down that apartment and will have to go to a new one...

For my final P-day, I will be finishing my souvenir shopping and probably doing something with Elder Ash, Elder Wiser and Elder Rasmussen. Tomorrow will be my exit interview at 4, a dinner at 6 with the Clarks (which will be fantastic I'm sure) and then I don't know if I'll even be going to bed. ha ha. Will just have to leave for the airport soon after that.

I'll exchange some money and will get something to eat with the Code man in New York! I probably won't be that tired, as I will just sleep on the plane. It will be great to see him again. I've missed him too. It's weird sharing a room for 19 years, then not seeing each other at all for 2 years. I'm excited too! :)

I think I have to tell them my preference about the baggage when I check in. I will try to have them send everything straight to Salt Lake. We were able to do it that way coming here, so I don't think that it will be a problem. (Don't jinx it though.)

I just realized that if I asked you a question here, you would just answer it on Thursday, so I guess I don't have any questions to ask right now. I'll ask them then.

Well, see you soon. :) I've learned a lot on my mission. So much. I could talk for hours and hours about it all. But I can also sum it up in a few words: GOD LOVES US. The more you learn about Him, the more you understand. He truly loves us all.

With love
Blake

16 January 2012

The Beginning of The End...

Well, looks like this is my last full week on my mission! Weird. This place I've come to love and it will be hard to leave all my new friends, but I'm definitely excited to come home and see all my loved ones that I have been away from for so long... Maybe that is how God feels when someone dies... No wonder sometimes missionaries use the slang that you die and leave your mission life. ha ha.


Can you get a copy of Jayden's talk from Aunt Traci? I'd like to read it. He'll do great on his mission, and he'll never regret going!  Good Luck to Jayden!

We had a nice and fun dinner with Roma on Saturday. He's a good cook and a great friend! He made this mushroom stroganoff stuff and chicken, and I realized that I didn't really learn how to cook on my mission.... just forgot what good food tastes like! ha ha

 I don't even know what other souvenirs to get here. ha ha. Well, actually I can think of a couple. Maybe Cody and I can get some lunch in JFK terminal  too? I'll see Code-man before you all! ha ha ha!

Don't worry, I wear my hat, Mom. I just took it off for the pictures that Roma took as my hat comes down over my eyes almost, and you can't really see my face if I wear it sometimes. We had fun throwing snowballs!


Well, this week we met with our investigator who has the daughter who claims to see spirits, and we used what you advised us to say to him and really tried to invite the Spirit. It helped a lot and we testified that we know that he can find out for himself. He was in agreement for the most part, but didn't think that anyone could see God the Father Himself, only Jesus Christ, and he was reluctant to pray about it for himself. He wants to find out from his daughter, and we testified the rest of the meeting about how God is our Heavenly Father and we all are His Children and have the opportunity to talk with Him in prayer and receive answers from Him. He said he would pray for himself, and would also come to sacrament meeting.

We had a great meeting with another investigator talking about the Plan of Salvation and he asked many great questions, especially about repentance and baptism. He also promised to come to church. Met with less actives and had them share their testimonies with us and talked about what a testimony is and what baptism testified of. They also said they would come to church. We called everyone the night before and reminded them to come. We offered to stop by and help and they all said they could make it there themselves... But no one came to church... I think that is the hardest thing to get people to do in Russia, and espeically here in Petrozavodsk. I don't know what we could be doing differently... We'll continue to try to improve to see more success. It still goes back to what  President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said, "Just do the best you can do and celebrate the good that you were able to accomplish."

Well, I've got to write a letter to President and want to say a quick "See Ya Soon" to Codes! 


I'll write one more time, and see you in a week and a half! Love you all! Can't wait to see you! You're all in my prayers!
Love,
Blake

09 January 2012

Short and Sweet



It's great to hear that you finally saw BP! I can't wait to see him too. Kelsey sent me a short email just saying that she went to his homecoming, and that it's crazy that everyone is coming home. My district reminds me everyday, and also the Zone Leaders, so I definitely know that I am coming home! Ha ha. You probably have more snow than we do here. This winter is nothing like last year. Little snow, and not nearly as cold as last year. Russia is having a heat wave.

This last week was good as we had a great meeting with Yuri, and he opened up to us that he knows the church is true, but he is afraid of water and that is why he doesn't want to get baptized. We told him about a recent convert with the same fear, and how the branch and the Lord helped her, and he said that he would be baptized. He left to spend time with family up north, so we didn't set a date because he doesn't know exactly when he will be getting back, but he knows sometime around the end of January and beginning of February, so I will already be home by then. Super excited none the less that he has a desire to be baptized. :)

Also met with some of the new potential investigators again this week and they continue to gain interest in the doctrine of the church. The hardest thing I think is just getting them to come to church and check it out for themselves. Easier to meet with people, than it is to invite them to church and have them show up.

Friday I woke up with a bad migraine and slept all day... but I won't complain because I've rarely had migraines on my mission so that is a blessing. Forgot how annoying they are and so we couldn't do any work on Friday. I was feeling fine by the next day, just like when I got them at home though, and we got right back to work. 

Well, sorry that my email is so small this time. Internet is acting so weird today and took forever to send me email to President. 


I'm really excited to see you all in about 2 and a half weeks now! Say hi to BP for me! 


Love you all!
Keep Smiling and Be of Good Cheer!
Love, Blake

03 January 2012

Sign boarding~ What is Happiness?


Well, I was in the future for a little while this week. New Years came several hours earlier for me, so I was a whole year a head of you guys for a while! ah ah aha ha!

Well, New Years has come and gone, and Lee is now another year older. Weird to think. Thanks for the picks of her Birthday! That was nice to see. Looks like she was happy. It was a bit weird to see the house... I'm not used to seeing my own house anymore! ha ha. New Year's was pretty quiet here. Elder Rasmussen and I went to a nearby town to have a meeting with an investigator from the area book. When we got to his house and he said that he couldn't meet anymore and we should come back later... A phone call would have been nice, but what do you do? We did a little contacting there and saw some cool old buildings and towers from like the 1700's or so. 

We  went sign boarding, and saw a lot of success. We held a sign that said, "What is Happiness?" and asked people as they stopped by. It was so great to see the smile on people's faces as they stopped, thought of something that made them happy, and shared it with us! I think we gave out over 50 brochures and invitations in 2 hours. We even contacted a student from America who was really interested and thought that we were Russian with good American accents, until we told him that we were from America. Ha ha. Way better than contacting. 

We had to be inside by 5:30, and we were allowed to watch animated movies, so I bought "How to Train Your Dragon" in Russian so I can watch it when I get home. We just watched it in English this time. SUPER WEIRD to even watch a movie... The next day we were allowed to go to church and then we had to go back inside, for safety precautions. THE STREETS WERE DEAD. No one was outside in the morning and it looked as if the whole city just stopped everything that they were doing and disappeared! It was weird, yet surprisingly peaceful.

That's too bad that you weren't able to be at BP's homecoming due to the old switch-r-oo of fast Sunday and everything due to New Years, but so cool that you met Chris at the airport and took him to BYU! Tell BP hi for me. Maybe now he'll have time to come and stop by for a visit? Have you heard anything from Nate Booth? Tell them all hello! That was nice to do the anonymous secret santa for that family. Where did they live? How did you deliver it to them? That is the true Spirit of Christmas, Charity and Unconditional Love.

Are you going to go to Kaylee's farewell? Maybe Tate's date to enter the MTC got pushed back a little or something. I know that happened to a group of Elders here. Whatever it is, it will work out if we have faith.

Our investigator, Yuri says that he wants to be baptized! His concern is that he is a little afraid of water, and we promised that when the time comes, he will have courage and the Lord will help him. He also didn't set a date with us as he is leaving today to go stay with relatives up north and won't be back for a month. We will write in our area books and make sure the next elders know so it will happen. :)

We also had  a cool experience with a new investigator this week. We contacted an old man on the street and he immediately wanted to talk with us. We were running late, so we took down his name and address and gave him a Book of Mormon. That night we called him and set up a meeting for the next day. When we got there, we found out that he had already read about 100 pages of the Book of Mormon and started taking notes. He is super interested and said that he will come to church this week, he didn't come because of New Years, but he says he will for sure be there next week. We were blessed to cross this man's path at the time we did.

That's pretty much it for us. Lots of people were so busy this week for New Years that we didn't get a lot done, but we had fun doing what we did and we are happy and healthy. Can't complain. It's amazing how much happier you are when you understand why things happen the way they do and when you do your part, try not to worry about the things that you can't change. Trust in the Lord that He knows what's best and He is in control. Everything will work out in the end.

Love you all! Sorry, I've still got to write a letter to President Clark. Happy New Year!

See you in 3 weeks!!
Love,
Blake

PS- Ryan Nelson sent me a short email saying "Elder Larsen's mom is really trunky!" ha ha ha!

Surprise Christmas Call To My Twin Brother On His Mission!










It was great to hear from all of you on Christmas Day! Weird to think that I will be talking to you in person soon and not have to do it over a phone or through email. Sorry to wake you up on Christmas, ha ha. Bummer I couldn't talk with KB- Doo. 







My call to Cody was awesome! He answered the phone and said "Missionaries, this is Elder Larsen," and I started speaking to him in Russian. He didn't understand of course and was really confused and then I couldn't keep back the laugh anymore and then he recognized it was me and yelled in the phone "BLAAKE?!!!" Ha ha ha! It was funny! Just talked a little bit until the phone card ran out, which was only 5 minutes. That's probably what I talked with all of you, right?

Christmas Eve the Clark's invited us over with the AP's and the office elders and we had roast, mashed potatoes, salad, rolls, yams, and ice cream with cookies. It has been sooooo long since I've had a meal like that and Sister Clark is an amazing cook. It was all so appreciated! We sang some Christmas Hymns in Russian and read from Luke in the Bible in Russian about Christ's birth. Then we left to go caroling on Nevskiy Prospekt, the busiest street in St. Petersburg and had a lot of success and talked with many people... and had fun doing it! Couldn't have had a better Christmas to end my mission. 

Early this week I was on a split with the Zone Leaders and I was with Elder Sherman. We met Grisha and he showed me pictures of his new little girl and bought us dinner! So nice of him! Grisha is a great guy and baby Yevgeniya is a cutie. We also met with a new investigator who was really interested in the Book of Mormon. He really understood the importance of it after he asked why it wasn't already included in the Bible, and exclaimed," YOU NEED TO TELL EVERYONE ABOUT THIS!" We laughed and said,"That's what we are doing." 

The v.t. this time was more uneventful than usual as this time, instead of having to wait for our papers we already had them. So we just had to cross the border, get our passports stamped, and came back. We talked a little in the car among everyone, but also took the time to study scriptures and had a large companionship study. Ha ha. It was cool! I told President Clark that Steve C. says hi and he was surprised and happy to hear it. He says that they were best friends growing up in Salt Lake, and would hop the fence to each others house all the time to hang out. 
It's a small world. 

I was on speaker phone when talking with you, but I was on the other side of the apartment. Everyone else was in the kitchen, and they were all talking amongst themselves so I don't think they even heard you. Even if they did, 
they are really good elders.  

I finally got a letter this week that Kelsey sent...
for my birthday. I think the Post office here hates me. Ha ha. It takes so long to hear from anyone, and a lot of them get lost on the way here and I never get my mail. Lee will be moving into in the office? That's surprising. Its the smallest room in the house... she is going to have to get rid of a lot of stuff to fit in there! Ha ha. Kidding! 

Gotta run! Keep Smiling!
 Love, Blake 



Note from Tammy~ After many efforts, this post would not fix, so it is what it is.