The true meaning of Christmas

This past week was amazing here in the mission, especially in Yekaterinburg, Russia! I sincerely love the people and the opportunity to be surrounded by many great examples of the members, investigators, my companions, other missionaries, and our leaders.

On our preparation day we had the opportunity to eat at the lovely McDonald’s with some of the other missionaries and spent our day at the mall. Our week was busy following that, as we met with our few progressing investigators and some members for spiritual thoughts on Christmas! It was cool talking about not only what we wanted for Christmas, (Btw it is a an Aston Martin DB9) but also what we can give in return to Jesus Christ for all he has done for us and for his example.

Spreading Christmas joy this week we took our district to stop by in actives and members to spread the cheer through caroling at people's doors. One member we stopped by was blind and we found out that her favorite hymn was Joy to the World. We sang it as best as we could and she just beamed with a bright smile and tears of joy for the fact that we thought about her to stop by and say hello. One of the greatest gifts we can give is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. We can do that by looking at the bigger picture of life and as I have taken this Christmas to reflect, I found how wonderful of an opportunity it is to be serving on a mission.

Later that week, on Friday, we had Zone Conference with ourselves and two other zones. (Siberia and Perm) It was awesome to spend the day focused on the wonderful talks that were prepared by Elder S and Sister R on the true meaning of Christmas. They were followed up by a nice lunch, with plenty of food of course, and a lesson from President R on the Doctrine of Christ. I didn't think this Christmas could get better until our mission president told us that we get to watch a movie. We watched 17 Miracles, a new film about the pioneers in the Willy Handcart company. The feelings of joy and love from our Heavenly Father encompassed us at that moment and we then ended in a testimony meeting.

The following day we spent the day getting prepared for Christmas and we were privileged to have the Rusts provide Christmas Eve dinner for all the missionaries in Yekaterinburg. We got to have a good night talking about traditions and had a little time to read about Christ's birth. IT WAS SUPER COOL! Plus, Elder H made some Eggnog, which I was surprised, turned out well. It is hard to make. Sunday, we got a gift from President to take a nap and then we went to church to listen to the First Presidency’s Christmas Devotional and then had a little party in our rented out church space in our building. We don't have a chapel in my area.

Snow began to fall yesterday on Christmas morning and everything is awesome white like Perm was! I will talk to some of you pretty soon and to those who don't have that opportunity, I wish you a Merry Christmas!!

LOVE ALL OF YA
Elder LeFevre

First week in Ekat

I am in Yekaterinburg!! So super exciting and really really confusing to me because all I know is Perm. I went from knowing bus routes and side streets to nothing at all and just letting Elder Y and Elder Z show me around. The day of transfers was below -20 degrees Celsius and super freezing, but no snow compared to lovely Perm. There are just big blocks of ice that cover the sidewalks and roads here and I was getting used to climbing over the big piles of snow but now my behind is trying to get used to the amount of times I have fallen while walking on the streets.

The new area is really big and I love big areas, because you just got a ton of ground to cover and therefore it doesn't become the same route everyday.

It is going really well in the new branch that I am serving in and we have a couple of progressing investigators in the area. it is amazing to me of how much sacrifice is taken to be a member and to stand for the right here in Russia. We met with one investigator who has a baptismal date for January 7th at church and right off the bat came up and talked to me about the Book of Revelations. You can imagine the thoughts I had running through my mind when he started to talk about the dragon and the war in heaven. It was funny because he related it to the USSR. I am super excited to go to work in the big city and to gain some experience as being a district leader!

I love the mission and I love Russia! Merry Christmas to everyone! 
Love Elder LeFevre

Planes, Trains and Red Square

It is my last few days in Perm! Time flies fast out here and I really don't want to leave such an awesome city, but I will be going to the big city Екатэрнбург! (Yekaterinburg), which is crazy because this past week I was on a train back to Perm to Yekaterinburg from our crazy Visa trip,  but it was super fun and I got tons of cool experiences and pictures out of it.

So last Monday was awesome as we had a FHE with a part member family and had some pretty authentic food and tons of it. We had potatoes in a sauce and carrots with tender chicken and of course lather that baby up with some sour cream! (You will not become a part of the local people if you don't like fat in, on or around the food as a nice side dish.) We talked about skiing and ice-skating, which I got to go ice-skating at an outdoor rink with the other missionaries and some members. It was totally fun!! I actually only fell three times and most of the time I was skating. Only my second time!

Tuesday morning we left on the train to Yekaterinburg for our final training for the trainers and the new missionaries. It was really good and President and Sister R taught exactly what I needed to hear! It was on how we can become good effective teachers and how these skills we learn here on the mission will help us build relationships with those around us better, and how we can apply the skills in any field of work. I love the acronym (KISS) K=Keep I=It S=Simple S=Stupid. Sister R said that President needed to change the last 'S' to "Short," so he did. But I like the first one! Ha-ha Then another is (CASH) C=Compliment A=Ask a question S=Smile H=Help. It was super good training and the free food from Sister R was really good too!

Later that night we all stayed at the Assistant's place to wake up for our visa trip at 4am in the morning! Nikolai came and picked us all up in the mission van and took us to the Yekaterinburg airport to start the journey to Finland and this time we had 14 of us traveling on one trip. Elder P and I got grouped with the group that we got called to train, so it was cool getting to know everyone. We landed in Moscow and met all the other missionaries who were going with us and realized that we had just over six hours until our next flight left for Helsinki. So what would you do in this situation?! GO TO RED SQUARE of course! Ha-ha We hopped on the train from the airport downtown to the 8th wonder in the world, the metro system in Moscow. Yeah this place was really huge and it felt like I was Neo from the Matrix with the mass amount of levels of subway cars zooming this way and that way. We found the exit and walked up onto the streets and I was automatically stunned by the sight I saw. It was really beautiful and clean and really tall Christmas trees, statues, sweet buildings, and the Kremlin. We then began our way to the Kremlin to see Lenin's body, which was guarded like a bank! We decided not to look however because they required that we take off our backpacks and stuff and place them in the cashier office and pay, so maybe next time. It was super cool and we saw them light the everlasting flame too! By the way I saw a movie poster for Mission Impossible Protocol Phantom (Ghost) so when you all go see the movie you can think to yourself, "Elder Kyle LeFevre was there!"

We made our way back to the airport and then hit up the TGI Fridays in the airport to have a good American BBQ cheeseburger! MMMMmmm so good! According to the flight schedule we were not going to be able to make the session in the Helsinki temple, but were going to do baptisms instead until we encountered a problem with the passports in the temple. We entered into the temple to receive our second passport, but only three people had passports waiting for them, while eleven others did not. Those lucky three were Elder Y, Elder P, and myself. I called up Elder B to discuss the situation and they devised that we were going to stay there until Saturday. This was Wednesday night. So we got to do an English session and walk through the temple until the Temple Pres. came up to us and told me that those who have passports will be leaving that night on a flight through St. Petersburg to Yekaterinburg. We got to the airport and awaited instructions from the travel secretary for our ticket information to see if we even got the tickets to leave in the first place. We waited until 7:30 and I got a call to GET ON THAT FLIGHT! We ran and got our tickets printed then went through security and then made it in time for the gate! Ha-ha. I was playing the song "It's the final Countdown" in my head during these moments. So ten minutes to reach a flight is possible. 

The rest of the trip went smoothly into Yekaterinburg and then it was strait to the train station to catch the ride to Perm. Behold, there was yet going to be another problem as we reached the station. Elder R had two tickets in his name in order to buy the whole Kype and we needed to change one of the tickets in order for me to get on the train with them. The lady told us that it would cost another 700 rubles to change then she will put it into the system that the spot was open and then anyone could take it, not allowing us to ride back to Perm. She said that we could talk to the conductor about it, which basically was a NO. Never give up and never surrender! We went to the platform with our entire luggage and my packages for Christmas. (Thanks for them btw!) The conductor was telling us the same excuse as the lady behind the counter until he said there was a "decision." Elder Z and R asked what the decision was. He replied, "1 ruble." (add three zeros onto that)

Well, all in all I made it to Perm and had a great day with Elder Z as my companion. We got a bucket of KFC and headed to the apartment, which was locked and I realized I didn't have the keys because Elder H had them in Finland! Ha-ha. I am forgetful. We got that problem fixed and continued with missionary work and helped the other Elders move to their new apartment. My week was fun filled, action packed, and suspenseful! Now in two days I will be in Yekaterinburg as a District Leader, plus the area I hear is legit and Elder Y is the bomb and will be my companion!

LOVE YOU ALL! 

Elder LeFevre

Up all night

This last week in Perm was great in just keeping up the work and making plans happening in order to achieve goals which we had set for the week. I know all I talk is about goals, because that is what makes up most of a missionary's life. We had a great week with some success from our investigators who have now been coming to church. One investigator is a psychologist and a student in the biggest institute in Perm and she is super awesome. We asked her if she will get baptized and she said that she wasn't ready, but when the answer comes then she will definitely do it. She is reading in 2 Nephi, so it is extremely difficult to read and it brings up a ton of interesting questions. For example, "Why could God have a son like Lucifer?!" ha-ha.  Elder H and I were taken back the question.u I got to go on splits with Elder R on Tuesday and it was super fun and a good experience. We taught a member who lived in his area in a private house that was big enough for one person, but he had both him and his wife and 20 dogs living with them! Yeah imagine that! Elder R had all the dogs crawling all over him, wanting to be petted, while I on the other hand got tons of hair all over me as well and puppies biting my toes! It was an interesting lesson to teach, but it was a good one and we got a sweet referral from him! The day was turning out to go as planned and we retired to bed around 10:30 until Elder R got woken up by a phone call from the Elders in the southern part of the city after midnight! We had to go help them until 4 am in the morning! Ha-ha. I lost a ton of sleep but we were allowed to catch up on it all! Elder B had kidney dust and all is well with him. It was a lifetime experience seeing a socialized Russian hospital.   After our exciting experience we ended spits and continued with work the next day. We were out on the street a ton this last week and we got the opportunity to get some Russian army issue thermals (You know the blue/white stripe under shirts in the movies.) After we hit our goal to get a meeting on the street and then we got to eat some amazing Subway. This week is the last week in the transfer and we are going to Yekaterinburg tomorrow for training then, we are going on our visa trip to beautiful Finland! Definitely going to pick up some chocolate! Love you all and thanks for the gifts! Elder LeFevre

Banana Battlestation

Another lovely week in Perm! This week was a great learning experience for me trying to plan our week to have 16 meetings this week and make them all work out and if not have an effective back up plan. It worked out and I was surprised how much time and effort I had to put into making it work, because I had to understand the Russian. Ha-ha.  Just stick with yes or no questions. Ha-ha. You are all wondering why I placed a title for this week and why the Star Wars connotation. Me and Elder H have been working with a few investigators and trying to get them to church and this week we had four come to church from our area!  We are working hard and one of our investigators invited us to come to a conference where people will be talking on faith, hope and charity. I thought that it was going to be totally harmless and interesting. Well I can say that it turned out to be totally interesting. We arrived with a member who thought that we could go and it wouldn't be dangerous. We went up the stairwell in the apartment building and entered the rented out space on the seventh floor and realized that we were late and that she was leading the meeting already. We quietly entered and saw that she was talking about faith hope and charity and that God gives us all kinds of blessings. It was all doctrinally true in some areas until a few pieces about reincarnation and how all religions have their path of righteousness and all are good. Ha-ha. My companion had no idea what was going on. Ha-ha.  I realized that we were sitting in a fireside meeting introducing their "Program" which was established by the "Master Takbar" and how they quit smoking and are the path to peace. Then they talked about food as a source of power and how they don't eat meat and that they especially love bananas. I got up and I called Elder R and in a quiet voice said, "hey, umm so we are here and it is kind of weird. There are tons of pictures of this dude in a turban with a funny smile in white robes, and in the clouds and they were talking about bananas!?."  I decided with Elder R that we should go and I used the call as an excuse to go even though they persisted on us staying or taking food with us. Ha-ha.  I told the member we are going to leave because we have another meeting and he said that he would stay. It turns out that he stayed and bore testimony and people there were amazed and felt his spirit and the Holy Ghost testify to them of the truth. So it was super cool to hear that and it turned out that she accepted our invitation to come to our church and see what we are all about. She loved it and will be coming every week! Ha-ha.

Then our progressing investigator has been having a tough time and she started to cry before the meeting and telling us about her problems she was having at home. We had a great lesson and watched the Restoration and testified about the gospel in general. She is working on gaining a testimony that God loves her and that she can communicate with him. Missionary work is so cool!! This week was full of miracles!
LOVE YA ALL!
Elder LeFevre

I love Perm !

The goal this past week was to get 19 meetings in the week and unfortunately we fell short. We got 9 meetings! AGHHH ha-ha-ha.  Last week started off with the rest of our P-day, when Elder H and I went downtown for some cologne then we went bowling at the fancy hotel with the rest of the Elders from Perm. I love Perm! Everyone asks me how living in Las Vegas was and I reply, "Hotter than this!!" ha-ha

At the beginning of last week I was trying to be more organized and better with setting up meetings with people but I think the Lord had a lesson for us this week because most of them fell through. Tuesday began with two meetings planned to them becoming canceled then I set up another then changed it then I decided we needed to turn the day around! I said to my companion, "This calls for KFC!."

After I figured that we could contact our referral by stopping by there house and see what happens. We stopped by and they were super, super, super excited! We introduced ourselves and then we sat there for two hours!!! The White Handbook states that dinner appointments are to be 1 hour at the most, but I got some advice and an exception. If they don't want you to leave and free food is placed in front of you and you try to be polite here in Russia then you will leave on bad terms.  They let us in and the lady said, "SIT! EAT and don't be polite!" (all in command form!) All I could say was that we wouldn’t be shy ha-ha. They brought out jam, Russian pancakes, tea after tea after tea, cookies, and pelmeni! (ooooh boy!)

The rest of the week was great with things shaping up and meeting with investigators and in actives in our area. We have one investigator who runs a well-known yoga class here and we had a good lesson with her yesterday and we extended the baptismal commitment. I felt like it had to have been the most spiritual meeting of my whole mission so far, but she said, “No." It was disappointing, but she expressed a piece of why she didn't want to and all we did was testify, testify, and testify! She is so great!

This week looks great and I learned that setting weekly goals attached to how you are going to achieve them is a great help and that winging is inconvenient. Pictures of the ballet and my new area will be on next weeks email. So stay tuned! 

из Россий с любовью Старейшина ЛеФивэр ,

From Russia with Love Elder LeFevre

LOVE YOU ALL! Happy Thanksgiving!

Walkin in a Winter Wonderland

Everyone! It is a winter wonderland here in Perm and I am actually loving the temperature because a while back it was super windy and that was cold, but lately it has been nice! A ton has happened in our area this week as Elder H and I have been technically "white washing" the area. We have hit our usual ups and downs here in the mission field and trying to make success happen.

Or week started out well when we met with President A's family and shared a spiritual thought with them. It was a super great lesson as me and my companion testified of the gospel and how we can receive personal revelation when we apply its principles. We are planning to do a tacos vs Armenian dish night for family home evening next time to talk with the rest of the family about taking the lessons with us and maybe sneak in a couple games of UNO!? ha-ha I am super excited for that and it is been pretty awesome learning the Russian language everyday here and the members see that and they start to have trust in our teaching abilities.

I am loving it here in the new apartment which has not only a sweet queen bed for me to sleep on and the new EFY CD is legit! I work out to "The Work" CD every morning, because the apartment has a natural pull-up bar and perfect pushup stuff.

So, the mission as a whole this past week can be summed up in the words of Elder F, "The mission is sick. We work out and get swollen everyday, learn with the Spirit, teach by the Spirit, and change lives!" Then later in the week we got out fifth baptism in Perm and all we need is two more to hit the goal we set for our branch by the end of the year. The baptism was an amazing miracle because a part member family is almost fully all members of the church. For years the mom has been not too interested in the missionary lessons after taking them once, along with the other members of the family, but this past transfer they took up the lessons again with the missionaries and now they only have one sibling to go to make that family complete! This is a super cool thing and right now I want to do the same for the family that we are trying to help with as well. I REALLY WANT TO MAKE IT HAPPEN!

After the baptism, we had the opportunity to go see The Nutcracker as a cultural activity as a whole zone and it was pretty legit for a ballet. I liked it a lot, due to the live music and it was a night on the town in Russia, and so can't beat that!

The following day we had the great opportunity of helping a family in our area move to a new apartment. Let me tell you, that was a really exhausting but fun experience.  I was a "beast" ha-ha it was really hot outside and it looked cool cause it was cold and my body temperature made steam come off from me. Ha-ha.  It took us about over four hours to move a ton of furniture down three stories then up seven stories from the street down the way! They moved into a way smaller apartment and there was barely any room to sit as they sat us down and said, "SIT! EAT EAT EAT!" So I found room for some "compote", and a pie with spinach and eggs and spices. One of the pies had fish. Don’t worry I didn’t eat it ha-ha the smell almost made me gag! They were super grateful. She ran around taking our names down and saying that she will never forget.

I talked in Sacrament as the last speaker after my companion Elder H and Elder A. I looked up at the clock and there was about twenty minutes left and immediately told my self it is in the bag yo! I went up there and I shared an analogy in fishing with a worm and how I learned to fish with artificial flies and everyone woke up from their naps when I started connecting with them, it was great! I related it to how we need to realize how the gospel of Jesus Christ can teach us how we can better catch the opportunities and blessings as we live according to the gospel after I shared Ch.4 from Luke in the Bible. It was SWEET! They announced sacrament was over and that there will be a little break in the hall before class and that the sister we helped wanted to say a few words. She went down the whole list and thanked everyone who had helped her move. She got to my name and said, "Where is Elder LeFevre, the fisherman and the hunter, that dear young man was moving furniture with ease and only asked what is next. I want all my grandsons go on missions now without a doubt to become like these boys..."  It was so awesome and all the members who helped got similar recognitions! We got a solid referral from it so it was amazing! So this week was legit, but this next week we are going to be stepping it up, SO BRING IT! 

LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder LeFevre

Congratulations to Austin, Matthew, and Nick to receiving their mission calls. You guys are legit !!

Revolution Day

Well I moved on up to the "big house" in Perm this past week with my new companion Elder H to finish his training and Elder Z is doing work up in вторая вышка с моим старым напарником, старейшина Аллред.  One of the biggest malls in the Urals is here and there is everything you can imagine in there. It is cool to get a little piece of American music walking around the outside of it every once in a while. ha-ha

I am trying to get used to a brand new area and a nicer apartment, but I believe that I will get accustomed quickly as I keep doing that what I was taught to do from my trainers. Right now we have two investigators in our area who are super close to being ready to have a baptismal date and it is super sweet! There have been five baptisms since I began training here in Perm and there will be another this week on Thursday.

This past week has been full of fun and great experiences. Me and Elder H went and visited with a lady whom we thought was going to turn into a progressing investigator, but it went really weird. So I called a church member who I have used on meetings before and knew he had a great testimony on the Book of Mormon to be on the meeting with us to visit this lady who had originally believed in reincarnation. We had planned to teach her a few principles of the first lesson to get her to read and come to church. It started off good about the love of God in our lives, but then we moved onto the next point and then we began to be taught! ha-ha She had planned to teach us her own lesson. Not wanting to be rude we sat there and listened to her on how she has a "master" (btw looks like a Muslim dude who comes out with articles on bananas and how we use a trampoline to get to God.) Anyway, it was super weird and she wasn't going to listen. I looked over at Sasha and I could tell like we need to bounce out of this crazy hocus pocus house. Ha-ha got to love meeting like those because you find out good vocabulary words.

There was a holiday here in Russia last Friday as we went walking around our area for hours on end finding member, less actives, and nonmembers. It was a kind of old revolution celebration, which was being kept down from becoming a riot from the police and their AK-47 guns. It was safe, so no worries! We just took off our badges as we walked through the crowd. Even though we didn't find anyone or we got a doors slammed on us by non-active members, we found two really cheap grocery stores in our area where you can buy SUPER SNICKERS for 26p. I have to send you a picture of these candy bars because they will make you feel like candy bars in America are expensive, small, and you might feel deprived. Russia is awesome!!

We had a couple of other good planned meeting this week and one was with a super investigator who is really into to learning about the Book of Mormon and if this is the right church or not. We don't even have to drag her to sacrament meeting, which is sweet! She came to the Area Conference we had this last Sunday and we will extend the baptismal question to her next time we teach her! I hope it all goes well! I will be super excited to be a part of that. Area conference was good listening to President Uchdorf, Elder Oaks, and a few other general authorities.

All in all the weather is not too bad ha-ha SIKE (hope i spelt that right) The wind is what always does it, but today is warm and not windy. (10 F or feels like -3 F) I look like a baller in my coat! Ha-ha

Love you all and stay warm, unless you are in Vegas then go catch some rays today! I haven't been getting too much sun lately either.

из Россий с любовью, Старейшина ЛеФивэр
(From Russia with Love, Elder LeFevre)

No more taco bed !

Well I am sure some of you have been looking at the weather reports of Perm, Russia and I will confirm the constant snowfall and the cold temperatures are for real! I get to wear my 'sick' warm Russian coat that I got from the Chinese Market here in the center of the city. I have only slipped once, I admit, and I didn't fall really too bad. I caught myself therefore all is well.

This past week was one of good news for us in our area and we have seen some success from our hard labors and trudging along in the snow. It is extremely beautiful weather and country. We have been helping a ton of people outside with little things of service and talking to some nice people in general. We had the opportunity to go on splits with the assistants to President R last Thursday and I got to do some work with Elder L. We had a good time and we handed out quite substantial amount of Book of Mormons to people on the street and got to extend the baptismal commitment to an eternal investigator again and trying to pull him in from his fears of being baptized.

So this week was good for us and we were expecting to not receive a call from President Rust this past week, because we thought we would be safe from not moving anywhere. Boy, were we wrong. I will be serving with Elder H in the center of the city in a better apartment! Ha-ha. Sorry, Elder A and Elder Z get to inherit the taco beds! Ha-ha. I am going to miss all the cool families and members up there and I am leaving at a time where we just got a awesome investigator from English Club, but this is where I am suppose to go so it will be awesome and there are more Subways. Ha-ha.

Love You all!
Elder LeFevre

Masha the dog

Good Morning!! From Russia with love!

This week was a tough week in proselyting efforts in our area, as the weather is beginning to change and almost having a dog eat us! Ha-ha. Don't have a heart attack now, the dog was tied up! Ha-ha

It was great going around and stopping by people's houses in order to "Boo!" them with some "no bake" cookies! Members loved the treats and we got to have a couple of meetings with some members that haven’t been to church in years! One of the members we had the privilege of getting to know is from China, born and raised, and now has lived in Russia due to work for twenty years and speaks perfect Russian. He has a частный дом (private house) with a super nice sauna and three floors of space. This made my week, because I got to see some legit swords and guns!! He likes the outdoors and it reminded me of Uncle Carl or dad watching the outdoor channel. He is super rich, but sort of against coming to church. почему (why)?! Because the members teach out of the gospel principles book and not out of the scriptures. Plus he told Elder A and I that we were on missions to learn from different cultures and decide how we want to raise our kids. 

Patience is a virtue and we show love when we listen, so I did and Elder A slept! hahaha He said his head hurt from the Russian. We got another meeting set up with him this next week, and I hope to find out why he doesn't come to church. After the meeting, I happened to spot his new Mercedes eclass and make a comment. He then proceeded to give us a ride back to our apartment and it was ten times better than the smelly bus!! Smelt like fresh leather interior!

Later in the week, we had a visit with an investigator and got to meet Masha, the dog, again and Elder A got to meet him for the first time! Ha-ha.  My companion was scared to death and so was I after seeing the dog for the third time! We had a good lesson and I extended a baptismal commitment to him and he accepted and now it is just a matter of getting him to quit smoking, drinking, and drinking coffee.

I really love it here in Russia и Я очень рад иметь такая возможность быть здесь. Я вас люблю. наш искупитель, Иисус Христос жив. (and I am very pleased to have the opportunity to be here. I love you. our redeemer, Jesus Christ is alive)

из Россия с любовбю Старейшина ЛеФивэр
(From Russia with Love, Elder LeFevre)

IT IS FREEZING !

IT IS FREEZING! Last week we made our way on to Ekat to participate in a leadership-training meeting and it was quite good. Elder A and I stayed at the Assistant's apartment on some nice comfortable beds to wake up in the morning and have an amazing breakfast supplied by Sister R! THE BOMB! It was great to see everyone from around the mission and see how everyone is doing and how the investigators are doing and if someone has a new tie. It is weird because I talk about nothing but missionary work and the subject of ties intrigues me! Ha-ha-ha  And also how our favorite song is not the new one out from Eminem, but a church hymn. Anyway, I got to ride in a train for seven hours there and back, like in Harry Potter! It was extremely cool, but man it got scorching hot in there because they started using the heaters like full blast here and it is cold outside, but inside you just start to shed off all the clothing you can! Ha-ha

Unfortunately, we had to drop an investigator from English club this past week. It was not cool at all to do that, but she dumped us for the most part, because she was convinced on giving the Book of Mormon back to us and she wouldn't continue to read, because she had no desire. AGhhhhh… Agency is just something I want to throw out the window sometimes, but there are people out there that choose not to do the right and you cannot force them to do anything or else you are actually pushing them farther away.

So, with that we decided to continue to be creative and look for ways to find some investigators for our area to teach. We came to the conclusion of 'booing' people with treats like we do back home and challenge members to pass along the fun to neighbors, friends and in-actives. In doing so, we came across a referral and he showed up to church. "Ka Ching" It is sweet, then we did a taco night at a member's home and the member's brother was there and he came to church too. He shared with us his struggle with smoking that started at the age of 13 and how he has only been able to go with out a cigarette for 3 days max. For once in a long time in a conversation have I been stumped with what to say. I couldn't relate, because I have never experienced, nor never will I smoke. I could tell he was stressed out about it and we told him that we really want to help him overcome his addiction through five easy steps of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week was great and I performed 4 blessings this past week, which was scary!!  God has blessed me and our companionship greatly this past week.
"Never give up and never surrender."-Galaxy Quest (good movie) ha-ha

Love you all! Я вас люблю.

Elder LeFevre

Contacting, conference & moving

Hi Everyone !

The weather has been staying warm and sunrise and set is throwing us off. Me and Elder A wake up and look at each other from across the room and go, "Hmmm... that didn't take long!" hahaha

Our week has been busy with several cool things and experiences. We have been out on the street quite often and talking with everyone! When I mean everyone, I mean everyone. I have ran into quite a few interesting people this past week and one was on the bus on the way home. I entered the bus and saw an open seat and immediately took it and said hello to the man next to me as we began to go again. The man looked over at me and turned his baseball cap sideways and engaged me into the conversation with him. The man was totally wasted and the smell of alcohol was rich in the air, which proceeded to come out of his mouth. He said, “OH You are beautiful servants of the Lord, and I want to help you guys out!" I thought to myself, "Well, I'd be more happy to help you!" haha   So I told him where I was from (excluding Las Vegas) and why we were there. He proceeded to hug me and sing and quiz me on my Russian and speak German as well. Yep, my head was having a hard time translating. He got off the same stop as us and asked if we needed help or if we wanted to drink with him. I replied with a kind "no thanks and that he should call." We left across the street and he gave us thumbs up and said he would call. Good news is that he called and was interested in having a meeting at the church now that he is sober haha.

Elder A and I have been having a couple of tough weeks in the fact that our investigator right now has been taught two lessons and has gone to General Conference, but she thinks that there is nothing special about our church! HOW!!??   We have set another meeting with her after English club and I hope that she will see that the Book of Mormon is true; that we have a prophet and that the Holy Ghost is real!

Conference was amazing and I loved President Monson's talks!! It was different having conference with just the missionaries but fun, especially if you watch it being dubbed in Russian. (No worries we had English, my brain only took so much of the Russian) We had Mountain Dew, cookies, and bananas to go with the program.

So now I got to explain myself for not emailing yesterday. We had service at 9am yesterday and were assured we would be back at 1pm in the afternoon, but we got back from the "old country" at 6pm in the afternoon from moving furniture! I think that this is the number one service project in the church. haha   I got to ride in the front on the way back and talk about cars with the driver and President A, which was awesome and I got to listen to some Russian remix of Linkin Park all the way back haha. We came back and ate KFC with the other missionaries and then we went to bowl at a fancy Russian hotel! It was cool!

Love ya all !

Elder LeFevre

6 month mark

So what a fun filled week here in Perm!! Me and Elder A set the goal to talk to ten people individually everyday, hand out 4 Books of Mormon and receive eight new numbers a week. We did it! Meetings with members and in-actives have been tough, but we strive to get street meetings as much as possible! This past week we had 12 meetings and that was a ton of work trying to set up all those meetings, and now I know how hard Elder F and Elder H tried to get meetings set up! I have been getting better at carrying a conversation on the phone and setting up meetings with people, so I hope our weeks will become more filled with teaching opportunities.

Last Monday we went down to center of Perm and met up with the other elders to go on the hunt for PB! (800g) for 400 rubles. They weren’t open and then we went looking around and contacting among the streets and shopped for kepkas. The rest of the week we pursued our goals on the street and made some pretty sweet contacts. We met with an investigator and his nearly 16-year-old cat in his shanty apartment and the look on Elder A's face was priceless.

One area we were contacting in we contacted a guy who looks like Michael Moore ha-ha He came up to us and asked me if I knew Joel. I stated that it is a book in the bible and he was a prophet. The guy nodded his head and said what the heck is it!?  He then began to yell at us and call us liars and hooligan’s. I thought that it would be the last time I would see this guy but NO, we were walking and contacting the same area and then I turned to Elder A and said,"Awww, bleeen!" Sure enough the guy remembered us and ran up to me again and asked if I now knew. Of course I knew! Then he said, "That’s All" and started going off yelling to everyone about the second coming. I LIVE FOR THOSE MOMENTS!! hahaha

This past week we had two new investigators in our area and we are preparing to teach them the 2nd lesson! ha-ha YA SON! DO WORK! They are a little quiet and at times but they were good experiences for my companion and I. We come in every night super duper tired and wake up the same way! ha-ha It is funny at 8:00 am we have personal study and I will look across the table and my companion's head is bobbing his head up and down! ha-ha

We don't do English club regularly now because we switch with the other elders from time to time. Which is cool because we then don't have to go the church out of our area for 45 min. Reminds me this past Thursday, when we had a meeting at the church then a meeting in another town which is and hour away from the church. We left the church at 7:30 pm get there at 8:30 and it started to pour and the streets here are really bad and there are floods everywhere! My companion and I ran thru the rain with our umbrellas stepping in flooded streets due to the lack of lights and tried to make our meeting. Well, It didn’t work out for us and then we had to catch a bus back to our house! It can get frustrating, but just imagine the missionaries running through mini floods, and of course we turned a lot of heads and got shouts from old grandmas from windows! "BOYS COVER UP!" "AMERICANS!" hahaha

This week was eventful and I hope to help out my greenie as much as possible and it definitely has been a learning experience for us both this past week!

PS: If you send a letter through dearelder.com then a return address would be sweet because there is no return address unless you type it in the letter, then I can write back.

Love ya’ll and thanks for all of your support!

Elder LeFevre

First Week as a Trainer

So it was the first week back in Perm with Elder A and we are totally excited to show our faith to the Lord and give it our all here to achieve our mission goal of 97 baptisms and specifically 2 in our area, where Elder A and I are serving currently. Once we came back it was tough, because now I am the senior companion and the example for Elder A. 

Everyday this past week we tried seeking meetings with members, less actives, and investigators, but we only ended up having three meetings with less actives and members total. I knew that this was not going to cut it for meetings. I want to give Elder A and I the opportunity to have as many opportunities to teach together and practice the language. Now, I have a different perspective on things being the senior companion. I knew in my mind that it was going to take some down to the bone missionary work and the goal was to go to bed tired from our efforts and wake up tired as well. I know that sounds crazy but that is exactly what happened this past week as we did stop bys and contacting on the streets along the way.

Elder A and I have been praying for the guidance of the Holy Ghost in our effort to find new investigators and restart the area's investigator pool for teaching. We decided that we don't need to spend so much time on investigators who were not progressing and we made plans this past week to conquer the language and the area! ha-ha Weekly Planning is crucial for success. We made the goal to make 18 contacts a day, 4 BoM a week, 10 new numbers a week, 3 New Investigators per month, and 100 push-ups in a minute! ha-ha (Gotta look good!) Our reward of course if we reach a certain percentage in the week is to go to KFC and chow down on delicious food on P-Day! ha-ha 

This past week we have been walking in the rain going up and down stairwells in apartment buildings, and talking with everyone!! Doing so led us to have a new investigator, six other meetings, 6 phone numbers, 1 meeting set for next week, 3 BoM handed out and two happy
missionaries. We put forth our faith this week and pressed forward through the crowds of people stopping as many as we could and we even went tracting in one apartment building. It was a fun experience and we traveled up 18 stories to knock on doors. We felt safe to do so and we did it legally. It was fun getting a couple of slammed doors and confused faces. hahaha However, we managed to talk to a few people who were interested. It was funny to get a few opportunities to ring the bell or the buzzer in most cases and end up talking through the door to the person. We would state who we were and most times they responded and said that they didn’t understand. HOW!! WE ARE MISSIONARIES!! (understandable) ha-ha

I am convinced that we will see the Lord's hand in the work here as we show our faith in our works daily! Training is legit and Elder A is tight! We are going to Smash it! (as Elder F from England would say) 

Thanks for the love and support and the packages.
Love YOU!
Elder LeFevre

First Visa Trip

This past week has been exciting with all the transfers and the arrival of the new missionaries! We got into Yekat Wednesday and I got paired up with Elder W for the day. A group of us missionaries put our priorities straight and decided that we needed to eat at McDonalds! We went to the mall to eat "Ocho Sinqo" (aka two big macs, large fry, and large coke) and some Big N Tasty's. mmmm REALLY AMAZING!! We will be getting a restaurant here in Perm soon. After we ate we went to the center of Yekat with a couple of missionaries who were leaving to go home to look for some souvenirs. While doing so, we stopped by the Temple on the Blood where the Romanov family was murdered and went inside the Provaslovnic Church. While we were there a couple of crazy бобншкы yelled at us for having our hands in our pockets and told us, "Well everything is free here, be respectful foreigners!" Then, she proceeded to ask, "Well, isn’t this a nice 'temple', you need to buy some icons!"  In the churches they have shops to buy golden icons to pray to the different apostles and get different blessings. It is really weird and the priests have long beards and wear all black! The lady sold us a Michael the Archangel icon and we asked what it gives and she replied anything you want! Really?! ha-ha..We had a great time talking to people on the streets and seeing the town.

After, our sight seeing we came back to the office elders' apartment to stay the night to wait for the arrival of the new missionaries. It was great! I got to see Elder P! (MTC companion) I got to see basically the whole mission that night and especially over the next couple of days at President R's house, which we ate stroganoff, scones, sandwiches, cookies, and Russian pancakes. It was great! Before, we went over to President's, all of the trainers sat down and had a pre-game pep talk and then it was off to see my new companion, Elder A.  We hung out at President's place for two days for training and in-field orientation and got to take our new greenies out into the Russian streets! Elder and I had an hour to do contacting then come back for dinner. I always lose track of time talking to people and my Russian is getting better to where I like to talk. We came back and we were the last ones at the table to eat and we were surprised to see there was still food! ha-ha.. It was a great experience and great to see the new companion show his skills out in the streets! All the training was fun! 

Friday night, Elder P and I dropped our companions off at the Zone Leader's for splits in order to fly to Finland to get our Visas. We left Sat morning from Yekat and arrived back on Sunday morning. Unfortunately, we didn’t go to the temple and we couldn't really go anywhere but the airport, so I didn't take a camera with me. After that experience going through Russian security several times, I think I will be a pro when I get back home from the mission. However, Elder P and me did order a giant pizza each and devoured it like champs!! haha... Finland was great, especially how green and beautiful it was. When we walked out of the plane I turned to him and said, "WOW, I can breathe considerably well!" haha.. It was a great experience to fly into Moscow as well, where we ordered some onion rings and watched the volleyball game between Russia and Serbia until our flight left. We came back into Yekat and then it was off to church to meet up with our new companions. Then it was to the train station to hit the ride to Perm! It was exciting and Elder A and me had a good trip. We were talking on the train and then on one of the stops a lady came in and sat across from us and then the fear crept into my gut. At first I debated if I should start the conversation or not, but I did, because I remembered my trainer's example for me, (Elder H) and he did the same by allowing me to practice the language and talk to someone in the train. Already, I was translating for my companion and understood the conversation enough to do so. It was super cool and the same happened to me while contacting with Elder A. God had blessed my companion and I for opening our mouths. This is a great opportunity for both of us and I know we will grow quickly with the Lord's help! 

Love you all!! Всего Хорошого! (All the Best!)

Elder LeFevre

Moving service & Zone Conference

So this week was crazy busy and we had about four meetings total that we had achieved due to the amount of service we had to do. The zone leaders called us up about four times this week trying to coordinate times to move the things from the church building to an apartment in the area not too far from the church. So we hopped inside a little truck called a gazel and moved three full loads of furniture to the new location with my companion. We unloaded it outside the door to the stairwell and then President said lets go look at where we are going to place this stuff. It was on the 3rd floor up a skinny stairwell and into a small apartment! OH GREAT, I thought! Let us say that I got my workout for the day and then to top it all off we went to eat at Rusteeks (KFC). Bocksmasters are the best!! 

Along with this event, the other day we moved the sisters to their new and amazing apartment, which our apartment is now the oldest in the mission. Hey I move for food!! While we were moving, I was sitting outside with Elder K and we got drinks to fuel the fun. I had my water but he fueled up with a 2 L Mountain Dew! ha-ha Mountain Dew is different here, it doesn’t contain orange juice, on the label it just says orange taste! ha-ha (Made in Moscow) Other than that this week has been full of weekly planning which takes 4 hours and transfer cleaning! I love to clean! And I am being serious our apartment still looks like junk after we hit it up with some cleaner. It needs to be remodeled. When we had zone conference, Sister Rust came and did inspections of our apartments and I admit we needed to clean. She seemed like she didn’t like the conditions too much, so we hope maybe we might get something better. YEAH!! Plus the other day my companion pulled the bed away from the wall to do vacuuming and the bed legs broke!! hahaha It is all good we made Russian pancakes to fix the occasion. So he will be sleeping on the floor last few nights in the country.

Zone Conference was AMAZING! We got a general authority to spend the day with us all Thursday and the topic was, "Go forth in Faith", and we were privileged to here from the R's and the Bennett’s, who instructed us and lifted our spirits to look forward and not behind. Elder Bennett served a mission in France and told us an experience of how quiet he was the first five months of his mission and how he regrets it and how we need to change our approach to contacting and make it fun. Satan wants us to place doubts in our heads and fears to replace our courage in order for this work to not progress and for us not to progress either. I really was taken back by the whole talk and realized that was exactly what was going and on and the main difference in how I felt last transfer compared to this one. I have been a little quieter! So I have set the goal to be out going as much as possible and have confidence in myself and in the Lord more. We went and did an hour of strait contacting and it was great! It just got easier and easier every minute that passed. I was with Elder L (AP) and we talked with some interesting people and it was a great experience in general. Elder Bennett is an amazing guy and he got us all pumped up and I felt awesome in general.

So with this new and inspiring outlook it was time to receive my next assignment from President R. He pulled me aside into the other room and we sat down and asked, " So...Elder LeFevre, You ready?!" I said, “I am ready to do anything you ask!" He said, "Good, because you have a great responsibility in TRAINING Elder A !" Whoa! I was taken back. I will be senior companion next transfer and I will be training. I am so excited and I am ready for this great opportunity which will allow me to grow immensely in order to help him out and I in all aspects of the missionary work here in my area. I will be carrying dictionaries cut into two in my pockets and I will be setting the example. This is going to be awesome!! One thing that is great about this is we are both fairly new and we will be doing a ton of contacting and tracting due to all of our investigators and potentials don’t really have potential. There are many things I want to accomplish in this area and I want to leave it better than I found it! (Camping code) We will be definitely going forth and showing our faith in the Lord and press forward strong! Nothing and no one will bind our tongues and our faith. 

I love you all back home and I appreciate the support! Y'all keep it real in America!

Love Elder LeFevre

Living off food storage

So this past week was quite different from the usual. We had the opportunity to participate in service and we were living off our food storage waiting for MSF! ha-ha (noodles, rice, noodles w/ketchup) You know all the good stuff. Mmmmm add a lil salt to spice things up. All the elders of the zone had exhausted their funds too and none of us wanted to go into personal, so we were toughing it out and we did get fed at member's houses. We helped move all the furniture and belongings from the southern end of Perm to the northern branch building, due the other building being renovated. President said it was going to take only four hours starting from 10 am to 2pm. WRONG! Took the whole day and more loads than we thought. It was fun and we got to play a bit of ping-pong while waiting for the load to come. On the way there in the electric trolley I was sitting in my seat when an undercover cop came over and tapped on my shoulder and said, "билет ваш!" (your ticket!) Took some time to register in my brain then it made sense, he was about to throw me out. ha-ha But no worries crises adverted, except for the guy ahead of me he literally got kicked out. So, while we were waiting at the southern branch building, Elder J and me went to the Vivat to see if we had obtained our funds from the Church and hey we did!! So we decided to celebrate with COKE, Super Snickers, and waffles.

So this past week was just like work in a way and hanging out with the guys from work. Lately, we have been trying to work with referrals, which we have received in the past or new ones. Not to much success in numbers, but we have been trying to hit our goals and surprisingly we have been almost exact every week. We have been meeting with some in-actives and one is a little out there. One of them we have been trying to get to sacrament and we got the branch to help us out on that! Whew but be careful for what you wish for! Last couple of visits the person told us that they converse with Michael the archangel and that Satan is bound. So this person shared some of this with everyone this past fast Sunday during testimony meeting. We were sitting there and I can only pick out a few words but I got the 'jist' and they spoke to the moon too!! Ha-ha-ha Eventful!

I am excited that today is P-day, well just for the whole week and President Bennett is going to be here in Perm for zone conference and interviews! I get to meet with a member of the quorum of the seventy! SWEET!! Today we are going souvenir hunting for Elder Fife before he leaves the country at the market and it may be a good chance to look for some pants due to the washer messing up my last pair of slacks! I have been told I am living in the dumpiest apartment of the mission so down the road it can only get better ha-ha-ha-ha. We also plan to look at music, ADIDAS, and stop inside a Proveslavnic Church and buy a couple of Russian dolls. It will be interesting, because then I will be able to see the icons and the shops inside the church. However, on most P-days we meet up at KFC or SUBWAY and play basketball, and I have only taken a nap once! So...yep our p-days are short due to transportation time. Love you all and hope you guys have a successful school year.

I almost forgot to talk about an amazing miracle in my eyes that I got to see this past week. We were teaching English Club, when a new guy comes in and sits with us. He was invited by his friend, who is a sweet member of the church here in Perm. My companion and I teach the advanced group here in Perm and he was able to speak a little bit of English just about the amount I can in Russian. So we got on the topic of history and science. My two favorite subjects! He is an astrophysics scientist in perm. So I showed interest in his job and asked more about Einstein's theories and we began to speak Russian, but I understood most of it due to the scientific theories and expressions in the equations are universal. It was really cool! We connected on the same level of interest and he wants to show me his theories and explain it through a model on his laptop this next week. ha-ha He even invited us to go lap swimming with him, but it was a bummer to say we couldn't I miss swimming. Plus we got to the point where we began to speak on informal 'you,' so it was LEGIT!! I believe it is necessary that as missionaries, we need to express interest in other people's lives and interests to create a level of trust and friendship. Once, this is established it is only a matter of time where they will say something, which you can connect to the gospel. Listening, listening, listening is the biggest form of respect, care, and interest you can give anyone and then they will show to same respect when you share something that is close to you, such as the gospel.

Love you all,
Elder LeFevre

Peanut Butter is GONE !

CRAZY that this transfer is almost over!  After serving in one area for a while it just seems like that is your area for like two years ha-ha But this next transfer is going to be exciting because we have 9 new elders coming into the mission.

This week was a good week and more celebrations at the apartment at the end of the day which plans had changed dramatically.

So my communication skills in Russian are getting better and more confident on the phone, which is great!! Got this last week set up with awesome meetings where we talked about the temple and got to show some pictures to some of the families here of back home. Talking about the temple so much last week made me just want to go really bad. We had 12 members here in Perm have the privilege to go for a week in Kiev and do work there.  It was cool to see their faces all beaming and better bet us missionaries have them help on meetings to testify, which we had them do. Of course it turns into about forty minutes of talking before the lesson sometimes, but I liked hearing from these modern pioneers and their experience at the temple. I showed my favorite temple, San Diego, to members in my photo album and they thought it was the coolest thing ever. (Because the San Diego is). But I like the Vegas one too, because you can walk around the backside and overlook the city and feel like you are standing on top of the world, which you are in all reality above the world living the standards of the church and above the adversary.

I continued to show the rest of my pictures and people kept saying how I had changed and that I was chunky in MTC and prior to going in but now "I am in RUSSIA" that is what they say ha-ha . So this relates to the fact of how my PEANUT BUTTER is gone and so is my RED HOT SAUCE!!

Oh and one cool thing is that the mission sent every companionship a DVD player to do the New Training on and it is a great way to listen to my inherited MP3's ha-ha (Alex Boye by the way is awesome and encourage you to buy his CD). we listen to it about 10 times a day and it does not get old so pick it up at the Deseret Book today! 

Along with our desserts we make Russian pancakes and have been living off soup! Living the Life here. Our investigators have been tough to meet with due to school starting on September 1st and the cell service is another thing, it is more like "can you call me now?...Now?...Good!" But one investigator has a hard time with smoking and drinking and he is trying to quit and says he will be baptized in this church but we all know we cannot stop there so we are trying to kick him in the behind and draw some steps to getting him there. Never knew how good the gospel and its principles are until we start living and teaching it!

от Россий с любовью Ст. ЛеФивэр
(From Russia with Love, Elder LeFevre)

It is getting HOT, HOT, NOT !!!

It is getting HOT, HOT, NOT!!!!! ha-ha  

Elder F and I go running every morning and get our body temperature up then we come inside and shower and the hot water, which by the way smells like onions, hits and it actually refreshing! ha-ha Last Monday we played basketball with some high school kids out in the neighborhood and it was great. We lost however. ha-ha  My skills were just so good that the "White handbook" prevented me from going to my full potential on the court. Don't want to get injured you know. Plus most of you have seen my skills before and can trust that we could have smashed them.

From there on out the week became COLD! Yes. I was sporting the sweater and the p-jack. My companion laughs when I say this is like winter in Vegas! He can’t wait until true winter hits because he is from Alaska. ha-ha  I am warm blooded!!   ALL THE HOT SAUCE IS GONE! (at least the Cholula) Yes crazy, I know the food is more bland than I thought, but healthier than American. We had splits this past weekend and I went with Elder W. He couldn't believe the amount of habanero Tabasco I put on my eggs yesterday. All I said, "Hey I am from Vegas!"

This past week we have been making our way to less active members and doing family home evenings at people's houses. Great FOOD! I love Family Home Evening. So it has been good and we continue to try to find. It is still nerve racking to talk on the bus with some people but I am proud to just open my mouth at least and ask how it is going. Because you either get three responses.

1-They fall asleep (FAKERS)
2-Stare
3-mumbled Russian
4- GO HOME YANKEE! hahaha

Yep and you haven’t been on a bus ride until you just lose all sense of personal space and cannot do anything about it, especially when a guy is staring at you and breathing his beer breath! yo Bro! Here is a Tic Tac! and by the way the closer you get to my name tag you aren’t gonna read it! Because you are hammered!" haha

I inherited the taco bed last week and I am actually sleeping well! Haha  See tacos are 100% perfect! (Every way, aspect or form). Same with the gospel.  It is like a tortilla shell that holds all the good fillings to make you happy! It can be folded or rolled anyway to fit what that person needs and what blessings they are going to partake.

Transfers were at the end of the week and I got to chill with Elder W.  It was great. We tore the sister's area book apart with phone calls then took a tranbus to go eat at KFC! aka Растикс! Which is totally different menu and a Coke конечно. Then we made our way back and handed a Book of Mormon! Then we had a birthday party with cake, ice cream, tea, and watermelon. We had two meetings and hey I got complemented on how good my Russian is coming along by several members. So that is a plus! Then we came home and hung out with the other elders who are still without an apartment. So it was sick!

My week was great! One cool thing was I and Elder F got to take a member around to throw away garbage, buy groceries, and get water. His wife is in the hospital and he is 100% blind and 70% deaf. So it was great to hang with him! He is an amazing dude. He pointed at me and said, “You ready for the cold warm blood!" ha-ha and then asked if my hair was curly yet because of the humidity. Then we had tea and cookies, which was awesome.

So our whole week was full of rejoicing here in Perm and to top it all off we made the best chocolate shake ever. Super Snickers (100 g), Chocolate ice cream (400 g), sweetened condensed milk, peanut butter, Nutella, 4% Milk, and 2 bananas!! (grams is how we measure) Yeah that will knock your socks off!  ha-ha   So try it out at home! It will put you to sleep really quick!

Love ya'll
Elder LeFevre