Feb 20, 2012

This past week was great for Elder S and I with trying to re-spawn the investigator pool here in our area. The weather has been extremely warm!! (If you call 9 F warm) Plus, the sun is now up at 9:00 am! I definitely have lost my tan. (BUMMER)
This week Elder S and me are preparing to find a pool in order to hold a baptism for an investigator this Saturday and the search continues. We were looking last week and found a pool and got in and looked around and asked to see the smaller kid pool, which would be better to do a baptism. The security guard led us to view it and he stated that it was up to the ladies at the administrator desk to allow the baptism to happen and that he was interested in our church. He was a pretty cool guy and then he said that if they would not let us we can ask the local church to hold it for us! Ha-ha NOPE! Do not want to do that. When we asked the lady why we wanted to use the smaller pool she said that it was absolutely forbidden! So therefore the search continues.

This past week we got three new investigators off the streets and some of them are starting to progress really well.  There are some really interesting people that come to our English club here and one man was a member of the Israeli army and lived around Jerusalem. He has a ton of crazy stories about the conflicts in that area of the world and how he came across his faith in God. Super Awesome!

I have come to love the new city and the zone here in Chelyabinsk. We are having a baptism here soon and there is a ton to do, as always being a zone leader, so we instituted a P-Day Eve celebration yesterday. The craziest meal I have ever made! We made two (11 egg) omelets with bell peppers, onions, and chicken. Then we made a pound of hash browns and some country gravy to go on top of it all off!! Ha-ha. The Super, duper protein breakfast. Then later that night we had some shakes from the canned pears that Elder S got in a package, which turned out great! No, I did not eat it all, too much food.

I appreciate the letters and support and the packages!! Y'all rock.

Love Elder LeFevre

Loving Chely

HELLO! :)

I am loving Chelyabinsk and the new atmosphere of the people and the culture here. It is interesting to find that each city that I have been too has its own feel and identity. Elder S and I are doing great, even though this past week was a tough week due to all the "grunt" work that we had to accomplish in order to set up our new apartment and our area.

Being in the zone leader position has really had me evaluate on how I act and set an example. This past week, we have faced some communication obstacles and the week started off with us trying to solve the landline phone connection with our landlady. I was on the phone with our register and I understood the list of directions that she had given to be a totally different route than she had wanted us to take. That day we had to go to the supermarket across from us to buy a pan, pot, new cell phone, and other miscellaneous items. Yeah, it was a headache. But no worries, we found a Subway along the journey to ease it all! Ha-ha. Plus, we got some work done by contacting people for help and to talk about English Club or the Gospel. We were looking around for some batteries to replace in the phone to make it work, until we saw no success as we had been walking and carrying things back to the apartment. Then our register called and asked if we called the land lady back. She found out that we had spent some time looking for these batteries and the conversation got heated. I misunderstood the directions and it turned out that we went on a true "snipe hunt." Ha-h-aha. It was funny.

Our investigators are showing some progress, as we turned to stop focusing on the problems and took the approach of teaching the lessons and getting him to pray. He is not the one to talk much, but at the end of the meeting he gave the prayer and said a very sincere thoughtful prayer. Elder S and I were super happy for him! We also have been visiting an investigator who is ready to be baptized, but just won't do it!! Aghhhh.  He said that in order to be baptized he needed to be perfect from that point onward. It was a great lesson on how we are not expected to be perfect but to progress and through Jesus Christ we can be perfect, because he lifts us to be higher!

The second snipe hunt was the meeting that we had set for last Monday to meet a new investigator and it turned out that we were invited to watch American football practice in an inside track and field building. Ha-ha. It was cool to see them run practice there as Elder S was telling me in depth the plays and skills that they worked on when he played in high school. It was awesome to learn about football a bit more even though I was in the middle of Russia.(Never thought I'd be doing that.) ha-ha.

English club has been shooting up the roof in attendance since I have come into the city and we did an awesome spiritual thought on the Apostasy and the restoration. I got to recite the first vision in front of twenty Russians, who actually understood and liked our thought! 

Things in the mission are going great and the new area and city are awesome! President came to Chelyabinsk yesterday and I was pulled left and right to translate! I love translating! I have made it so far and I am pushing forward in becoming better every day. I appreciate the love, support, the letters, the peanut butter, hot tamales, hot sauce, and the hand warmers I got. Ha-ha. They work well.

Peace out from the sickest zone and enjoy the warmth there in America!
Love ya'll
Elder LeFevre