October 29, 2012

This past week was quite a rough start with none of our meetings working out as planned and too many cancelations for my liking. The main finding activity we decided to engage in this past week was tracting due to the drastic changes in weather here. The existing puddles are ice every morning. Everyone is preparing for winter here. We had one cool experience as we were tracting private homes up in the northern part of the small city. Not even five houses we came to a house and knocked on the door and then it started to snow pretty hard. A grandma came out to answer the door and said at first that she was'nt interested but forcing the 'puppy' eyes and talking for a little bit she let us in for tea and cookies! MMMM.. She was willing to listen to us and we taught her the first lesson. She was super nice and realized that we weren't Jehovah's witnesses and that we were sincere with our message. I hope to see this contact turn into a new investigator, as soon as we get the next meeting set up and attended.

After that awesome experience, We went to attend institute with the branch members and investigators. This last lesson was actually pretty good as we all stayed on task!  We left the church that night to go home and that is when it hit me that i didnt have the cellphone, but i thought my companion had it. Turns out that he thought the same. We ended up using the phone of the next door neighbor to call President R to let him know that we were home. We even went back to look for it the next morning. We didn't find anything. It was a nightmare in short. I was trying to just workout the problem with our register and the office. Now, we have a super nice phone that is way better that the last. So on the bright side a new slate and a little teasing from everyone. But whatever, I see it as a thing that was needed to be done since he old phone was old indeed. Plus that gave us the opportunity to contact in center while the sisters were in Yekaterinburg for the week at Sister's Conference.  

We stopped by some old investigators and one of them needed some service. He was living off of tea and stale bread. We went out with him to talk and buy him some food for the next week. It felt good to help him out. Plus, we had the opportunity to talk about Metallica and ACDC. He loves american rock music. He was telling us about the history of Russia a bit as well. He stated that they didn't have any music like rock or anything until the fall of the iron curtain. Still, only then they had european music.

This week we plan to run the cool little english club/activity with the branch for Halloween and some Nevada Day celebration. We plan to carve some watermelons and eat some doughnuts hanging from a string. I hope that we will have a huge turnout. We are kind of on our own doing this activity, but no sweat I am the party master!! Kurgan is one of the most legit places that I have served in many aspects. The branch president has so much spark of enthusiasm for the missionary work here. We are just simply serving the Lord here together. For all those that are coming to the Yekaterinburg Mission, you will love it and enjoy the amount of service that you can accomplish here. Plus Russian is just plain out cool.

Love,

Elder LeFevre

October 22, 2012

First full week in Kurgan!! It has been raining and causing the bottom of my pants to become muddy. We met with many of our investigators here in our area and today we are planning to go play some soccer while the weather is not too cold. This week was focused upon many service opportunities which arose from simply stopping by the homes of investigators in less actives. One story that I would like to share with you this week occurred at the end of last Monday. We went by an investigator's house and found his friend outside sitting on a bench a little intoxicated. He was super nice to talk to and was mostly there. He exclaimed that he wasn't baptized and that he didn't want to hear about our religion. During this conversation, his friend with the baptismal date came out to greet us and to say that he couldn't meet with us due to how busy he was. In his explanation he described many things which he needed to have completed before the winter and that he was behind. One of the things that stood out to us on his "to do" list was to stack the large amount of wood up into the shack behind his house. We told him that we would definitely like to help him and that we would come by Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon to help him prepare for winter. We came by on Tuesday and began to stack wood for him without him knowing until the continuous loud barking of the dog aroused his attention to look outside. He came out and greeted us and said that he would be out to help in a little bit. We came out and helped us and was glad that we took to our word. We did the same thing o Wednesday and finished the big pile of stacking wood. It brought a big smile to this man's face. He and his friend were very grateful for what we did. They offered anything to repay us back in someway from offering us cigarettes to heating up the banya in the back for us to sit in. We declined the offers and stated that the only thing we wanted to do was share our message of the restored gospel with him and his family. They were taken back and as we were finishing up the service they repeatedly came up to us wanting to know if we could baptize people. Yes of course we do! They also asked how much does it cost, because the church here requires that you pay for an ordinance to be done. We shared a verse to help encourage each other to quit smoking and drinking and then everyone took turns saying a prayer in their own words.  We also met with our progressing investigator who has a baptismal date for November. 

We had some finding time as always and decided to venture the top of our area to do some actual tracting not in the apartment buildings but at the private homes. At first it seemed like we were skeptical towards the idea but it was only about four doors until a lady from across the street poked her head out to see who was causing everyone's dog in the neighborhood to bark. She was super nice and she invited us in to listen more to our message. We met the members of the family as well. We taught the first lesson. This Sunday I was asked to give a talk in the branch upon the subject of family in the plan of our Heavenly Father focused upon marrying someone of your own faith. I was surprised that I could talk on that subject for twenty minutes. Trying to push the finding efforts here. I think in doing so we will be able to grow our relationships with the members in the branch as we set meetings allowing members to preside. 
Love you all
Elder LeFevre

October 15, 2012

Hello from the big village of Kurgan!! That seems to be a famous joke that is told about this small city only two hours from the border of Kazakhstan. The city is spread along the flat landscape of the Siberian tundra. About every day we walk through areas that consist only of private homes, dirt roads, goats, old Russian cars, dogs. I have been getting used to watching where I step to not land in mud or anything that is worse.

I had to make a twenty hour travel to Yekaterinburg and back this past week for Zone Leader Council. We arrived late Monday night, around midnight to President's home to grab a quick bite and go to bed. The next day was yet again another ZLC which was great and full of opportunities to learn from each other and from the Holy Ghost. We discussed the need to be exactly obedient to the white hand book and the rules of the Area Presidency. We even discussed how we needed to keep the rule of companions sight and sound literally in our apartments too. I need to be 100% obedient in order to qualify for all the blessings which wait for me. We left Tuesday night and arrived midnight in Tyumen to grab the remaining hours of sleep that we had left until Elder E and I had to go back to Kurgan by midday in order to prepare the arrival of President R and the Area doctor to look at the clinics here and the services they provide. 

Wednesday evening we stopped by a recent convert and a baptismal candidate who called us up my first week and stated that she didn't want to be baptized. We went to her private home and sat on a couple of logs in her yard. We began to teach the lesson until we heard a car pull up and a little kid came running in the gate asking us to carry a few things into the yard from outside the gate. It was the member's oldest son and his wasted wife. They came in and let us say we felt the need to stay and support the member from the drunk wife who at one time threw a brick through the window of the house. Everything was fine and we even taught the dad the first lesson and answered his questions on the book of Mormon and about our church. That night I felt down deep inside the pain for the little boy who is growing up amongst examples that aren't the best of the best. I know that there is great responsibility for parents to raise their children and I am eternally grateful for my wonderful parents and their examples that have allowed me to make the right choices and avoid pain and suffering that can come from inexperienced decisions towards sin. I love you mom and dad!! After this encounter it seemed that we were being guided by the Lord to discover more about our investigators and the problems they face to fix. We ran into our investigator on the street who was drunk after the elders a while back taught him the Word of Wisdom. He was with his girlfriend who was drunk too and was excited to see real Americans. we gave her a Book of Mormon and invited them on a lesson together later in the week, when they are not under the influence.

Thursday, we spent the day mostly with President R and the Area doctor stopping by several reputable clinics, including the world famous one located in my area. Doctor Illiazarov apparently during the nineties made a brace that corrects some of the most complicated deformations of the body due to the bone structure. This device requires pins to be driven into the bone and then like braces on your teeth adjusted to straighten or lengthen the bone. So if any of you are feeling short come on down to Kurgan and I will be your translator and in a few months you can be as tall as Shaq! 

That evening we had a successful English Club. After English Club, a usual visitor was distressed about the situation her family was in moving that night into another room in the apartment building by the next morning. We were glad to accept the call of service and duty. We went into an older apartment complex and thank goodness this apartment was on the first floor. We moved out a heavy couch, arm chair, closet and table to the garbage in darkness. The pieces of furniture were falling apart and were wet and dirty. The mom was super grateful towards us and I bet it was weird to see a couple of guys in white shirts covered in filth helping this family out while everyone stood watching. President R was also quite baffled at the sight of us later that night.

Friday, we had Zone training after we had lunch together at the local restaurant here. I had a cow tongue salad with mayonnaise, mors, and pizza. It was a pretty good Italian restaurant. We had a good class relating all the information that was given to us from ZLC and had a good lesson on fighting against the feelings of fear, disappointment, and laziness. All of which are from the adversary. Our investigator whom we have committed to be baptized is considering the invitation but needs to act upon the answer that he has already received of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. 

Conference was great!! I enjoyed Pres. Eyring's talk during Priesthood especially and invite those who have not watched conference to do so! Go with an open heart and willing mind to learn. I promise you will be enlightened to change something for the better. LOVE YOU ALL!