Crazy and Crowded Buses

What's up! "As I walk through the valley." This song was playing as we left an investigators house today after a guy was like, "Hey America!" The bass was bumping and we felt like straight up Good-guys, because the Lord's missionaries are! This week the buses have been insane as people have been commuting from the beach on the river and back.  I can't believe that I have almost been in the country for one transfer and I am having the best time here! There is some sweet graffiti outside the apartment and when I get back I will be able to ride on the bus or anything that requires balance with ease. (Wake-boarding watch out!)  The other day we actually went on two wheels on the bus around the curve! It was sweet and the buses have been packed! You know that joke that Jeff Foxworthy says, "How did they get 300 people on a bus?!" I can testify that this can be done.

So yesterday was my first splits and I went with Elder F in my area and we stopped by this guys house (actually a house) and gave him a lesson on the book of Mormon. It was sweet but he is a pretty thickheaded dude. I also got to teach the advanced group in English and man that was funny. The subject was goals and we have one guy come every week and try to contradict our beliefs.  What can you do? ha-ha.  It is no use arguing with the guy.  We made it a companionship goal that if we get brushed off twice in one day then we are making it a point to get a SUPER SNICKERS...Now this is the "FEAST"! We have been trying to do contacting and finding investigators right now and so much of my time is spent out in the heat. ha-ha.  For all you who thought you were going to beat me in getting a tan this year, I am sorry,  I am getting some color with being outside so much. AW Yeah!

Last P-Day was cool. We went to a heavy artillery museum and took some awesome pics! You will get to see them soon, I forgot my memory card again. SORRY, I know I have been terrible! Today we are going to a member’s house today for a b-day party and tacos and I am looking forward to a good bowl of Plov, mmm good stuff, I am becoming a champ at making it. (Plov is a dish in which a grain, such as rice or cracked wheat, is browned in oil, and then cooked in a seasoned broth, it may also contain a variety of meat and vegetables) Ooh and this week I am preparing to make Holodets (meat jello), believe it or not, it is supposed to be good! Yet, I don't trust anyone’s taste buds but my own. Oh and we went all the way up to Golovanavo last week with investigator family and it was awesome being out in the middle of no where and feeling like I was walking in a scene in "Brother Were Art Thou", along the train tracks and among the dachas! (Seasonal homes in the rural areas, like cottages or cabins) LEGIT!  Tomorrow I will be sure to take a ton of pictures as we go to our culture activity! Holovka city. Supposed to be super old! It will be great!

The language is coming and my relationship with the members is improving as well. Thanks for the inspiration. It is a little harder than I thought it would be, but that’s because I put myself at a higher standard and work ethic. It will be cool to go to Helsinki Temple on my first visa trip.

Love ya all and thanks for your prayers and support.

Elder LeFevre

Week 4 in Russia

Hello from Perm! I got to meet Pres. and Sis. R this past week and they are the coolest people in the world! They are super nice and I got a good lesson out of our meeting. I only have about 2 1/2 weeks left with Elder H and then he is gone! I was told I would be getting another trainer and I hope that follows through because I still feel like I don't know anything! ha-ha

People are awesome here in Perm and the members are great. We have been trying to get people out of their dachas and into the church! It is tuff, but it is going well serving the members and the people here. We having been dropping by those we have met with and leaving notes showing appreciation and making sure they know they are the BOMB!! English Club is going well, but we don't get too many people in there that are interested in learning about the gospel. We were talking about idioms Americans use all the time and one of them was "don't be a wet blanket" One guy answered, "O so it is the one who is the most sober at the party!" hahaha When people learn that I am from Vegas they immediately ask about my favorite fighter from the UFC and tell me about how they train in BJJ as well.

We have exciting news through out contacting on the streets we met with the same family as we did last week and got to talk to them more to convince them that we aren’t weirdo’s! The family might become investigators! Plus we had a great lesson with a girl who wants to be baptized but mom and dad want to wait until she is 18.  So we talked to her and she is going to personally ask and express her desire to be baptized to her parents. It will be awesome to receive a call. We don't go knocking on doors because someone has to let you into the stairwells here to do so. Plus the stairwells aren’t the nicest places. I feel like I’m in an old bomb shelter when I am walking through them. It is awesome! Then outside it is like the countryside and its right out of Robin Hood or something. 

LOVE YOU ALL AND HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK!


Elder LeFevre 

Lost Luggage and More

Good Day! Good Week!  I heard I will be getting my bag from the Russian government...HURRAY and About time!  Tuesday morning, we spent all day going around perm and to different offices to retrieve my bag from the airport. We were not done until about six in the afternoon. The  bureaucracy is like the DMV in the USA and you know how that can be. (Not cool) We went to the first office and they asked for my passport and copies and asked me if I speak Russian.(chut chut: small) Then they said if I could not speak it well then I could not retrieve my bag! Aghh.  We did this for some time, but the church has some cool hookups here and President A was determined to help me out.  We made it to this nice office in downtown Perm with fresh linoleum!  oohh fancy eh?!   Then she pointed at me and said, "come! SIT! What do you want to do?" I answered “I want to receive my baggage from the airport." She said, "To whom you want to give permission." I said, "Elder H, to obtain my bag in my name and I give him permission" That was it!! We spent six hours just to say a couple of sentences and I thought I had to speak well. haha Slick!! She then said I have to pay a couple thousand rubles to pay for the paper that said I give permission. 

Later that night we had tacos at an investigator's home. I have impressed the Russian people in the fact that I have loved their food and traditions. Herbal tea is good and a good time to sit and chat. (still tough to do but I play charades and I am becoming pro!)

Wednesday and most of the week we made our way stopping by inactives and I think that it has settled in that my fear of big dogs is conquered. Because there are like a 'billion' everywhere and they are pretty nasty but they leave you alone. About everyday this past week we have been eating well and by well we made pizza, tacos, fruit salad, omelets..etc   We are trying to run every morning and it is crazy tough to get used to how humid it gets here. The other night I just took a freezing shower just for the heck of it to go to bed not sweating!  btw the water is like an ice bath ha-ha.  I have this hoola-hoop motion that I like to do it works. ha-ha.  Me and my companion like to point out all the funny stuff we see. Like the other day we were walking and about three guys got up out of the grass like zombies (drunk) and ran off into the woods! ha-ha   Then while we were meeting with a couple of members in the park there came a taxi that pulled up and a couple hooked up a sound system and played some music and they started dancing and singing.  Like old time Russian music! ha-ha our member friend started to dance too and it was just awesome hahahaha, that  made my day.  Another funny thing is everyone likes to stop on the side of the road and do their business, and one guy fell over during. ha-ha

Oh  and my first crazy grandma story...AWESOMENESS!!  So we were stopping by a less active and this lady comes up and asked where we were from. We got excited and stated who we were and where we were from. We started to teach and testify and that’s when she interrupted and said,  "Your Russian is horrible! You are young and have no idea why you are even here. You cannot comprehend who God is and that we are all pieces of god and we came from the sun." She then said, "You are spitting out useless information and she got up in my face and was like you are naive and stupid! That America is dumber than Russia!" ha-ha   I understood some of what she said but my companion had to translate some after and I was just laughing. 

Our 4th of July celebration was awesome and we had shikabobs and coke! mmmmm. We have district/zone meeting every Wednesday and we talked about finding. I am excited to meet President R this week and get to know him. I heard he is a pretty cool guy and is up to date on technology and is excited to meet us and the awesome members here in perm. We have some the coolest members and yesterday at church six of the less active members came to church most haven’t been for years. Success in my eyes!  We are trying to get people pumped into missionary work here so that there can be a stake someday here too. That would be cool and a big step. It was exciting this week when we saw two investigators walk in to the church off a contact that me a member received!  We had an awesome lesson plan but the member was so excited he shared the whole plan of salvation and some deep doctrine. ha-ha , their faces were priceless. We hope to meet with them this week and I will update you on that.

It was a great week and thanks for the mail from Pres. and Sis.H, Aunt Brenda, and emails!  You all rock and the support is awesome!  I hope to get more pics to you soon maybe next week if the R's bring my bags. I AM PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!!

Love Elder LeFevre

Interesting Week

So this is concluding my first week in Russia! It hasn't been easy at all for us. We supposedly had two investigators at first, but now we don’t have any. So Tuesday we spent most of our time calling potentials, formers, and trying to set up appointments with the rest of the members in the area. It was a pretty tiring week and I got to see some crazy, nasty, and neat stuff this week.

The first investigator we met with this week works as a chemist! He is extremely nice guy. We met with him and I told him that I loved chemistry, and this got us off into a tangent. He tried to explain to me in Russian chemistry and dissolvents. If you thought chemistry was hard, think about it in Russian. My head was about to burst. We gave him the lesson and invited him to be baptized and he accepted!! But he said he couldn't because of his work. 

So it has been fun talking with people on the street. I am not that outgoing but my companion has been helping me out talking to people and get phrases down. Contacting has been really tough and we have been trying to stay away from men who hit the bottle early and later. We can't go tracking here really because it is rude to even get inside a подъез and just knock and plus they are super sketch. We went in one during the week and it had a mix of stray dogs! We decided not to linger there. People love pigeons and cats here.

On Tuesday I had my first Russian Subway and you may think I am a traitor but it is better here! The chicken was really tender and not just sitting in a tray. It costs about 180 p. Super good!!

Wednesday we had zone conference. We don’t have districts because then it would just be companionship study. A native made borsch and it was Super AMAZING!! I heard it can be prepared better and that there are many different ways. So I guess I will need to taste test it.

The air is super humid and it has been really hot, especially on the buses! So many people get on these buses here and people are really not talkative on them. This whole week has been interesting as we have been making calls and people have been calling us. Drunk people have been calling us like crazy the past couple of days and telling us " I...LOVE...BAC BRUDA!" (Half in broken English and Russian).

Next, later in the week we met with the coolest people in Russia that are members. Their son lives in Utah after serving a mission he got married and lives there. They are super nice and love the missionaries and were happy to have us visit. Their home was nice! She likes to talk with everyone on facebook and the husband is deaf and blind, but he speaks Russian enough to understand. He was super happy and liked to make jokes about Russia and how his son is a traitor!! ha-ha  He also asked if I was black because I was from Vegas. It was super cool. We decided to visit everyone and drop by cookies and a script reference as a thank you note for everyone we met.

Weird thing that hit me was the fact that I have been forced to make meals with my companion by scratch. Speaking of which I made a cake today!! Ha-ha It is for our 4th of July Celebration. Which is going to rock!! We also are making tacos tonight and Friday for families. Tacos are the bomb!! супер Snickers Rock too! All is exciting and it is fun to be with the Russian people.

Love Ya all,
Elder LeFevre

First Week in Russia ( with pictures)

Hello Everyone: So I left on the plane and let me tell you the trip was great. While on the plane Elder P and I talked with a few people and had a good couple of lessons with Katherine on the flight from Chicago to Frankfurt. It was good, and we handed some BOM's. Lufthansa flight was amazing and very high tech! We got awesome meals that were gourmet! ha-ha LEGIT.  We landed in Frankfurt and let me tell you, that was a nice airport and surprisingly not crowded. We had Mc Donald’s and it was hilarious! So I knew how Europeans love their drinks and I played it safe getting Coke (which was the best) and my companion got Fanta. I thought it tasted great but my companion thought differently. It tasted like carbonated orange juice and that is exactly what it was. Then he wanted water and I thought I told him about the water, but maybe I didn’t. He paid for water and it was carbonated as well. ha-ha I got a good laugh looking at his face. But he drank it all.

So I arrived in Russia at 0400 am and it was really interesting! Got off the Lufthansa flight and I thought I was sitting next to Napoleon Dynamites sister. We entered through the gate and we had to fill out our migration card and go through Russian security. We handed our documents and stood through a metal detector as this really angry looking officer pointed at me and said, "Hallo America!" hahaha… He stamped it and I was on my way to collect my bags. While waiting for my bags the track started to move and a dog walks onto the track as the first piece of luggage comes off! ha-ha official eh?! I lost one piece of luggage on the way here and I had to fill out four pieces of paper for it. I don’t know what to tell ya, I was here in a foreign land and no one was speaking anything that I could understand! Once I stepped out of the airport, I was running into a world of chaos. Everything was like 5x as ghetto as anywhere I have been even more ghetto than east LA. Everyone was walking around with beer in their hands and cigarettes. It was weird to see advertisements for Marlboro everywhere and how it is healthy. Oh and I guess it is normal for stray dogs everywhere, ran into one on the way to the library. Our stay at the mission home was the bomb and I got to taste for the first time the сок и yogurt. The best I have tasted! Bread was ten times better than at home too and I got to taste 4% milk.

So I met my trainer, Elder H from Bountiful, Utah. He is pretty tight and we get along well. We had our first lesson with each other yesterday after church and it was good. We arrived in Perm on a six-hour train ride. He is going home in August so I am trying to pick up on as much Russian as I can while he is here. I took some pictures of the area, but my uploading devices got lost on the way here. So pictures next week, I PROMISE! 

Walking around and contacting is really interesting. All the women wear see through shirts, since it is hot outside and are way immodest. The men are like the movies portray they wear workout clothes and adidas, adidas, adidas. Everywhere is techno music and they love the black eye peas! (Russians love their techno except for President A he likes System of a Down because they are Armenian.) 

The members here are a one of a kind! I love em! They are super funny! Everyone asked where I lived and when I responded Las Vegas they were booming with questions. They want to play poker with me sometime. I said maybe if they want to play for referrals. After church, our branch went out and I went on splits with a member who is a recent convert full of energy. We went out and contacted together. This is when I first got my taste of Russia. It is like walking out in the forest camping but being in a city at the same time. There are ton of stands that sell beer and vodka and porn. RIDICULOUS!! We contacted eight people and it was funny because I hardly talked. He wanted to show me how it is done! His approach was subtle and to the point and I am sure people were cussing at us and all he said was 'understandable'! ha-ha Sunday was crazy and different. 

 The only way to get around I guess is buses here. So the buses have German instructions and Russian advertisements. There is a guy driving the crowded bus and his "girl" who collects the money from you, and it is 12 rubles per ride. It is really interesting and I am sure getting fond of the smell of smoke and alcohol. When I walk outside I feel like I am walking in a World War 2 Movie. The train station has the marks of soviet russia all over and so does Perm. There is even a play ground were kids are playing on missiles. Oh and to answer some questions all the bottoms of the trees are painted white, and people don’t sit down on the sidewalks because it supposedly makes you sterile. Oh my favorite thing here is the taxi rides. ha-ha I feel like I’m in a car chase in a movie! Sudden stops, driving on sidewalks, swerving, and hitting the gas! Better than Disneyland ha-ha It is cool here. Oh and the doors are like dungeon doors and so are the keys. Showers are freezing! So no problems waking up! ha-ha

Love ya'll,

Elder LeFevre

25 hours flying = Arriving in Russia

Kyle made it to Russia yesterday at 4:18 pm, after traveling over 25 hours via three airlines. We stayed up most of the night and watched him fly via a flight tracker. I think I feel asleep from about 3-4:30 am and awoke with my iPad next to me in bed to see that he was over England and heading to Germany.  If you have never looked at a flight tracker on the internet then you should because it is amazing to see how many planes are actually in the air. The skies over Europe were crazy. We then tracked his flight to Yekat, but all the sudden just east of Moscow it fell off the radar. As we watched we realized that all the planes were dropping off at the same area. Simply a lack of radar stations. (I would recommend flightradar24.com if anyone is curious)

Today I got a call on my cell phone from United Airlines wondering how they could get one of Kyle's bags to him. Apparently the tags had all been ripped off and they never put it on the Lufthansa flight from Chicago to Germany. They had to go through his luggage, read his letters, and figured out his first name was Kyle (They could not find a last name) and then found my cell number in the suitcase. So they are sending his bag to Russia from Chicago. Kyle never realized it until he was in Russia. Then this morning he sent me 2 sentences via email stating he was there and what city he was going to serve in and he failed to mention the lost luggage. I called SLC and they told me to call the  mission office in Russia. That was an fun 4 minute call.  I found out from the Elder who answered the phone that they knew he was missing a bag and had filled out a missing baggage report. I let him know that United called me and Lufthansa would be bringing the bag to the mission office probably next week.

It has been a fun last few days. Kyle will be sending his first official email from Russia on Sunday night, which is Monday there.

I appreciate everyone's support.
Love, Kathy

Leaving for Russia

Since Kyle's MTC P-day is on Wednesday and he is flying out Tuesday June 21, then we will not be getting an email until he arrives in Russia later this week. He is busy packing and preparing for the flight, and hoping that he can take everything he has plus the many books he got in the MTC with him without leaving stuff behind due to luggage weight limitations.

Kyle wrote in one of his recent letters to me, that it seems like they have been in the MTC forever and permanent residents. He has watched the trees go from barren to green with blossoms and seen those blossoms fall. 

He will be traveling on Tuesday from SLC to Chicago, then to Frankfurt and Yekaterinburg. By the time he gets to Yekat it will be Thursday in Russia. The time difference from Vegas is 13 hours or 12 in the winter.

His new P-day will be Monday. Since our Sunday night is his Monday morning then I will be getting his email on Sundays and posting to the blog.

I have included information on how to write him in Russia on the right hand side of this blog. Basically it takes 2 weeks for letters and about 4 weeks for packages. The Yekat Mission said they have noticed lately that the USA Priority Mail arrives in 2 weeks if you are sending a package.

When Kyle writes handwritten letters home, he always writes that he appreciates all the support, letters, and packages that he has received from family and friends.  He was only able to write for a short time on his P-day, therefore he is still behind on sending letters and thank-you's but hopes to catch up soon.
He loves ya'll and so do we.