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

Chilling in Chely

Hello from the wonderful city of Chelyabinsk!

I arrived here late Wednesday night with Elder A, Elder K, and Elder S. We gathered our luggage from our five hour bus ride on the nice pot hole filled Russian highway and called for a taxi to pick us up to take us to our apartment. At first, I thought that we were living with the elders in centre for the night but it ended up with us living there until Sunday.

Immediately, Elder S and I had a huge list of things to do as zone leaders here in Chelyabinsk. From Wednesday onward we bought a new apartment, moved into the new apartment, now setting up the apartment, did zone class, met with a few investigators, been on the phone constantly, and sat in on a two-hour branch council meeting. Yeah!! Ha-ha (Almost forgot weekly planning! whoo hoo) It is a super awesome apartment and we set the goal to fix up the apartment and to DO WORK!! We have begun the process of 'whitewashing' the area and have met with many people who have been investigating the church.

Getting used to the new bus routes and city layout has been nothing but funny to us. This last week I got us lost about 3 times. We were coming back from a meeting in our new area and I believed that a certain bus had the bus stop that we were looking for, but we ended up in the outskirts of town and asking for directions. I am horrible at my way around for a while but I become a pro. Ha-ha.  After zone class, we had a finding activity and I got to go on splits with my MTC companion, Elder P and go contacting the streets here in Chely and got two awesome street meetings and some promising potential investigators. It was cool to see how far our language has come since the MTC!   We finally got moved in last night after filling our suitcases with stuff that we needed and hauling them onto the bus!  I hate moving!! Ha-ha. We realized then that our water filter connections need another adapter and so last night we had half a liter of water and a couple of oranges to live off!  Today we will fix that!

LOVE YALL!

IT is ALL ABOUT CHELY BABY!

Elder LeFevre

It is one big ice rink here !

Hello to everyone from the frozen tundra of the Urals!! This past week has been super fun and exciting. Some of the experiences I had this week have been extremely amazing. Work, work and more work! FUN FUN FUN!!

Not too long ago Elder Y and I went tracting in our own apartment building and we found an amazing young couple and their daughter who were super excited to see us knock on their door. They took a Book of Mormon and we felt like we needed to stop by and meet with them to get some more information and set up a legitimate meeting. By doing so, we were welcomed by smiling faces and eyes that showed their interest in our message. They took a Family Proclamation and they said that they read it all and loved what was in the statement of the First Presidency of our church. Tonight, we have a meeting with them and I am SUPER SUPER excited to teach them. (Yes, more exciting then a Super Snickers.)

Our other investigator this last week is an elderly man who arrived in his old war uniform for our lesson and like always tries to talk about politics and stories of the Soviet Union! After every meeting with him, I just get the biggest headache of trying to comprehend the Russian! Another man that we have been teaching understands and knows some English and is a Physicist. He is super cool and gives me to a chance build my vocabulary in order to talk about the topics I love such as cars, science, and the gospel! (конечно) We had a difficult meeting, however, with him due to us trying to help him recognize that there is a God and that he has a plan for everyone of us. He does exist and I know that he cares about us. It has been extremely difficult to teach this subject. For example, when someone shares a food that they really love and at first you say, "Bro, that is gross!" However, after trying it and tasting the food you love it and it becomes one of your favorite meals as well. (Btw the hot sauce is gone!!! ALERT!)

One night while we were planning, we received a call from an investigator whom the sisters passed to us through a street meeting and had read the chapters we have given him and had some questions. He is Muslim and our meetings have been expanding my knowledge of that culture and their beliefs. Him and his friends were interested in meeting with us and we arrived on the construction site at the meeting place. They came out and it was as if I was saying hello to a good friend of mine. They were super cool! We had the meeting in the living quarters of the construction site. We sat and had tea and discussed the beliefs we shared and why our message is different.

Finally, at the end of the week we anticipated transfer calls and President said, "Well, Elder we are going to put you in Chelyabinsk as zone leader!" WHOO I am excited to serve with Elder S there in helping the missionaries and the work move forward! This past week as a mission, we had 3 baptisms towards our goal of 91, SWEET !!  One of them was from a family that Elder Haag and I started to teach. SO COOL! LOVE YOU ALL AND DON"T ALLOW THE COLD WEATHER GET TO YA!! Ha-ha-ha. You should have seen my companion and I last night as we carried a mattress down the street from the sister's apartment to ours at 8:30 at night!  The whole earth is one big ice rink here!

Love you all,

Elder LeFevre

"Dan Jones's"

Alright, so have you ever breathed in and felt your nostrils just stick due to the cold weather?! Ha-ha This past week was full of great weather and awesome experiences here as a missionary. Lately, we have been meeting with a Muslim man who has been interested in our message and what makes us different between all other religions that believe in Christ as well. We have had two meetings and they have been both on the street. Elder B had to leave for a visa trip on Tuesday last week and therefore had the opportunity of being in a companionship of three again for the day! We hopped out of the small bus on the side of the road and exchanged greetings and began to talk about our lesson on the ministry of Christ and his Atonement. It turns out that he is from Uzbekistan and knows some Russian and reads Arabic. We were grateful to learn more about his faith and we might be able to meet further with him in the future if it is not at the mosque. (He had invited us to a mosque to just walk around and see the inside.) But the funny thing was that my other companions were freezing because we stood outside for about forty minutes in the shade and as I took my hands out of my pockets to turn the pages of the Book of Mormon, you could see steam arise from them!! AGHHH COLD! I felt like member on the Fantastic 4 who can create fire! Ha-ha

Our other investigators are doing well and are progressing. They both came to church yesterday after talking about how important the Sabbath Day is to us and to the Lord. I love the miracles that I see everyday here as I put forth effort in finding those to teach and sharing a simple smile or even the gospel to a whole bus through words or through song.

This past week as a district we have been striving to accomplish the goal which we set to do 12 "Dan Jones's" a week as a district, which means to stand in the front of the bus and announce who you are and why we are here as missionaries. I did this twice last week and I about DIED of heart attack, but after a few minutes I felt like taking on the world! Got me PUMPED!! Then on splits we went into the trams and sang hymns to everyone, who for the most part liked what we were doing and were very interested. Now, of course there were other opinions, which included the driver getting on the speaker after two seconds and saying, "NO SINGING!" ha-ha,  It still got everyone's attention and aloud us to go down the tram and talk to people, who praised us for our good voices! (I didn't know that I was that good! ;P) We proceeded in doing the caroling and then we got onto another bus where a couple of people were quite unhappy that we were not a part of their church and said that it would be better for us to exit.

I am not afraid to talk in front of anyone. I love my area!! Elder and I have been working hard and have enjoyed all the incidents we have experienced including setting a new record of having had two beds break in half so far on my mission and having to remodel the bed.

Thank you for the mail and for the Christmas cards. I really enjoyed the candy and the AMAZING Norwegian chocolate with the waffles and sea salt in it. SUPER GOOD! The Christmas card was great too, thanks to Astrid's family!!

LOVE YOU ALL!! 

Elder LeFevre

Happy New Year

Elder Y, Elder Z, and I had a blast for our days in during New Years a week ago! We made a big dinner of mash potatoes, steak, salad, fruit, sparkling cider, кока кола, and ice cream! It was so good but I was sick from eating too much. We stayed up until midnight and got to see to massive amounts of fireworks blasting in the air all around us, which sounded like a war movie with surround sound. Plus, we got to watch "It's a Wonderful Life!" BOMB!! 

After our day in we only had a few more days left with Elder Z until he went home and decided to do something special for his last P-day. Thanks to Bro. D, the members and us went to the monument located not too far outside of Yekaterinburg (кразна комск) to take some pictures of the massive monument that marks the line between Europe and Asia. Afterwards, we went ice-skating again and this time I didn't fall and the members taught me a few good tips! Then we celebrated the birthday of Elder B at McDonalds...YEAH YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS!!   We did the Ochocinco challenge, which is two big macs, large fry, and a large Coke! Unfortunately, I didn't participate, due to the knowledge I had obtained from previous trips! ROLL ME OUT!! Ha-ha

Later on that day, we met with one our progressing investigators at his awesome apartment near our apartment building. We had a great meeting and we are going to meet with him again tonight. This past week went by really quick and it is almost the end of the transfer and I have survived conducting district classes and helping the missionaries in my district. I love my calling!  We lately have been tracting in our apartment building with 18 stories and it has been quite a good experience. The first night we dropped off Elder Z and came back and none of our appointments worked out and I immediately got the impression lets tract the apartment building, so we did. It was good, and we received some potential investigators out of it and a couple of lessons! I love getting the nice breeze of some doors slamming and some of the reactions people give. I don't know why I like it, but I figured that I am doing what I was called to do and preach the gospel to the people. Plus it was hilarious to have one guy open up and just make the "doh!" noise Homer Simpson makes as soon as he looked at our nametags! Ha-ha

Just last night, I had one of the coolest meetings where I got to see physical evidence of someone deciding to make a change in their repentance process. Someone has been through a lot and as a result became inactive and a few issues. Over time they have had some relapses, but we kept teaching the five principles taught by Elder Todd Christofferson this last conference. We focused on change and we knew about his trials and what he needed to do. That day two members had visited him with a card and he decided to go out and get ready for church. In doing so he bought some pants, suit and brought out his ties. That night, when we visited him he was sober and we beared testimony on change in our lives and the steps needed to be taken. That is when he turned to Elder Y, after he said he had sinned, and said, "UNDERSTAND!" (HEAVY RUSSIAN ACCENT HERE) He handed over his materials and we broke and destroyed them and threw them out! I felt like I just did a 'flying knee' into Satan's jaw! I am glad to see him get rid of the junk he had! So the work continues this next year and I am hoping to breathe without the inside of my nose being frozen and for the sun to shine some more because if we are doing that tanning contest this year I am so, so, so white!! Ha-ha

LOVE YA!!

Elder LeFevre

New Year

Привет всем!! С Новым Годом! Hello to Everyone and Happy New Year. The streets are becoming scarce of people, which have roamed them in the past as the New Year approaches. After our meetings it is common to see people pulling a sled of party supplies and tons of food! It was weird for me at first to see how this holiday means so much to everyone here, because for me in the past the New Year just happened. Ha-ha. Looking back on last year's celebration, I am glad that there is no such thing as Dominos Pizza! Ha-ha-ha (Kyle and Jon got sick last year eating Dominos)

We have been stocking up on food for the next few days, as we will be in, starting today at 4pm! We are trying to get a game of Risk for us. (It is a blessing that there are 3 of us since we have to stay in for almost 3 days.)

This past week we met with someone, who is just hilarious in general due to their belief that plural marriage is all right! Ha-ha. NO WAY BRO!! I only understand so much but something’s I catch. Ha-ha. Elder Ж and I had to explain why that is wrong and it was super easy to do. I realized how straight forward I needed to be with people that I converse with and that most of the time, they will not be offended.

As you all know, I am district leader and I had the opportunity to conduct a district class for the first time yesterday and I learned many lessons on being a leader and in charge as you may say. So I made sure to tell everyone about the meeting way in advance and that we will be setting goals for our district, but I didn't specify the place. Previously, Yekaterinburg had been meeting at the mission office to do Zone Class, but now we have districts. As you may see this can complicate things and so it did. The assistants thought we were meeting at our branch and had called me to clarify and I totally forgot to clarify the place for the sisters. In doing so we showed up at the branch and got ready and awaited everyone. The assistants were going to be late, and canceled 15 minutes past the time appointed due to the commuting time, then the sisters called and asked where were we. They had gone to the office, which was closer to the assistants, so we thought for a second and concluded in order to make this happen and allow enough time to have district class yesterday we were going to need to take a taxi. So I began to call all the taxi companies, and one by one they replied that they were busy and had no cars!! It was a nightmare. So we went to the bus stop and Elder Z flagged down a car. We hopped in and asked what would be the price to drive to the location of the office fast, he replied, "300p!" For sure we took that deal! Ha-ha. So all in all, you never can give too many details about a planned activity or meeting. Lack of communication causes the most headaches! Ha-ha.

Today we will be giving a blessing and taking this time to reflect upon the New Year and making plans for the New Year! (GOALS!! WHOOO!) I will follow through with them...hopefully!

Love you all! Я люблю каждого из вас!!

Старейшина Лефевр