November 19, 2012

Guess who's back..back again. Winter is back..tell a friend!  My companion and I will be stepping on the accelerator spiritually in our efforts in the upcoming weeks before he gets on the plane back to America. It is going to be a great transfer. Just last night we had a miracle after a long day at church doing financial business and  contacting. We decided to call the potential sheet again and my companion stumbled upon a man that was contacted during the summer  that agreed to meet with us at the church that night! We definitely made the trip down back to the church as the temperature was quickly  dropping since the sun went down about 4:30 pm. I love the winter but unfortunately we arrived at the bus stop and had to wait.  He found us pacing on the ice and we quickly made our way to the church to teach the first lesson. We
found that he had read the Book of Mormon all the way through 3 Nephi and that he could tell us a nice summary of the the Joseph Smith  testimony in front of the book. I was in shock about how much knowledge was picked up after he has made only 3/4 of the way in the  Book of Mormon. We had a good meeting and he agreed to be baptized. Proves again that the Lord blesses those who stick it out and put forth faith through action. 

We got a new companionship of elders in  the city this last week and everything just started fitting into place with that as they are getting adjusted to the area that we had created  for them. Kurgan is hanging in there and we are seriously trying to get our investigators at church! "Just come to church!" The topic is gratitude for the month in the mission and we are hoping to knock the rest of the zones off their feet with our efforts.

I read a pretty awesome quote in my pamphlet that I received from Bro. Kaufman this last week about giving it all you got without showing an ounce of fear. It is a really big quote but talks about a man in the  ring fighting sweating and working hard basically to bring about achievement of that which he is trying to strive towards. The man has  no fear because if he fails while striving diligently at least he has done so daringly. That man will not be with those sad and timid souls  that knew neither victory nor defeat. Sorry if it doesn't make sense in my own words but I will be trying to memorize it after I have  translated it into Russian. In making this a reality in all that I am doing with my companion and personally we have seen the blessings of  receiving numbers off the street after the trial of our faith. we even set up a meeting the other day for tonight to meet with a lady to  discuss the first lesson with her and get her a baptismal date as
well. Why hold anything back?! As with any point in our lives I have  definitely realized the important council that has been given to us b  our beloved prophets and apostles about time. Where we spend the most  of our time is the greatest outward expression of where our heart
truly lies. I know that everything can be put into two categories. Is  this choice going to lead me to eternal happiness (life) or be lost among the counterfeits of the world. Nothing is impossible unless we  say it is. I know that to be true with all my heart. We will keep hoping upon the blessings that await us after we have done everything  necessary in our own hands. I am grateful for the many great examples that have surrounded me and are surrounding me. The Gospel is true.

LOVE YOU ALL!!

Elder LeFevre

November 12, 2012

So this past week was great. After Email last Monday we went to the bazaar and looked at some shopka made out of raccoon and fox fur. They were really cool and not too bad of a price. Maybe today I can talk them down. Later that night I went on splits with Elder A to contact and stop by a member to announce about invitation Sunday that we had yesterday. We stopped by the member’s house and led a lesson with the kids.  From that lesson we did receive a nice little referral from her that we will be trying to get in contact with.

Tuesday morning we with Elder Y left in a taxi that was actually a FORD and not a LADA to the Bokzal. We got there to catch the electric train to Yekaterinburg, but Elder Y didn't have a print out of his ticket and the lady behind the desk told us to work out the problem ourselves. We have great customer service here btw. I love it!!!  The train was scheduled to leave in five minutes. We ran across the tracks and the icy walkways to the train. Everything from that point on was a miracle. I showed the lady my ticket and she never did check Elder Young's ticket! The trip was a long hot ride for 6 1/2 hours to Yekat. Here in Russia you are never really at the right temperature you are either hot or cold throughout the year. 

We got to Zone Leader Council on time and had a great discussion on many topics and things that will change the mission for the better in the areas of our language skills and our finding activities. I was like a sponge just soaking it all up! Everything was just working out for me as well. Elder E found an apartment for the new elders that will be here soon this next Friday after training and traveling. Everyone is staying in Kurgan but we are glad and excited to receive Elders P and his new missionary who is Russian. Everyone basically in our mission is legit on every level. We came back from Yekaterinburg Wednesday midnight to catch up on some sleep but to leave on a bus to Tyumen because we would need to leave for the airport in Tyumen next morning early to make our flight to Moscow. I went on splits once again for the night to find people on the street and use the techniques that we learned at ZLC, which are great and helps with all of my communication skills. We talked to some nice people and got some numbers for the Tyumen elders to meet with.

My visa trip was short and sweet. I got some nice Karl Fazer dark chocolate with mint and I talked to a Finnish guy that was pretty awesome. I now know some Finnish...one or two words that is. Ha-ha. That language is ten times harder than anything I have seen and encountered. We came back to Tyumen Saturday morning after traveling for 24 hrs to catch up some sleep and then it was a 6 hour bus ride due to traffic coming out of Tyumen to Kurgan. We got to Kurgan and ate and stopped by our investigators that were close.

Sunday was a great day. We awoke and got ready for personal study and then went to wake up our investigator. We also went tracting that night and we might have a new investigator, who surprisingly believes in the same aspects of the gospel of Jesus Christ and our church and was very knowledgeable in many things in history. It about caused a little explosion in my head. 

 

That was my crazy week and I hope to get work done here in Kurgan this week!!

LOVE YOU ALL!Elder LeFevre

November 5, 2012

So many of you have probably heard about the protests going on in Russia against the church. The "in" day only affected Yekaterinburg. We have been warned and informed on procedures that  need to be taken if we encounter such confrontations but I am serving in such a small city that it is pretty much quiet. Of course there are  the occasional forms of telling us to go back to America. But those forms are harmless. All is going better here in Kurgan, as we  have been able to talk to some very cool people as we have been continuing to tract the apartment buildings. We stopped by one lady  that we contacted through the door and she invited us in to do a lesson and feed us some Russian pizza. She is a total animal lover and  I made sure to take out the pictures of me hunting and fishing to not offend her!  She was super nice and full of charity for everything  and she even battled to help her husband for thirty years to quit drinking and it worked out. She has seen the hand of God her life and  the blessings of choosing the right in never giving up on her husband. It was a good lesson and got her interested in learning more about the  church after going over Moroni 8 with her. While we were eating, she even took our shoes which were covered in mud from the dirty weather  and cleaned them for us! She is a shining example of one who puts others before herself always.

Instead of being stuck inside like the missionaries in Yekaterinburg, we had a fun filled day on splits with the assistants. They barely  made it out of Yekaterinburg to come on down to the big town Kurgan!  We had a good time contacting people in the cold rain and had  some good success. I learned a lot about planning specific goals. That night we had a successful activity in the place of English  conversation group. About thirty people came and we did watermelon
carving, scary stories, and eating doughnuts hanging from the ceiling  without hands. It was fun! I talked to about three people about the restoration and handed out pamphlets and Books of Mormon. People were  interested in our church and who we were. I will be sure to get some
pictures to you of the activity.

We had a couple of things left over to clean up the activity and did that at the weekly cleaning.  When we came the other day to do the cleaning there was a smell of sewage throughout the building and it was gross.  i looked in the bathroom and on the floor was stagnate water that had risen from the drains in the floor. We continued to clean after  identifying to the branch president the problem that had taken place. However after doing the second floor we made our way down to the  bottom after Sis. H came up telling us that the problem had worsened and that the flood was in the kitchen the baptismal font and  in the bathrooms. We mopped it all up and left the window open to continue to air it out. We came the next day to find that it didn't  smell too bad and that we could do church. I guess that Kurgan rests upon a swamp and that most of the rivers flow upstream. Therefore in a storm or snow melt it makes sense that water was coming out of the drains. I am glad Las Vegas is dry! ha-ha

We had a good week and had the opportunity of increasing our visits with our investigator who is preparing for baptism.  We hope that he will be ready.  I love you all and I pray for you. Have a good week!!

Love,

Elder LeFevre

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!

October 1, 2012

This past week was a definite challenge to see all of our investigators and how they are progressing. We invited people to be baptized and to attend church as well. We have about three investigators that we wanted to accept baptismal commitments, but instead are all thinking about the decision right now as we speak. We met with one of our investigator's last night at D's place and had dinner. He is doing way better and seems that we are in the good graces of his girlfriend again! YEAH! It is difficult, however, to find out what exactly to teach him. He has been taught many of the lessons already, but President R spent some time with me and my companion over to a new member this past weekend about inviting our investigators parents in on the discussions. A lot of things happened this past week while going about doing the Lord's work.

This past Wednesday, I went on splits with Elder H in Uralmash.  We had good time out in the rain stopping by less active members of the church and being successful with a few that opened the doors to us!! That area has a ton of potential to work with part member families it seems. As we were walking we stopped some pretty interesting people. The first man that we stopped was a guy named J, that is a weird name by the way in Russian. He had no pupil in his
right eye and had a hard time focusing his gaze upon us as we talked with him about the purpose of life. He was super cool. He had a problem with his eye sight to the point where he can only see heat signatures! We found one of the X-MEN!! We ended up inviting him to a meeting and one other promising man that we met on the street later that afternoon. We were walking in an older part of the city with apartment buildings that were built during the second world war when a Gothic man came walking up and We both said hello to him. He was super excited for the fact that we stopped to talk to him. He was a strong believer in his orthodox faith and blessed us as we left along our way to have a few meetings at the church with some investigators. I learned a lot from Elder H as he testified boldly promising people blessings in the time of our contacting. We also learned that you cannot start making doubts abut a person on the street before you talk to them because that is putting limitations on the Lord. It was a good learning experience for me and we had a great time.

Our new member's son is investigating the church right now at the age  of fourteen. We went with President R to meet with him and his dad. The son loves cross country skiing and cross country running according to this he has a billion medals and awards. He is a pretty awesome kid. We sat down and shared some banana bread with everyone and started to discuss the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit was super strong as the dad testified and as we pertained the lesson to him by comparing Jesus Christ to our coach in running the race of life. He was not read to answer our commitment to be baptized but said he will think about it. President was a good help on that lesson as well! (He is super awesome!) After the lesson V wanted to show us his new pet. He pulled out what looked like a small porcupine but was a hedgehog from his garden. It really had sharp spikes and he let the little creature curl up into a ball and held it with his hands. It was a sight to see. Later on the hedgehog escaped and ran into the corner but the house cat got a little too curious and got a bit hurt as well from the sharp spikes. Man that thing can growl too!!

We received transfer calls this past weekend as well and it looks like  I may need to pull out my winter gear early this year as I go to Siberia to serve in Kurgan!! I am super excited. Back in a smaller town with only two companionship's. You can't get more epic than that, and neither can the weather out there. I will be serving with Elder E and will be the zone leader with Elder Y in Tyumen. I cannot wait to experience that , which the Lord has in store for me there. Love you all and be sure to enjoy the warm weather!!

Love,
Elder LeFevre