Week 24: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everybody!!!

This week was good. We had about 12 lessons with investigators and a lot of plans with them but 9 of them fell through. Super frustrating but it's fine. We had a branch Christmas party on Saturday and it was going to be so good. We had planned on about 30 people coming and lots of investigators and potentials coming. It turned out that we had 11 people total and only 1 potential show up. The rest members and us. The food showed up 2 hours late so instead of starting at 6, we started at 8. It was kind of awkward for the first hour just waiting for the food but then we just started to pull out games and played chess and ping pong. It wasn't bad though. The next day at church I was the conductor of the meeting and I did an okay job. But then when the branch president gave his talk he asked me to translate because he doesn't speak Russian. So I translated for the guy and his talk. It was terrible but a good learning experience. After sacrament meeting we just decided to eat the left overs from the party the night before so that was our second hour. 

I am so glad that I have the opportunity to be here is Russia to teach people about Jesus Christ around a time that we celebrate his birth, even though they don't really celebrate it here. I know that the work that I am doing here is true and that if we turn to Christ we can solve any problem that we have with enough faith. I love this gospel and I love how it just makes sense!

Merry Christmas Everyone 

Love you all!

с Любовью,

Старейшина М Франсковияк

Week 23: это самое

это самое.

   This week was good. We had Zone Conference and President Miner took us to an Italian restaurant after. It was so good. Before Zone Conference I went on a split with another greenie. The only thing we did was go and talk to people for 2 hours. By doing such we got 2 contacts! One of our investigators that we have been working with has accepted the invitation to be baptized but hasn't been to church yet because he goes to his parent's house every weekend to help them out. He said that he would come this week though so pray for that guy! This week at church we had 5 people show up. And Elder Williams and I were 2 of them. The new branch president didn't come because he was sick. No worries though. Elder Williams is the 1st counselor in the branch and I am the 2nd counselor.  This calling really keeps us busy. 

ничего страшного.

Я люблю всех

Elder Franckowiak

 

 

 

Week 22: чего?

Yeah,

So this week has kind of been all over the place as well. We went to Volgograd to get the rest of our stuff and so we could take it back to Astrakhan and while we were there the land lady freaked out at us and said that we needed to pay for last months rent but we thought we already did. We told her that we would pay later and so we are going to. We had a couple of lessons this week. Most of them were in English but one lesson was being translated to Portuguese. This African brought in his friend and said that he wants to follow Jesus Christ but he doesn't speak English or Russian so we just had the African translate for us. We gave him a Portuguese Book of Mormon and committed him to read and pray about it. He said yes. I don't know how out next meetings are going to go but we will probably need a translator for all of the lessons. We'll find out soon. Please pray for these investigators. We just need to start the fire in their souls.

Love you all have a great week

Elder M Franckowiak

Hey, I will try and not stress as hard at the language as I was. This investigator gave us a 2018, world cup, rubles. They aren't on the market yet,... I don't know where he got them but I'm not mad. 

I have not bought a new coat and probably won't unless it gets to -10 C. 

Yeah I got that 100 things we love about you. I have opened some birthday presents, but no Christmas Day ones. I didn't know if I was suppose to open the birthday ones yet so I just did anyway. 

The cold is for the most part bearable. I wish I was in St. Pete though so I could say I dealt with true coldness. But it's not bad. Yeah we are actually in Volgograd right now because we have zone conference on Wednesday but we thought we had it on Tuesday. We

take night trains and honestly it's not bad. It's better then just sitting down for 6 hours and slowly losing your mind. It's all good. But yes, I think we are just going to stay in Astrakhan.

Week 21: Fam and friends

Hello,

Sorry for not sending pictures last week. But this week was crazy. It started with a train ride to Rostov. I spent the night there and met my new companion then took an 8 hour bus ride up to Volgograd. We spent the night there and that day we worked on planning and stuff like that. That night we took a night train to Astrakhan. When we arrived, we got in a taxi and headed straight to Kazakhstan to renew our visas. Finally, later that day, we made it to our final resting place. It was a pretty long travel period. The time zone here is an hour ahead of everywhere else here in the mission. We might have to split our time here and Volgograd but we might just end up staying here in Astrakhan because there is more work to be done here.  We will have to go back and get the rest of our stuff. 

We had 3 lessons this week even with all the traveling that took place which is way good for these areas. With 2 of them, they just wanted to practice their English with us so they came over to the branch and it somehow changed to the gospel. Needless to say, we have 2 new investigators. 

And thank you so much family for the package!! Elder Williams and I are very grateful for it. I also love the tree and pictures!

Elder M Franckowiak

 

Yo, I hope you liked the pictures. We are going to try and take more pictures. On the real though thank you so much for the package! And the tree and the pictures. Comp is good, I have to be patient some times though but I think that it's getting better.

The weather is pretty cold but I know it could be a lot colder. It snowed a lot when we were in Volgograd for that day. It apparently doesn't snow much here, but it snowed last week because there is still snow here and it hasn't melted yet. 

We had 20 at church and I guess that is the most they have had in a long time. 

My Russian is slowly getting better and it is getting easier to memorize words. I want to be so good at Russian but I feel like it's not coming to me. I know you guys said don't stress about the language but honestly it's super stressful. I see volunteers out here that have been out for a long time and there Russian is kind of dece. I don't want to be like that. I want my Russian to be good and to not have an accent, you feel me. It's all good though.

Well love you guys. I asked Zack what time to Skype on Christmas because the time zone here is 1 hour ahead.

Tell the fam I know how it feels to have my phone taken away but it's more worth it to follow your rules then to have no phone!!! hahah

Love you guys!!

Week 20: I'm getting transferred

Hello All,

We just got transfer calls and I'm going to Astrakhan, which will take three days to arrive there. It's basically the middle east and it is also way cold there. This is an area where it's basically only Africans in the branch. I hear there are about 20 Africans and 3 Russians. It's going to be so fun. I'm going to be serving with Elder Williams.   Yesterday we had 3 baptisms that the sister missionaries have been working with.  A mother and her 8 year old daughter and a young man named Aren.   The language is still coming along. When people talk to me I understand a lot of what they are saying but I sometimes don't understand if they are asking me a question and what the question is.  So I just say да (yes). And then they say something like, oh I'll just go ask Elder Altuhov. haha It's funny sometimes.

I hope you have a great week!  Love you all.

I'm going to Astrakhan man. Wish me luck!!

Elder Franckowiak

Week 19: Zone Conference

Good Morning,

This week was the week of Zone Conference. We had the Sochi Elders come up 3 days early and stay with us because a train wasn't available until after Zone Conference. The second day they were here the Crimea Elders came and we decided to do some splits. I went with the greenie Elder down there and a Russian Elder. It was cool because we basically did service all day, like digging and raking and sweeping the grass. It was pretty cool and it was all worth it. I destroyed my foot on one of the shovels but its okay. My foot will only hurt for a couple of weeks. 

This week we didn't have a lot of lessons with investigators but this upcoming week we should be doing a lot more of that. 

"Wickedness never was happiness"

Elder M Franckowiak

 

Week 18: он сказал до свидания

дорогие братья и сёстры,

We had a good week and it was kind of all over the place. I went on another split with a missionary who has been out 6 weeks less than me. But it was in our area so it was more intense. We had two lessons set up and I didn't even know how to get there. But the lesson went well and we got there only 15 minutes late. The second guy we went to was also good except we were only an hour late to his house. We went to this small shop that sells goods and when I was buying something she asked for my passport. I showed it to her and she saw that I was American. We talked for like 2 minutes and in the end she told me that my Russian sucks. hahah.

The guy that was suppose to get baptized last week didn't. He texted us and said that he doesn't think that this church is for him. He brought his girlfriend when he was regularly coming and they broke up. So his girlfriend is coming but he stopped. It's all about planting seeds. It's sad to see him go though.

I also gave a blessing in Russian yesterday. It was so bad. haha.

Love this gospel and its blessings!

Elder M Franckowiak

Week 17: Two Months in Russia!

Hey Everyone,

This week was another good one. We got 2 more investigators this week. We taught them the restoration and they both spoke good enough English so we taught them mostly in English. It went really well and they both seemed really interested in the Book of Mormon. We committed them to reading the Book of Mormon and they said they would. Our African investigator, Frank, was baptized on Saturday. We told him the service was going to be at 6 o'clock on Saturday. At around 9 am we get a phone call from him saying that he was there at the church at 6 am and waited outside in the cold for 45 minutes but no one came. We told him that it was at 6 pm and he just laughed. I had the opportunity to confirm him a member of the church on Sunday. I was way nervous but I guess it went pretty well. The senior couple Elder got to baptize him because he would sit in on most of our lessons and that is who he wanted to baptize him. 

One of our investigators has a baptism date for Nov 11th. He is the one that just showed up at church and has come almost every time since.

I also can't believe that my brother is 21 years old today. It blows my mind. 

Love the church and the blessings it brings!

Elder M Franckowiak

Week 16: WOw

Hello everyone,

This week was a good one. We got 2 new investigators this week. One of them we met at a bookstore when we were just speaking English. He came up to us and started speaking English. We asked him if he likes ping pong and lo and behold he is our investigator. The other one came to the church and told us that he wants his kid to grow up with some good friends and how he feels like there is a piece missing in his soul. Well, he came to the right place. Our investigators are so strong and they were definitely prepared by the Lord. I started to learn how to play chess and I can just say that I still suck but I'm getting better. 

On Thursday we went to Rostov because my companion had MLC so I had to go on splits. It ended up being a trio. I was with 2 elders who came from the MTC a week and a half ago. LIGIT that was an experience. I was the man of the house there. While trying to track down a less active, this guy told us to leave and I understood it but the two other elders didn't.  I was trying to get them to leave because they were just standing there. We never found that family but it was a good experience.

Love everyone- keep doing good things!

Elder M Franckowiak

 

 

Week 15: zdrasvute

Hello everyone,

This week was a good week.  I got a new companion. His name is Elder Altohov and he was actually born in Latvia. He moved to the United States when he was 5 though. 

Our baptismal date is now set for November 4th for one of our investigators who is from Africa. We still have to fit in a couple more lessons with him before his baptism. We have also been working really hard to make the branch more self reliant and try to help them ask other members for help as well. I hope that goes well.

I think that that is basically it.

Elder M Franckowiak

Week 14: Transfers

Hey family. I don't have a lot of time this week so I won't be sending a group email. It was a good week. We have a baptism date for the 28 of October for one of our Africans. The weather is definently getting colder. Went to Armania this week and it was dope. I loved it. We had fried ice cream. My companion will be Elder Altohove. My trainer trained Elder Altahove as well. I'm staying here in Krasnodar though. 

Love you guys, sorry I'm out of time!!

Elder Franckowiak