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!!