Week 47: футбол

This week we had a plan to meet with a potential and play soccer with him and all the Africans. We even had a few members show up because they were with us before we went and they wanted to come and play soccer with us. We got wrecked by all the Africans. They are all so good. Even the Russians that actually play soccer got wrecked by them. While we were there a guy came and he didn't look like he was African or Russian. We asked him where he was from and he said Egypt. Which is still Africa of course. We got his number and he came to game night. He had a fun time and he even accepted a Book of Mormon in English. We didn't have any in Arabic. (we had a lot of Arabic Books of Mormon in Astrakhan.) So we will give that to him soon.

I know that the Lord works in mysterious ways.

Elder M Franckowiak

Week 45: Baptism!!

This week was a pretty normal week but it was also transfer week. We went to Kazakhstan through Astrakhan and stayed in Astrakhan while we were waiting for our train that night. The elders there had set up a branch cleaning at 5pm. We all went there and I was able to see and talk to all my past friends. It was so cool talking with Alexei and to see the progress that he has made in the past 6 weeks that I have been gone. He is already ready to receive the higher priesthood. I also got to see and talk to the branch president down there. The one from Chile. He is such a good guy.

We also had a baptism on Saturday. The sisters passed him off to us about 5 weeks ago. The cool thing was, he knew that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a true prophet but he said that he wanted to get baptized in the Autumn. We laughed and taught him a few things about procrastinating the day of your repentance and got him to commit to a date. Such a cool story.

Nothing else though, except the atonement of Jesus Christ is the only means by which we can be saved. то есть the Savior had descended below all things.

то есть он жив

Elder Franckowiak

Week 44: Mother's Day

Week 43: Христос

Friends and family,

 This week was good. We had some pretty powerful lessons with some less actives and have seen some progress with them through the lessons. With this one guy that we met with, we talked about how we can acquire faith and how this life is the time to prepare to meet God. It was pretty powerful. But in the end he told us that he has no desire.... что делать? 

Love Russians. They are so funny and so straight up to you. I love it though. "how long have you been out?" "about 10 months" " oh wow, your Russian sucks. You should be a lot better." It's so humbling. haha

Mans heart shall fail them.

Он Жив

Старейшина Франсковияк

Week 42: Emergency Transfers

Fam and Friends,

Another good week and it was also zone conference week. The main topic from the president was D&C 76... gotta love it. The rest of the topics were about loving the people and loving Russian. I really like these topics because they motivate me to work harder and to be a better person Вообще.

One of my companions is getting emergency transferred because some elders in Sochi could not handle each other. So Elder Page, is going to Astrakhan... the place where I just came from.

We got a new investigator from the sisters this week and we had a really good lesson. In the end we invited him to be baptized on the 5th of May and he said yes. It probably won't happen on the 5th, it will probably be on the 12th. Either way, I am so excited to get to know this guy because this guy is funny. It's cool to see how much he really wants this gospel in his life and how much he knows it's true. One thing he said though is that he wants to be baptized in autumn....... hahahahha why? I love Russians.

Он жив!

Elder Franckowiak

Week 41: Волжский

 

Hello всем

This week Elder Page and I went to Volzhski to do a split with a Russian. We met with someone on the first day who had some very interesting ideas about people who are good and people who are bad. He gave us an object lesson and it left me and Elder Page dying. Just the examples he used for his demonstration were funny. The next day we did service for 4 hours at the guy's house. He was so weird and has been an investigator for 12 years. He got a girlfriend and then she got baptized before he did. But we put up insulation on the outside of this guy's house.  We raked his garden and pulled out all of the old strawberry leaves. We went inside his house and ate cold chicken legs that were good...... and the Russian and the investigator, we were serving, made a homemade balcony so they could stand on it to do some stuff with an indoor cooling system for the summer. He went in the room, hit his electricity power line things with a wrench and said "it should stop acting up now". Really good experience to say the least.

I love serving people and we can always see the joy that comes from the people after we serve them.

still no pictures, i gave up on this place.

Он ещё жив

Страрейшина м Франсковияк

Week 40: Я... это самое

Все,

This week has been an interesting one. We met with a few recent converts and some less actives. Pretty average week actually.

We went on a finding activity though and happened to stumble upon a basketball court with a group of three playing. We decided to challenge the boys because we are in a trio. We sadly beat them by an exceedingly high number. The whole goal was to get their numbers in the end and be friends but they were hesitant to do so. But they wanted to play again. So a few days later we came back and played them again but this time there was a guy who looked like he actually played basketball. Turns out that he did, but a year ago he tore his ACL or something and is now just starting to come back. Needless to say though, we beat them by an exceedingly high amount. And they wouldn't give us their numbers again. I've gotten used to playing basketball in church clothes though.

Other then that nothing really happened. But the work must go forward. Basically what I'm trying to say is that the church is true.

Elder Franckowiak

No pictures again, there is no place to download pictures on the computers in the new area

Week 39: VOLGOGRAD

Hello my dear братья и сёстри,

This week has been one to be completely covered in the journal. I had to say goodbye to all the people in Astrakhan that I had grown so close to (not very many people). My favorite person was the branch president from Chile. We spent so much time with him and he taught us so much spiritually and worldly (like world news). I finally left Astrakhan on Friday night and I took a night train to Volgograd. Alexei, the guy I baptized, was at the train station waiting for me. We talked and he almost shed a few tears as he thanked me for being there with him through his journey. We got here on Saturday morning and we had to go straight to the branch.

My new companions are great! They are keeping me motivated to eat well and exercise. That is definitely what I have been needing for the past few transfers. When there's no motivation, there's no activation. по крайней мере для меня.

General Conference was good and I am excited to implement it into my own life. And I am so grateful that I have a Savior who was willing to take upon himself the sins of everybody so we have the opportunity to return to our Father in Heaven again.

ОН... это самое... ЖИВ!!!!

стрейшина Францковьяк 

Week 38: Transfers

Yaint

I am also excited to hear about the announcement that there will be a temple built here in Russia. I haven't been able to watch it yet but the AP called this morning and when I answered he yelled for 10 seconds and then told us the news. That is going to be such a blessing for the people here in Russia!

This week was good though. One of the days we met with a potential and had a lesson with an investigator right after. The potential didn't leave after we met with him and some random guy walked into the branch and stayed for the lesson with the investigator. So we taught all three of them at the same time. The random guy who just walked into the branch turned out to be a inactive who went to some other church because our church was "boring". Oh I'm sorry, I don't remember Jesus telling his disciples to make the church "hype" to please the carnal mind. не понял. мне надоело.

I am being transferred!! I am going up to Volgograd and I'm going to be in a trio. Elder Clemet, who is in his last transfer of his mission and Elder Page, my MTC companion. I am actually excited because I am going to be able to learn more Russian from Elder Clement.

-Strareshena Franskoviak

Week 37: прямой огонь

Dear Family and friends,

This week we started off in Volgograd and then came back to Astrakhan on Tuesday. Our 2 most progressing investigators fell of the face of the planet. One of then actually went to "Moscow" and the other one just has not been answering our calls at all. The one who went to "Moscow" was the one with a baptism date next week. It really is sad to see them drop off like that. 

We played basketball with an investigator though and that was pretty fun. 

I still have to translate every week when President Zamudio speaks. I can feel myself getting better at it. If I don't know how to say something, his wife will just blurt our what he says. So if something I say is just not understandable she will correct me. It's pretty funny.  With Spring around the corner, I don't have any allergies yet so that's good. 

Он Жив же!

Страрейшина М Франсковияк

Week 36: нечего не случился

Family and friends,

 This week was a little bit of a rough one. It started off good with zone conference. We then went back and a lot of our lessons cancelled on us. We did end up having a branch party on Saturday that I though was going to be a disaster but it actually turned out pretty good. We had 5 potentials or investigators there and they really enjoyed it. We found a guy on the street who turned out, he has had a really hard life and has turned to alcohol. He didn't come to church and we have no idea what happened to him but we will find out later. 

I don't have my camera on me so I will send pics next week.

Elder Franckowiak

 

Week 35: The Astrakhan

Hello family and friends,

This week was good. We gained 3 new investigators this week and we have a few more potentials that seem promising. The guy who just walked into church last week and told us that he wants to know more is actually really sincere. We have met with him twice and found out that his grandma lives in San Francisco and the rest of his family lives in a country that I didn't understand what he said. It's hard to understand what they are talking about when it gets to countries because it's not really something you study at this point in the mission. But he is here studying and apparently his grandma and family are members of the church. I will ask for more details later. But he has a baptismal date for the 31^st of March!!!!! That is the last Saturday of the transfer so if I get transferred I will still be here for it.

President and Sister Miner were in Астрахань this week and it was pretty good. We passed our apartment check and they took us out to lunch at the mall here. After walking around for 30 minutes being super indecisive, we just decided to eat at the McDonald's there. Haha. On Sunday I had to translate for President Miner and honestly it drained me and he was using a lot of terms and words that I didn't know how to say at all. It was good though. Then we had to give a lesson in priesthood and, not going to lie, it was so dry. But the point is, we got through it!

Я вас люблю

Ст Франсковияк

Week 34: Это случилось снова

 Дорогие братья и сёстры

This week was good. We had a few more lessons and we had a few meetings with potentials that were really weird. On Monday we were doing branch stuff on the computer and some random guy just walked into the branch and told us that he wanted to work on his English and his English accent and go to America and be a singer there. He was the all over the place and he could not stay focused at all. It was so funny and then we told him to read the Book of Mormon. He told us that his is a Muslim. There is still a chance though. On Sunday we were almost done with testimony meeting and some guy walked in and the president told me to go see what he wanted.  So I went over to him and he said he wants to know our ways.  So we will be teaching him the first lesson tonight. So many miracles have happened in this branch (small ward) since I've been here.  My new companion is good.  He is pretty good at Russian and we have really been working on our grammar.  I feel like it is already improving.  

Can't think of anything else that happened this week.

Love all

Старейшина М Франсковияк

 

Week 33: Же

Привет., Я это самое...

    This week was pretty good. I picked up my new companion and we went back to Астрахань. We had a few plans cancel on Saturday and just decided to go finding for a few hours. We went to this boardwalk thing alongside the Volga river. And we just asked people why the river was called "The Volga" and we got 2 phone numbers out of it!! One of the guys was pretty energetic and he said he was drunk, a little, but that part is important when we ask them to stop drinking later haha. I'm excited to meet with him and the other guy who owns a motorcycle shop and has a lot of free time.

My comp is good. He reminds me a lot of my friend Jett. I feel like we are going to be really good friends. We are also going to put in the work for finding people because the teaching pool here hasn't been very big. Also, Elder Page and Whitaker, Elder Taylor and I traveled to Kazakhstan this week for a visa trip.  I sent some pictures of it.   

Our recent convert is good. He is growing really fast in the gospel. He is divorced and that kind of took a tole on him. 

Happy Birthday to Blake (on the 23rd) he turned 13 this year. 

And I hope everybody else has a good week as well. 

Он ещё жив

Старейшена М Франсковияк

 

Week 32: Transfers!!!

Dear everyone,

The call has come and I will be staying in Astrakhan but I will be getting a new companion. His name is Elder Taylor and he is from Utah county somewhere. He just barley got out of training so this next transfer will be quite the experience for us both.   And I would remind you that we will continue to be the branch counselors and the branch president does not speak any Russian! We have started to teach him some Russian but we have to start at ground 0. But this also means that we have to lead church and translate for him when he wants to speak. It is going to be a real growing experience for me. I am excited.

On Thursday I have a visa trip to Kazakhstan which was a blast last time I went. 

ask and ye shall receive

Elder Franckowiak 

Week 31: Baptism!!!!!!

Hello Family and Friends,

  It was a week of incredible blessings. This week we had a baptism in a hotel pool. The pool water was up to my neck when I did the baptism. It was such a cool experience. There were 7 people at the baptism including us, the missionaries. But, due to Russian laws, we are not allowed to send pictures of Russians at all. But I will send pictures of the hotel where we were.  Then yesterday at church he received the Holy Ghost. It was so cool to be here for his whole conversion and see him change. He really was searching for truth and he found what he was looking for. He is going to be a great addition to the branch here and I'm looking forward to seeing his continual growth. 

Love this church and all that it offers. 

Я тоже знаю что он жив!

Старейшина М Франсковияк