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