Hello all. So funny story - I actually had no idea that yesterday was easter. They don't celebrate Easter in Russia for a little while still. So happy Easter to all of you, I guess and you may get another happy Easter in a week or 2. Not exactly sure when. But, I was informed yesterday that on easter, people will say "Христос воскрес!"- " Christ resurrected" and it is expected that you reply by saying "воистину воскрес!" which I'm assuming means something like "indeed, he's resurrected". Just incase any of you were wondering about the subject line of this weeks email.
Well this was a pretty exciting week I suppose. First off, I got a new companion because Elder Eady was hit by a car while we were crossing the road last week and was sent to the hospital in St. Petersburg and they found some other internal issues as a result of the accident was sent back to the U.S. for some sort of intense surgery. Anyways, my new companion is Elder Read. I don't actually know anything about him since its the first of April which means April fool's day and Elder Eady is actually still sitting at the computer next to me and was never hit by anysort of moving vehicle. :) But we did get transfer calls this week and Elder Read will be my new companion on Wednesday. And we are staying in Gatchina. So there's that. Should be good, I've only seen him in passing once so I don't really know who he is at all or what he looks like. I was only told that I've seen him in passing and a specific time and place was cited so I'm going to believe. Apparently he's pretty awesome though I'm looking forward to it.
Other exciting news. On Wednesday we were walking home and were stopped by 2 girls who thought what we were doing was ridiculous. I imagine they thought we should be hanging out with them or something of the like. But they both took our book of Mormons and took a picture with us. Then their friends saw them talking to us and kept driving around us just watching. Sometimes I feel like a little bit of a zoo animal here. It's like people stare at us walk down the street, but no one will actually come up and talk to us, but I see people staring from across the street all the time. Then when someone does talk to us, their friends all kind of watch from a distance. It almost feels like a "he touched the butt" moment from Finding Nemo. Kind of amusing to watch. Like talking to the missionaries on the street is something people dare eachother to do with their friends and then when they actually do, they all just watch and stare at eachother in disbelief that the person "dared" really came up to talk to us. So that was that. It took forever to get away from them. They kept asking if they could follow us home... creepy.
Then on Thursday we had the best meeting I've been too! It was a referral from a member in another area. And this guy came! He's so awesome! His name is Иван. He's 22 and studying some business thing I think, and has already served in the army for a year. Super great guy. We gave him the whole first lesson and it went so awesome! He understood and asked really good questions. Just so awesome. Then he was supposed to come to church yesterday, but when we called him Saturday night, he said something came up and he had to go to Peter for some training thing,but he'd come next week. I hope things work out cause he's super awesome. We'll see.
Then Saturday we went over to this girls house (a referral from the sister missionaries in another area). She wanted help with translating some things into English for a class. She had just gotten out of the hospital after being there for 4 months because of depression (she's had a lot of people/pets die in the past 6 months). We visited her and her mom and her mom's friend came over too so there would be another male there. I don't think he liked us much at the beginning, but by the end he did, and we were able to get his number and invite him to church and what not. They said they want us to help the daughter Оля first and then they will start coming to church with us. They let us give a little spiritual thought and what not, and are so excited for us to come back again. And the friend who was there also wants to come back everytime we do. It was so great! Great week overall.
There is this thing that peope always say to us "Я обязательно прийду" Which basically translates to I will absolutely come. However, when it is said to missionaries, I'm starting to think that it means something more along the lines of "go away, I'm tired of talking to you." People ALWAYS tell us this and NEVER come.. or answer their phones. So it's nice when we meet people like Иван and Оля. Wow, you all got quite a russian lesson today.. Lucky you!
Oh yes, last night we went over to the Ильины again and spent the evening over there. They played some instruments for us and fed us and we watched a little video about Christ for easter and everything. Super awesome. They're so cool! And on the way home, we were going to be late so we got in this little van that had a paper in the window that said Гатчина so some random guy drove us all the way back to the train station by our appartment. (This family live a couple towns away). So my first experience in one of these shady unofficial taxi's - kinda fun. I survived, so nothing to worry about.
Hope you all had a great week as well!!
love,
Elder Robison
Well this was a pretty exciting week I suppose. First off, I got a new companion because Elder Eady was hit by a car while we were crossing the road last week and was sent to the hospital in St. Petersburg and they found some other internal issues as a result of the accident was sent back to the U.S. for some sort of intense surgery. Anyways, my new companion is Elder Read. I don't actually know anything about him since its the first of April which means April fool's day and Elder Eady is actually still sitting at the computer next to me and was never hit by anysort of moving vehicle. :) But we did get transfer calls this week and Elder Read will be my new companion on Wednesday. And we are staying in Gatchina. So there's that. Should be good, I've only seen him in passing once so I don't really know who he is at all or what he looks like. I was only told that I've seen him in passing and a specific time and place was cited so I'm going to believe. Apparently he's pretty awesome though I'm looking forward to it.
Other exciting news. On Wednesday we were walking home and were stopped by 2 girls who thought what we were doing was ridiculous. I imagine they thought we should be hanging out with them or something of the like. But they both took our book of Mormons and took a picture with us. Then their friends saw them talking to us and kept driving around us just watching. Sometimes I feel like a little bit of a zoo animal here. It's like people stare at us walk down the street, but no one will actually come up and talk to us, but I see people staring from across the street all the time. Then when someone does talk to us, their friends all kind of watch from a distance. It almost feels like a "he touched the butt" moment from Finding Nemo. Kind of amusing to watch. Like talking to the missionaries on the street is something people dare eachother to do with their friends and then when they actually do, they all just watch and stare at eachother in disbelief that the person "dared" really came up to talk to us. So that was that. It took forever to get away from them. They kept asking if they could follow us home... creepy.
Then on Thursday we had the best meeting I've been too! It was a referral from a member in another area. And this guy came! He's so awesome! His name is Иван. He's 22 and studying some business thing I think, and has already served in the army for a year. Super great guy. We gave him the whole first lesson and it went so awesome! He understood and asked really good questions. Just so awesome. Then he was supposed to come to church yesterday, but when we called him Saturday night, he said something came up and he had to go to Peter for some training thing,but he'd come next week. I hope things work out cause he's super awesome. We'll see.
Then Saturday we went over to this girls house (a referral from the sister missionaries in another area). She wanted help with translating some things into English for a class. She had just gotten out of the hospital after being there for 4 months because of depression (she's had a lot of people/pets die in the past 6 months). We visited her and her mom and her mom's friend came over too so there would be another male there. I don't think he liked us much at the beginning, but by the end he did, and we were able to get his number and invite him to church and what not. They said they want us to help the daughter Оля first and then they will start coming to church with us. They let us give a little spiritual thought and what not, and are so excited for us to come back again. And the friend who was there also wants to come back everytime we do. It was so great! Great week overall.
There is this thing that peope always say to us "Я обязательно прийду" Which basically translates to I will absolutely come. However, when it is said to missionaries, I'm starting to think that it means something more along the lines of "go away, I'm tired of talking to you." People ALWAYS tell us this and NEVER come.. or answer their phones. So it's nice when we meet people like Иван and Оля. Wow, you all got quite a russian lesson today.. Lucky you!
Oh yes, last night we went over to the Ильины again and spent the evening over there. They played some instruments for us and fed us and we watched a little video about Christ for easter and everything. Super awesome. They're so cool! And on the way home, we were going to be late so we got in this little van that had a paper in the window that said Гатчина so some random guy drove us all the way back to the train station by our appartment. (This family live a couple towns away). So my first experience in one of these shady unofficial taxi's - kinda fun. I survived, so nothing to worry about.
Hope you all had a great week as well!!
love,
Elder Robison
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| Park outside the Palace |
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| Side of the Palace |
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| Russian Street Sign |
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