9/27 - Transfer

All is well,

I received an email from a good friend this last week in which she commented that it is so good to have the gospel. To be in America. To have all that you have. She said that it sounded perhaps trite to say, but she is right. You have absolutely no idea how much you have until it has been taken away. Well. Most of the time. Every once in a while you realize how great you have it, just before you have it taken away.

I’m being transferred.

I feel like I only just arrived here in Kurgan. And in truth I have. I only came here six short weeks ago. I will miss so many people. I feel like I’ve gotten to know the people so much better in this city than in my last. Everyone from young Vovla – who’s toes I would pop just like my own little brothers. To Nina, that kind old lady. To even crazy Uri. Its so hard to meet so many people, come to love them, then leave so suddenly.

There are so many people here who are ready to receive the truth. One such person, who I mentioned last week, is ready to enter in fullness. Stanislav is about 40 years old I would guess. He came to his first meeting a few weeks back. And has come every week since. Even despite weird things that members keep saying to him. For example, his first week at church one member said “Can I call you brother? Future brother in the church?”
This last week, Stanislav had to come a little late and missed sacrament meeting. He had family problems he had to work out. But he did the best he could and made it to second and third hour. That same member of the church went up to Stanislav and said “Why were you late? Don’t you know that Sacrament meeting is the most important part of church?” I’ll give that member some credit and say that he is somewhat crazy, but that doesn’t make it easier for Stanislav. Luckily, that is not stopping or hindering his growth in the Church.
I feel it would be good to give a bit further background information on Stanislav before I go any further. Stanislav works as a detective for the police here in Russia. He is used to working with people who try and lie and deceive. And hence he has become very weary of deception. He has learned not to trust anyone. And I don’t blame him. His father was in the KGB, and hence he come from a hard background. You would think that such a hard past, he would not believe in God at all – in any higher force. And he used to not. He used to be like so many other Russian people, hard, cold, so tried and scarred that they won’t even try to reach for God.
But God has a way of preparing his children. A number of years ago Stanislav’s brother was hit by a tramvi (a sort of train bus) and almost died. Stanislav prayed for the first time in his life, and received a confirmation that everything would be okay. From there, Stanislav began doing everything in his power to find the truth. He investigated every church he could. He read the Qumran from cover to cover. Went to Muslim meetings. He read the bible cover to cover. Went to Russian Orthodox meetings. And many other churches in-between. But he never felt like he found what he was looking for.
He has searched and searched. Tried at tried to find that voice that once told him that everything would be okay – the voice that calmed and soothed his spirit. And he has finally found it. A few days ago, we were about to go to bed when the phone rang. It was Stanislav. He said he had just been reading and pondering. “I have a question” he said, “What do I have to do to be baptized?” He is ready. He has found what he’s been looking for.

Life for these people is not easy. It is hard. But the gospel makes it all better. Knowing that God lives. That he loves us. That we can have happiness in him, it makes it all better. It is the knowledge that every man and woman needs to make it through the trials of life.


My time here in Kurgan has been short. Truly this is a city of miracles. I’d love to stay here and continue to work with these people. But I go where I am called. Whereever you are, reach out. Share the gospel. The world needs to know that God lives, and cares about us enough to give us his Church, his Gospel, his way. Life is full of unknowns. But what we know. We know. Reach out, help others know. Nothing will bring them greater joy. And nothing will bring you greater joy than knowing you helped someone find the truth.

Love,
Elder Wilson

9/21 - Kurgan

Things were quite busy in Kurgan this week. We met with a lot of good people. Helped a lot of good people come closer to God. One such person is named Stan-e-slav. He is middle aged, quite an intelligent man, and has a desire to know truth. And he actually found us. He came to church last week without anybody inviting him. He’d just walked by a number of times and always wanted to know what we were all about. So he sat in on a meeting, and liked it enough to come back this week. Last week at church somebody gave him a copy of Our Heritage, and he’s already finished it. He’s begun the Book of Mormon and is loving it. I believe God has led this man to find the truth.
We met with Stan-e-slav after church and taught him about the Restoration. He already knew most of these things because of reading Our Heritage, but the spirit was still strong. He is so ready to receive the Gospel. We are excited to teach and work with him. I’ll keep you posted on his progress.

We also went to work on a Dotcha this week. A huge amount of people here in Russia own Dotchas. Which are this sort of cottage/shack things outside the city. Usually they are in patches of hundreds. Everyone has their gardens and grow enough food to last a year. The Russians love to go out to these Dotchas on the weekends to spend time enjoying hard labor with shovel and rake. We were privileged to go and help Sister Zoya tend her crops this week.
My expectations for future Dotchas might be set a bit high now. Her Dotcha had running water, electricity, and everything that a cabin in America might have. Normally Dotchas are just shacks built on the dirt. She also had a Bannya, which is a sort of sauna. While you’d think that this is a bit of a luxury, most Russians actually have one built onto their Dotcha. Really its just a small room with buckets of water and a furnace. A funny Russian pastime – sitting in a Bannya, rubbing various herbs into your skin. They say its healthy. Who knows, maybe it is. I’m just not all to keen on finding out.

We hold an English Club every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 6-7. Its one of our best ways of finding investigators. During the summer we would have over twenty people come everyweek, but it seems with school and other things coming around now, people are more busy. Our attendance has been cut in half, which is sad. But those people who do come are surely benefited. We always end with a spiritual thought. I’ve talked with many people who have found the church because of English Club. Hopefully we can keep enough people coming to make it worth still holding.

What an incredible world we live on. Truly the designs of God are without flaw. Everything moves in its perfect motion. Everything in perfect harmony. Light presiding over darkness. Difficulty being swallowed up in the Joy of Christ.
This week I’ve watched the children of God, here in Russia. They go about their lives so busy so much of the time. They don’t know what they could be enjoying. They don’t know what they could be having. They don’t know the direction, the power, the life they could have. Yet really even at home sometimes we are not so different.

This week I just finished the Book of Mormon again. There is a special spirit to that book. I’ve read much in my life already, but nothing has done for me what that book has. Everytime I prayerfully read it, I feel the powerful influence of the Spirit of God. I would encourage all of you to read and reread it again and again. No matter how busy your life may be right now, if you will take the time to read it for a half our every morning, I promise that your day will be better. The blessings that come from consistently reading for thirty minutes a day will well pay for your troubles. Don’t let yourselves run around in your life, like the people here in Russia, not having the power and joy you could have. They don’t know what they could have. You do. God has given you such a great opportunity to know him so personally. Take that opportunity.

Love Elder Wilson

A few pictures from Kurgan

9/14 - Kurgan

This last week has been somewhat odd. Both these last two weeks honestly. I suppose it’s just been an odd transfer. Elder Smith and I were here in Kurgan for two weeks working together before he had to go off for Visa Trip, and I was here with Elder Shreave. Then he got back and we had to do Zone Leader Splits a day later. Then after that we had to go down to Tumen for Zone Conference. In short, we’ve been away from doing continuous normal missionary work for about two weeks. And now we’ve got two weeks left until the transfer.
That being said, these last two weeks have still been very good and I’ve grown a great deal. Zone Leader Splits were great. Our Zone Leaders are both such good guys. They know how to work. But they also know how to have fun. And I think that one of the problems that I’ve already slipped into sometimes on my mission is being so engaged in either learning the language or studying the scriptures or figuring out what to do about members that I haven’t spent anytime just having fun with my companion. Its good to work hard. But its also good to through back your head and laugh sometimes.
There were a number of changes for Zone Conference this last month. My first conference was from about 9 in the morning until noon. This conference was from 9 until 4 in the afternoon. It had a lot more length. And it likewise had a lot more spiritual edification. Last Zone Conference we really didn’t get much chance to hear from our Mission President. He only spoke for maybe fifteen minutes. This month he spoke for over an hour. And he is truly a powerful speaker.

Fall has begun to sweep Kurgan. The leaves are already starting to turn in some places. We are going to go shopping today for winter clothes. Because unlike America, autumn here is perhaps two weeks long then we are in for cold. Enjoy those slow and beautiful autumns. They are different in other parts of the world.

Work with my companion has started to get a lot better. It just goes to show the influence we can have on each other if we will simply and honestly love other another. It is so important to let the love of God flow through us and into those around us. Even when we feel like we need love ourselves. Even when we feel like we need to be the one being supported in times of difficulty. I have come to discover that when we concentrate on the problems of others, and how to help them, our problems seem to fade away. When we try to take care of our fellow men, God takes care of us.

It is incredible to be alive. We as humans are so weak. There is so little we can do. We can’t reach out and save the world from its wickedness. We can’t speak with every single person about the gospel. We can’t uplift every discouraged person. Many times it seems like we can’t even overcome our own problems. But as weak as we are, we are also so strong. Even in the darkest of times, we somehow find the light and hope to keep going. The strength of God flows into us and we are somehow able to go another day, lift another soul. Truly, as weak as we are now, we are gods in the making.

Elder Wilson

9/7 - Kurgan

Life in Russia is different than it is in America. The feeling is different. They people are different. It's an entirely different way of life. The culture is far from ours. We are on the other side of the world. But mostly, its the same. We have the same blue sky overhead. We have the same beautiful trees here than we have in America. We have the same endless fields of grain. We all are supported by the same golden sun. Stare up at the same starry sky. The one majoy difference between America and Russia is hope.
America bounds with hope. People expect more out of life. They want more. And they know they can have it. So they try. They make the best out of what they have. I've talked to so many people in Russia who think that life is so much better in America. And to be honest, it is better. But the only reason why is because we have hope.
Particuarly in Utah we have great hope. We have hope not only for temporal life, but spiritual. And that is something that many Russians have not really felt. They do not know the half of the joy that their lives could be filled with. But that is why we are here. We are here to bring them the Gospel -- the divine truth about everything -- why we are here, where we are going. That a perfect being came to Earth and died for us in perfect love. On Christ Jesus we hope. It is his message we share.

The work here in Kurgan is about to take a large jump. I've made a number of arangements to get things fixed here. We are not here to be humanitarian support for the church members. We are here to bring others unto Christ. The Relief Society President will now have a key and be in charge of opening the building for the sisters activity. We are going to be dropping the friday weekly cleaning. Cutting back to a pic-nic at least only every other week -- and we will be attending for much less time when they are held.

I spent the last weekend with Elder Shreeve, one of the Assistants to the President. My companion has been off in Finland getting a new Visa, so I've had the opportunity to learn from one of the greatest Missionaries in the field. Elder Shreeve and I had 5 meetings one of the days he was here. We did so much real good for these people. We were constantly doing missionary work.
I took some time to sit down with him and talk about why the large difference in success between the time when he was with me and the normal with Elder Smith. And we came to several conclusions. There have just been too many things which have been holding the work back. And now that those things are being reduced. The other problem is Elder Smith himself.
He is a great guy. Elder Smith is fun, he's got a good heart. He's just been somewhat depressed lately I believe. Things started off good and strong between us. We had a great companionship. But I believe that as he started slacking off, and I started pulling forwards to do the work, a slight unspoken tension has built. I've been mostly sublte in my suggesting that we do better. Everytime that I've come out with him and openly said that we need to work harder and we need to be doing more missionary work it seems to just knock him lower. So i've gone somewhat silent about problems and I think he's taken it as I'm judging him. Which is equally crushing to a relationship.
I counciled with Elder Shreeve alot about things I can do to get our companionship up and rolling and I hoping to have some good success this next week. So far we have not had a single solid planning session between Elder Smith and myself. We rarely hold companionship study. He usually falls asleep during personal study. And we've had maybe four language studies. I've wanted to have things otherwise, but my pulling and pushing just adds a strain to the companionship. It seems to do more harm then good.
This week I'm going to be persistant. I'm going to do all I can to get what needs to be done done, what needs to be changed changed. But I'm going to do it in the spirit of love -- obvious love. I loved Elder Smith before. But I'm not sure if he knew it.
I think that is a problem that we as humans seem to have in all relationships. We come to love one another, but all to often that love is not visible. We want to help one another become better, but the spirit of love is not present in that desire. Everyone needs love. Everyone needs support and encouragement. Even missionaries. Even our children. Even our parents. Even our leaders in the church. This week I'm going to make an effort to praise the good he does. Minimize the mistakes he makes. And love him.

Kurgan is an incredible place. These people are incredible. They deserve better. Elder Smith is a great person. He deservers better. This week I'm going to do all I can to give them all I can.

Elder Wilson

8/31 - Kurgan

The temperature in the Siberian flatlands of Kurgan seems to be quickly plummeting. It was about 60 degrees yesterday – and its 50 today. Cold winds are constantly sweeping through the city, making coats and sweaters almost always a must. I keep hoping that it will warm up again at least one more time before winter comes. I’d really like to see a Russian Autumn. There is plenty of what looks like Burch in the nearby forests where we have weekly picnics with the branch, and I can imagine them beautifully painted in red and gold.

Kurgan itself is somewhat different than Perm. I’m told that every city has somewhat of it’s own feel. Its own style and sense. Perm had random splashes of color all over the place. They painted their fences in bright rainbow colors. And I saw several trees wrapped in red, yellow, and blue. Kurgan seems a bit more calmed down. There seems to be more old buildings here, which adds a nice feel. The outsides of town are called “micro-rions” and are sort of clusters of apartment buildings.
The Apartment buildings here are taller than they were in my last area. Usually only 5 stories in Perm’s Zakamsk. Here most buildings are nine stories and up. We live on the fourth story of our building. Some of the taller buildings have elevators. But we are in one of the few 5 story buildings in our area. But hey climbing stairs everyday helps keep all that Russian bread from getting to our waists.

Elder Smith, my new companion, is quite a character. He’s always got something funny and sarcastic to say. So generally the mood stays great in the companionship. He seems to know the language quite well and has already been able to give me plenty of help. I think that my language will really start picking up this transfer. Or at least I hope. The Gift of Tongues would really come in handy about now I think.

He’s actually going on a Visa trip this next coming week – to Finland I believe. He leaves on Wednesday. And Elder Shreve, one of the Assistants comes in to stay with me on Tuesday. Elder Shreve will be here for a week, so that will be great. I’m really looking forward to seeing how he does work, loading the questions on him, etc. Because right now, I really feel like our companionship is not working as effectively as we could be. I’m hoping to get a few ideas on how to step up the work when Elder Shreve gets in.

We do a number of things here in Kurgan that are not done in any other area of the mission. For example here, because we are the only companionship here, we let the Relief Society into the church building every Thursday morning. It takes about forty five minutes to get to the church building, then we stay there with them through the activity and close when they are finished. So it’s usually a 5 hour commitment. We use it for membership bonding time and for study. It helps build a relationship with members, but I’d really like to get the Relief Society president a key of her own.

We also help clean the building every Friday night. Which is another 5 hour commitment. Somebody has got to do it. And apparently that somebody is us. I’m not sure if it is within my bounds as a missionary to talk to the Branch President about assigning a member to do it every week like we have it set up back home in the states. Its just more time that we need as missionaries to be spending on teaching.

We also go to a weekly picnic every Saturday. This actually is something that is very effective I think. I don’t think that we should stay there for the full duration like we do, but it has already proven to yield fruit. Usually they begin at 10 in the morning and go till 7 at night. Its just a huge time commitment. But generally we have about 5-6 investigators come, they bond with Church members, and strong relationships are built. I just wish it wasn’t so long.
And finally, as is actually done in most places in Russia, we hold an English club every Tuesday and every Thursday evening from 6-7. We’ve already had quite a number of investigators come from this. It just works. And it works all over Russia. However in Kurgan, we also play games with the students from 7-8:30. It does help build more bonding, but I still question exactly how effective of a use of time it is. All in all, we spend what is probably over twenty hours a week on things that are not done in most areas.


This week we had a really good experience with a man named Eura. He was walking by the Church building while we just happened to be there with two other members cleaning the building. We’d already finished, and were about to sit down to a meeting with a less active when he walked in, just curious. The less active realized the opportunity and immediately got out of his chair with an “I’ll be right back”.
Eura asked a bit about our church, so we gave a first lesson on the spot. He was quite interested, so we invited him to come to our picnic. And he came. And he enjoyed himself. So we invited him to come to Church. And he came. And he thought the service was wonderful. We’ve got a meeting already set up on Tuesday evening after English club, which he also will be coming to. Things are very quickly progressing. We are very excited to work with him and hope that he will put forth the effort to know if the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and hence the Church is likewise the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth today.

The work is great. The Kingdom is truly incredible.

Elder Wilson

8/24 Kurgan

Sorry for the lack of updates. There was a few weeks where Tanner's emails didn't come through so that's why there's some gaps in his weekly updates.

I am now a few hundred miles away from my city of Perm. I was transferred to Kurgan. Usually missionaries stay in their first area for at least two or three transfers, but they had to close my area for a few weeks. The mission is really low on missionaries right now, and we just lost another group (including my trainer) last week. So the President had no choice but to close an area. Sadly little Zakamsk is just a very inconvenient area (over an hour away from any church building) so it was chosen to be closed for a transfer.
It really is hard to leave so many people behind. You come to love people so fast out here. It makes it all the harder to know that the people you are leaving are going to be on their own for a few weeks. No missionaries to help or support them. After all the progress we made in Zakamsk, it is being put on its own for a while. I hope it is not too big of a trial for Luba, who is starting to progress so well. We extended her the baptismal invitation the week before we left, and she accepted. But when she found out that we were leaving, she said she wanted to pray about it. In some ways, it is a good thing that we left. Luba has a testimony, but it is more social then spiritual. And if we were staying, we would have never really discovered that. I pray that the next group of missionaries can have good success with her.

Transfers here in Russia are a bit interesting. Elder Kimball and I went to another Elder’s apartment late Monday night so that they could help us get to the train station on time the following day with all our luggage. We made it to the station by 6:45 am, all the zone was there to see us off. We then took a train for 6 hours to Yekatarinburg.
It was really hard to part with Elder Kimball. We had our differences, but he was such a good Elder. He trained me so well. I suppose it’s somewhat like a parent child relationship. While the parent is over you, you kick and scream and think that they should be doing a better job. But as soon as you are off on you own, you look back and realize how great you really had it. Elder Kimball is going to go on and do great things in life. I know it.
Our train ride was interesting. Part of the rows of seats sat forward, and the other half sat backwards. This wasn’t actually a train, it was an “electrichka” which is sort of an electronic slow train. Only travels about 20 miles an hour I think. It’s hard to tell. It was somewhat nauseating at first to be traveling backwards, but I got used to it.
Sitting on a train for six hours straight was hard -- but not quite as bad as standing in a train station for six hours waiting for your next train to arrive. That was character building. As a child I thought that sitting in the car while traveling was mind numbing. At least when you are traveling in a car, you get to sit down. Standing all day really takes a toll on you. But hey, it was a great chance to study Russian!
The next train came in at about 6:45 pm. Elder Smith, my new companion, rode with me to Kurgan, our new area. And this was actually a train – not just a train either. This was the famed Trans-Siberian Railroad. Guess what. It’s just another train. Sorry to burst anybodies ambitions of going all the way to Russia to ride a train. I should take that back. When I said “its just another train” you might come to think that it is just like an American train. Trains here are like apartments here. Somewhat old, warn out, falling apart, and dirty. For example, I had to use the restroom. When I first looked into the room, I had to pause and debate on whether I could possibly hold it for another 5 hours. Sadly, I was subjected to the pressures of my lower bowls.
The toilet had no seat. So I spent a very large amount of toilet paper making a sort of nest. Toilet paper here is good for that sort of thing. Its very rugged, durable, doesn’t stand a chance at ripping. While it is good for making nests and perhaps also for papermache, it is not good for wipping. Honestly, it felt like wiping with sandpaper.

Elder Smith had already been here for a transfer, so he has the area somewhat figured out. That makes for a much easier transition that they white-wash-no-idea what is going on transfer that Elder Kimball and I started off on. We got to our apartment late, maybe 1 or 2 in the morning, both of us very warn out from too much time traveling. I couldn’t really see our apartment very well, but I could smell it. God is all knowing. And he knows that I can’t stand sleeping in disgusting filth. For that reason, he must have lined everything up so that we wouldn’t come in until late in the night when we were so tired we wouldn’t even care. Because really, if I had known before hand what I was about to sleep it, I probably would have had a really hard time lying down on that bed.

Elder Smith’s last companion was not a cleanly elder. It was shown very blatantly when I woke up. I had his bed. Which I thought felt damp when I first climbed in it the previous night. I then thought it was damp from a nice fresh wash. Quite unsettling to discover that it was actually damp with sweat. The room I sleep in was absolutely filthy. You can’t walk in a single room in the apartment without getting dirt all over your feet. The lights in the kitchen don’t work. Much of the floor is sticky. There was clothes flopped up all over the apartment. Church materials strewn all over the floor. It was really past the point of being worthy to be called “a hole”. But hey! Its character building.

On the bright side, Elder Smith seems like a very friendly Elder. We haven’t gotten to bed spot on time yet because of it. But we are going to do better this week. I’m going to make sure of it. I don’t’ do well going to sleep at 11:45 every night. Talking has its place, but it’s not during the one time of the day we have to rest.
He’s taller than me. Big surprise. I’m thinking that the majority of my companions will be. Luckily, he’s only about 5 foot 11. Which isn’t too bad. He’s got brown hair, brown eyes, very hilarious personality, and knows the language quite well considering that he’s only been here for a year and a few months. Next week I should have photos of him and our apartment.

Kurgan is located in Siberia, literally. So that means green grasslands in the summer and spring, and flat frozen nice and cold nothing in the winter. The members here are nice. The branch President seems great. I’ll write more about the people as I come to know them. Their building is quite nice also.
It’s three stories tall, all furnished in American furniture shipped across seas. Paintings of Christ all over the place, just like an American chapel. Its’ really quite nice. I’ll have some photos of that also next week.

For now you will have to suffice with the photos I couldn’t send last week. They are all from my last area. You can see what kind of Apartment I lived in and what not. Sadly, you will never be privileged to see our current apartment at its worst. We have been doing some serious cleaning, and it will continue until our apartment is no longer hell.

Love,
Elder Wilson