We Hoped, They Called

Welcome Home Rob!!!

2009-07-09T07:08:00.001-07:00

07/08/09

My Testimony

2009-07-06T05:55:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

The Baptism of Natasha went great. Our missionary coordinator, Ilya, baptized her, and a member of the District presidency confirmed her a member of the Church. This is my last day in Chelyabinsk which being interpreted in Hebrew is, “The best city to end my mission ever” Tomorrow we go to Yekaterinburg, to meet the new President who will send us home. I’ve had nine great companions, one of them twice, four areas and three zones, one of those twice as well.
I’ve come to a certainly that The Creator of our reality is our Eternal Father, and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only way to live in order to present ourselves clean in front of Him in the Celestial Kingdom. We all agreed to this plan before were placed here in our special and specific spheres. We decided to accept Jehovah as our Christ and agreed to do all things commanded us to be worthy of His ultimate sacrifice, The Atonement. I know that the Atonement is real. Jesus Christ took upon Himself all of our sins, pains and shortcomings. We must take His name upon ourselves to achieve this redeeming, infinite power. This is done through baptism and this ordinance can only be done by “he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” “And no man taketh this honour unto himself” (Hebrews 5:4). We have this power on the earth today because God the Father and Jesus Christ called Joseph Smith unto it, and restored Christ’s Church through him. I know that Joseph Smith opened the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. I know that these are last days before Christ comes again, in glory. We can meet Him with joy as He recognizes us as His own. I know the Gospel is something to live, not only something to believe in, or know about. I know the scriptures, which contain the Gospel, are from God and that the words of modern prophets are eternally valuable to us as we struggle to overcome the world everyday. Gordon B. Hinckley was the first man I knew to be a Prophet. I know that Thomas S. Monson is his successor as a prophet, seer and revelator. There is a quorum of Christ’s Apostles on the earth today. I feel the spirit when they teach us how to live. Theses prophets teach us that Jesus is the Christ and what that means. Their testimony is my testimony, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love,

-Elder Magleby

Artyom

2009-06-29T07:48:00.001-07:00

You may recognize that man standing next to him.

She's making a quilt with all our ties

2009-06-22T07:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Family,

Thanks for the good prompt letters. If you didn’t notice I hit my two year mark last Saturday. Woot woot. It was fun because it was just a normal missionary day where we tracted at the end of it and got two really good discussions with two men. One an older pot bellied fellow and the other a young married man. It was especially nice to be with my old MTC buddy doing all these things on a rainy, long, missionary day.
Yesterday we met with Natasha and Nina her member friend. We reset the date for the Fourth of July and it’s really solid, she’s excited and keeps saying she’s ready and we just have to make sure she is. The husband of her daughter (Anastasia) is still a jerk and doesn’t know about the church yet, so she’s still being held back, which might be just what’s needed right now. It was a nice meeting because I offered to pray at the beginning and she wanted to saying she could now, she had learned, and she did a great, sincere, Latter-day Saint prayer. She had had problems with it earlier as she’s old and prayed kind of Orthodoxy, we were very happy to see a big sign of conversion as we get closer to baptizing her. The member, Nina is a great lady who converted about 8 years ago and all her daughters were baptized too, her husband however is quite the contrast. We get rejected by people like him on the street, and they are usually drunk or just don’t understand at all the idea of faith or improvement. It was a special experience as Nina wanted to watch a church film before we did the meeting so she made her whole family come in, including the husband, and we watched the short poignant film, The Lamb of God and he just couldn’t understand it. He doesn’t understand Jesus or faith or repentance, he’s virtually a hobo who works a job and has a home, but nothing meaningful in life, Nina does all the raising of the family and he fills the roll of a Russian man who works, and that’s pretty much it. Nina must be a really strong lady to raise her kids despite him.
We’ll be in Miass tonight with me ol’ Taylor and the Russain elder Mizin. It’ll be nice to got back for one last time.

Love,

Rob

“The Final Countdown”

2009-06-21T20:38:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

All is well here in Chelyabinsk, the city where tanks run free. We are actually going to take pictures with some tanks and missiles today, I would like to snag a picture riding one of the silos but I don’t have a cowboy hat so it would be inappropriate.
We’re in week three in the transfer our zone has named “The Final Countdown” I’ve liked to name all our transfers here in Chily, it gives the transfer a kinda theme and it’s fun to spread the buzz words. And this transfer we even have a theme song that is quite popular in Russia for some reason so we get to hear it all the time and get jazzed! Of course the title alludes to the fact that Jensky and I are leaving and so is President Allen, and it’s a countdown to the arrival of the new President. The main theme is fire, as in missionary enthusiasm and zeal. So I give every one fire themed codenames that are subject to change at any moment. The Elders in Cha Ta Za were formerly Charmander and Charmeleon, but they got a baptismal date that they were way excited about so they evolved into Charazard and Magmar. I named Elder Taylor “Sparky” and he feels it has an electricity connotation to it, but I think fire so the codename stands. Then I re-named him to “electro” just for kicks. The sisters are limited because there are few female fire related things out there, so I give them some names sometimes that are actually Male X-Men characters but they don’t know the difference so it’s ok. And for any missionary who’s conduct puts out any others fire, they are dubbed “Smokey the Bear” until they have shown sufficient reconciliation from the title. We run a tight ship of flame here in Chelyabinsk, powered by napalm and coasting on waves of plasma. Quick side topic that came up the other day, Brigham Young said the spirit world is right here on ours, but we can’t see it, and they even have spirit buildings and spirit trees etc. Does that mean they have spirit lava? Can it burn your spirit if it touches you? How can we be sure we are not in the cavity of a spirit volcano right now?
Church was great yesterday, several investigators at the meeting. Sadly our two people with baptismal dates missed a train that would have brought them so they didn’t make it, so we might have to re-do the date, and she still hasn’t told her husband yet so we going to still be working with them hopefully a lot this week. Shamil our new investigator came, he liked it and even asked good questions during Sunday school, which shows he felt welcome. We even tried to set a baptismal date with him last week, and he says he definitely wants to get baptized but putting a date on it could set it up for failure, and he just wants to decide when he feels it’s certain and then he will be baptized. He’s being kind of a Hippy about it, wanting it but not wanting any specifics attached to it that would ruin it. So were working on bringing him down to earth in our down to earth specific religion. Also a cool kid who was a foreign exchange student in Idaho who’s family sent us his info, and he was excited to come to church in Russia last week, came back and enjoyed it again. He’s a Philosophy major so he’s got a lot of tough debatable questions but I was surprised as the Gospel had answers for all of them so far. He says he comes just because he likes the atmosphere not because of the faith, but the questions he asks seem to show that he wants it to be true but just can’t accept it yet. He went to church every week in Idaho for a school year so he knows the score and hasn’t agreed to meet with us yet, but says he’ll keep coming to church, and in answering his questions this week, he showed less resistance to meeting when I asked this time saying his end of school test will prevent him, instead of just saying “no”. His name is Peter.
Jensen and I are enjoying every minute of our last days together, and way grateful for the work that’s going on here.

Love,

-Elder Pompeii

No letter last week just this . . .

2009-06-14T23:20:00.000-07:00

The end is coming . . .

2009-06-07T22:54:00.000-07:00

Hey family,

Because of the Apostles' visit transfers were delayed as not to “distract” us, so we when we found them out Thursday night we had only Friday to get ready for the changes the next day. Sadly they had to break up the Dynamic Pulisipher-Magleby Duo and send Pulsey out to Ufa, a zone we had made a vow never to serve in. But happily, the only thing that could make that Ok, happened, when they called Elder Jensen to be my companion! You remember Jensksy, we were in the MTC together and greenies together in Perm, so we started our missions together and we’re ending them together. Also due to the Apostolic visitation this is a mini-transfer which means you could either think of this as the first day of week one, and only have four more weeks, or just think about it as week two already of a normal 6 week transfer cycle. I’m doing the latter. So even though we just got together yesterday we only have one month left! It’s pretty crazy but with Elder Jensen’s never ending enthusiasm and the boost from the Apostles and the fact that it’s our last days, this transfer, in the vernacular of Elder Murphy (more commonly known as “Murph-Dirt”) will be like the best transfer you could imagine, only take it, put it on crack, load it with steroids, kick it in the crotch, and light in on fire. If this were to ever be quoted in the Ensign it would read “…and the boost from the Apostles and the fact that it’s our last days, this transfer [will be very fruitful]”. I love those brackets, you never know what they could be hiding.
To (former) Companion’s credit, even though it was likely he would be leaving he did a strong push for meetings right to the end and had to leave without being able to see anyone before he went. It is strange to know that we will both being going home together so that means we already know our area will be white washed, which puts a different dynamic to all the work we’ll do in our cracked up super month. We got our two great member referrals to agree to a baptismal date of June 20th (coincidentally our two year mark, woot.) So they are Natasha the 60ish year old friend of the member Nina of the same age, and her daughter named Anastasia about 25. Anastasia has a great little girl named Anya but her husband is probably going to be against the baptism and we explained that she can’t be baptized with out his permission, and she thinks it would take a miracle for him to agree, as he’s already against her meeting with missionaries. Nina as a member and friend will be very helpful through all this and we’re all going to pray for the husband’s heart to change.
The mission conference would take a letter in itself, but I can quickly say it was a major blessing and that President Uchtdorf and Elder Anderson are Apostles, and it was amazing to see them not in a general conference setting with a crowd speckled with skeptics who came just to see, to testify, humbly but firmly about their own special callings in reality as Apostles of Jesus Christ. After the conference we had a special missionary meeting with them, it was also amazing and I love them and my little mission who all fit together in a room the size of the average primary room.

Yee-Kaaaht!

-[Elder] Magleby

Apostles are coming!

2009-05-25T06:14:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of the the time I fell down, writhing around after I had retrieved my bag but before I had gotten up.

Ten Kopecks to the first person who can call out the mistake in Chelyabinsk. I’ll give you a Jeopardy hint, this incorrect sound makes a certain Deutsch teacher’s belly curl up. Speaking of Deutsch, did you know that Chelyabinsk is Spanish for “The Niño Baby”?
It’s been a week. We got one of “those” calls from president Thursday while planning our lessons for that day. I picked up the phone knowing it’s him because every missionary cell phone has a special dramatic/warning ring for when he calls and he gives me this “Hello” and it’s one of those you know something’s up and ‘we will forgo any of the usual jokes’ hello’s and he then stated that he needs us, in the next three hours, to find an assembly hall available on the 31st of May, that will allow religious meetings to be held there (‘cause a lot don’t), that would be adequate for Apostles to speak at and that would seat 500 people. I gave the best “yes president” I could, and then turned to Companion who sat waiting to hear what’s up and squinted my eyes and nodded my head in a “yeah, we’ve got stuff to do today” way. So apparently there is a Shanghai something or other Asian world leaders’ conference happening in Yekaterinburg and the place that they rented for the Apostles visit is flaking out on the deal because of pressure from the government. So Chelyabinsk, as the closest city, gets the call as the back-up plan. As of now all our frantic searching was in vain because the powers that be decided that even though the conference center has not agreed officially to make good on the deal, to go ahead with the conference as scheduled with, I guess, faith (meaning bribes) that everything will work out. And if it doesn’t, me and companion may be coming home a little sooner than expected. It was a fun three hours though.
We started a new session of English last Saturday but most of the new people came this Tuesday and we got a great new investigator out of it. He’s a young college grad who teaches English and has always been a person of faith but off and on again so he feels it is about time that he started his way back again. As a person with higher education he took the first lesson with a shadow of skepticism which is understandable before you receive a testimony and when we told him two apostles from our church were coming to speak in Yekat he asked hesitantly, “are they apostles born in 20th century?” as if our church, which claims to have an ancient record and restored priesthood, might also claim to have the original 12 apostles. We laughed at his question because as Preach My Gospel teaches, “laughter is fastest way to baptism.” (pg. 147) Only joking, but we did laugh once we understood his question, but it was Ok because it was funny ‘cause he asked it seriously and politely in the same way you would ask a person with an invisible friend if they were in the room right now. What a politically correct guy.
So yes, said Apostles are coming this Sunday and it’s just a meant to be way to start the last month of my mission because it’s a mission conference so that means everyone will be there from any of my areas and it will be so fun to see them all, and we get a special missionary meeting with them that will be a huge boost for sure. So while everyone here is telling me to end strong all y’all are telling me I’m almost home. Come on people,

get with the program,

-Elder Magleby

Just about 6 weeks left!

2009-05-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

Guttёntag from Chelyabinsk,

Did you know that “Chelyabinsk” is Australian for “beer”? It’s been a special week. We had one meeting this week as of yesterday after church and since it was on Monday and since I wrote on Tuesday you’ve already heard about it! It’s been kind of a busy with general authorities, I guess we’re always told about them coming in plenty of time, but it always seems like it’s out of the blue. It was District (Stake) Conference this week, and Companion and I spent most of the week renting hotel rooms, canceling hotel rooms, uncanceling hotel rooms, renting them again, and then one final re-cancel. We had Elder Wolfgang Paul of the Seventy and Elder Dmitri Marchenka a Russian (!) Area authority come. Because of Crazy stuff happening in Yekat President Allen (the normal greeter and escort of General Authorities) couldn’t come down till the next day the job fell (I’m sure reluctantly for him) to us. It was a fun and nice experience waiting for them in our little dinky airport, I’d met Paul before so he wasn’t hard to spot, because he’s a six foot five big friendly German man in a suit. But once we got him to the hotel, we had to go back and pick up the newly called Russian Seventy, a harder task as it would be not as obvious to pick out a Russian from a stack of Russians. But it was no problem at all, we just stood there smiling and the guy that smiled back and shook our hands we got in a taxi with and took him to the hotel. Never did get a name confirmation though, we could have just had our district taught by the mafia! Actually Elder Marchenko was one of the most impressive men I’ve ever met. He’s one of the first Russian seventies ever (possibly second even) and he’s a spiritual giant. My whole mission visiting leadership has needed to be translated to teach our leadership, meaning of course that they were not Russian and there is a slight culture gap and this man came in and got the job done. I’m just out right touched by the fact that there are now starting to be members in Russia who can rise to these far reaching callings and teach their brothers and sisters across the whole country. I’m grateful and always amazed to see the priesthood in action, especially in the cities I’ve served in.
Apparently Elder Companion’s parents got his flight information so I’m assuming you got mine ‘cause I don’t have them, which is a shame because I always thought I’d just tell you I was coming home a week later than I actually was and play a bunch of pranks on people and then show up to the airport at the appointed time and none would be the wiser. It’s two weeks till we get to see the Apostles and even have a special missionary meeting with them, and then five weeks after that to recover from their whippings and work better till the end.

Ye haw,

-Rob

Despite your fair weather fickleness I wrote a real letter

2009-05-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

Hey from Chelyabinsk,

You may already know this but if you go back to the roots of the sounds that make up the word “Chelyabinsk” it means “Elders Uchdorf and Anderson are coming here for a mission conference!” It’s Big News! We haven’t gotten an Apostle in ten years when the mission was new.
P-day was supposed to be yesterday but it was still the holiday weekend so it was likely that internet would be closed, and we had someone call us and ask for some help at their little garden plot outside the city, and another meeting worked out so it just ended up being better to do P-Day today. That service was cool because it was from this guy who live in the next building over and we invited him to English club, and he comes and we’ve met with him twice but he kept saying he was busy remodeling his apartment to meet, and we kept asking to help and he still declined but I guess he eventually took our offer seriously to help him because he called us out of the blue and asked if we could help his Aunt and Uncle with their garden. So we did, and now I’m slightly pinkened and my back hurts. I’m pretty sure my skin change is not from the sun but from the enormous pile of burning weeds, grass and wood we had going. They kept telling me to keep it from spreading so I had to keep way close to it with a rake and I could feel my skin cooking. I don’t enjoy drawn out periods of fighting my reflexes, especially the ones that are telling me to get away from the fire that is cooking my skin. I now feel I have some firefighter street cred, well maybe a forest-firefighter, OK a weed-firefighter. All I’m saying is that it was hot!
Also yesterday was our first meeting with Artyom’s girlfriend Lena. Which is a very good thing, one, because we were worried about her being kind of against the church, and two because any missionary can tell you that a romantic partner against the church can take down even the strongest of members. And oft times they’re good before baptism, like the church is just a new hobby and once the member starts getting more active they become more against the church and thus you have another less-active who falls short of salvation because of an ornery spouse. But the meeting was great, Artyom was there of course and we also invited an amazing recently returned missionary who is way excited about the work and is great at befriending investigators. They’re already pals. And it was great to hear Artyom testify about things we didn’t even teach him that he must have gained a testimony about through his own study. Not that he was testifying about far off advanced doctrine, it was just his testimony of the first vision, it’s just that he testified in such way that it was obvious he wasn’t just regurgitating things we had taught him, he had thought it out bore his own testimony.
With the end of the cold it’s the start of a new… cold. Yes it’s that magical time of year again where winter is over and the highest grade quality pipes that communism has to offer have rusted through their seasonal replacements and they’ve turned off our hot water while they replace them again. The ladies at our local grocery store say it will only be two weeks this year. We’ll see. I’m not looking forward to those Miass sponge baths again, and we don’t even have a big pot anyway! I am pretty confident, almost resolute actually that I, Wells Robison Magleby cannot take a cold shower. I don’t know how other missionaries do it! The same reflexes that tell my body to walk away from super-heated piles of garbage that sauté my flesh will not let me spray myself down with super-chilled liquid nitrogen water. I hold the shower handle in my hand, and try, but the second I feel how cold it is, I freak out and throw the handle, jump out the shower, or turn into a green gamma radiated Hulk monster. In each case, a shrill yet manly scream can be heard by my companion or neighbors. Some elders do a series of fast push-ups to heat up their bodies for the trauma, alas this is another thing I’m confident in my inability to do. It’s a lose-lose!

It was nice to talk to ‘yall. Good to hear all is ship shape as it should be: I’m getting my basement room back, my old job is not only definitely taking me back, but with an increase in salary and hourly praise, Puppy mows the lawn, Spider-Man 3 never happened, and the only thing keeping me from my diploma at BYU is a Godzilla appreciation/theory class. Thesis statement: “Godzilla is both the cause and solution to global warming”
A+,

Elder Reality Check

There and Back Again . . .

2009-05-05T18:48:00.001-07:00

Hey Family,

Greetings from Chelyabinsk. You may already know this but if you take “Chely” and “abins”, they mean “War” and “Peace” the “K” at the end just makes it a place-noun instead of two separate words. We got back from our visa excursion late Sunday night, had half of p-day in Yekat and then rode back to Chely last night. It’s great to be back, but it was such a good trip. Everything went right that was supposed to and everything that went wrong ended up being a bonus. So we land in St. Pete’s and the plan is to drive over to Finland and get into the temple guest houses at early evening, but in Yekat a snow storm came out of nowhere and delayed us so we sat inside the plane as it was covered in snow several times and then sprayed off with special liquid, possibly warm water, several times. I had a hard time sitting there because it was hot and uncomfortable but that’s fairly common on these domestic flights, but we sat there for several hours and by the time we were ready to go, I thought, “How can this be? I’ve already put in my travel time, used up my travel stamina and we haven’t even gone anywhere, I should be instantly transported there.” It strangely didn’t work out that way.
So we got to the temple late, the nice temple president, who was the former president of this mission, took me and one of the senior couples who was with us to get some nice groceries. I tell you, it's so nice to have non-whatever-they-do-to-Russian-milk milk. You can actually drink the cereal dregs. It’s fantastic.

It was an honor to sleep in the same rooms that all the Russian saints who make it to the temple use. We had a Finnish guy in ours. He was funny cause he kept speaking Finnish to us, and we kept not understanding, then he tried to switch into limited Russian and we had a fun time communicating small talk. What wasn’t funny was that after our long drive there and that it was 3 in the morning our time, this guy snores like a banshee chainsaw! It was ridiculous! I was lying there with bloodshot eyes shaking my temporarily insane head for hours. I haven’t the time to tell about how grand of a shower I had there, but if you have a half hour I may tell you sometime. And Cocoa Puffs for breakfast.
The Temple was sacred and very special to me. I was amazed by it, and by how much I had forgotten or not realized. It was also special to see the Finnish saints fill a session and overhear their language as we listened on headsets in English. I’m grateful for missionaries like Brother Froerer who served decades ago so that the saints of Russia would have a place to work out their salvation. Finland is a beautiful country. I kept asking around to the workers if they knew my grandparents but I never found the ones that work there I guess. We got to spend a few hours in Helsinki and it was amazing. I forgot how pretty and clean Europe can be, especially those Scandinavian nations who haven’t many world issues to worry about so they just keep their yards and streets immaculate. Good on ‘em.
So when we got to the border we noticed that our visa’s technically started on the next day, but it was almost 10 at night and our old visa’s gave us a few days of clearance anyway, but the Russian border patrol felt differently, and their bright solution was to have us pull over to the side of the road and wait over 2 hours until the clock changed to midnight/Sunday. They weren’t even convinced when my companion argued the point that it had already been Sunday in Vladivostok for several hours. So we sat in a car in the no-man's land between Finland and Russia for three hours and missed our flight. Which was OK; because it gave us the opportunity to see St. Pete’s for even longer than our first trip a year and a half ago. We even found an internet café and looked up where a branch met and attended it and saw missionaries that were in our zone in the MTC. St. Petersburg is a nice city, and we were there way early in the morning so we got to walk around and see it all with no crowds at all.
We had a nice flight back, I sat next to a guy who was reading Eragon-one of those dragon books and so near the end of the flight said to him in Russian, “ You probably speak English pretty well if you read that type of book” and he responded, “I am English” in English with a British accent. Funny moment of processing for me, because Russians usually speak English with a British accent, and it's to possible make a grammar mistake to mean, they study English or something. So it was funny when I looked puzzled at him for a moment. Turns out he runs a casino in Yekat.
So now we’re back and renewed from our temple/visa journey and are ready to burn on out.

See you soon, and probably talk to you this weekend,

-Rob

2009-04-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

Hey from Chelyabinsk,

You may already know this but Chelyabinsk is Russian for “I’m going to Finland for my last visa trip.” I’m pretty grateful because our group has generally gotten the shaft when it comes to visa trips, not that Kazakhstan is the shaft, it’s just that every other group has gone to Sweden or Spain, which includes going to the temple, and in Kazakhstan the closet thing we did to that was go to a Cathedral and a priest there told us we were going to Hell, and it wasn’t even because we were some crazy other religion, it was because we were Americans. Actually I just remembered how it happened; he asked one Elder where we were from, we said America and he told us that there was a picture of Hell located on the rear wall. What an informative nice man.
Anywho, back to the present--we’ll be in Finland this Friday and Saturday which is special because that’s Russia’s temple and a little closer to home, it’s where my patriarch served his mission, and even attended the dedication too, so it will be nice to see, but the last group who went on this time schedule got to the temple just after it closed so we probably won't get to do a session. Жалко.
We had a great very successful elders quorum activity this past Saturday. 15 men strong! The elders quorum president is a great return missionary and he’s remodeling a house a little ways outside the city, which is cool because 98 percent of Russians live in little communist apartments. We helped him shovel around some gravel he had dumped by a big ol’ truck and make a driveway of sorts. Wasn’t even that hard, plus we had barbecued chicken, and to my shock it tasted just like bourbon street grill, I loved it. Russians make me laugh sometimes though, they’ll freak out at you if you walk outside without a hat on if it’s below 70 F because it’s “bad for your health” but in priesthood the young women made cookies for us and one guy went to go get a cup of water to drink and then passed it down the row and they all took a gulp, and at this barbecue they were all very active about washing their hands before we ate and I saw the district's first counselor using bread to wipe up and eat the sauce left over from the marinating chicken! I was very surprised to see HIM at church the next day. The best part of the activity was that Artyom came and worked even harder than most of us bums and the whole quorum has been amazing at accepting and supporting him. If this keeps up, it’s totally possible that he could serve a mission. Good priesthood quorums are amazing.
We went on splits over to little ol’ Miass this week. It was fun and efficient. They just made Elder Mizin branch president there which is great because he is a hard core Russian Elder who doesn’t take Kpaп from less-active or apostates. So I got to get back to my old stopping grounds with my old stomping companion Elder G. Taylor. We are very excited for Miass this transfer, Elder Mizin is seriously going to fix a lot of problems there that an American elder couldn’t and he and Elder Taylor are already doing amazing. Good on ‘em.
While there we helped a young couple move apartments, and let me give you the stats: They lived on fourth floor, no elevator, and we moved them to another apartment of the same building four segments away and 7, yes Seven floors up. Now this was a new building so it is equipped with an elevator, and also as it is a new building this feature was not yet functional and it just sat there taunting us every floor. What hurts most are my forearms from gripping and my calves from climbing all the stairs. I actually can't walk down stairs normal yet.
Something also fun going on in our area is that a nice family’s son is turning 8 soon and they know it’s not necessary but thought it would be good if he heard the lessons from us. So for the few past Saturdays we’ve taught the doctrines of the kingdom in a very simple clear manner for little Sasha. And he’s a riot, kinda quiet but when he answers a question he goes off on crazy comparisons and tangents. Some of these include when I explained that the Holy Ghost will be like a flash light for him to know where to go, he said “Yeah, or like a Lightsaber, and I could do this [swish] and this [swash] as he proceeded to slice up his babushka. And repentance, “Yeah, repentance is like when Spider-Man tries to get the black suit off of himself and throw it” [starts peeling invisible goo off]. That last one may have been partly my fault because when I drew him as the stick figure walking along the path of the gospel at the beginning of the lesson I gave him a Spider-Man head. But I’m not convinced he wouldn’t have come up with it on his own anyway. It has been a nice teaching opportunity to teach really, really simply though, which is actually what we’re focusing on at zone conference tomorrow.
Wow remember when that was the biggest deal of any letter home at the beginning of my mission? And after tomorrow I’ll only have one more. Yikes.

Well, I’m doing great and thanks for the especially good letters from Mom, Dad, & Andy this week. Notice the lack of one Californian universities namesake.

Love,

Starayshina Magleby

Someone didn't register for classes for their brother . . .

2009-04-26T22:18:00.000-07:00

Let the record show that I am too worn out from writing yet another angry letter to Berkeley to write a real letter this week.

Love and rage,

-Rob

Oh, and Chelyabinsk is Russian for… I dunno, something angry related to Berkeley

("Here's a picture of me eating four packs of pudding at a time. My companion does not approve.")

One commandment at time

2009-04-13T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hey Family,

Elder Boles and Stradling (my zone leaders when I was in Miass) went contacting one day about a year ago, they stopped a young man by the name of Nakita around the town square. They got his number and met once, he was busy with school and they couldn’t ever meet again. School died down after a few months and Elder Boles was replaced by Scott and they taught him once again and he brought his school mate Artyom to the meeting. Went good, they taught the plan of salvation. Things didn’t really work out with meeting and a few more months went buy until Elder Pulsipher and Scott got to meeting with Nakita regularly again and one meeting decided to ask him to be baptized but on this meeting he brought his friend Artyom again who hadn’t been taught much and Artyom said that he had already been baptized and declined so Nakita followed suit and also declined. Then one day I found out I was going to Chilly, met Elder Pulsipher at President's house and asked about the area and he told me about this pretty good investigator who they almost got to commit to baptism but he brought this [fool] along who ruined it. So we set off to Chilly to work with Nakita hoping his friend wouldn’t come to the meetings, but his friend kept coming and was a pretty tough cookie, not easily persuaded or outwardly receptive. He was a lot more intimidating to teach than Nakita. But then one day we decided to re-commit them to baptism, to set a goal date to work towards and if they felt the church was true by then they would be baptized, if not, they would not. Artyom, not instantly, but firmly, agreed to the test first and Nakita agreed as well. Then bit by bit Artyom started keeping commitments we gave him and changing, accepting the Gospel one commandment at time reading the scriptures and attending meetings and institute and he came to know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is God's church, that it was restored through Joseph Smith and that Thomas S. Monson leads it today. That the Book of Mormon is true and modern prophets have given us modern commandments such as the word of wisdom and that living them blesses our lives. He was baptized two days ago by Elder Pulsipher and confirmed a member of God's church yesterday by us and the Branch Presidency. He was found worthy of the Aaronic Priesthood and that same circle ordained him to the office of Priest, witnessed by a quorum of his new brethren, to whom he will have a calling to teach soon in coordination with the Elders Quorum President. He is excited and proud to be member of this Church. He will have many callings, challenges and trials as he endures to the end but will have confidence and strength as he does so with the help of the Holy Ghost and will qualify for salvation as he lives life understanding its purpose and depends on his Savior.
I am eternally grateful to have been able to see these steps of the plan of salvation for one of God’s sons, and am grateful for this Gospel that lets us understand these sacred blessings.

Thanks Elder Boles, Ты молодец

-Elder Magleby

Not to us but oh well

2009-04-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

Dear the only person I wrote a letter to this week will not get the letter so Im sending it to you and my mission president, the only people I actaully have to write.

Dear President,

It’s the darndest thing, I spent most of my internet time to write my old MTC teacher and I remembered I don’t have his address! I’ve been meaning to write him my whole mission and thought it’d be a waste if I didn’t send it to SOME-body. I think it sums up pretty nicely how were doing here anyway. (Please ignore the “our mission president is crazy” part)

------

Дорогой Brother Stratford,

This is elder Magleby writing on behalf of the Pulsipher-Magleby companionship. That’s right, our mission President is crazy and put us back together again! It’s so much fun to be back together especially at the ends of our missions, we’re about to finish our second transfer together and just found out we got one more (leaving only our last transfer of our missions uncertain).
Just to give you a heads up on every one in our group Me and Pulsipher are here as zone leaders in Челябинск, old Elder Jensen is training a Russian in Пермь and Elder Sorensen is in a place called Уфа (The capital of Башкортостан) with a cool Ukrainian by the name of Kurbotov. Sister Borchardt has been home for a while and that’s strange, I never saw much of her in Russia though, only on visa trips (which are fairly frequent these days). The night I was picking up my new missionary at the mission home, I got to meet a returning one from Pete’s who asked if I knew you, and found out you trained him. That’s way cool, he seemed nice. He said he didn’t make it to the MTC, that’s strange; I guess they had to give him a hardcore trainer then.
Also in our mission who’s not in our group but you might know are Elders Roosel (the German) elder Able (the Texan) and elder Bassett (the AP). I haven’t seen much of Roosel, but elder Abel’s here in Chily and is fun guy and a great, sincere missionary. Absolutely no one was surprised when elder Bassett became AP a while back and he’s easily the greatest speaker in the mission and has baptized approximately 64 million people. That kid is on the ball. We all have a fun time on visa trips swapping MTC stories and reminiscing about our old favorite teachers.
We, specifically I, am so grateful for how seriously you took us back then. This is a serious work and responsibility that I understand so much more now and want to do so much more now when I’m home. We just had Elder Gibbons of the Seventy come and teach us and my testimony of member missionary work came alive, not speaking of working with members, (we all know that is the best way) but for being involved in this work of salvation for the rest of my life. This man has spent his whole life inviting his friends to his home to hear the gospel. I’m so grateful for in this special time and the perspective it gives me.
We’d love to hear from you, and we’ll see you soon either way.

Yours,

Elder Rob Magleby

Cold Benches

2009-03-23T18:50:00.000-07:00

Здравствуй от Челябинска,
Hey from Chelyabinsk,

You may already know this but if you break the word “Челябинск” (Chelyabinsk) down to the roots it means “Don’t sit on a cold bench”. It’s understandable as the city’s name or you could just say it to someone as advice as they are departing. “See you later, don’t sit on a cold bench” (Пока, Челябинск!) Russians have not a short list of the ailments that might afflict you after an encounter with a cold bench.

I tried to send a few pictures home this week but email is acting funny so I don’t know if you got them. The picture that gave me the most trouble was potentially worrisome so I took it was a sign to not send it home. Oh well. We spent a majority of our time this week with a kindly old man named Thomas Rogers. He is one of the two Patriarchs for the Europe East Area. (Which contains Russia and some 10 to 12 other no-name countries). He taught Russia at BYU for 31 years. He was the first President of the St. Petersburg mission. And when I introduced myself he instantly smiled and remembered Morgan, and informed that there is a picture of Morgan in a book they published about the church in Russia. Cool. It’s been so nice lately to have two very spiritual men come to Chily two weeks in a row. We got to spend a lot of time with the Patriarch as, actually literally all of his three days in Chily were either in his hotel room or with us. It was funny because President wanted us to take him somewhere nice to eat and the only place he wanted to go to was a cheap dingy cafeteria. Most missionaries don’t even know Russia has them, but apparently he’s way into them. Here are some the tribes he gave while here, Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Judah. It was such pleasure to see the saints get blessings after waiting for so long because patriarchs can only make it so rarely. Artyom's date's coming up and he’s doing great. Love you.

Bye,

Elder Magleby

Slip sliding away

2009-03-21T10:23:00.000-07:00

Hey from Chelyabinsk,

You may already know this but the literal translation of “Chelyabinsk” is “Vladimir Putin is the Emperor of Russia” but it’s in an older dialect using some archaic words so most people don’t even think about it when they say it.
We thought winter was over about a month ago because it was only a bit below zero for several days and then even above for a while but now were back to the standard -10 C. Which is bad because with the melting and then freezing it makes for everything turning into ice. One day our sidewalk is a slushy mess and the next day all the slush is frozen as it was, foot prints and all so when you fall you’ve got a jagged, bumpy surprise every time. Speaking of which, I took a heck of dive the other day, enough of one that elder P told me to stay where I was so he could--through his laughing fit--take a picture showing how far I had thrown my bag when I lost my feet. He described it as a nice high arching parabolic arc as it flew straight up out of my hand at point of initial slip. We also both saw a funny one when a middle aged guy bit the ice and did so with enough force that one of his shoes came off and because of the flick of his feet to keep it on, it curved up and landed on him. It was a good one. But it’s ok to laugh because it happens all the time and it’s not embarrassing to them. It’s actually kinda weird even we as the strange Americans slip passersby barely acknowledge it, and then slip a few steps later.
Artyom is doing great, he’s coming to Institute even and in my opinion that’s the point of no return. All the youth are way impressed with him. They literally tell us “good job” when he’s not around because he’s such a cool investigator. It’s funny. His date is April 11th and he by himself is concerned with getting ready enough for it. He does smoke and he’s working on that but we know he’ll be able to quit with prayers and strength from the Lord. We’re more worried about all the branch Dev-Chunky moving in on him and freaking him out before baptism. Ladies Please, leave him alone and give us more referrals if you’re so desperate for young men in the church! Come on!
We’re still all jazzed from elder Gibbons visit and expect good things this transfer.

Love,

Elder Slushface

It seems I’m starting to figure something out

2009-03-10T20:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

Privyet from Chelyabinsk. You may already know this but “Chely-Abinsk” literally means “Frozen Udder” This goes back to the days when it was a big dairy town, and actually produced 98% of the non-pasteurized milk for three-fourths of the northern hemisphere. Interestingly enough they feed their cows mostly corn, or as the Indians call it: maize.
We had a long week come to think about it. We had the last P-Day with the missionaries who were leaving before they got transferred then the next day sent them off then the next day sent ourselves off to Yekat for zone council. It was great as usual and the A.P’s did a great presentation about using Hope Love and Charity as the motivation and reason for our work. It was really edifying. We spent the other session of the meeting getting ready for Elder Gibbons of the Seventy to come to each of the zones. That was yesterday and it was definitely a very special and memorable experience. We even got the opportunity to interview all of us, which because he’s touring the whole mission in just one week was special because some zones don’t even get any interviews because of his travel schedule. I took it upon myself to freak out the zone about his coming during the days prior to his arrival. It’s just missionary protocol to assume that a General Authority is going to crack down on us so we were all on hyped up alert as I exaggerated things that president told us he did during his previous visit. But it was all nonsense because he was a very humble loving man who’s not into the whole crack-down type mission visits. It was quite amazing to see how Christlike he actually was and how he was a real example of having His countenance upon him.

It seems I’m starting to figure something out about spiritual experiences. I’m always a little frustrated in how in the moment everything makes sense and nothing seems hard or complicated but then once it’s faded it’s impossible to see with those same eyes. And even when I’m in those moments I try to take mental notes that life’s simple and real problems are few and I need to remember this later but I just cannot feel that way outside of those moments, like some kind of cycling amnesia. And the conclusion is that I just need more and more of those experiences until they become part of my nature and I had the remarkable opportunity to meet a man that has done just that. I have a testimony of the calls and authority of Lord’s special servants.

Love,

Rob

(A preview of a documentary about the radiation)

Iron Investigators

2009-03-02T18:26:00.001-08:00

Hey family,

Hi from Chelyabinsk, I forgot to mention this last week but I found out that the word “Chelyabinsk” literally means “My scarf is on fire” I spent all email time writing president so here’s what I got:

Dear President,

This has been a great week here in Chely, one to remember. I have to confess something… Elder Pulishper nor I went to bed on time last night. As you know we have two investigators with baptismal dates. Artyom and Nakita both about 20, I have now decided to call them Iron Investigators. They aren’t abnormally excited to accept hard commitments and they don’t have a seemingly miraculous story as to how they were found and then agreed to baptism all the sudden like you would call a Golden investigator. It’s been a real gradual process of living commitments and showing their faith to God. It’s been honest hard missionary work. We’re loving it. They are really progressing, and by really I mean truly they make real strides every so often that may not seem too spectacular but it’s been truly miraculous to me and elder Pulispher as they’ve come though right as we might have lowered our expectations. For example we had a great meeting with them last Saturday and they’ve said they’d “try” to come to church whenever we ask (not a favorite phrase of missionaries here in Russia.) and that lesson was about scripture study so we were focused on that and committed them to it and when we got home I realized we forgot to ask them to come to church. So we texted them to see if they’d be there and Nakita said he couldn’t because of work/school and Artyom texted back. “Absolutely, I’m coming. I’ll see you there tomorrow” It would take me a bit to explain why this was such special phrase but suffice it to say that the wording of it was in such way that it was as if he would definitely come on Sunday. Because sometimes a Russian will just use the first part of “absolutely I’ll be there” which the first time we heard that in my first week as a greenie my trainer told be that means the polite way of saying they wont be there, and that’s pretty much the case, anywho they way he said “see you tomorrow” Is what made it more than his normal assurance that he’d be there ‘cause he’d said he’d come before and didn’t. When Elder Puilspher read his response there was a moment or two of silence because we couldn’t quite grasp the concept. He said that he’d come in no uncertain terms. I even broke the silence with, “I don’t understand… that means he’s coming…I’ve never had a real investigator who came to sacrament meeting before…” Then elder Pulispher started laughing and said. “Me neither!” and then we both just laughed for a while in disbelief. “He’s coming!, He’s coming to church!” more laughing. It was great and it was even greater yesterday after we had waited for him to come down by the elevator and no dice, as I kept checking out the door at the beginning of the meeting to see if he was walking in he showed up during the opening hymn and just as a tender mercy accidently showed up at the same time as a great recent convert of the sisters (Igol) and they both came over and sat next to me and she was able to explain what to do or what was going on and it wasn’t akward for him at all. (Even during a baby blessing, I racked my brain on how to explain what was going on in a few short whispered words) The whole meeting was a step about usual as well, all the testimonies were great and many if not all had something that we knew he needed to hear. So last night after a tiring Sunday me and elder Plusipher after prayers started talking about how great the day was and about the other great successes we’ve seen in this mission specifically baptisms that were strong before during and especially after their baptisms. I know this is a blessing from the Lord for me because I have a strong fear of baptizing a future less-active and am very weary of “golden” investigators who go inactive so the Lord gave us a good kid who’s taking more work, a little bit of refining, a bit more time and eventually will come out as strong as the Lord needs him. With all this in mind my prayers have even changed while I was about to pray to ask that we could both still be here to see him baptized, as neither of us has “had” a baptism, it changed to “please bless this situation the best that it could be for Artyoms salvation” completely content if that meant I got to be here when it happened or he needed some more time and other missionaries to help the process. We’re very happy and loving life.

Thanks,

Elder Magleby

I had a nice mission birthday . . .

2009-03-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

Hey Family,

And hey and thanks to all who sent me a nice Birthday shout out. Much appreciated. I had a nice mission Birthday. I even went as far as to buy myself a candy bar on that date.
We just got transfers, nothing’s changing except that one more of the areas in our zone is closing (thanks to the fact that missionaries are consistently going home and we have consistently not gotten new missionaries since Elder Taylor came almost 8 months ago!) Me and Elder Pulsipher are way happy to be together still and are really set on helping our investigators become converted to the gospel.
As far as my go home date, my best guess is first week of July because we’ve got 3 transfers left now and that’s when the third one would end, the only thing that would change that is some crazy visa crisis or us needing to stay a bit longer because of an odd number of missionaries. So I guess I don’t really know.
I’m glad to be here at the last part of my mission with my old MTC companion so we can stress out together about getting a lot done before we got home. It’s really nice and seems to be coming together.

Until next time,

Elder Rob

Big News

2009-02-21T00:55:00.000-08:00

Hey from Chelyabinsk,

You may already know this but “Chelyabinsk” literally means “Anastasia’s city of pampering”. We have two items in the big news department. One is we got decent baptismal dates with two of our investigators; they weren’t really progressing so we challenged them to work towards it and they decided to go for it. It’s almost 2 months away but it’s really good that they agreed to work towards them and will require them to be more active than they’ve been.
Second big news is that we finally went to Kishtim the radioactive city that the church won't allow missionaries to live in, and while the glowing tentacles were disappointingly sparse the members there were very impressive and it's all thanks to one amazing priesthood holder who does the job the missionaries can't do. Elder P. and I had to speak and I was able to relate to them about not having a good place to meet from my time in Revda as they have been searching for 5 years and this Sunday was the first day in their first official meeting place. It was inspiring to see how happy a tiny two room remodeled apartment made them.
Our zone did a great job at all the things President committed them to last week and we learned a lot about working for goals that I hope we can apply to the rest of our time here.

Love and joy,

-Elder Magleby

Vodka vs. Radiation

2009-02-10T20:27:00.000-08:00

Hey from Chelyabinsk,

You may already know this but Chelyabinsk literally means, “The place where snowflakes kill”. We got back from Kazakhstan late Saturday night and instead of getting to sleep in at the A.P.s apartment to make up for the lack of sleep due to flights and stuff,(personally my favorite part of visa trips. Nothing like mission authorized sleeping in) we had to get up and run over to the office so they could do copies of our new passports and visa’s, then taxi over to the stinky bus station to take a lovely four and a half hour freezing bus ride down to Chely to make it to church on time. President and the Assistants were in town for Zone Conference and it was great. President did a good job at getting after us for not getting enough new investigators and we're all now more dedicated to finding them now, focusing on families this week. Elder KSP and I are determined to work with more faith and president has also asked us to read Ether 2-3 and study how to make a miracle happen. We’re on it.
Kazakhstan was fun, I met my personal goal and only barely went into the double digits as far as total ties purchased. The word is that we were the last group to go there and we should be back to Prague or Estonia next time, which crazily enough will be our last trip, yikes.
Because I didn’t get to finish my letter last time I didn’t get to tell you about the Sunday school lesson last week. In the course of the lesson a myth I’ve heard about that I really couldn’t believe people actually believed was confirmed as a Russian belief. When talking about the word of wisdom someone actually asked if it was still OK to drink alcohol if it was just as a cure for radiation, the idea being alcohol is inherently good at getting radiation out of your body (Vodka of course being maximum strength). That being funny enough in itself the kicker was that the question was taken very seriously in the way that asking if caffeine was still allowed and the usual debate broke out as people voiced their different views on the subject. It was hard for me to translate the debate for the senior couple without laughing as I exchanged “are you kidding me” looks with Elder P. It was even harder to translate what this senior missionary said as a response to end the debate, as he is a microbiologist and started to explain radical particles, half lives and how no substance can negate these reactions... I tried to keep up at translating his words for the class but eventually just waited for him to finish and said, “Shortly speaking, that myth is just not true” So for the record alcohol is for the washing of the belly, not for the cleansing of said belly from loose electrons.
With those words of wisdom I’m outta here…
With love,
Elder Goodbelly

Back out of the USSR

2009-02-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hey from Chelyabinsk,

You may already know this but the literal translation of Chelyabinsk is “Radiation from on high” It was named in brief time in Russian history when they thought Radiation was a blessing from heaven.
After tomorrow I’m back to Kazakhstan for another lovely visa renewal. We are promised to only be there for two days. Which is just enough time to buy approximately 67 ties. I’m worried I won’t be able to hold back. But I mean, who knows then next time I’ll be in Kazakhstan right? It’s not like I have to go there every 93 days.
Right now I’m sitting in the basement of the post office with a bit of sugar headache wearing the finest shoes a missionary could have. My packages, all three, came! I was so surprised to see the boots inside. I thought I remembered that they weren’t that nice but would be an improvement. These are the Cadillac of Russian Missionary boots. Elder Savage had a pair of these and whenever a discussion of boots came up the debate ended with this particular type of Ecco’s. Thank you so much. I think mission Karma has caught up with me, after months of lousy shoes and bed I have the best of each.

Whoa gotta go, love
Rob

“where hell meets earth.”

2009-02-01T21:19:00.000-08:00

Old photo but I just found it--this is dividing line between Europe and Asia

Hello from Chelyabinsk,

You probably already know this but if you break down the word Chelyabinsk, it means “where hell meets earth.” And just as a mission report I started my mission in Center Perm for 3+ months, then went to Miass (technically in the Chelyabinsk zone but two hours away from the rest of the zone which is entirely in the city of Chelyabinsk) for six months, then to Revda (which like Miass is a little satellite city of Yekaterinburg but it was only 45 minutes away) for 7 and a half months. Now I’m in Center Chelyabinsk where I may finish my mission. (A lot of zone leaders finish here because it’s close to the end of your mission usually and that makes it so we have a lot of nice stuff because they leave it behind as pack to go home. Cha Ching!).
It’s SO great to be back with Elder Pulsipher. Every day so far has been way fun just because we’re old companions from the MTC. We were both so happy to hear the news, heck, the whole mission was happy to hear the news because everyone knows that we would want to be together. It was funny, President at zone leader council breakfast asked us if we were in the same MTC group and I said, “You bet, we were companions even, in fact the whole mission's talking about the fact that you put us together. It’s pretty ridiculous!” He kind of looked surprised and confused. Speaking of dumb things I’ve said and done around President: Right before the breakfast, I had gotten ready and decided that I didn’t want to put on my winter socks, one, because they were dirty and two, because I always have to wear them they look junky when you’re wearing a suit, and three, because this was at President's house which is the closest thing to America this side of Leningrad so that means he has nice soft carpet which my bare feet never get to enjoy. So the decision was made and I sort of felt weird walking around in bare feet, but decided that I was just second guessing my decision, and stuck to it. Then President came down and invited us all to eat and then said to me as I listened attentively with my big nasty Hobbit feet propped up on his white leather ottoman: “Elder Magleby, while we do walk around here without shoes on, we do usually were socks.” I managed to say “yeah….” like I had a response then just hung my head in shame as I, like the wedding guest found without proper clothing in the King’s son’s wedding feast Parable, was found speechless as I almost explained my list of reasoning for such instantly recognizably odd behavior.
Aside from my little and frequent blunders, zone council was great. It was quite pleasant to see so many good missionaries almost all of which I’ve served around and discuss how to help the mission and do God's Will better.

This is going to be a transfer to remember,

Love,

-Radioactive* Rob

*Chelyabinsk is one of the most, if not the most radioactive areas in former USSR. In fact they had some kind of melt down back in the day that was 10 times worse (some say 100) than Chernobyl, it was just more easy to be kept secret ‘cause it wasn’t a full out explosion. Chelyabinsk zone leaders get the special responsibility of Kishteem. A special little city a few hours away from Chely that has been determined by the church to be too radioactive for missionary to actually live there but once a transfer we’re allowed to make a trip out there for a few hours to visit a small church group that meets in someone’s home. Maybe I’ll bring back a postcard… and some more moles. You can never have too many moles right?

Good Girl

2009-01-19T08:21:00.000-08:00

Hey Dear Family,

This is my last full day in Revda. Sunday was nice, had our regular third Sunday visitors from Yekat and a nice meeting. The members even decided to sing “Until we meet again” as the closing hymn of 2nd hour. Which was funny, because for half a second I considered picking it for the closing hymn of sacrament meeting. I’m excited for Zone Leader Council, mostly for a balanced meal provided by Sister Allen, and for an opportunity to discuss the mission and be around so many good friends and missionaries. My time was sacred here and I’ll always look back to it with fondness and gratitude. All sounds nice at home, even with all the changes, here’s the letter I wrote Berkeley this week:

I felt a disturbance in the force when Puppy died. I feel bad for the time I hit her in the face with a shovel. I was swinging it in a circle at full speed (just for fun with gravity) when she as a little puppy ran up to "play" with it and it more than smacked her in the muzzle before I could stop its momentum. She kind of looked dazed for a few seconds, like when she sneezes, then continued to bound towards me only tipsy now, and she may have fallen over on the way. Sometimes I worried that this was the cause of a lot of her specialness.
Do all dogs really go to heaven? Remember how Dad said Mia was not filling the measure of her creation as a cat? I'd be a lot more ok with Mia roasting in hell than Puppy, because Mia lived her whole life like she was enduring hellfire, the way she sat and starred with her EYES, always glaring never doing. Puppy would just run around not knowing what to do and maybe cling to the floor. Heat rises so that might be one the smarter things she's ever done. Good girl. Did she live to be 10? Maybe even more. Good for her. That’s like 70 in dog years isn't it? And like 200 considering her physical condition at any time in her life.
She’s probably living it up in fat dog’s heaven right now. Well actually, she’s probably been lead into a nice heaven-corner for snapping at cherubims who wanted to pet her. Good girl. I still laugh to myself about the time Brian Kershisnik who, after petting her for a while asked if he could adjust her collar because it was a little tight on her. I told him to give it a try and Puppy, who was lying on her back, promptly chomped him on the meaty part of his hand between the thumb and pointer finger. He looked to me in surprise and I just shrugged my shoulders in ignorance of this event in the Puppy Mystery. Puppy wasn’t very good at recognizing her friends, or not biting the people who were likely to give her the most sympathy. How many “last walks” did we take her around the block before giving in and promising to take more care of her.
She was a pretty dog, in my opinion. She had a grace about her. And it wasn’t just the shiny coat provided by her bacon grease-supplemented diet. To her credit she never hesitated to eat chocolate and always hesitated to eat anything green or nutritious. Except grass, she loved grass. But that was just to impress you, ‘cause she would do the same thing with snow. I think she thought if she showed you how good an eater she was, you would feed her more. So she ate whatever was in the backyard whether it be grass, snow or stuffed animals thrown over to her from the neighbor kids in hopes to quell her wrath. To no effect though, as she barked every time regardless if it was a person, group of kids, car, airplane or satellite. Good girl.
I’ve already been missing her slightly throughout my mission, wondering if she’d be alive when I get back, and it’s a relief to know for a surety now that she won’t. Although I say that in the same way a Dear John’ed Elder claims it to be true for his “It’s not like she was ‘waiting’ for me” self assuring way.
I don’t know if I can break the news to Elder Jensen, he loved Puppy so much. Puppy stories are what got him through the MTC. Puppy's mere existence brought him joy. I think that can be true for everyone now, minus the smells her existence caused. She was such a dog.

I’m thankful for her.

Farwell, sweet nemesis of mind and battle...

-Rob

Transfer!

2009-01-12T17:55:00.001-08:00

Hey I spent most of P-Time on a project so I’ll write a quick one today:

We found out transfers last night and they couldn’t be better. Although I’m leaving Revda, we're being replaced by two Natives who will be EXACTLY what the branch needs. I called the members once I heard ‘cause I was way excited and they claimed to be sad that I was leaving and that Natives aren’t that big of a deal to them but I think they were happy to hear the news. I’m going back to Chelyabinsk! This time I’ll be joining my old MTC companion Elder Pulsipher as a Zone Leader. I’m so excited to be back with him in that great city. Elder Taylor’s Greenhood will officially end as he’s going to Sem Kluchye, (it means 7 Springs) in Yekat proper. He’s excited too. We’re going to work extra hard to get the area ready for the next elders and have a great last week together. I hope all is peaceful and well at home; I love you and am grateful for you.
Love,
Revda Rob

My tongue hurts

2009-01-11T21:28:00.000-08:00

Hey Family,

I just wrote a good email but because of this internet cafe's user-friendly design it was lost because apparently you're not allowed to minimize a window.
We're well into In-Week 2009 and have had a nice time sharpening our saws and listing to fireworks that never seem to stop. For P-day we strolled around town looking at the winter festivities that managed to last through the actual celebration. The most obvious evidnce that some kind of party took place is the vivid green and red splotches of color frozen into the sidewalks and spots next to trash cans. Don't forget the yellow ones, but those aren't really a seasonal thing.
The best part about the Ice Village at town center this year was that it had some kind of space theme and the ice bridge entering said wonderland was flanked with two 12-foot tall ice carved Optimus Primes!
I couldn't believe it, we entered a different way so from behind I thought they were Big Toy soldiers or Nutcrackers but no, they were none other than more than meets the eye himself captured in 12-foot frozen glory. Pictures were taken and awesomeness was documented.
My tongue hurts and it may or may not be because I stuck it to one of the various ice castles and found it hard to retrieve, and then stuck it on to another to get a picture of retrieval leaving a blood smear behind. How am I supposed to pronounce the difference between "Ш" and "Щ" with a cankered tip of tongue?! And "Ц" is just going to be pure agony.
Transfers are next week and there's a 99.0 percent chance elder Taylor's leaving and a fig knows if I'm staying for another or not. Until then, don't let those evil robots win.

Love,
Elder Magtron

creams of the crops

2009-01-04T19:55:00.000-08:00

Dear Dear Family Family,

Mother Nature's son here: We had a lower than average turn out this week on sacrament meeting. It’s odd because it’s the active members not coming for various reasons that’s affecting the branch so much. This financial crisis has made a fair amount of the regulars have to work on Sundays, off and on, so while all the actives are still active, they just don’t all come on the same days like they used to. I know it’s not my fault but I can’t help but feel responsible for the dip in attendance lately. The new meeting house will really help most of Revda come and I’m sure miracles will happen once it’s here but in this last stretch of our time in Pervouralsk, the members are getting really tired. I even spoke about this in my talk yesterday and they know it’s true, but they just can’t expect the branch to be perfect once it’s here. We almost wrapped up tithing settlement yesterday. Sometimes when it seems like the branch has more problems than solutions, it’s hard to be optimistic about its future, but I savor the times when I get to interview the faithful creams of the crops here in Russia. The hope of their steadfastness far outbalances any despair in the setbacks in this work. It’s a truly miraculous reminder that this church is true and it does change lives. It makes us want to go outside and find their future friends. I’m so impressed with these wonderful people.
Christmas was great at President's. I stole some imported hot chocolate during the white elephant gift exchange (with marshmallows!). I use about an 8th of the tub every cup I drink. It won’t last a week. The best part of Christmas was showing up and being offered fancy foreign (i.e. American) cold cereal. We could buy it in the stores; it’s just beyond our budgets. Instead of the normal zone conference presentations we just did an extra long testimony meeting about the Savior. I really enjoyed the sincerity of the meeting, and it reminded me of many past Christmas blessings I’ve received.
I got my package just in time for... Saturday night. It was at the office, we just didn’t have time to get it before then. Those are way nice shirts thank you so much. I’ll really enjoy them, just what I wanted. The dictionary is great too, so many words. It’s wonderful. And last, thank you for the fact that you finally stopped messing around and sent a missionary portion of taco seasoning. It may last a whole transfer!

Love,

Elder Roberto

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-22T21:34:00.000-08:00

Hey Fantastic-Four (/Five?)

Sacrament meeting was great yesterday. We had President Galonov come down (The District President of Yekaterinburg) with a nice young family consisting of Oleg the man who plays the
piano often and his nice wife and their little girl. They brought a very nice spirit to our little branch, (not to mention the nice lack of stress they bring because I get to turn the whole meeting over to them) all the members loved having them come. It seriously almost brings me to tears to see a young Russian family sealed in the temple, active and keeping the commandments. I’ve seen very little of that on my mission, (just the nature of my areas) and it was really miraculous to get a reminder that it’s possible and happens, and how amazing they are when they do. It made us realize how much the branch needs a strong family. During last planning session when we prayed for what we could best do for the branch we felt that a family in Pervouralsk would be the best thing to keep the branch strong. Pervouralsk is slowly getting lesser active. It’s always been the weaker of the two areas but with no missionaries constantly there and the meeting place moving out of there, my biggest concern is making sure that side of the branch is ready and strong enough for the changes coming. I think the delays on the meeting place may be God’s intervention for the fact that Pervourlask is not ready to go to Revda yet. All the same, the meeting place should be in Revda and we will work our hardest to get the branch ready for the switch when ever it comes.
I was just thinking about that walking out of the building after Sunday meetings and tithing settlement. And I felt that we would have to do more finding in Pervouralsk, but I also felt that it just can’t work out because due to the distance from Revda, we have just enough time to meet with a few members and then have to come back to get home on the last bus out of the city. And then I felt that the answer was not planning more contacting time, but contacting the people God would put in our paths. Right then a nice looking young man was walking by, I felt, "we need to contact men like him." So while we were in a hurrying to a meeting mindset I decided to stop this man and he stopped and listened, and I felt really sincere as I talked to him because we really knew how the branch needed him and he was interested enough to give us his number and we have very high hopes for him and this branch. It might be just a simple contact story but it was a confirmation to me that God is in control of our situations and we need to be ready to act righteously in those situations.
Winter is back on track at an average of 10 below Celsius and dropping. Christmas is this week, we get to have it at president's house as a combined zone conference with Chilyabensk. It should be way fun.
Please take a picture right now of Andy’s mission winter boots and send it to me or post it on something so I can see if they are worth sending. My boots hurt my skeleton and organs because I fall over a lot when I wear them. I’ve only taken two dives this season though so I’ve got higher hopes for the future of my structural integrity. Just as a suggestion to packages that may be sent. I would love a chocolate orange and orange or/and raspberry sticks. Could you also include my call letter in the next package, or just send it as a letter. I’d like to have that soon. Peanut butter cups and taco seasoning are always in fashion.

Love,

Elder Frostslip

I thought we were already on minimum power

2008-12-16T07:23:00.000-08:00

Hey Crazy-Cool family,

The wedding sounded wonderful. I’m so pleased. Please post more photos for me, I love photos. Please also send photos in the next package so I can put them in my album that I show people; family photos and all sorts. That’s so nice that everything worked out so well. I remember when I was praying for it I was requesting something like “please bless the wedding so that everything will go ok..” Then I re-thought about how stressed everyone sounded about it and said, “please bless it so that it will be perfect.” So I was very happy to hear reports of its perfection.
We’re still as busy as ever with our two areas and just found out that the mission will still be getting smaller ‘cause 6 missionaries are going home this transfer, with of course, no one replacing them. So that means three areas are closing. I thought we were already on minimum power, I don’t know how they’ll choose which areas to close. There was a time when this mission had over 250 missionaries, soon it will have 50. That’s insane. Our zones are getting smaller and smaller, or rather, the zones are staying the same size and our missionary force is getting smaller and smaller. It’s nice to know that they’ll never close Revda because it’s already down to its minimum of one companionship in its branch.
We had a lot of member meeting last week and no investigators. It’s a shame because we have just lost contact with Alexander our great investigator ever since I left for Kazakhstan. He just doesn’t answer his phone. Strange and sad. We seriously almost don’t even have time for investigator work with us having to be in charge of Revda and Pervouralsk members in a missionary sense, and not to mention a Branch President sense. We have to plan really well to use our time. As taxing as it is, it’s much better than when the problem is the opposite; when you have too much open time and have to ineffectively tract or contact all day. They’re both extremely draining in their own ways.
Church was nice yesterday. I was able to assign a talk to one of our best members Nastya last week. She took the assignment almost too casually so I thought she might not show. And before the meeting her behavior was explained as she was reading the talk out of the Liahona I assigned her to speak on and complaining that it wasn’t understandable and she didn’t know how to speak on it. And I, slightly exasperated said, “Do you mean to say you haven’t even read it yet?” worried Sacrament Meeting was ruined. She just shrugged and kept reading. Then, ironically I sat down and prepared MY talk for Sacrament Meeting and all went well. I have an excuse though, I’m a full-time missionary, come on! Elder Taylor also spoke; he was the only one who had prepared his part in advance apparently. He did a great job and the difference was apparent between his first talk his first transfer and this one. Malajets Own.
We had a great priesthood conference in Yekat. All the branch leadership from around the whole mission came and it was so fun to see the old leadership of Perm that I haven’t seen in about a year. The general authority was unable to make it due to weather so we did a video conference which kind of made it fun and reminded me of episodes of Arrested Development. It was really funny to me when the general authority asked us if we had done what he had requested we do in preparation for this meeting and come with a plan for missionary work in our branches. I hadn’t because due to problems in communications I only found about the meeting 12 hours earlier. But the rest of the priesthood all kind of looked around and mumbled in response that they hadn’t. And it was funny because the General Authority didn’t really care and we just moved on to doing it right then. It just made me realize how this sort of thing happens a lot among priesthood leadership, where they all understand an assignment, but all know themselves that they are really busy with other things and know that when one of them assigns them something that’s not absolutely necessary that the assigner will understand when it’s not done. Kind of like how me, Andy, and any of my friends on missions never write each other because we understand each other's busy situations and know that it will all be ok when we get home. That might not have come off clearly but I found it to be a funny realization.
In other news I found out the answer to the riddle of the crazy Nazi general in “It’s a beautiful life” When he asks Roberto what animal makes the sound in his riddle, that’s the sound Russian toads make: “Whkey Whkey”! And Dad, I still remember that Danish pigs say “Nuff Nuff." In Russia they say “hlew hlew.”

Funny ol’ world in’ it.

Love,
Elder Makelby

Berkeley got home one year ago, today

2008-12-14T21:55:00.001-08:00

And she got married 2 days ago

From Elder Honorary Maid of Honor

2008-12-10T07:24:00.000-08:00

Hey busy family,

I remember last time we were really busy right before my farewell a nice man named Kevin showed up and weed-whacked our backyard. I’ll never forget that.
I learned yesterday that Russians call their spouses “Sputniks” as a term of affection. Well, a man is Sputnik; a woman is the feminine form “Sputnitza”. Isn’t that cute? Sputnik in Russian is just the word for satellite, not the official name of the famous one launched in the 60’s starting the cold war and inspiring such movies as October Sky and the Talented Mr. Ripley.
I thought the work would calm down a little since the big combination of areas but we’ve been so busy for so long I see now it will probably stay this way. Yesterday was a poorer turn out for Sacrament Meeting. It was pretty crummy, gloomy, cold weather so I guess that was a good enough excuse for some member to miss. We still have to travel to the other city every Sunday and the Revda members are getting tired of it, and it doesn’t help that almost no one in that city (Pervoralsk) is active. So they all have to travel over there and all the ones who don’t have to travel don’t even come. Some of the members are saying if they have to keep traveling to Church they’ll just got to Yekat so there will actually be many people in the meeting. I’m both impressed and concerned by these sentiments. They actually want a good experience out of church, any weaker of testimony and they would just not come and do the classic less-active line of “I’ll come when so and so comes”. We really need the meeting place moved here soon. I feel dumb for telling them it would be here in time for New Year's. The highlight of Testimony meeting, (which is a tough one when only five members are there and two made it clear they wouldn’t be bearing their testimonies) was when my main mooning man Dima got up and hobbled over to the podium and bore a sincere real testimony. He’s not all there and has said some strange things at the pulpit before but he took the stand and got after everyone for being gloomy and told us we need to be optimists and explained how God always answered his prayers, and the best part is that he closed “in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen” He, due to his brain injuries always forgets to say that and just says “amen” when he’s done talking, in prayers and testimonies so we have to remind him before he starts his prayers and half the time he still forgets but at the end of this surprisingly spiritual testimony he closed it up right. He was beaming, and so was I.
So it turns out transfers last week were not a joke. There were absolutely no changes mission wide. Pretty crazy. It’s in large part due to the fact that half the mission was in Kazakhstan for almost the entire transfer, so poor Elder Taylor is still in his greenie area, still with his trainer. And the Evergreenie marches on. I’m really excited for winter starting and this splendid Christmas season and we’re shooting for a Christmas miracle for the Branch.
In other news, last night right before planning I was flicking pens around the room, boasting of my skill, speed and accuracy, as is my custom and Elder Taylor glanced around the room to find the most ridiculous target imaginable and suggested I hit it without hitting anything else, in jest mind you. It was a small globe/pencil sharpener (the size of a golf ball) resting on a stack of Muslim prayer hat’s purchased in K-Town (Kazakhstan) resting on top of a real (communist) globe resting on top of a shelf across the room. So about 12 feet away and 10 up, as we have high ceilings. Without taking aim I just flicked the one in my hand as he was talking and it missed of course. Then I thought out the situation and decided to risk it and took precise aim. Disaster struck as the cap flew off in release, but each piece hit above and below the mini globe respectively. Now the big moment, adjusting so the lid would not be a problem, aim was took, and in slow motion the pen spun its way over making contact with only the small sphere and nothing else knocking it off orbit behind the shelf. Elder Taylor was hyperventilating for two minutes before he could get a word out.
I wish for more than the best on your big day Sister. I unfortunately will be unable to make it, as I’ve got a ward Christmas party to get to. Priorities, ya know?

Love,

Elder Honorary Maid of Honor

“Are you serious?! We haven’t even been here 10 minutes! Come on!”

2008-12-07T22:57:00.000-08:00

Hey From Ревда!

We’re back. I left a week and a half ago and he left a month ago and we came back together. It was more of a secret rescue mission really. Plus, I served a three-year mission in China while I was there.
It was very nice to get back into the motherland, and no joke, five minutes after getting off the plane we had a drunk confrontation waiting in line for passport control. He was a funny guy, and while he was talking to us in Russian, I was saying loudly in English, “Are you serious?! We haven’t even been here 10 minutes! Come on!” That was at the Moscow airport. Back in our home court in the Yekat airport we had to negotiate taxi prices to take us to the office. I used to avoid/hate this, but now I learned that you just can’t let anything slide and argue to the last kopeck. This time they wanted to squeeze and extra 100 rubles out of us, nothing unusual, but the reason was because of the financial crisis, which they reasoned was “because it’s your crisis affecting us, it’s not our fault, it’s your fault.” Yes, it’s our fault so we will pay you 100 rubles more. You better believe I gave him the fig. (The fig is a hand gesture that resembles a hand holding a nose just after it has been “gotten” from a child’s face. That’s why we don’t play that game in Russia. I believe the same gesture is the letter D in sign language.)
To give one the fig in missionary terms doesn’t necessarily imply the actual hand gesture, most often we say it to mean rejection or to psyche someone out. A common usage is to put your hand in your pocket when someone asks to borrow money and you pull out a fig instead. It’s not anywhere near the middle finger in case you were worried. Church members do it all the time. Interesting side note, I actually knew the fig before my mission. Alex taught me sophomore year, ‘cause his bother served in Russia. I’m gonna drop him the biggest fig-bomb the next time I see him.
I was really nice to get back though. Talking with my MTC buddies we all got excited to serve in our area’s and “lift where we stand” as President Uchdorf taught. I LOVE my MTC group and hope to stay in contact with them my whole life. We got the transfers email today, but nothing had changed in the entire mission, so I think it’s a joke because the subject line was a scripture reference to patience. So I guess we’ll have to wait. President assured me that I would be staying another and Griffy would be leaving so well see what happens. We have a mission goal of 100 baptisms before the end of the year and we have 56. I’m still committed to this goal. I don’t think I can say all will achieve their part of the goal but we in Revda will do our part to reach this goal. I love you, this area, this branch, this country and the Lord.

-Elder Magleby

Visa Renewal trip 3

2008-11-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

Hey Family,

I’m in a nice internet café called “Omega Sector”. It sounds like something out of a Godzilla movie, which makes sense because half of the people here look like people out of a Godzilla movie. I like Godzilla. I like the people here. They are very respectful; all the youth get up for old people on the buses. This city is called Almaty, it means father of Apples or something, what really surprised me was that there are huge mountains here. I’m used to the little Urals, but I think these guys might be bigger than the Wasatch front. And on the other side is Kyrgyzstan, which I’ve never heard of and is cool. This country is part of the Moscow West mission, there are crazy religious visa rules that are very hard to get so for our time here we are on business visas while we wait for our Russia Religious visa’s to go through.
Being here on business visa’s means a business had to sponsor us, we're here under a company that we make a lot jokes about because we’re pretty sure it doesn’t exist, because it has a very generic name and the only info we have on it is that it’s centered in Provo UT. How convenient. I’ve been designated CFO though I requested Chairman of Keeping it Real. While we’re here we are not allowed to wear tags, bring up the church with anyone or even answer people who ask about it. We can not even tell people we’re here trying to get religious visa’s to Russia. The Elders (only four) that serve here have the same rules until they get their official visa’s and so they just follow their companion around for a transfer or two without a tag not being allowed to talk or teach at all, even on lessons. All they can do is say hi or talk about worldly stuff. Pretty crazy.
We thought we’d have a lot of free study time but we’ve been pretty busy with this or that regarding our visa’s. It’s tedious, I hate forms now. I did bring General Conference in English so we’ve been watching a session when we can. It’s very good. Our apartment is nicer than any apartment in our mission. All in all from what I’ve seen Kazakhstan is nicer than Russia so I don’t know what Borat is talking about.
It’s way fun to be with my old MTC companion Elder Pulsipher, and the rest of my group Elders Jensen and Sorensen. MTC represent! It’s nice to just chill out, go on a walk and talk about our missions so far and swap good stories. I hope all is well in Revda now that both of its missionaries are in Kazakhstan. We should only be here 3 more days because they haven’t messed up our invitations like they did the last group. So we’ll all probably go back to Russia together. There are some nice pointy slippers everyone’s buying that if nothing else would make a good Wise Man costume back home, come to think of it all the traditional dress here looks like the wise men.
I love it here and there and wherever I may be. Next visa trip: Bangkok.

Respectfully,

CFO Magleby

Rob in Prague

2008-11-09T17:45:00.000-08:00

Editor here:
Rob sent me a link to a Senior Couple's blog so I got to see their photos of the visa renewal trip to Prague so I post some of those photos here:

Halloween Rocks!

2008-11-03T19:22:00.001-08:00

Hey all,

The new office senior couple, (specifically the wife) said she remembered my last name from somewhere and asked if I ever lived in St. George. I said my family did when I was a baby or possibly before that, and she remembered a Magleby family who moved into the ward and she remembered that they were nice classy people because they had a really pretty quilt on the wall, and that’s all she could remember. I said it’s possible because me family had a nice Amish quilt but that it was purchased in Amish Country and that they wouldn’t have owned it before they moved to Ohio. Then I remembered visiting an antique store in Salt Lake where Dad said you had bought that quilt. So it was you/us. She was the new member greeter and she remembers you because of that quilt. They’re a nice couple and one of their daughters married a friend of the Faulconers.
One of the main events of this week was our Halloween Party. I thought it would just be fun instead of having our normal English class to have a simple Halloween party instead. But the Members apparently LOVE Halloween and when they heard we were having it, freaked out and wanted to help plan it and make it a really big deal, so that was kinda stressful for the week cause I’m President now and we don’t have the other companionship now so we had to do all the prep work but the members came though in spades and it was a rocking party with over 30 in attendance. I really wanted to show them Carmel Apples, and with the help of the aforementioned senior sister in the office’s recipe we did them and they loved them. Halloween is such a novelty to Russians, to Americans a well I guess. Halloween rocks. I believe Brigham Young said that.
The voting scene doesn’t sound too fun. Although there were some politically active elders in our zone who wanted to vote so last P-day we went to the American Consulate to cast our lots and since I don’t know anything about either candidate and I’m pretty sure I’m not registered, I didn’t want to vote for the wrong one and then have people ask me which one I voted for when I got back and they were lame, heck I've got the best excuse in the world, I’m in Russia! So I voted for Kodos, with Levi Heperi as a running mate. So now I sure hope I’m not registered, and I hope they can’t look such things up if I ever have a career that joke ballots would mar. It was funny to be at the Consulate--non-Mormon Americans were weird to see. America Rocks. I believe Vladmir Putin said that.
Our great investigator Alexander is doing great. His English is impeccable as ever and so interesting 'cause he speaks way better than most Russians I’ve met but he’s never talked to natives before so he speaks only from books and some songs and movies. He asked us the other day what we thought when people “busted our chops” and I realized I had no idea what that meant. He also asks great spiritual questions, they always make me think. I was testifying about how we need unshakable testimonies and he immediately asked me if I had one, and I was taken aback for a sec, and the member who was helping looked over and was like “well, do you?” with a smile because it was a difficult question. And I thought and explained that we need to build our testimonies on the Rock of Christ, which IS unshakable, however flawed or weak my house may be Christ is our Rock which will never fail. Alexander gives us many opportunities for me to better understand my testimony and preach the gospel doing so.

I’m loving this ice cream sandwich,

-Elder Arrested

Visa troubles

2008-11-03T19:01:00.000-08:00

Hey Family,

All is great in Revda. Yesterday we had a special conference that was a broadcast from Salt Lake (President Monson and Elder Cook) connected with a broadcast from Moscow with President Piper. It was really cool to see Salt Lake doing something special for Russia, and from all the branches in the zone we had 149 people come! I've never seen a building so full in my mission. It was great. And most of our members from Revda made it despite the distance.
I don't know if you've heard about our problems over here but let me sum up a few of them regarding visa's. As you know with the new law we have to leave the country every 93 days (Every other transfer) and get a new visa. The law originally stated that you have to go to your country of origin to get a new one, but we've been able to do it at neighboring counties here and there, IE Prague or Estonia. But recently Prague stopped working out so they sent half the groups to Spain and half to Sweden. Lucky! The trips were longer than usual and lasted just under two weeks. But since about three and a half weeks ago, all missionaries who have left Russia have been unable to get visas to get back. So we currently have 14 missionaries who have been stuck in Sweden waiting for a visa that may never come. Mine expires in less than a month and I hope all these problems are fixed before then, or I hope that if I get stuck it's somewhere good, meaning it has a temple. The elders stuck in Sweden by law have to go to the temple twice a day in order to qualify for their residency status, some kind of service clause, can you imagine going to the temple twice a day for three weeks and counting!? I seriously don't know what to think of that.
So this area has got a lot of challenges ahead, at the end of this week Elder Taylor is leaving for his new visa, (hope he makes it back) and so I'm told I'll be with elder Kirbotof, isn't that a strange last name? That's because he's Russian! This will be my first extended period of time serving with a Russian, I'm way excited for the language benefits, and for how all the kids that yell “Hello America” will be shocked to find that my companion is not from America and cannot teach them any swear words. I think I may just strut him around the city and seek out every pack of youth and have them see that not every guy in a white shirt and tie is an American.
Also since they “closed” the other area of our branch due to the lack of missionaries, (still haven't got any elders since Elder Taylor) we have had to absorb their entire area which literally more than doubles our work. Looks like there wont be much time for contacting, which is an effective thing. Our branch has technically two, but really just one active Priesthood holder. His name is Andre he is amazing. One of those miracle baptisms that came out of nowhere because the branch needed him. He has one of the strongest testimonies I've ever witnessed, I say witnessed in that I've seen it not just heard it. He's only 21 and he feels a real responsibility for this branch, it's only a matter of time before they make him branch President. He's amazing and I'm so lucky to have him as a first counselor.
To end with one the quirks of the area we have now inherited the infamous “Baba Anya” She is the craziest babushka in the mission. She is three foot five and claims to be dying every second. She is so hard to meet with as all she does, is complain. NO joke, if you even ask her how she is she will complain until you walk out the door. I make it a point not to ask how she is just ask if there is any thing to help with, which of course there is not, because she just likes complaining! Here are some quotes from yesterday as we were just trying to get her to commit to read one verse a day. “I can't I'm sick, I have an eternal problem” “I'm always throwing up bile, it's green!” “I can't do anything, I'm like a table, a piece of wood” She is the living dead, in that she is faith without works, she's dead.

Love,

Roberto

Double True

2008-10-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

All is well in Revda. We just got transfers, we’re both staying! I’ve had only two other companions for two transfers and none for three until now. But what’s craziest is that President made me Branch President. I sort of felt it coming in my bones but there were so many transfer rumors flying around I didn’t know what to think. It was very humbling to get the call and at the same time I felt assured about it, pretty strongly assured actually, because I felt assured when I went senior companion and didn’t think I’d be ready for it but that was more of a “everything’s going to be crazy, but rest assured it will be ok” and this time I felt and saw how all our/my work in Revda was leading up to it being the Lord’s will that I have this responsibility at this time.

And that was really special for me because I’ve been specifically seeking assurance lately as I’m “older” in the mission now and it’s not that I was doubting my efforts but just feeling a complete lack of assurance that I was doing God’s will at all. So I’ve been deliberately trying to forget my needs of assurance and just focus on what I feel the people here need, feeling that in doing so assurance would come that I was doing what the Lord wanted, and that is a feeling I have come to cherish here in Russia. I actually talked to president about this in an interview a few weeks back and he had good council as always and brought up an interesting point about assurance, that it’s a righteous desire for us to have, but we cannot demand it, only humbly hope and pray for it, having faith that it will eventually come. He wondered how much Abraham’s wife’s prayers changed after waiting five, ten, thirty or forty years for children, and I felt silly for being slightly despaired for not seeing results for just over a year, but I testify that I only received the assurance after my prayers had changed from worrying about if I was going to get what had been promised in a general way to how I could help the people I’d been called to serve in a specific way.
I love Revda and I’m so pleased to be here for six, possibly 12 more weeks. I love the Lord for my trials and am humbled by how simple they are, yet test me to the core regularly. Thanks for being my family, here’s a quote from the Great Russian writer Tolstoy: “All happy families resemble one another. All unhappy families are unhappy in their own way.” That’s a true gospel principal.

Double true,

Elder Magleby

“The Devil’s 19”

2008-10-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Today I’m writing after our p-day activities, so I can actually report on them instead of forgetting them by the time next Monday comes around. Remember when I said our area is in Europe and the rest of the zone is in Asia? Well today we finally went to an official monument which celebrates the continental borders. It’s a classy pillar with stairs leading up to it with a nice dividing line in the middle-separating Asia and Europe-that’s good for the classic photo: the transcontinental handshake. But our zone is more creative than that as we amused/annoyed the security guards with the “transcontinental football pass”, “the transcontinental cartwheel”, the “transcontinental thumb-wrestle” and my personal favorite the “transcontinental-continental breakfast”. As a side note, I ripped my 9th, that’s right NINTH pair of pants jumping into Asia for the zone group picture so we also took a picture of the “Transcontinental Crotch Rip”;
it may not make it though myldsmail.net filters so you’ll just have to picture it in your head. Maybe they’ll put it on a state quarter.
Saturday while contacting on the street focusing on men, we found a nice young man named Alexander. He’s our new investigator and loves Star Wars and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. He’s 20 years old, but looks more like he’s 16(it’s weird, Russian boys look younger and the girls look older). We’re way excited to get working with him, as he’s looked into a lot of religions and still feels there’s something more out there. A это мы! We’re still working with Galina our great referral from a member, but her husband is trouble and we’re praying for a way for her accepting the gospel that will save her family.
Zone conference was great as usual and usual from interviews with president I can get a hint of if I’m getting transferred or not, but this time as I said I’d love to stay and would hate it if this area got whitewashed, he sort of froze as if that’s exactly what’s going to happen. No! Whatever happens, will be right of course, but I seriously feel I could stay through January!
Also at Zone conference I was pleasantly surprised by mail. A package even, thanks Katy! I love the Joker. Also got a marvelous newsletter from Talisa, (whom we found a street named after today) Talisa, your letter had been slit opened on both sides, examined and resealed sloppily with tape bearing the Russian seal. Congratulations! Now the secret KGB knows all about your adventures in Europe. Which reminds me, Mom I sent you two letters this week through pouch, but they aren’t for you, they’re for Alex and Dave my buddies. I’d didn’t have their current addresses so if you could call Talisa and ask her for them and then send them off I would be much obliged. Thanks!
Russian fact for the day, as in English we have a special colloquial word for 13 i.e. “a bakers dozen”, so do Russians! They call 13 “the Devils 12”. I find that hilarious. Also, related bonus fact: Ferris wheels are called “Hell Wheels”. Now you know, and are accountable, and so I bid you farewell,

C luboovyou,

Elder Magleby, “The Devil’s 19”

“did you see that?”

2008-10-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

Visa renewal in Prague

Hey Family,

Good letters from all, Hurrah! The big news of the week is that it is official; the only months on my mission that I have not seen snow are June July and August. As of last Friday September 26th winter is here, snow flurries and all. It’s weird to see snow falling along with the fall leaves, really pretty though. It definitely didn’t snow this time last year, but they’re always saying last winter was a warm one.
Actually the big news is investigators. We’ve got some. I was just thinking on one of our many bus rides between cities that with the exception of our golden investigator who didn’t work out when I was a greenie, I haven’t had any real investigators my whole mission. We’ve had a few people that on paper count, or that we were technically teaching but no one who the gospel was really coming alive for, someone who was asking real questions and seriously “investigating” the church. And that I wanted to really have someone to really teach with Elder Taylor. We worked hard last transfer to get the work going but with no visible success, but with a resolved effort to just keep working and not worry about it being a trial of faith or some test for me, and just keep working and now we have two solid investigators and one solid contact who will be one just as soon as his schedule opens up. They are an nice older man we tracted into named Sergey, a very orthodox Russian who didn’t even want to talk to us at first but we kept at it and he eventually gladly took a book of Mormon and said he’ll test it out and have many questions for us(!), and Galina a nice neighbor to an inactive we work with often. I know that just because we have some good prospects that doesn’t mean the work has totally turned around and all trials are ended, but I’m remaining optimistic with them and if none of them turn out, we’ll still keep at it and be grateful for the period of time where we were teaching and testifying about the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people who were actually interested in coming unto Christ.
All sounds well at home, I recon I’ll miss all of my siblings weddings while I’m out here if this business keeps up. A funny two part story: On the nice walk home from teaching Galina for the first time, we walked down a dark street where we soon noticed two men just sort of standing in the middle of the street, like they were waiting for something and as we crossed them we passed a black, metal reinforced briefcase just sitting there by the curb waiting to be pick up in the pitch dark. It was one of those times where you know something’s up but can’t say anything about it until a good distance away and you whisper out of the side of your mouth, “did you see that?” Good times, also on that same way home, we passed a man squatting on the ground making a cell phone call with a woman on the ground a few feet in front of him sort of writhing either in a high amount of pain or in a just plain state of high. We were already late for getting home and I tried to see if I felt a prompting to do anything and I felt for some reason all would be ok, so we continued to hurry home when I notice a cop car coming by, so I felt I should wave it down, (a bit of risky venture considering some mission lore about a certain Elder Snider whose jaw was broken by a policemen) so I did, told about the woman and they went to go check it out. So we felt reassured for doing what we could and staying within the rules. Yay for reassurance.

Welp, gosta go,

Love,

Elder Magleby

Family Lore

2008-09-19T20:30:00.000-07:00

Hey Family,

Andy’s homecoming sounded nice, how is everyone? I’m sorry I missed it and Mat6t’s farewell, but Mat6t slept through mine so we’re all even.
Fun engagement photos; definitely use the one with Andy’s demon face. It’s got family lore written all over it.Please post a final copy of their actual engagement card so I can know where they’re registered.
All is great in Revda. Our branch here is made up of two cities, so all the members from our area have to make a trip every Sunday on the bus over to the city where the meeting house/room is. There have always been more members in Revda than the other city so they have always been trying to get the meeting house moved here, but none of the locations have worked out; until lately. They just barley officially signed an agreement with a nice section of a building in a perfect location. It’s right in the middle of the city and even better just a five minute walk from our apartment. I so hope to be here when it’s opened. This has been in the works for years and the work will get so much better once it’s here. Every time I walk past it I think one day we’ll be walking home from it after locking it up from having a great meeting there. We just got word that it will be another three months (!) because our church has to do another remodel to make it an appropriate meeting place which destroys all confidence the members had in me as I informed them that the remodel was finishing soon and we’d be there in less than a month. Жалко!
It’s really been cold lately, way colder than it was last year at this time; I think it’s looking to be a frigid winter. Boo yeah. I love fall here so much. Even though this transfer just barely started I hope to get another one here.

Любовь,

Elder Magleby

Oh, hey I forgot we had a culture day where we went to visit the place where they killed the Romanov’s and then the place where they dumped, grenade-ed, acid-ed, and cut up the bodies then burned them and scattered the ashes… and now there are a village of churches built on the soil, which they mow regularly. Hooray for Saints! I got in trouble for turning my back to one of the shrines. I guess I’m not as up-to-date on the apostasy as I thought. Опа!

Happy

2008-09-08T20:06:00.000-07:00

Hey Family,

I’m pretty smiley right now. Those pictures were way fun to look at and made me happy. Thanks mom and Berkeley.
In fact I enjoyed them so much I spent my whole time looking at them. I didn’t have to, it’s just that I hadn’t seen any pictures of the family in a while and it was fun so I went through them all several times. I love you family.
Comments on the pictures:
-Andy is not as bald as I had thought, and his European suit looks nice. I myself had to buy one just two weeks ago after wearing through six pairs of pants forcing me to wear mismatching pants and coat to zone conference and having President's wife ask me quietly if I needed help buying a new suit. I sheepishly said no, and bought a 3,000 ruble one the following P-Day. My lousy genetic thighs just burn right through pants almost a pair a transfer.
-Berkeley looks cute in flip-flops, I’ve always respected your feet Berkeley.
-Puppy is fat
-The front yard looks nice and the back looks like home.
-I noticed the obvious lack of specifics on the welcome home sign. I thought to myself, “they’ll probably use the same one for me,” then I thought, “Actually, they’ll probably just not even take it down and it will age nicely through the year.”

Well Transfers came and the first time I ever prayed to stay in an area was answered as we’re both staying here. I love Revda, and revelation.

Love,

The Remaining Elder Magleby

Welcome Home Andy!!!

2008-09-07T20:42:00.001-07:00

September 3, 2008

"Puppy, you are so fat!"

(as if I didn’t know how to handle a crazy)

2008-09-04T16:06:00.000-07:00

Hey Enlarging Family,

Greetings from the internet café of Revda. Know, that as I write you I am usually surrounded by young Russian boys yelling at each other as they kill one another in a massive multiplayer shooting game. They have significantly lowered my affection for video games.
It’s been a good week, the biggest item of note being that our phone has been cut off. I got the bill a few weeks ago and it was for 7 rubbles and 33 kopecks ( 29 cents) and due to the infinitesimally small total it just didn’t register in my brain as important. But as of the 26th we’ve been unable to call contacts and had to knock on our neighbor’s door every night to do our nightly call-in. It’s embarrassing, but fun. They are an old couple and I love old Russian couples. The husband is kinda crazy and the wife spends most of her breath yelling at him for talking to us (as if I didn’t know how to handle a crazy).
We’ve been contacting a lot this week due to the lack of investigators, which Elder Taylor is really good at and keeps me on my rote toes. Best story of the week: Drunk incident number 319. We were walking briskly to the phone place to find out what happened with our line when we passed possibly my least favorite thing in Russia, a bench. Benches are bad things, they are where drunk people are. And this happened to be a bench with a bad history, and the reputation held as a large man got up and started a conversation. It’s always worse to ignore drunk people when they call you out at a close distance (long distance you and just wave and look like you're in a hurry). So started another conversation between me and a drunk guy who wanted to know if he was a sinner and if I know Michael Jackson. Trying to wrap up drunk talk is real art. It usually involves 4 to 6 goodbyes and they always hold on as you try to shake their hand and leave. But what was special with this one is that I only had to mention that we were in a hurry once (which usually doesn’t even do anything). As I was partially listening to his jabber I thought how I’m sure this could end without problem, but that could take a while to do properly and that I just really wanted something to happen to end this quickly, and all of the sudden he ended his rant mid-subject and put out his hand to shake good bye. He very formally gave us a each a firm handshake and then turned, took three steps away, calmly bent over, and hurled his guts out, three times. I couldn’t believe it, drunk confrontations usually take at least ten minutes and this was over in three! And my first thought was, “I think an angel just spiritually punched that drunk in the gut!” And I was very grateful.
I’m excited for all that’s going on in Provo right now, give Crown Burger my best.

Love,

The one and only Elder Magleby

P.S. He did throw up three times, so maybe it was all three of the Three Nephites. I’m just saying…

My Testimony

2008-08-26T22:53:00.000-07:00

We had zone conference this week and it was sad to give my "Departing Testimony". It is weird to leave the mission in the hands of others. All this week I have been thinking "We have to get some investigators so the elders behind us won't be so messed over." It has been weird and comforting to see Elders (and Sisters, I guess...) and now Mission Presidents rising to the occasion and controlling insurmountable problems of the restoration of the true church here in Romania. Like with the beginning of the church in America, people were prepared to find and lead the church, the many members here have received that same calling and were even taught lessons before this mortal life began, I would say. I am so grateful for the people I have come to meet on my mission and the examples I have to follow. I know the kind of member I would like to be and what qualities I would like to work for in myself.

I have a true testimony that this gospel can change lives if people will let it, and sadly I have many witnesses to state that if you do not cherish that testimony and always strive to keep it in your heart and you let the cares of the world come in, that which you had will be taken from you. It is so easy to lie to yourself if the adversary is working on you.

I am so very grateful for the questions posed by Joseph Smith that led him to his great vision. That at such a time he was able to endure such persecution and restore the Holy Priesthood and the true Church and how he strove to the end of his mortal work to bring to pass the works of God.

I have a greater understanding of the priesthood and of its functions through leaders in the church. I am so grateful that Prophets live and guide the true Church of Jesus Christ in these days and I know that the men who lead and guide this church are who they claim to be.

I know that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are the words of God given to man and the same for all scripture canonized by Prophets. It is so much more of a miracle to me now that the Three Witnesses never denied their testimony of the Book of Mormon, and like them I can say that I know that book is inspired of God and that its purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ just like all of the standard works.

And finally I know that the promises of God are true if we fulfill our part. Obedience brings the Spirit and that is one of the greatest gifts we can have with us in this life. Nothing can imitate the Spirit, but we can ignore it and loose it if we are not careful.

I hope for many things in this life, especially for a better life with those I love. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

a little world of pure imagination

2008-08-26T22:48:00.001-07:00

Hey family,

Good letters this time, I wish Andy could go home every week. Does that mean he’ll be home tomorrow or something? That’s weird. I keep telling people that he has a few weeks left.
Prague was fun. Cool to be back, and even cooler to see my old MTC distinct again. I love those guys. It’s so weird to think that this means we have less than a year left. It’s going so fast. Now we’ll get to see each other every other transfer 'cause our visas only last 93 days. It was a special treat to stumble upon a Tesco. I bought some vanilla extract, a must-have for any missionary’s kitchen.
Revda is still rockin’ it hard core. There is a slight snag in the meetinghouse moving here. Our ward consists of two missionary areas in two different cities and most of the members are here in Revda and every Sunday we have to go on a bus to the other city that I won’t bother spelling out in English, I assume you, like me, glaze over any foreign words when reading missionary letters, though I think Revda is an easy one, so was Perm. Know that I am aware of such things.
Fun thing this week, our bathroom turned into a little world of pure imagination. We turned on the water which is pretty varied at times but this time pure liquid chocolate came out. It was SO gross. We put in the stopper to get a good picture and the “water” stained the tub! Radical.
Zone conference was fantastic, President read some great quotes from Elder Christopheron’s talk at a mission president's seminar. We’re working on internalizing our purpose: To invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. Sometimes the means become the end in missionary work, and we going to focus our efforts on inviting others to “come unto Christ” which is just three words summing up the plan of salvation.

Love,

The Final Magleby

another amazing week with Elder Taylor

2008-08-20T19:38:00.000-07:00

Hey family,

Short one this week, had another amazing week with elder Taylor. He’s a great new missionary. This week is zone conference and the next day I’m going to Prague to get a new visa, my old year-long visa is almost out and then I’ll be on the new short, three month visa which means visa trips every other transfer for the rest of my mission, crazy. I wonder how long we’ll be able to got to Prague, I hear some of Russia goes to Spain and Paris for theirs. I love Revda and hope to stay for another transfer at least.
Real quick funny story: had a member moon us yesterday. We were saying our goodbyes at the door after a lesson and the topic of this time he had been hit by a car came up and he started undoing his belt. Elder Taylor was able to use me to shield his eyes once he heard the zipper, I however thought this was the usual guy taking off his pants to be more comfortable while we’re there, (a compliment really), but then he turned around and yanked it all down for our (my) viewing pleasure. You’ll have to ask me later about an actual description of what I saw, for it cannot be described within the guidelines of what missionaries are allowed to write home.

Until then,

Elder Magleby

P.S. Sorry

"What can we do more?"

2008-08-20T19:34:00.000-07:00

Last week the Olympics, this week a war? How did no one mention a war that started? Especially when Rob is serving in one of the warring countries. I guess it isn't as serious as the Romanians were making it out to be if no one mentioned it, but if anything happens, let us know.
Man and this week hasn't been that eventful. We went and did service for the city of Pitesti by picking up years of beer bottles from out of the forest here, while the paid workers tried to go and get us to do their work at the same time by taking care of the flower beds and so forth (that makes you not want to do service when people take advantage of you but the cool thing is we can say no because we don't have to be there). It was fun and I found one of my beloved street dogs skulls. I am going to take it hope to always remember my flea ridden friends.
And the other thing we tried to accomplish was the making of English fliers. Problem is that no Internet cafe has a scanner (nor software past windows 98 for that matter) and no map of Pitesti that we have found is suitable from the Internet. It has been a waste of many half hours this week. We don't even have a typography place here to make real fliers so we can't even have a cool flier. Such a bad one.
And church yesterday was a great service but only about half of the regulars came making it a depressing site. The BP was depressed afterwards asking "What can we do more?" It is just culturally acceptable to leave Sunday and not go to church or even feel bad, and that gets old real fast. So many problems left, so little time.
But as for proselyting things are going alright. We found a few new families and some other good finds this week. I hope they become something. The blocks have been nice to us as of late and we got a few new investigators.
Oh and last week we went and saw those monasteries in another city to finish our P-day and then came home to have another dramatic FHE which we ended early (a story for another time) and finished the night with street contacting. Earlier that day we had met a Mexican (that is not normal here) and found out he is part of a performing dance group. Well, we ended up street contacting into this huge festival for world cultures that happened to be preforming here. It was cool and we talked to people from all around the world and saw the same "cultural dances" preformed by different culture's around the world. What would America's cultural dance be? I was thinking line dancing, but is there anything else?
And we are out of time so see you in like 2 weeks.
Goodbye?
Magleby the Impaler

The Griffin Has Landed

2008-08-16T09:06:00.000-07:00

From my photo files--his hair is A LOT shorter now :)

Hey all,

For your information, I wrote a pretty good letter last week centering around an experience in which I woke up in a tub full of brown water.

As for this week’s letter, it fulfilled crazy expectations prophesied earlier. It was a crazy transfer week. My last days with elder Anderson were fun and my first three with Elder Taylor have been wild. It was funny because our mission president isn’t much of a jokester but he seemed to think it was funny that Griffin and I knew each other so when they [the two new greenies] were having breakfast with him right after arrival at the airport, Elder Taylor said he knew one of the missionaries here, named Elder Magleby and president went all coy and looked confused and said, “Magleby?... Magleby, do we have a Magleby here?” I think president had more fun with surprising Griffin than I did. He practically had me jump out from behind the wall to introduce myself to him. It was fun to be the butt of one of Presidents few practical jokes.
It was seriously great to meet with president about training; he gave really good council and advice. He’s a great man, with a mountain of faith. I love him because he doesn’t micromanage the mission so when a problem arises that everyone knows about and is sort of complaisant about it, he hears about it and just says it shouldn’t be that way and that’s the end of it.
His last day will be July 1st and that’s right around my two year mark so I hope I don’t get a new mission president to send me home after just meeting me. We’ll see.
My first half week with Elder Taylor has been way cool because I was really worried about his first impressions of Russia, Revdah and missionary work in general and we’ve been blessed with busy days full of miracles. He’s a great missionary already and will have a very successful mission. In our first day together we dropped off his luggage and went right back out to a new investigating couple, they fed us delicious “ЩИ” (shee) soup and tea and honey. Whenever we would slyly try to end the meal and get into the lesson they would go with it, then realize we weren’t eating and freak out and tell us to keep eating in command form. (It’s a grammar thing) They are a really nice couple and we’ve got a lesson planned today with a great member coming so it should be great. Their names are Vladimir and Nina. Think Bent and Mereta.
Also then next day we went to a great baptism and yesterday at a contact's house this Babushka asked us to fix her light socket that had broken. She gave me a crazy soviet tool that just look like a screw driver and I’m thinking “ What am I supposed to do with this, shove it in the socket?! It will explode all over us!” But on closer examination, in the handle it had fuse looking stuff and possibly a light bulb, so I thought “ah, it's a fuse tester, put it in, if it lights up, that means there's a current.” So I shoved it in the socket and it promptly exploded all over us. It was pretty scary. And we spent the next two hours trying to get an electrician over and fix it. And to my credit, he had the exact same tool to examine the fuse box and when he used it, it exploded sparks all over us as well. I think that may be the function of the instrument. It seriously was a miracle that we were able to find said electrician and had a good conversation with his co worker about the gospel. I think the whole fiasco may have been for him.

Well, that’s it for me,

Paka for now

Elder Black-Thumb

Coming soon to a house in Provo near you . . .

2008-08-16T08:56:00.000-07:00

What's the deal! No one told me the Olympics are going on, and because the Romanians don't fair as well as others in this, I haven't heard a thing about these games. How is America doing? What happened in opening ceremonies? After two years you still take for granted that I watch TV or hear the news. The only thing we ever hear about is if Romania is playing a soccer game. Keep us posted will ya?

I had my first sick day of my mission this week, and it was a doosy! The Zone Leaders came to stay the night with us on there way to another city and so to be courteous I gave them my semi-decent pillow and I used the other "might as well be plywood for thickness and hardness" piece 'o crap. Well it was hard to fall asleep and I was starting to get a headache, but I eventually fell asleep, until 2:30 a.m. I wake up with a crazy migraine headache and can't fall back asleep. Plus it is really hot so I get up pace around, take some couch pillows and adjust the way I sleep and pop some meds, but nothing helps. I lie there in agony until three and then the my gag reflex kicks in. I get up and barely make it to throw up all meds, water, dinner (just kidding, I haven't had dinner in two years) and whatever weird organisms are living in my stomach. And then throw up 10 more times (don't you love dry heaving?) and to top all of this off, I have diarrhea coming on. I was up til six in the morning in and out of the bathroom, lost six kilos (sadly all water) and didn't sleep at all. I have no idea how many times I threw up but like the success of Ammon among the hardened Lamanites, it was a goodly number. But luckily by ten o'clock I was all good and just slept until five and still got to go and talk with some people. The craziest thing is none of the other elders heard a thing and had no idea why I was up early holding a bucket filled with foamy water. I think I look sick all the time in the mornings anyway because every time I go to church in the morning, members come up and ask if I slept well 'cause I guess I don't look that pretty. So I'm all good now, and it was a fun reminder of my past life of headaches and vomit (I almost went two years without throwing up and that would have been a record for me).

As for anything else, we still have most of the same problems we have been having here for the past few weeks. Our goals for my last three weeks are:

-to not leave the elder who comes in behind me with zero investigators as my predecessor left us with

-to fix and make sure that two more members become strong again to help the few other members here

-to start a tradition of not baptising crazies or those who would take away from the branch

-and finally to get in a fight (I have to release all of my built up rage for the past two years. SEERRRENITTY NOOOOWW)

Its going to take some work, but we are going to make this place a heaven in Romania again before it gets a bad rep.

Other events

-The abominable outrageous Adi (to be told later)

-Seriously over 15 people committed to coming to church (8 from sport night making it a way good tool) and other finds from throughout the course of the week, to have a whopping ZERO show up. It was a great week up until Sunday after Sacrament. Service always makes or breaks the week because you find out who's progressing, keeping commitments and who is interested. If people come it's great and if they don't it ruins your whole week (Lucky that the week ends that night)

-And we made the best banana bread ever

I think my body is starting to shut down now that I know the end is coming. It has never been so hard to get up in the mornings. We are going to go to the exercise park this week just so we have a goal to shoot for in the morning and have some sort of drive. Hopefully it will end in hilarious results. Well all's well that something something... blah, see you in three weeks.

Love, Elder Magleby the Elder

Hot Head . . .

2008-08-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

Well we had a boring discussion this morning on how we had nothing to write about this week to our families, so what does my comp. go and do (like Nephi of old)? He gives us something to write about. This morning about 9:35 a.m. our kitchen blew up, along with ninety percent of his body hair. I may have forgotten to tell him that our oven shoots out a lot of gas and if you don't light it right away a fireball may spring forth. It's always cool when you are reading in the scriptures and you here an explosion, then "My Hair!" screamed at top voice. It was an all around good time for everyone. His hand got a 1st degree burn (making it slightly pink, nothing serious) so I call him Johny Tremain. That's what you get for working on something else instead of studying (and if truth be known we started studies early so we had actually finished, but it makes it more close to my allusion, so...). And though his hair is shorter, it appears to have burned evenly so I said he doesn't even need a haircut today, but he just wont listen so I think that is our next stop. "If only he wouldn't be such a hot head"... or maybe, "You could really see the fire in his eyes", no... I got it, "He's a real flamer". (I know that you will probably edit that last one, but so make something else up to finish that progression)

But the rest of the week wasn't as good. We actually have a lot to write about. Ionela did leave her husband (we think for good) and he has just slumped down into depression and doesn't want to meet, just makes up excuses and didn't come to church for the first time in eight weeks. I think it is over with him, but the BP is keeping in touch with him and hopefully he will come around again. It was a sad part of the week, but it is going better than expected. We talked to her and if he were to be baptized, she is okay with it. And she was sincere in this. The worst part is that there are two kids who are going to suffer the most.

And in preparing a lesson with Ionela we felt prompted to bring up tithing again, and she had some sort of mental relapse so she is not getting baptized next week, maybe not even before I leave, 'cause like we told her, she will never be baptized before she is ready and we will not baptize a problem member. I have seen that to much here and we wont contribute to that. She is a million times better than when we got here, but she still has these random freak outs where it is like the Devil comes in and she has this huge pride complex.

And last Monday we had a riot at FHE. A recent convert of the other Elders (none of the people who worked with us here are still here) got up and started ranting about the Word of Wisdom (a HUGE problem here) and how God really doesn't care if you drink a little bit or every once in a while. We start in (she is the teacher for this lesson) and direct her to what the scriptures say, but then some eternal investigators start piping in and saying how she's right, blah blah blah. Well despite the BP's best efforts and our own they are just feeding off each other, so I stand up and say "The End" and start the game we had planned because it was just getting worse. That was the most awkward game of scum I have ever played. So this whole week as been trying to resolve the damage that was done there. I think we took care of it all, but I ALSO think that three weeks is too quick of a time for someone to be baptized. That did some damage, and just from one lesson.

But finally on the Plus side we got an old investigator back. Her name is Daniela and she disappeared for about two weeks but she came to church again yesterday and we got her new number (It is a huge problem cause people always change numbers here, and have three phones I might add). So that was a blessing for our depressing week.

...we still have high... hopes?
Well, I got better

-Elder Magleby

Shortest letter yet . . .

2008-08-10T21:00:00.000-07:00

It had only a subject line:
"More unappreciated photos."

crazy is afoot

2008-08-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

What gives?

I go to the trouble to send two whole photos home and they don’t get posted?! I’m paying by the mega byte here, lets make it worth it. Also, Berkeley, I’m sorry about your face. Remember when I used to slap your forehead all the time? I was conditioning you, and now it’s the only leprous free spot you got. You can show your appreciation through cardboard filled with bounty from America.

Well there were a lot of crazy news rumors about transfers this time and the crazy thing is most of them were true in one sense or another. I won’t bore you with most of them simply because I would have to explain mission norms in order to explain why they’re crazy, but rest assured crazy is afoot. One crazy thing is that I’m training, if you’ve been following the recent news about Russia not getting any American missionaries anymore you’ll know that they’ve even redirected missionaries called here spanning the next several months so our mission is gonna shrink crazy fast. 12 missionaries are going home an only two are coming in, and we're not scheduled to get anymore for like six months! Also if you’re aware, a certain Griffin Taylor is one of the two final American missionaries we’re getting. So with a little arithmetic you’ll see that there is a 50 percent chance that I’m training the man himself. And while I’m not going to spill the beans, if you could ask him to pick up one of those red pocket-sized Book of Mormon’s from the MTC bookstore before he comes over, I would be much obliged. Seriously though, don’t tell him, President would be mad at me, all greenies are supposed keep their dream trainer expectations as long as possible before being dashed to pieces. So mum's the word. It’s pretty cool though, because ever since I heard he was coming here, when I would imagine how to train a missionary, I would imagine training him. I’ve also heard from the elders a group ahead of him that he’s good at the language so that’s cool. Malajets!
President actually told me it might be happening a few weeks ago so I’ve been planning in my head his first day, all the things I want to show him/ pranks to play on him, it’ll be great. Also, I hope he can carry his own ‘cause Rivda is a fighting town. Just kidding. Or am I?...

Ready and waiting,

Elder Magleby

but talk about a progression stopper

2008-08-02T22:30:00.000-07:00

This was a more depressing week. First of all three days were away from great little Pitesti, which was lame, then we come home to find out our recent convert has just left her husband (one of our more progressing investigators). Luckily the Branch President is a genius and went to talk to both of them and made them both come to church together (I'm sure that was awkward for them) and he has been trying to figure out what are the problems (from what we can tell it does not merit divorce, but what really does in the end. We read a talk by James E. Faust in the April 2007 Liahona and hopefully they will take his council). We are going to continue meeting with both, but talk about a progression stopper. As of right now if he gets baptized she will probably fall away, but then if he doesn't he loses so many blessings. I am so grateful for a BP who is willing to try so hard. He is such a help to the work here and a great example for others to follow but man we need some good Charity coming down now. Next week is Fast Sunday so we already made plans with a bunch of the members to help in a group fast for their family. And to make it more depressing, it has rained every dang day here this week. That's not going to help depressed people. So if you could keep the Calin family in your prayers that would be much appreciated.

But on the plus side Ionela the woman getting baptised next week is doing well. We have overcome a lot of problems these past few weeks. The last time we talked we made her commit to telling her family about her baptism (she's single about thirty\forty, so it isn't necessary, but we thought if she could do that then she would be ready. She is really nervous and thinks of the worst things that can happen, that's why we pushed this commitment) and she left the lesson without committing, but committed to pray about it. Well Sunday rolled around and she was really excited because her mother was coming (hooray she did it) and her mom came sand said we were not the Orthodox church and left before anyone could say anything to her. Now she is really worried about what her mom thinks but I am not even if we have to postpone her b-date for a little bit longer for her to feel ready. She does what it takes even if it almost kills her (she had a big fear of baptism before, as she thought she would slip and break her neck). So things for sure are far from perfect here, but the church is a hospital for the sick (I'll add "who want to get better") and that's whats going on here.

Hope my life gets more stress free so I don't come home bald(er, sadly)

Oh we got high hopes...

Elder Magleby

Is is just me or are their letters getting shorter and shorter?

2008-07-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

What gives?

blessed for our efforts

2008-07-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

Hey Fam,
It’s been a good week. For weekly planning we mostly talked about what we can change to show the Lord we can handle success, and the cool thing is that we must have done something right because we now have two new investigators. While contacting with one of the zone leaders on exchanges we met a nice family, a brother and two sisters and we set up an appointment with them right there. So Elder A and I got especially ready for this appointment, (it was his first, first lesson) and taught their whole family at first, but by the end the 18 year old son and his friend who just happened to be there we were the only ones still there, so we gave them commitments to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and set up a return appointment for tomorrow. We know it will go well, and we know we have been blessed for our efforts. It’s quite amazing how having people to work with washes away so much of the trials of missionary work. Everything seems like a trial when you’ve got nothing to work with and nothing seems like a trial when your actually helping people coming closer to Christ. I much prefer the latter.
Feeling good,
Elder Magleby

That means back to Burger King

2008-07-24T06:14:00.000-07:00

Its weird to think that I will only have one transfer left. I just received my new comp. Elder B from LasVegas. He has a really good reputation as being "cool" and so far has met those qualifications. As long as I have no more drama for the rest of my mission I am going to be set. Everything is going well in Pitesti, except my new comp doesn't have his visa yet so we are going to be Buch three days this week to get it all taken care of starting today. We leave at three o'clock. That means back to Burger King, oh yeaaah.

As for highlights of the week, we got a good new investigator. She is twenty and we met her on the streets a few days ago. She came to church and has kept all commitments so far. We are going to push hard for a b-date this week (when we get back) and we pray it will work out.

As for anything else... I cant think of anything good and my new comp doesn't know what I did last week. I hope you all have a good week and we will talk later.

Love, Elder Magleby

War and Peace

2008-07-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

It’s been a tougher week, we’ve been really good at getting contacts lately but it’s been slightly discouraging as they haven’t panned out yet. And we were disappointed that after setting up a plan to get our investigator to church, she went out of town or something and isn’t answering her phone. She's a mom, and concerned for her family, but I think she doesn’t feel she’s good enough to keep our commitments enough to qualify for the blessings of the gospel. Well keep at it though.

Something that’s cool about Rivda is that we only have 17 members total and half of them are active. We meet regularly with most of the other non-actives so we can account for almost every single person on record which wasn’t even possible in little Miass. One of them is Pyoter, he’s my favorite I think. A forgetful old man who never wears a shirt and calls me Robison because he says Magleby is too hard for a Russian to say. He’s very talkative and “conducts” all of our meetings with him in a resolute matter. He’ll stop a story all the sudden and point to one of us to pray, and then the other to share a scripture, and then make a comment on our diction and tell us to practice reading buy renting books from the library. He tells me to read War and Peace. My MTC teacher was reading war and peace in Russian one page a week and he spoke amazingly. I enjoy the invitation none the less.

All is well and we have to hurry over to Asia to play soccer.

Love,

Elder Robison

Leeches and TB and Flies, Oh my!

2008-07-20T17:24:00.000-07:00

Salutations,

We don't have that much time to email today as we have "other" obligations. As I forgot to mention, our mission president's name is Lundburg, he is from somewhere (he graduated from Provo High, but I don't know where he is from now. Somewhere in Utah). And the highlights of the week are as follows:

-Ionella accepted a B-date for the 3rd of August, and is progressing nicely. We had a huge smack down lesson on pride

-We played four square with 20 little kids, and rocked them

-Had a b-day party for a investigator named Madalina, where I found out we have to tie balloons with string in stead of tying them so we can reuse them over and over again. Good idea, but not worth the effort.

-My mission posterity have TB (or are carriers or something, which I guess is a lot better). Lots of elders where talking about if their parents knew that there is a possibility of such a disease that their parents would fly out right now and take them home. I don't think you guys would do that, and I would like to think it is because you have trust in the Lord, but I have sneaking suspicions otherwise... (just kidding, I would hate if you guys made big deals out of nothing, so kudos for not making scenes in missionaries lives, but for shame father for making scenes in restaurants. I hope that has changed since I left).

-Having the most contentious Risk game ever, but this is one of the many stories I will tell as I come home. But rest assured we don't play Risk anymore, but I won, mwha wha hah ha

-Another great trip to the country with finding ourselves stranded in the country and having to hitch hike back to town. Consequently I learned many of the signs for hitch hiking here. It's a lot more complicated than just a thumb in the air

-And as we were in the country it means there are leeches and frogs everywhere. I have such a phobia of still water/small streams now seeing all of those red leeches in such a small amount of area

-And finally last night we caught the biggest fly I have ever seen. I am going to take him home to prove what a house fly HERE is like.

Well, I hope you all have a great week and may we all stay leach free

Love,

Magleby, Andrei Nicolae

I like Revdah

2008-07-08T08:57:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

Good letters this week. It was weird in the MTC to think that I would only miss one more independence day, and then after last Friday to think I’d be home for the next one. But actually because of the new visa laws they’re generally extending missionaries so I’ll have three fourths of July on my mission! … Interesting, that mere mission observation turned into a fractions joke …

Anywho,
I like Revdah. It’s fun being in the Yekat zone, some of the oldest/strongest members are here. We had a mock MTC activity for the [stake] in Yekat last week and they had all these little seminars taught by returned missionaries. I had no idea we had that many in the mission. Members that have served missions are a very nice luxury to have in your area. We don’t have any but just knowing there are so many in the zone is pretty cool.
We had an interesting [stake] Picnic in a field of three-foot high weeds under some high tension power lines last Saturday. Felt just like home. I got stung by some nettle pretty bad and had a difficult time not furiously scratching my legs during sacrament meeting yesterday.
Another thing that’s cool about this zone is that our district is on a different continent that the rest of the zone. Yekaterinburg is in Asia and we are in Europe. Actually this district is sort of it's own faction, apparently they succeeded last transfer. We cross the continental divide every trip into Yekat. It’s fun, I’ll have to get some pictures there sometime.
Also, I love our apartment. It’s got two pretty good sized rooms and old school communist high ceilings. I sleep on the floor in a nest of foam and blankets. I’m actually sleeping better than I did in Miass.
President wants Elders in areas longer so it’s nice to know that I’ll be here for a while and can get some good work done.

Happy America to ya,

Elder Magelussia
(I don’t like the sound of that)

New Mission President

2008-07-08T08:47:00.000-07:00

We just got a new mission president this week, and they are amazing. The reason we didn't write yesterday was because we had zone conference. They almost speak Romanian already (he gave a talk in church Sunday, by himself meaning he wrote it without the assistant's help) and he didn't have a translator for priesthood. Their story is amazing as they have been to Romania 15 time already for two week periods and the wife said she personally had been here 25 times already. Why you ask, because they a found out about the orphanage problems here, came with their family once in 1999, and felt like they should do something more here. They adopted one orphan (who is back here with them now) and started an organization that finds foster parents for orphans here. They already have such a love for the people and are going to try so hard. I went into zone conference with the attitude that I want to meet them but don't really care 'cause I'm leaving so quick, but now I really want to work with them more, but alas I can not. And what's amazing is that they have already memorized everyone's names. I don't feel that they have been left a step behind the former mission president.

And in other news, we had a branch activity for the 4th of July, got the branch to pay for it and guess how many members came? The answer is four. Was it a waste of an activity? No, as we had over twenty investigators come. It was so much fun, we had a what you would think of as hot dogs and hamburgers combined into one thing called mici. It is ground pork make into hot dog shaped meat patties. I think the majority of the meat consisted of rat, but they taste good. Then we blew up a watermelon with fire works,
and played America's pass time, kick ball (or as Canadians call it, "Chinese Baseball") and had a multilayer red white and blue jello. Greatest activity ever.

And those are the highlights of the week, with the exception of going to Buch. to look for fireworks in that Chinese part of town called Red Dragon. We bought some Chinese curry flavored jerky, and I think its my new favorite.

Rots of Ruck,

Elder Magleby

HUGE putrid chunks

2008-07-05T21:10:00.000-07:00

No, no, no! That is not at all what the liver looked like, that looks delicious in comparison. They were HUGE putrid chunks, the size of beavers! Anywho….

Hey all,

I’m in Rivda now. It’s a really small city, considerably smaller than small ol’ Miass. It’s small enough that there isn’t even real public transportation here, which is weird because a huge part of my mission so far has been waiting for, sitting on, running after, walking to, figuring out, paying for, or fleeing from public transportation. But since were in the Yekat zone I’ve already had to go there three times already so those hour long bus rides kind of fill the vacuum left by city transport.
It’s nice being in the Yekat zone, I can pick up my own mail and buy peanut butter any time I’m in the office! It’s awesome. Which means no one should be shy with sending their old comrade Rob mail of any kind. Shout out to Talisa and Grandma Diane for keeping it coming! Thanks!
My new companion is newer than I thought, he’s only one transfer old. He’s a cool/smart guy and knows a lot about history. We’ve had trouble getting to bed on time because I just ask him questions I’ve needed cleared up. Hitler vs. Napoleon and the like.
I really like the branch here, a missionary in the is the Branch president and only 9 members were at the meeting yesterday, but they are all good strong members. I’m seriously excited to get to know such a small branch and help the work here.

Thanks,

Elder Magleby

even if I'm the middle child

2008-07-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

Well, you messed over Rob by not sending him a letter, and then you mess me over because you send barely more than nothing. You can't just abandon the other child if one slips through the cracks, even if I'm the middle child.

We now have 2-3 progressing investigators from this week. which is a huge improvement of zero investigators from last week. One boy named Alex, we found last week but his parents immediately said "NO" to any religious thing. So we thought it was over with him after we had him talk to them again and try and explain why it was important. Well, we thought we wouldn't ever see him again as his parents made him call us and say no again and make it final. But lucky for us, we had brought a member with us on a discussion and they stayed in contact and the member asked if she could still talk to him about religion and what we believe. We gave some thoughts and prepared a lesson for her to teach (we wouldn't be there) and she organized that four other youth would be there. They had this huge open discussion I guess and all had a testimony meeting in the end. He called us again and said that he was going to hang out with his friends and said if we could come too. Turns out his new friends are the members and now we meet and have a good group discussions a couple times a week. It was great 'cause he knows he has felt a response and even went street contacting with us and bore testimony, and met the other elders and did the same (pretty good for someone who has just known the church for one week). And the best part is that the girl who organized all of this was baptized only three weeks ago. The branch is doing really well here in some aspects (and some members do amazing), but still needs help. I am so glad to be here. It seems like it took a little while to get some investigators again, but now we can actually teach.

We even got a referral from a member who lives a little ways out of the city. Her neighbor is really interested in religion (turns out she is Pentecostal) and we had some hour and a half discussion as she would just talk and tell us how we were wrong. Normally you just leave in those situations, but it was way out of our way (in the country) and we wanted to talk to the member afterwards. So we had some good bible bash as I was sick of hearing how we were wrong and we put her in her place. I know its not conducive to the spirit, but it was long gone from the way she was ranting and we just had to wait until her bus left to take her to work. It's a witness to us as we backed up every doctrine with the bible and made impossible for her to use it (the bible) against us, that contention will never bring conversion. She would never convert us by her actions and there was no way for her to feel the Spirit. She is never going to change, and we knew if we fought it wouldn't do anything (and we never lost our cool. I say fought because she would get louder and louder as we proved to her what she said was not doctrinally sound, but really it was only her fighting to keep herself convinced). It was fun to know I have learned a lot from the scriptures (we used the B of M just as much as the Bible) and can use it when we need to, but still a waste of time. Moral of the story, our church just makes sense.

Well, I am out so peace y'all.

Elder Magleoromania

never say “blah blah blah”

2008-06-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

Good day to all,

I’m happy to report on an good inbox today, good emails from all, Spaceebah Balshoy. Today is my last day in Miass. My last week has been really fun and nostalgic. Saying good-bye to people I’ve gotten to know and trying to set up the area for next transfer has made for a hearty week.
Something of note just barely happened here at internet. We do internet at the post office usually which has two old rickety computers that don’t quite fit the minimum requirements of a missionary's weekly computers needs. Periodically we get interrupted by people who don’t know anything about computers who have come to the post office to do something someone has told them to do on a computer and it’s just funny because they gesture to their papers, the nature of which I, of course, know nothing about and ask if this is the place where they can “do” them. I usually give a semi-confused look and say “probably”. They hear my accent and slowly back away. Anywho, a lady just came in and asked if she could interrupt me for a few seconds and check something. I obliged and she of course didn’t know how to use her email account so she asked for help opening some file. I'm not very good at giving internet directions in Russian so I was just pointing at where I thought she should try to click and say a few words here and there. She heard my accent and asked if I was from England, a common response, and we explained that we were Americans and she said in English that she teaches English at the university. So I was happy to explain more clearly in English what she needed to do and she just gave me a confused stare, not understanding a word. Which I thought was worth mentioning because it portrays a common occurrence among the work here. We’ll often stop young people on the street and ask in Russian or English if they study English. Oft times they will respond with a proud “Yes, of course!” a phrase they learn in school, and then we say in English, “Great, well we have an English practice program . . .blah blah blah* . . . ” Their pride fades quickly and then they say, in Russian that they didn’t understand, so we re-explain in Russian and they take a card and sheepishly walk away. It’s not their fault it’s just that they don’t ever get a chance to actually hear a native speaker so it totally takes them off guard and they don’t understand. I’ve gotten used to this so in trying not to embarrass people even if they say, “Yes, of course I speak English,” I’ll continue in Russian, it's just funny because some of the best speakers that even teach English in schools can’t understand a native, because they’ve just learned it from books or their teacher who never heard a native either. Ok, so this may not be all that humorous to you, but for someone who’s spent his past year not being understood by people I can't help but take a little pleasure when prideful people go wide-eyed when I bust out the English on them.

*as a side note, never say “blah blah blah” in front of Russians. I’ve made this mistake twice now and think I’ve learned my lesson. The problem is that it sounds like your saying one of the worst swear words three times in a row. Whoopsey doodle.

Moving on to this week, after talking up the cooking of this old investigator whom we met with often with my last companion, we arrive to the house for a dinner appointment and smell something good I say, with confidence, “smell that elder? That’s for us.” But as we got to her floor the smell lessened and walking inside it was replaced by a different smell and we soon saw in the kitchen a styrofoam meat container with one uncooked liver remaining inside. Which was a bad sign because that meant it was likely that the other liver was in one of the pans on the stove containing the meal we were about to eat. So after all my talk to my companion about how good this woman’s cooking had been in the past, we sat there and ate plain noodles with lot of big chunks of liver on top. Fkoosna! And the worst part about slowly taking it in, I knew she would give us seconds that would be even bigger than the first. She did. No wait, the worst part was burping it up the rest of the day and still tasting it, knowing it was inside of me.
We had another encounter with Miss Captain take-me-to America. She kept her hands to herself and all was well. I got a nice chocolate bar decorated by stickers from two members that we’ve visited every week since I’ve been here. Yelana can’t walk and hasn’t left her couch since she was baptized, and Vera kind of takes care of her. They are the odd couple of Miass, every missionary gets to know them and I felt special that they cared that I was leaving.
We’ll we’ve got fun plans for family night tonight at the branch president’s house and then I’m off to Rivdah tomorrow morning.
Catch you later.

Elder Magleby

Smurf-tastic

2008-06-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

We went to a different church this week and boy was it enlightening. In the hour and a half sermon, they had one scripture from Proverbs at the very beginning that was about raising your children (so they said) but in reality the sermon was about the evils of television. A direct quote, "The Smurfs teach children to solve problems by magic instead of asking the Lord." I am amazed they even know who the Smurfs are. Let's just say it wasn't the most Smurforic service I have ever seen. They also trashed Pokemon because kids will play with dangerous animals, and any sort of hero because he resolves his problems with violence. If she would have watched any of the Spiderman movies she would have known that in the end it is always solved with words. Duh. They are so wrong with that one.

As for anything else, I am in a really-not-wanting-to-write-emails period again. It happened last summer (I think it happens when it is hot) so sorry for any lack of enthusiasm. I found out the family I worked with in Chisinau got baptized yesterday. I was really happy for them. The one kid who wasn't interested came to the whole of church and the ceremony and the members really fellowshiped him. There is still hope for him. I can't wait to see them all again. And as for the work here, well the members are good but we really don't have any investigators who are progressing yet. We set up with the husband of our recent convert for Tuesday. He came to church and we had a lesson after church with him (church here is only two hours by the way, which is heaven) and he seemed interested enough. So we might have something. The other investigators just keep slipping through our fingertips. They almost are going to go somewhere, and then something changes and we can't meet with them anymore. But we have faith and are going to go forth. It's death to contact all day when it's hot, but it's my last shot. We are going to start playing Frisbee with youth in parks for half-hours at a time to get some breaks and make friends with those hooligans. Hope something comes from it.

Well, I'm out of here and you guys keep on trucking.

Love, Me

Out one year this Friday

2008-06-17T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hey Family,

Just got Transfers, I'm leaving Miass and going to Rivda! I know nothing about it, except that it's a small city in the Yekaterinburg Zone. It kind of sounds like Miass as far as the church is concerned. My companion thinks they might have a group leader there.

Wow, it's weird to think that I've been in Miass for six months. When I got here we huddled around our plug-in radiator every morning and now we hang wet sheets by the window to try to cool down our apartment at night. (Which is about as effective as our old swamp cooler. Ah, who am I kidding? It's twice as effective.)

I've sort of assumed I was leaving because I've been here so long so it's not a big shock and it's let me focus on leaving the area better than when I got here. I look happily back on my time in Miass, the church is very young here and I'm honored to have gotten to know the faithful saints in this little branch. I've grown a lot here and I hope I'm ready for my next companion who is pretty young in the mission. I feel good, and that's one of the most important things I've found in regards to missionary work. Write you next time from Rivda.

Elder Magleby

The end is near!

2008-06-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

Well I don't have that much time today as we have a Risk tournament coming up in a few minutes, and I had to update a lot of my email addresses from people I have met and never done anything with. I will try and send pictures next week as it has probably been a year since the last time (but I don't even take pictures anymore, so...) I am in Pitesti and it is a great city. I love the members and church went by really smoothly. They have more than 40 members on the list and 25 are active (that is the greatest ratio I have ever heard in my mission. Usually it is around 25%.) Everyone has a calling and fulfills it, but the problem is all of them are leaders in some form or other, and there is left for no one to be served. That's why we are going to baptize a million people. It is a four elder city and my district is cool enough. The trainee of the elder I trained is here and the elder I trained is now our Zone Leader (he is going to be Assistant pretty soon, even though he is still pretty young), so we have three generations in this zone. They are good lads.

And the only real story I have is that we were street contacting and met an older gentleman who just went off on why the orthodox church is the only true church, blah blah blah, and then told us that the Bible has given the exact date of when the 2nd coming will be. No later than 2015. Seven years people. And this is not his prophesy because prophesies tend to not come true (he has probably had past experience with that) but this is scientifically researched. Such a good one. And as a side note as we were walking away, he told us that a meteor is coming to hit the ocean this Saturday (sound like Deep Impact anyone?) and we should take an umbrella with us (well he didn't say the umbrella part). He particularly told me "In 2015, remember that old man in Pitesti, Romania and know that I was right." If this plays out I might have to eat some words.

Well love you guys a bunch and have a great week.

Love, Magleby (Romanian Version, unsencerred)

She couldn’t even stop laughing long enough to ask who we were

2008-06-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

Hey Family,

Remember a while back when it was the first time in my mission that it was warm enough to go without our suit jackets? Well that was only for three days and ever since it’s been chilly and rainy. I’ve been enjoying it, just because I prefer too cold to too hot. It’s actually been snowing on and off this morning.
It’s been a fun week. It’s funny that you mentioned falling asleep on the stand Dad, because I’m the same way. Missionaries always have a hard time not falling asleep when they sit down for any period of time so church is always a struggle. But now that I’m up sitting in front of everyone, it’s kind of… REALLY embarrassing when I fall asleep now. I try to bounce my knees to stay awake but I get more looks from that than from dozing off.
Here’s the big story of the week. Elder K and I had an amusing incident with some Dev- Chunky* yesterday. (*Remember? Russian for girls, but when missionaries use it, it has a sort of negative connotation to it). It all started a week ago tracting. I used the intercom to try to get let into the building and a girl answered, didn’t understand but just opened the door anyway. And when we went up and knocked it turned out to be a younger teenaged girl, so we just did our little explanation of who we are and gave her an invitation to church and moved on thinking nothing of it. But come two floors lower we hear some footsteps coming quickly up the stairs, and turn to find another dev-chunk who had apparently been called by the first one to come and get a look at the strange Americans who were knocking on doors in her building. The second we turned around she started laughing her head off. She couldn’t even stop laughing long enough to ask who we were. She actually couldn’t stand up for laughing so hard and fell over hanging on the railing three times. And we just had to stand there and wait for her to get composure enough to explain ourselves. We eventually just invited her to English class and continued on our way. BUT yesterday when we went back to check up on a contact we made that day, just as I was saying to Elder K that I hope we don’t run into that girl again, we turn the corner and there she is, she starts yelling and runs over to us, immediately slides her arm around mine and starts joking about us taking her to America . I have to admit that she caught me off guard, I was stunned for few seconds. But I shrugged her off and tried to scare her off with a lesson on why were here. (That usually works). It didn’t, and long story short, after half a dozen marriage proposals and us “hiding” in a stairwell for 20 minutes we were on our way.
Sorry to run off but there’s only one computer and I’ve got to give my companion time to write home and tell about his new fiancé.

Locked love,
Elder Magleby

I am going to miss this city so much

2008-06-09T20:02:00.000-07:00

We got our transfer calls this morning (which usually meant we would only know we are transferred, but because they got rid of transfer meeting we now know where we are going) and I am headed to Pitesti for my last two. I am so excited to get to go and actually serve in that branch (I have visited it a lot for exchanges). I already know a bunch of members and they are sweet. I can't wait to go there, the only problem is that I am leaving here. We pushed back Gheorghe and Val's baptisms (and we have added their son, Vasile to the group. Sadly Ioan still isn't interested) so their family (who was out of town) could come, which means like in football, I am 0 in 10 of seeing the people I work with get baptized, but I'm not bitter. It gives me satisfaction that they like me better than the person who will come in afterwards, thus always putting an awkward relationship between them and the missionaries, making less progression and true conversion. THAT'S what I'm about. Only fooling you, but it's going to be sad to leave them tomorrow, but they are so cool that it doesn't matter if they send the laziest bugger here ever, they are going through with it. We went and helped their daughter move this morning and I had forgotten how hard it is moving furniture up and down stairs. It used to be so easy with Grandpa. I think I have lost all my strength over these past two years. We had such a good relationship that they actually gave us service to do. What a concept! I am going to miss this city so much. And just as a side note, a huge part of my life is in Europe now in these two countries and then in England and Germany and Russia with some of my best friends I have made while here. I regret that I never got to serve with the Norwegian kid who is here, or the Dane before him. The point of me saying this is that I need/want money to travel a lot more when I get home so if you could start those funds, that would be super.

We lost a lot of sleep this week in traveling back and forth to Iasi for exchanges with the ZL's. It was alright, but we seriously got 3-4 hours of sleep for three nights with no naps to make up for it. I was/am pretty wasted, but it is going to be non-stop until I'm out of here Wed. This will be the first time I travel by myself. And I have my passport so there is no telling where I am going.

And that is all I have to say. I love you all and hope you have as great as a doner sandwich/kabab/swoarma as I am about to eat.

Love, Elder Magleby

My year mark is on the 20th

2008-06-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

Hey Family,

It’s been a good week. We had a mission fast on Wednesday. We fasted and stayed inside all day and studied our missions and efforts in order to decide how to improve. It was a day of a lot of thinking for me. My year mark is on the 20th and of course I can’t believe how fast it’s gone. I think this time last year I had just gotten my call and was cruising around southern Utah with Mat6t in the Astro Van. That seems like yesterday. Lately on the street I’ve been having conversations without any problems, I definitely feel like I’m speaking freer but I hope I improve a lot before I hit my year mark in the country, (September 4th) I’ve set tougher daily language goals and feel good about them.
I’ve got to go, as usual, as you’ve probably noticed the internet situation in Miass isn’t the best. I feel good and feel your prayers helping me do so.
Thanks and love,
Elder Magleby

Last full week in Chisinau

2008-06-03T08:27:00.000-07:00

We had a great discussion with Gheorghe and his wife, Val, and they are going to be baptized next week. We don't even have that much left to talk about. We went over all of the commandments last night and now we are going to drill in that whole 'endure to the end' part. But sadly this will be my last full week in Chisinau as my visa will expire. But if I'm leaving, this is an all right way to go out.

And other highlights of the week:

...Nothing?... I cant think of one thing that happened this week. English sign-ups came and went but they weren't the best, and we will have a couple of exchanges this week, but that is about it. We found out our new mission president that's coming pretty quick speaks Romanian (he has been learning and just by coincidence adopted a little boy from Romania) pretty well. That is going to be a huge advantage for him. I only hear really good things about him so it won't be that bad to get a new president, I guess.

I'm peacing out to go play tennis and get a worse farmer's tan than I already have.

I love you guys and have a good one

Real Quick

2008-05-26T05:23:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

I just got a card reader for my camera card so I sent a photo home from our trip to Zlataoost where we climbed a bell tower. The ladies who work here at the internet place want to kick us out as usual so I've got to hurry. Yesterday was great, the Stake Presidents came down and reorganized the ward and put me as Second Councilor in the Branch Presidency and we went tracting and for the first time in my mission we got invited in and taught a first lesson.

Whoa gtta go,

Love Rob

Zoramites

2008-05-26T05:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we were planning on passing out our English fliers all night as the youth go and hang out here in parks on Sunday night and all of our investigators were in the country (vacation/holiday/I don't know what they do there) but it started to rain so we went to the blocks as no one was outside anymore. We got in and said a prayer to have lessons that will actually go somewhere as we have had many quality lessons of late but have no real investigators from it as we never get past the second discussion. As we finished our prayer we had a strong determination to go and find those real investigators and we were rocked hardcore as no one answered or spoke Romanian (they lie but you can only call them out so much). After about two hours we finally had a discussion. A man opened the door only in his underwear. My comp. tells him that we will wait for him to get dressed (It was bold funny AND it worked) so he came back only to tell us that he was has "relations" with people (more than one) and he was married (she was not home). We chewed him out hardcore and he knew he deserved it and we told him to change his life and he knew he had to. It was disgusting to think about how much evil he was doing, but it was gratifying to see he was almost ready to change. We told him to get those women out of his house (we had the discussion outside the apartment) and we are going over tonight to talk about repentance. It was NOT the ideal situation, nor the ideal investigator, but the church is for those who are in need of help and it was interesting how our prayer was answered. We had had over 50 good discussions with people who were happy to listen to us and talk this transfer, who didn't have these sort of problems (so publicly known at least) but were unwilling to go further to change their lives, but the sinner understands the importance of changing your life from the gall of bitterness. And then as we went down one floor, we met a younger mother in really poor circumstances who let us in. She had two young boys and didn't speak Romanian that well, but understood enough and she was so depressed. All she wants is to be forgiven of her sins through baptism. We couldn't explain ourselves that well, so tonight I am going with Russian speaking Elder K. for him to speak with her and her family. As we said a prayer at the end of the discussion she was bawling and she had such a sweet spirit. You could tell she wasn't the most educated person, but she was so humble. Most of the time we find those people who will just let us in but who feel like they don't need this message. Last night we got a glimpse of what it was like for Alma trying to help the Zoromites understand their faults. Only the lower class listened. I was still expecting to have good discussions with educated nice people but somehow they would be different and act upon the message, but instead we had two awkward discussions that are much more likely to go somewhere. It was confusing at first but a real blessing at the same time.

We also had Zone Conference for the last time with my mission president, but he didn't even talk about how they were going home. They have been here for over four and a half years, first as a senior couple then to go home early to prepare to come back to the very same mission. They are so good, for the Miss's last presentation for ZC she talked about the evils of the fast food industry. It was a classic presentation by her (they always have some random presentation) and such a good way to go out.

But I am out of time so have a great week. Love, Elder Magleby

Highlights of the week include

2008-05-24T23:43:00.000-07:00

Dear Семя,

We spent half of last week in Chily and it was fun and crazy. It was supposed to be just Saturday and Sunday for [stake] conference but since president was already coming down for that he decided to have zone conference the day before. So we had two full days in our area this week both of which were crazy too because it was the first week of the transfer so we were in a trio because Elder J hadn’t gotten here yet. Our time in Chilly was well spent though, many uplifting meetings and it’s always refreshing to work in someone else’s area, we just went contacting but it was so much fun fresh with the glow of zone conference, and what was special was one of the conference topics was something that will strengthen me my whole mission, it was about our reasons for doing things, specifically motivation to serve. She (president’s wife) explained something I remember from Psychology class, the levels of motivation for doing something, from fear of punishment, to eternal reward. But the purest and most correct being love of God. I realized that oft times this is not my motivation, probably most often it’s out of duty or sense eternal reward, but now when times are hard, remembering that I love the Savior and that’s why I’m out here always, always brings sanctification and remotivates my spirits with a sense of simplistic truth that never fails. And that’s the best part about having that as your motivation, all other motivations eventually fail, your priorities may change or attitude, but this is an eternal truth that you can base everything on, no risk of disappointment involved.
At first we were bummed that zone conference would be so early so we would have nothing to look forward to at the end but now I’m glad to go into the transfer with what we learned there. This is likely to be my last transfer in Miass, and I want to get stuff done before I leave.
Highlights of the week include:

-Buying my first Russian tie. Look for it in the upcoming zone picture, your only glimpse into my mysterious photoless mission, yuk yuk yuk . . .

-getting mail from Grandma and Talisa.

-Yesterday was the first day in my entire mission where we didn’t wear our suit coats outside.

-Having to explain Iron Man to every missionary in the zone at different times.

-Seeing and talking with my Old greenie buddy Eder J, he’s had some cool experiences.

-Taking two sponge* baths in our shower because the hot water was off for a week, enlightening but unexplainable.

-Meeting with the [stake] president to fix a lot of the problems in the little Miass branch, very encouraging for the future of the branch.

Love
Elder Spongebathed

*I just found the sponge in our apartment, it was gross and kept shedding on me.

And if you have extra room in your prayers

2008-05-19T16:46:00.001-07:00

We just got back from a fort/castle thing way in the north of Moldova at the boarder of Ukraine. It was a weird feeling to know that a another mission was just across the river. I almost forgot the world isn't just Romania/Moldova/America. And it was amazing to see that the reputation for Moldova being one of the greener places in Europe isn't just fiction. On our side of the boarder there is nothing but forest, and in Ukraine there was nothing but pasture (no trees). This country is so pretty, I cant wait to backpack across it and stay in the smaller villages and not drink the wine (which is basically all you can do). People here are so friendly (unless you talk about Jesus...), for instance, we drove for a couple of hours to go and see this castle, only to find out it is only open Wed-Sat. We called the curator of the place and he came right over and opened it up for us. He gave a good tour and gave its full history. It was good to see his passionate attitude toward the Moldovan history, and fun to see his anti-Russian sentiments in the face of a native (Elder Kozlenko didn't like him as much as I did). We also hiked up to the top of a hill in that city to view the border better, and to see a modern Orthodox church (even when they build them now they are still in the old style so it was particularly interesting that this had a different modern design).

As for the work, we have had a lot of success tracting this week. We got 10 new investigators (true already half of them are dropped, them doing the dropping to us, but...) and we will start English again. I will send the flier as an attachment as it is pretty good (this is of my design as well).

Elder B my new comp. is really chill. He is cool and is just who he is, doesn't change wether he is speaking in Romanian (or Moldovan here, thus giving me rights to say that I know two foreign languages) or English. As we were having a discussion this week, the question was asked "Why don't you sing the Psalms of David for service?" A not too important question, but I explained quickly that the psalms tend to leave out such important themes as the restoration or atonement or holidays and that many of the hymns make reference to the psalms in the footnotes. They were satisfied with the answer, but Elder B just couldn't leave it alone and just starts talking, "I don't know why we don't sing the psalms, but the psalms are like... old and we don't know what they are and we have read a lot and... I don't know what they even are, Okay? So does it really matter that I don't sing it if the... er... where was I going with this? Look I don't... What was the question again? I'm an Idiot". I can't even describe how awkwardly funny it was to see him talk with his hand motions and how confused the investigators became. And it's not because he speaks bad Romanian, in fact he speaks pretty well, but he just didn't know when to quit. It probably went on for five minutes. And of course he redeemed himself in the end with his testimony when we got to the heart of the lesson so it wasn't even a problem, but now whenever I look at a hymn book I giggle.

And if you have extra room in your prayers, pray for Svetlana as her parents are being ridiculous and threatening to kick her out of the house for coming and learning about the gospel. She is the best investigator I have ever had, and one of those truly elect people that Preach My Gospel really talks about. She is having a rough family situation right now, but has the faith to know that these trials will pass. I love teaching, especially with those who understand the importance of this message. I am so very grateful for the testimonies of living prophets and apostles to bear a special witness of Christ and His restored church and can't wait to fully have a chance to study about their lives and messenges given to us an organized church. If it is at all possible we are going to GC when I get home this fall. I love you all and hope you all have a great week,

Cu Drag,

Elder Magleroy

Well, there was that hourlong phone call . . .

2008-05-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Hey Family,

Good idea on using the extra time to write a long email, I did... to Mat6t. (Cough)

Sorry and Love,
Elder Me

Z z z z z z z

2008-05-13T15:37:00.000-07:00

Well sorry for our lame phone call. I cant even remember what we talked about, but I guess I will do better next time, oh wait I'll see you guys in like three months.
I actually have some news. We went and had a sweet lesson with this family that we have been working with, and they have baptismal dates now. It is a father (named Gheorghe) and his wife (Val) and two kids (who don't have dates yet, but they will soon) and they will be baptized on the 8th of June. We watched that amazing talk by Elder Uchdorf on the Faith of our Fathers and they understand they have to be baptized. The only thing is they still are not 100% sure they have received an answer, but they are going to work toward their goal. It was a sweet way to end the week.
Oh be wise, what can I say more?

-Elder Magleby (Andrei)

I can't stab anybody with it but . . .

2008-05-06T22:23:00.000-07:00

Hey Fam,

It was a fun p-day I didn't get to write about last time. The zone
leaders were in town and we as the two companions from Miass and them
went to a nearby city that only like five missionaries have ever been
to because we don't have any church there or anything. It's bigger
than Miass and even prettier. It was funny to be there because we all
just walked around amazed that it was pretty, not to rag on my mission
but most of the cities missionaries are in aren't like, stunning or
anything because the church is new here so we're only in the biggest
most commercial cities, so this city, called Zlatoust is fresh and
new to us. It's on a beautiful lake was generally cleaner than any
city I've seen in the mission. It was so fun to just walk off the
train into a city we had never been in and explore around. We went to
a history museum that was pretty quaint and cool and in the last rooms
there were a lot of cool swords knives and armor on display and the
guides told us that there was a store nearby where you could actually
buy the stuff. Turns out this city used to make all the swords/armor
and metal work for the old kings of Russia, and this factory is
Russia/World famous. So we headed over to the store part of the
factory just to look at 50.000 ruble gold cups and 700,000 ruble chess
sets and assumed the clerks would yell at us to buy something or leave
as is common but since this was a higher class store they didn't and
one missionary started asking to see come items and one thing lead to
another and we probably dropped 10,000 rubbles there! Most of the
money was spent of very cool daggers, I personally wasn't planning on
buying anything, thinking that it was a cool store but that I didn't
have much need for a gold embedded dagger, but realizing the
uniqueness of the moment I settled on a small desk plaque for 300
rubles (12 dollars) that celebrates the 60th anniversary of WWII for
Russia. I can't stab anybody with it but I think it could do some
damage if used in a swiping motion.
Found out transfers last night, we're staying together and the only
change in Miass is that Elder D the grreenie is getting replaced by
my old MTC buddy Elder J! Which is way cool and will be great
for the city, branch, and our missionary district of four.
Today is culture day and the whole zone is coming down to have a fun
barbecue type day at the lake. Which is cool because we never get to
see other missionaries unless we get to them at zone conference. It
will be a fun day and a great next transfer. I'm feeling good about
the present and even better about the future, see you on the phone.

Love,
Elder Dagger-Plaque

The end of many things

2008-05-06T17:48:00.000-07:00

This week was the end of many things. We had transfers and we went to Buch. to end our district to find out that this is the last transfer for our mission president, and it was to be the last time we all came down together for a transfer meeting. And English just ended, and I may have ended the life of a poor Innocent animal (I'll tell about that in person). The worst news is the transfer meeting/Pres leaving. I love my mission pres. so much and it will be hard to see him go. And with no transfer meeting anymore, I won't be able to see all of my friends as much if at all before I go home. But I'm glad that this is happening at the end of my mission instead of at the beginning. I only have 2 left anyway so it's not such a big deal, but the end of a legacy.
So I have a new comp. named Elder B from Farmington Utah. He is a skate boarder and knows way more about music than most people I have met. It's fun 'cause he is just about to go senior so we both can speak and we have a lot of fun. The work is going well although all of our investigators were in the countryside for the holidays (Would you believe it's another holiday today? Another p-day wasted). So our top players are Svletlana (b-date for the 25th of May) but she is having problems with her family accepting a new religion. But she is still trucking on. And her two friends, Tatiana and Diana are reading from the B of M and hopefully they will get some dates tomorrow. I love teaching those who want to learn, it's the greatest thing in the world. The others are kind of being stupid right now. Dumitru (supposed to be baptized a week ago) disappeared but I found him on the street again. I don't know what is with him, but it seems as if his priorities have changed. The same goes with Gheorghe. He is all talk right now, but won't make the time to progress. It's hard to see that after you work so hard and so long with some people.
As for the call on Sunday, I am going to just call Wed. or something to verify with you to get the plan. I can't be bothered to think about it now. This week was really good, but I don't know why. Nothing really memorable, but it was nice. Hope to have some stories for you by next week when we talk. Maybe you should make a list of questions or something. I love you all and hope you have a rocking Mother's Day.

Peace, Elder Magleby (Moldova)

May Day! May Day!

2008-05-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hey Family,

Sorry about the late email. Like Romania, Russia has its fair share of holidays and that means internet is unavailable. It’s been frustrating checking everyday to see if they’re open. Next week we have an in-day on Friday because of the Day of Victory. I was thinking that would be a great day to call home for Mother’s Day. Andy’s last letter sounded a lot like Russia. Bad neighborhood, punks yelling swearwords and then being embarrassed when your try to talk in English to them, gangsters being impressed for you being there. One guy once asked me and my companion where our security was. But another time a guy asked us, quite quietly if we were body guards.
Well, glad I could email you real fast, I loved all of your letters, sorry I don’t have time to reply, but it should be a normal p-day next week.

Love,
Roberto

What does real blood even mean?

2008-04-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

The worst thing in the world happened today, it's another dang holiday so nothing is open. We searched for an Internet place for a while and that's all we can do now. And a nap is not appealing today as we got to take one yesterday as it was Easter and no members nor investigators would meet with us before seven at night (and because it's such a big holiday we can't proselyte for a bit). But the reason it is so bad because it is the last day of the transfer and to celebrate Easter, I was going to go Old Testament style and butcher a chicken. I have been bracing myself all week to actually kill an animal, but I couldn't buy one today because none of the markets are open. I still have hope for tomorrow morning before we leave. And I am staying here for one more transfer, but then my visa will expire so I know I will be transferred out next time, It's good and bad to know whether you will stay or not. You know what you can finish in this deadline, but you have no hope of staying.
But to start the week, we had Zone Conference with Elder Christofferson. The fireside the night before with the members was the best part I think. He went and met with all of them afterwards and gave a few blessings (aside from an Apostolic blessing) and it was so good. People were really touched by his presence. Then the next day was ZC and the best part was his wife's presentation I think. She talked about 2 Kings 4 (I think) and talked about how we will receive as much as we prepare to receive. He did good as well and he answered some questions I had. It was a good start to a week.
Then at the end (Sat. night) we started the Easter traditions. We went to midnight mass at the main orthodox church and it was infinitely better than the one I went to in Sibiu last year. You all pack into a church, a parade of the most costly apparel walks by and you light your candle and walk around the big church with the whole congregation three times. Then the priest starts singing and then a choir broke out. It was really cool to see the small differences that the church has here that is different than what Romania has.
Before mass, that night, my comp. and I went to try and find some less-actives (as we could not proselyte due to said holiday) and as usual when walking in public areas, people call after us. Usually missionaries will walk away if teens start yelling because they immediately start swearing at you. But I found out that (and they always yell at you in English at first) if you walk over to them and try to speak English with them, they feel really embarrassed and instead of cursing as you part ways they don't say anything. It's sweet because you can actually get lessons with them as you build them up in their language. Still haven't found some real investigators from it, but not many people tell me to... you know. Well this drunk started doing it to us so I stopped and in this case I thought it would be better to ask him for directions than to leave him or start a conversation (he was surrounded by 4 other big men and it's about 7:40 p.m.). He tells me some gibberish and invites us over to talk. I thought, "Why not?" and sat down at their little poker table. All of a sudden fifty million questions erupt from their mouths, mostly what the heck are we doing in this part of town at night (it is sort of a ghetto) and then the ringleader shut them all up and starts to talk to us. We explain who we are and why we were looking for this address. He looks at us and says, "You guys are brave to come and talk with us. Not many people try and talk with us," with a sort of weird grin on his face. I told him I'm not brave, it's just that I'm with a gangster (my comp. who we weighed yesterday at 140 lbs) who's is from California. We all laughed and then he stopped suddenly and said, "He's not a Gangster, we are Gangsters," and then they all shut up--eying us to see what is the next move. It was pretty scary especially when he asked me if I had ever seen real blood. I told him about the time I busted open my chin (a lot of blood from a face wound) and he scoffed at my example. What does real blood even mean? At the end of a 45 minute talk, he commends us for our bravery, invites again to join their poker game and promises to come to church. He also said it was good that we stopped to talk to them because those who don't stop, get stopped. Well, he didn't come to church this week, but hopefully in the future. I think because we left on a good note, they would kill the other gangs/mafia on our behalf, but I'm not ever going to that part of town at night again to find out.
And the best part of the week was finding out the senior couple here, thought we were all so apostate for holding candles at the big event, enough that they left early to call Pres. It's sweet 'cause he was doing the same thing in Buch, and I guarantee that his candle was bigger than mine. They probably feel embarrassed now. This same senior couple went to Elder Chistofferson to show him a needlepoint they had completed. They had a chance to meet an Apostle and they showed him needlepoint. I was only a little embarrassed for them.
Well, lot's of Love and have a happy Easter, smashing your red eggs together to see whose is stronger (the red eggs come from when Christ was on the cross and said he was hungry, so they brought him eggs, which his blood stained. Bet you didn't know that.)

Elder Magleby

Mischief!

2008-04-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

I have a really funny story, but I think you will all get mad, but I have to tell you anyway. I did a baptismal interview and had to call Pres. for a second to clarify something. I call and Sora Ashby picks up (His wife). I asked if I could speak to Pres. and there is ruffling and then I hear "This is President Ashby and you're on speaker phone with my wife and Elder and Sister Christofferson (Making it known that they had just been picked up from the Airport. This is an Apostle!) Pres. was obviously very proud that he was with them and I'm sure wanted to make a good impression and my stupid little mind makes me say, "Pres. this is Elder Magleby, and I have a problem and need to talk to you in private." I have never heard anyone scramble for the phone so quick and he said he would call me when he got home. I can only imagine what he said when he got off the phone. "He's a good elder, heh, nothing to worry about with him, heh heh..." I think I may have guaranteed an interview with an Apostle now. Maybe its not as funny to you guys, but I thought it was. So he is going to be here tomorrow and I can't wait.

And things are still going good. We went to old Orhei last week and it was fun. It is this little canyon/valley where once existed seven forts to guard against the Turks, of which only the phantom foundations exist now. We saw this church that was cut out of the mountain and a Priest lives there (it's a cave with nothing but golden paintings of saints.) I don't know when was the last time he had bathed. It was fun, and today we are going to a botanical garden and buying belts to sell to missionaries at transfer meeting. I need all the money I can get. I have only eaten oatmeal for the past three days as we had no food. Oatmeal is gross when I make it.

And our star investigator Svetlana is going to be baptized. She is the best investigator I have ever met. She studied with the Jehovah's Witness's but never got baptized and now has found the truth. We found her through our English classes and she has two friends that are really acceptive as well. We are also trying to get one investigator baptized this week named Dumitru. We fasted yesterday together for him to get an answer, so we will talk tonight about what happened. Pray for him. He needs some help but this is the goal he has set and he really wants to be baptized. I pray it will all go through.

And we have run out of time, but I love you all and have a great week,

Elder Magleby

Thanks an octillion.

2008-04-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,

I’m in a trio today because my companion is on his St. Pete’s trip so he’ll have to do internet tomorrow, so I think I’ll save some of my internet time for then, but we might not get time then either (because of Zone Conference) so this may be all for this week.
I heard I’ve got my (birthday) package already waiting for me for Zone Conference in Chilly in two days, so that’s good news. Today I did a sort of assessment of my language learning and decided I need to do more word learning in my spare time, so if you could send me a bunch of 3 by five cards and sticky notes that would really help, we don’t have them here. 3 by 5 are more important than the sticky notes if that matters, and it would be great if you could send them as soon as possible, because it will take a while for me to get them no matter what. Thanks an octillion.
Quick funny story:
Last mail call I got a bright yellow and pink letter from Caitlin Perkins in which she Dear Johns me. Which is, of course, funny because we were not dating. In the letter she informs me in stereotypical fashion that she had “found someone else” and “it just sort of happened” “have fun with the rest of your mission” and all the classic lines and even studded with a few tear drop stains. It was pretty funny and when I showed it to the other elders to enjoy as well, they wouldn’t believe that it wasn’t real! I didn’t know how to explain the joke... "No, it’s funny because she can’t Dear John me--because we’re not dating..." They just couldn’t quite grasp the concept, so now I have a Dear John’d reputation. Well done Caitlin.

Love you & hope to write more soon,
Mulder Magleby

What could be better?

2008-04-14T08:47:00.000-07:00

Man seeing that picture on the blog is sad because I'm pretty sure I'm a lot more bald/fat/weak. I think I might stage some glamor shots of my fantastic physique. You might think that I am a lazy missionary if I don't loose weight, or become more healthy, but if you eat out everyday and only have a chance to eat dinner at ten p.m. you kind of get messed up. I will bring home one of my three pairs of shoes I have worn out to prove I did something.
Anywho, we are going to Old Orhei (a city here, which is twenty minutes away from normal Orhei) so we may have to leave any second, but it is going to be sweet. I love doing cultural things and I haven't had a chance to do that much. And we have our own personal driver to take us places named Oleg, so no terrible trains, or nasty crowded buses.
And I don't think I told you yet, but President Christoferson (not yet Elder) was going to be coming here for a week (to our mission) because President Oaks (the general, not Apostle) told him to. Then surprise surprise at G.C. he was made an Apostle. I was sad 'cause I thought he wouldn't come anymore. But I got a call from Pres. a couple of days ago and he wanted everything to be perfect because an Apostle was coming for a fireside here. There has not been an apostle here since Moldova was dedicated (I think). I am so excited. All our investigators are really excited as well. We told our English classes about it and I think we are not going to have half the room we are going to need. And then the next day we will have Zone Conference with him, and he might do some interviews. I hope I get to talk to him.
Other highlights:
-Saw yet another dead body on the street (others where taking care of it) and the sisters found one without legs in a bag while tracking. And they didn't finish that floor yet, slackers.
-Finally bought a Romanian winter hat (unlike those darn Russian ones everybody has)
-Got nine new investigators (super cool people)
-Told the B. Pres. he had to release his councilors (when we already have an awkward relationship, not of my doing, but he hates that we change so often here because of the law, so he doesn't even bother to try and work that much with us. He'll come around)
Thats about it. English started and that's how we got our investigators and a bunch came to church. I'm happy healthy and have no rashes/fleas/worms right now. What could be better?
Love,
Elder Magledova

Фан ин Миасс

2008-04-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

Hey Fam,
Way to make your emails in by the deadline, it’s always nice to see that I haven’t gotten any emails and then have them pop up while I’m doing other things. Actually, it’s not fun, it’s stressful.
We do not get General Conference live, it’s downloaded by the office and then recorded and sent to the zones around the mission, and since I’m in Miass, a city two hours away from its zone, we may not get it for some weeks. It all depends on who’s traveling from Yekaterinburg and when. Though, I did appreciate your conference notes, your love of the gospel and our leaders shows through them.
My first week as senior has been great. I’m not even really senior like I thought I’d have to be. We speak just as good/poorly as each other and both have a happy attitude to do the work MTC/PMG style no longer having to rely on the grizzled senior companion who can speak freely but has lost his drive, so we’re in this together. This has been one of my happiest weeks.
Since Sunday afternoon we’ve had to be in a trio because one of the other companionship’s Elder's here had to go on his visa renewal trip, which takes five days! I’m glad I got my visa before the new law got in place, so I have five months until that trip and then I’ll have a visa under the new law so I’ll have to go on the Moscow trip every three months for the second year of my mission. Technically we’re supposed to go to our country of origin but for some reason Estonia lets us renew there. That loop hole may not last because soon all the old visas will expire so half the missionaries in Russia will be going through every transfer. I even heard a rumor that St. Pete's Elders are already making visa trips to San Francisco. I don’t think I believe it but, it’s a possibility. I don’t know if I could handle that, the only way I made it through our travel over was knowing that I would only have to do it one more time. We’ll see.
We’ve had some fun times this week:
-Making root beer and then root beer floats.
-Contacting an ice fisher on a big semi-frozen lake.
-Getting stopped by a drunk guy who wanted to see our teeth who claimed to be Hitler II
-Contacting(accidentally) two drunk kids on transport, who looked like they could be 15 but were both over 20, who had both been in prison for over 6 years, showed us their tattoos and complained that they give you water there instead of tea, (Which is funny because one of missionaries' biggest complaints is getting hot tea at a meal instead of cold water.)
-Making waffles(we might be the only apartment in the mission with a waffle maker.)
-Getting a tour of Miass and its lake “Tour-guy-yak” the second largest fresh water lake in the world! (Or it’s the second freshest largest lake in the world, I can’t’ remember and Russians never agree when I ask them.) The tour included and authentic Russian Sauna where we watched a large man (in a Speedo), emerge from the hut steaming and then take a plunge in the water where the ice had been chipped away. You’re supposed to beat your back with branches while you’re out there but apparently this guy didn’t want to in front of us.
Today we’re going to hike the mountain again, which should be fun because the weather is almost perfect and this time I can where tennis shoes instead of my dress boots so I can actually get some traction. It’s quite embarrassing for the elder most associated with a man who can stick to walls being unable to take one step on a snowy trail without slipping two more backwards. I’m looking forward to it.
And I’m loving life, love,
Роб(би)

"Dear Missionary, I hope you got a baptism, [signed] Michael"

2008-04-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

Andy hasn't sent a photo in so long I fear we've all forgotten what he looks like so here's one from the summer before he left.

I just want to say that I remembered it was your Birthday before the actual day, its just if I forget to write in the week of I loose my chance, so happy belated birthday. And my package came this week, so thank you for that. I received a letter from a kid in Primary, and he said "Dear Missionary, I hope you got a baptism, [signed] Michael." Truly inspiring words. I'm glad I got that after Christmas (when it was sent) otherwise I would have been devastated with my baptism-less record. And on the numbers (as I get transferred every time...) I still don't have a real baptism (I baptized Fung Shwung but he was recorded as the other elder's baptism). So now I am ready to get the real thing. We have an investigator named George and he is going to be my ticket to success with Michael. In two weeks he will be the newest member of the Church for that one second until ten people take his spot in Brazil. He is 20 and a devoted fan of Bruce Lee. It is his only life goal to get to California and see the monument there of said hero. I like cool goals in life. Plus for a Moldovan he looks a lot like Bruce Lee. I will send a picture next week.

Also this week, my comp. had one of the sister's great investigators fall in love with him, and when he gave the "But I'm a boy and you're a Squirrel" speech, (Note to the allusion: That is the saddest scene (from Sword in the Stone) out of any movie. If I could marry that squirrel I would.) she isn't really interested in the church any more. It was a sad day but, oh bla dee oh bla da...

And I did get to see General Conference and it was sweet as I sustained the new prophet as did the three investigators that I was sitting next to (one didn't even know we had a prophet yet as we met in our English class earlier that day and I invited them to come) I'm sure it was really awkward for them but I was loving it. It was weird cause I got to do that at the same time you all did at seven p.m. Sadly it's just not the same in Romanian so the next sessions I watched in English and it was really good. But I had to call Germany because the encoding chip for the priesthood session didn't work (nor exist). What are they trying to hide that they have to scramble the signal for no one else to receive it, but then two weeks later everyone receives it in a free magazine across the whole world? I ask you what is the point? But it was cool talking to a German. I like Germans.

And that is about it for this week. I am starving and want to sleep (It has rained every p-day here so there is nothing to do). I love you all and thanks for all of your support.

Love, Elder Moldova

Hip Hip

2008-04-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

Dearest Alles,

My first junior companion got in last night. English Class ran a little long, (we played jeopardy, final jeopardy: Who is Philo T. Farnsworth, thanks family history!) so we were worried about being a little late and when we got there he was already waiting so we thought, darn, just missed being on time, but soon found out that he had actually arrived early so he had been waiting for an hour already. Whoops, but it was ok because he wasn’t even bothered about it which is a good sign. His name is Elder Kimball and he’s from Mesa Arizona about Six foot 5 and wants to be an orthopedic surgeon. How is it that all these missionaries out here know what they want to be? I feel weirder and weirder with every new companion because I don’t have my future picked out. It’s not my fault, my patriarchal blessing is vague! Anywho…
Like I said, he’s just a transfer behind me and so he’s not hardened in his ways like most of my previous companions. We actually think pretty alike so I’m excited for this transfer. And the best part is that it’s not even like I’m senior, I was worried for a sec that I’d suddenly have to do everything, but since we’re so close in mission age we both just discuss plans and how were both going to do them, instead of the old, “you do this and I’ll do this” way that I’m used to. Hurrah for good companionships!
Zone conference was great, got some mail, no packages though. Said Bye to one of my favorite Elders, Elder Holder from Australia, my first Zone leader and second A.P. I’ll see him at BYU though. Hurrah for BYU!
Our first hope for success this transfer is Hope. Hope (Nadezhda in Russian yuk yuk yuk) is the mother of a girl who has already been baptized and the only reason she hasn’t is that she hasn’t been able to quit smoking. We are going to work strongly with her and show her how it’s possible.
I’m pretty excited for this transfer; it came just in time and I want to show my gratitude by working my Дубленка off.

Hurrah for this transfer,

Elder Магэлби

I almost felt like a missionary in the states

2008-03-31T14:03:00.000-07:00

I really need to learn Russian. We went block knocking (tracting for all of you non eastern Europe people) and none of them will speak Romanian, but play innocent and only answer in Russian. It's lame but we will start English classes this week so that will occupy my time and we will get some good investigators from it. But this week was sweet. I almost felt like a missionary in the states as we had three dinner appointments with families in the branch. If you have one a week you are lucky, so this was unheard of. The members are so nice here but the problem is the Branch President. As we have to leave the country every 3 months (we cant get visas) he gets frustrated that missionaries don't pass on all of the info and that he keeps having to tell the missionaries which members need help. He has exploded twice at me on the phone, but then later apologizes. He is a great man who held this branch together for years when missionaries were kicked out, but this constant turnover for the past year has been really hard for him I guess. It wouldn't be such a problem if people would just keep all information updated. That's what we do when you go somewhere new, but some people don't care I guess. Anyway I have a meeting with him in a little while to establish some goals for the branch. Hope everyone stays happy.

And for the rest of the week, I just passed out English fliers and we had sign-ups. Several hundred came (that's good) so it was worth it. Church was very good and very... in Russian so I just shout Amen a lot in case people are praying (And the Romanian is completely different than Russian, with the exception of a couple of words we stole from them). Well that's it for now.

Do Svidania i poka poka i ×ÓÅÇÏ ÈÏÒÏÛÅÇÏ

Elder Magleby (Moldova)

Spring has Sprung!

2008-03-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

And by spring I mean Utah winter. It’s pretty funny, after how ever many months of Russian winter, now that it’s warming up, I go outside with my coat on, (but no hat) and breathe in the cool air and think, “weird, this is what I remember winter feeling like back home, but it’s spring… or is it?” Whether it’s the lack of bitter cold or the reminder of home, I find it quite pleasant. There’s still plenty of snow on the ground but every other day it switches from freezing to melting so either it’s slushy outside or lumpy frozen solid slush. Both of which are not fun to fall over on to, which most missionaries do quite often. I just can’t figure out how Russians don’t! Maybe it comes with the language. Speaking of which, it looks like I’ll be doing a lot more speaking because last night I found out that I’m going to be senior companion next transfer. Which is quite a surprise because, one, this is only my second area and two, I don’t speak Russian! I’ve been here almost seven months now and usually you go senior at a year but the mission is changing, crazy things are happening and now Elder K who is only one transfer behind me is coming down to Miass to replace Elder Sh. I guess I’m actually replacing Elder Sharrah and elder Kimball is replacing me. It’s so weird, even when they told me my new companion I didn’t know him so I asked if he was younger, and I thought “oh great, they put some young up-start as my senior because I speak Russian that badly.” I hadn’t even considered that I would be senior but the new mission president is mixing things up, putting younger elders together. Two elders from my MTC district are companions now as well. I speak about as well as I should have five months ago, (i.e. like a greenie) so it’s going to be a HUGE stretch for me, but when I found out, I felt peaceful about it and am honestly looking forward to the rest of my mission now, not having to worry about “older” a.k.a. “embittered” elders making me do missionary work the way they’ve compromised to.
It seems like every transfer is a new situation that I have adapt to. I can’t emphasize enough how much of a miracle we’re going to need to get work done, but I have a strong testimony that if we are doing what we’re supposed to, God wont’ let the fact that we don’t speak freely make us miss opportunities to bring people unto Christ.
I’m grateful for where I’ve been called to serve and believe the Lord qualifies whom he calls.

Love,
Elder Magleby

Moldova!

2008-03-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

Well I had to leave Cluj, but I did get to come to Chisinau (Capital of Moldova. I guess it's a country though I have never heard of it before) and this is the strongest branch in the mission. We have close to 90 people attending a week and it is great here. The only problem is everything is in blinking Russian. Most people speak Romanian (I think they all do, but they lie just to get us to go away) and we have some sweet investigators. Two were just confirmed members this week and we have like 10 baptismal dates for this transfer in our district (six missionaries) and that is amazing for an eastern European country. The city is not the prettiest but it is not ugly. There are trees everywhere and it is clean. My apartment is so nice and it has a good shower and a microwave (both firsts for me in the mission) and my comp is pretty cool. And I get to be in the same district as Elder Kozlenko (my Russian MTC companion) and it's fun to hear from him again. I have no real news as I don't know anyone's names yet or where I am going, but Church service was 90% in Russian (Good luck with THAT). I am so lucky to be here and tomorrow I get to go to Iasi for a meeting. And I love Iasi. So things are going well for me here. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love, Elder Magleby (Moldova)

Armenians and Provonians

2008-03-20T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

It’s been good past week, we found a number of cool potential investigators tracking. One of which is an Armenian family who let us right into their apartment, (which never happens) and the other, on a follow up, let us right in as well, they are a really nice family too, two kids and both a mom and a dad, which is rare from what I’ve seen. The work's going good and so am I. Since I haven’t much else to say this week here is quote from another letter I wrote today:

"I just get a little worried when people develop affinities for lame cities . I generally don’t like any city along I-15 except Provo (with the obvious exception of Kanosh and Fillmore). Seriously, every other city is just a lame Orem-like version of Provo.
It’s hard to meet Elders on your mission because literally half of them are from Utah and you ask what city they're from and when they say something besides Provo you have to come up with either 1. a cool thing in that city, 2. someone you know from there or 3. say “yeah, isn’t that right by…” and then give a description on how to get there. At which point the room divides into two groups, the people from Utah who then chime in and give their own directions on how to get there, and the elders who aren’t from Utah who then make the standard really lame “Utah Mormon” jokes. It’s tough being from Provo, i.e. better than everyone else."

Well that’s all for Wells,

Love you bye.

Six weeks is not enough

2008-03-18T16:10:00.000-07:00

My prayers were shattered this morning as I found out I am already leaving Cluj. Six weeks is not enough. I don't know what is going to happen now as I am the oldest zone leader (as I have done it for the longest now) if I will be released or still go to another place. This will be the hardest area to leave after staying so short a time. But everywhere is good. Maybe I can go to actually serve in Moldova. Well we don't have that much time (as I have to pack) so I hope you all have a great week and I will see you later.

Love, Elder Romania

My first downer letter

2008-03-18T16:07:00.000-07:00

Hey Fam,

Life sounds good as usual back home. Keep up to good news please. Life is good here. While my language is still very basic, I feel I am now understanding concepts better and little things are clicking here and there that while simple and very fundamental give me little boosts of encouragement towards the idea that I may one day speak freely. Sometimes I feel like my Russian is the only thing keeping me from being a 100 percent perfect feel good all the time amazing missionary, all though I know there are still other aspects I need to work on but can’t help but feel un-confident in general while still being unable to lead a discussion.
But I also know it is unrighteous to just look forward to some future day thinking things will be perfect then, justifying the mediocre present. Though I have a hard time not feeling that a lot of negative aspects of the work would disappear with different companions, “not that I excuse myself because of other men” but I pretty much that wish every missionary could be my trainer Elder S. I’ve been happy to help my companions along the way in my mission so far but now after months of that and no visible success, I’m tired and feeling my mission clock tick louder and louder just wanting a good companion that can inspire me and I him. I am grateful for every happy moment I have and know they are all directly related to work. I don’t believe there is any principal truer to missionary work than President Hinckely’s forgetting oneself and getting to work. I have a very strong testimony of that being true, I try to apply it as often as possible, every time with good results. I recognize that I’m in temporary low point but I’m just trying do what, and be what the Lord wants.

That’s all from me,
Elder Magleby (Russian Version)

This is the greatest time of my life

2008-03-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

I finally had piftie (pig fat jello) and I would never wish my worst enemy to try such a substance. It was not at all as I was expecting and it was so gross. My comp and I felt so sick afterwards that we stood on a bridge and made ourselves throw up (I didn't even have to gag myself). So we spent the rest of last night in the blocks smelling like vomit. But I can finally say that I had it. I don't think I will ever have any sort of gelatin dish again.

And today I had one of the greatest p-days ever. We hitch-hiked to another town (as the bus had just left) and then caught a shuttle bus to another smaller town, walked 45 minutes through muddy goat/chicken filled roads until we got to one of the most scenic places in the world. It is this canyon through these mountains in Transylvania and it has all these caves. It was even cooler as we had a lot of fog and clouds but it made the pictures worse. I would have given three toes for my flashlight, but it also had this sign that said to not disturb the bats (I actually saw Transylvanian bats!) so it was probably good that I didn't have it. Some day you might see the pictures.

And for the bad news, Catalin slept through church and his phone was off so it didn't work when we tried to call him, but he is still doing great. The church is doing great here in Cluj (I wouldn't mind to finish my last 6 months here).

This week we went back to Oradea and had an exchange with lder Toomey, and it was great to see that kid again (That's really cool that Abe's in their ward now. I have heard a lot about Readding Stake). It's cool to have an connection to go to in England and I guess to Germany, Russia and maybe Denmark (I never really got to know Elder Ryttersgaard that well, but Elder Toomey did and if I play my cards right when I go and visit him, maybe we can swing over to Stor Magleby). We also have an elder from Norway now, but I don't know him yet. It's sweet to think of all the great people I have met here. I have a feeling our mission is a lot more social as we (at least once a transfer) meet with the majority of the mission for a special transfer meeting to see where we all go. This way you always have to pretend to like your new comp. in front of everybody. Then we all go to Hard Rock Cafe. This is the greatest time of my life.

So all I can really say is things are all going well. I just pray I don't get transferred next week. Oh, speaking of prayer, the reason we had to hitch-hike is that the taxi could only hold four people and we were six. So me and my comp. stayed back and got another taxi when it came. And because we are foreign we are stupid I guess and the driver was saying that we had to pay for all four seats in the taxi or wait 5 minutes til it fills up (Bull crap, as we have obviously taken taxi's before) so we argued but there was really no other option (and he knew it and he went outside pretending to advertise we were leaving soon) so we decided to say a prayer and figure out a way to this city without being robbed by this jerk, and we had one final argument and tried to call him to repentance for trying to cheat us and left him and prophesied he was losing money. Then another guy around there was helping two old ladies into a car and said he was going over there (about) and charged us a fair amount. It was sweet cause the jerk saw that this guy got our business and because he (the hero) helped the old ladies and dropped them off (they paid a fraction of what we paid but he did it more as a service) someone else wanted a taxi randomly at their house and so he got yet another costumer. So this guy had a way successful trip and the original jerk got nothing because he was greedy. And it just made me think that the original guy obviously refused those older women in the first place even though he was trying to "sell" those seats cause they had no connection with this guy and wanted someone to help them out. So our prayer was answered even though it was something dumb, it was cool to not be robbed of our money. And then we said another prayer as other taxi guys tried to mess us over again and say that there doesn't exist a shuttle bus, but as we finished our prayer in a random alleyway, one pulled up. Who would have thought that works?

Rock on,

Elder Magleby (Romania)

I thought this was Russia not ARBY'S

2008-03-06T21:49:00.000-08:00

Dearest Alles,

All is well in Miass. The trip to St. Pete’s was fun. Most of the enjoyment was to see other Elders because we didn’t see or do much in the city itself because of a series of unfortunate events, most of which involve vomit. But it really was fun to walk around such a classy city with some “old” friends from the MTC.

It was also fun to stop by the mission office, the origin of all mail and peanut butter in the Ural area. I was quite happily surprised to pick up two fresh items of mail. One, a very nice birthday card from none other than Talisa V. (Sponge Bob Represent!) and Two, a newsletter from Sister Keleman, (Sister Keleman’s mom) with the going ons of many of my buddies around the world. I felt kinda lame though because they all wrote real newsletters and I think I just wrote a paragraph or something. Oh well, maybe I’ll do better next year. Thanks Sister Kelelman!
Another highlight of Petes was of course Carl's Jr. and Papa Johns. I got a Chicken Bacon Ranch burger and pizza at both respectively. Although both were bittersweet as I had to pay WAY too much for them. An 8 dollar combo meal! I thought this was Russia not ARBY'S. St. Pete’s Russia is way different from Yekaterinburg Russia I found out. I felt like I was in Europe, it was kind'a weird actually, Yekat seems so far away from anywhere I’ve been and just a short day trip away I was all the sudden back in Europe. It was fun.
So today we are actually staying with the Zone Leaders of Chili because we had to come in yesterday for registration and didn’t make our train ride home so we get to spend our P-day here in Chilyabensk. I like it here, I like seeing new cities and new elders.
Well, that’s all for me,

Paka for now,

Elder Magleby

. . . but the rest was pure gold.

2008-03-03T19:18:00.000-08:00

Cluj is the greatest city of all time. Things are going so well here. Church was the greatest service I have ever been to . . .almost. Okay so a crazy went up and read 30 verses of scripture as her testimony and another recent convert said she never felt the spirit until after she was baptized and the whole thing went over 45 minutes, but the rest was pure gold. We had seven investigators there (that's a high for me I think) and the spirit was so strong, everybody was smiling the whole time. And the best part was the day before, we fasted together with Ionuti (an investigator who can't be baptized because of his parents) to understand how he could be baptized. He hasn't been to church for months because his parents won't let him, but yesterday he came--meaning he stood up to them, and he bore the greatest testimony. It was sweet. I don't think he can be baptized anytime soon, but we are still praying and it was great for his parents to know that he still cares about this church.

And the other great news is that Catalin has a B-date now and he is really excited to work for it. He is a 19 year old studying business here. Super cool kid whose life ambition is to be like Brad Pitt from Oceans Eleven ("I to have a desire to steal from casinos.") He chose the 27th of March and this thing is going to happen. After one week he is already hanging out with the youth and they are all friends now. But on the down side we had to take away a b-date and probably will drop our other investigator as he is not keeping his commitments. He just keeps making the lamest excuses but claims that he wants to be baptized. Hopefully in a couple of months he will really be ready to make the covenant of baptism.

And we got to go to Oradea for the first time and have an exchange with an Elder I trained. He is doing really well. He is senior comp. and they are working harder than any other comp. in the mission I'd say. And that is another pretty city. I was figuring it out and I have been to almost all the cities in the mission now. I am just missing four. So everything is going well.

Sadly as I am out of Buch. again, I don't have any more funny stories it seems, but I think I will take this last week over someone giving me nasty food... which reminds me of a meal I just had Saturday morning before we started our fast. A member gave us a vegetable soup (good so far) and then sweet mashed potatoes (great) and then a meatloaf like substance with hardboiled eggs cooked into it. As I knew I was to start fasting I ate a big bowl of Oatmeal just before this and I have never felt sicker after a meal. The food wasn't that bad, but I guess the combo was toxic. I have never been so happy to go without food. We ended up fasting closer to 28 hours but I barely noticed it because my stomach still didn't want food. I think I will do that every fast Sunday.

Well, that's all I have for you, but what have ye for me?

Love,

Varstnic Magleby (They just changed our name tags to say that instead of Elder. I dont know why it took so long to do it, but I like Elder better so I will keep using my old tags)

MAIL!

2008-02-27T13:50:00.000-08:00

Dear Everyone,
WHAT IS GOING ON BACK THERE?! Berkeley's dating, Mom's quilting, Brain and Steve music buddies? Abe's moving to London, Jacob's learning sign language, Jack's back, Jonathan has twins, Mat6t wins beauty contest, and Griffin is coming HERE! It's like "Worlds Colliding" times infinity… plus TWO! Wow, all the news has really been freaking me out, I literally go wide-eyed when I read letters lately. Anywho, all that stuff's pretty crazy. Life is good here, for the start of the Transfer we had zone meeting so the zone leaders could tell us all goals and subjects they talked about at zone leader council with president. It was amazing the mission is really changing. Also good news from Zone meeting, MAIL!
It was like all the parcels I had expected for months had got held up
and had babies with one another! I actually had a pile of mail
waiting for me. It made me so happy, and feel so loved and blessed.
Every night I write in my journal about the blessings I saw that day
and thank God in prayer for them. But sometimes when trying to think of blessings that happened that day all can think about is my family and friends back home how grateful I am for them. It seriously happens a lot, I go to bed grinning like a goon thinking of all y'all
back home. I love life and I love you. Thanks. Here's a list of everything I got just so all involved know it got here and know how grateful I am.
2nd Christmas package from Mom—it came!
Christmas Package from the Faulconers—it came, and smelled just like America!
Festivus notebook and photos form Talisa!-- SO cool to hear from
EVERYONE! Clever idea.
Letter from Gretchen--About time! (Dave talk for: thanks)
Letter from Grandma--Cool story and fun times Happy Birthday back atcha.
Wedding invite from Lacey –Congratulations, I'll be there! Oh
wait--no can do.

It's like I always say, what better way to celebrate a week-old
Birthday than to open up months old Christmas mail. One last time,
thanks so much everyone, it meant a lot to me.
In the big news department I've been in the country for six months,
and you know what that means—New immigration card time! And you might NOT know what that means, heck, I'm not sure I do, all I know is that I'm going to St. Petersburg tomorrow baby! That's right, it's my first Pete's trip, actually due to the new laws, it's my ONLY Pete's
trip. The rest will be in Moscow. This trip is to cross the border into Estonia just because Immigration cards, (those little pieces of paper you fill out on the airplane) only last six months, my VISA is still good until September when I'll have to go to Moscow to get a new
one under the new law that will only last 3 months. I'm pretty excited to see more of Russia and spend a day in St. Pete's running around with my MTC group seeing the sights. Carl's Jr. here I come!
Speaking of new visa laws:
Welcome to the Mission Griffey! We were all talking about because of
the new laws, the church is sending WAY less missionaries here so we
were joking that all the missionaries that come in must get to feel
pretty full of themselves knowing that they were part of the few
selected. Seriously though that's really cool, I can't believe it.
My first advice, become fluent in Russian before you enter the MTC,
and second don't buy a Dooblonka. I would be very happy to answer any and all questions. Seriously, I felt like I could have been told a lot more before I got here that would have saved a lot trouble so I'm extra willing to help. And don't worry Katy, I haven't seen or felt
any spirits since I've been here. Although I didn't ask to shake that one guy's hand…
Anywho I'm way excited for everything that's going on right now, here
and over there. I'm happy.

Love
Elder Maгэлби

P.S. Just for fun, this is Taylor in Russian for your tag: "Taйлор

Dear Mom and Dad, you are not a priority for me either . . .

2008-02-26T21:26:00.000-08:00

No time so here are the highlights of the week:

6 investigators at church and the members all fellowshipped them!

Locked out of the Apartment for 2 days (means same clothes for 2 days)

Set up an interview for a writer who wants to know the truth

The sister missionaries love my comp.

Zone Conference

And now I'm gone

Love, Elder Magleby (Andy)

Go Ninjas

2008-02-19T17:17:00.000-08:00

I need a new happy thought. We got up a 4 a.m. yesterday to catch a bus for Arad with the branch for a District Conference (I found out that we don't have a district presidency though) which is five hours away. I slept most of the way there and planned stuff with my comp. but on the way back, we had to ride with the youth and that was taxing. There are some 15 year-old girls who wouldn't leave us alone (the "I don't know how to say I like you so I will annoy you" style of flirting"). So all joy was sucked out of my life and I need a new happy thought to get me through long bus rides. My old one was the scene in Free Willy when the whale finally escapes. I really like killer whales as of late, but not even they can get me out of depression now. I think I am going to think of the the scene in Ninja Turtles II when Vanilla Ice starts the Ninja Rap. Go Ninjas, Go Ninjas Go!

The Conference went really well. Elder Stirry from Norway and gave a good presentation of the importance of Home Teaching. It was well needed. We had butter sandwiches given to us from the members in Arad (They use mayonnaise on everything else here, but on a sandwich they use butter). That city also looked Beautiful. Sadly, I will probably never go there again.

We were walking down the street and a man called "Missionaries!" which is odd because it was in English and second it wasn't followed by "You Suck". We saw a young black man (not too common here) he was here visiting his girlfriend. He is a returned missionary and gave his girlfriend as a referral. It was sweet because we were on that road by accident as we had been lost on the edge of the city trying to find a member who said we could come over. He lied. I hope it all goes well.

But we have to run, so have a good week and love you all.

-Elder Magleby

a small manageable city free of tons of apostate sludge

2008-02-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

Руфн ФДдб

That’s not a phrase, it’s just what happens when I forget to switch the keyboard from Russian to English and type “Hey all”.
Holy cow, it’s transfers already, I feel like I just got here. This will be my first transfer where I didn’t get a new companion so that will be different... while simultaneously being the same I guess, it’s a conundrum wrapped in a riddle inside a Twinkie.
Time's gone so fast I haven’t even really explained how it works here. There are two companionships here in Miass, Us (Me and Elder SH) and the other elders T and D. This has been D's first transfer; it’s weird to be older than someone now. The branch meets in the town hall, well I don’t really know how it translates, no legal stuff goes on there but it looks like a town hall. Various things go on there, dance classes, movies sometimes, we rent out two small connected rooms and have all our church meetings there. I love the ward's smallness, it’s like a family, we have actually met everyone in our area book! Even the less-actives are better here! Because they are actually less-actives and not just people who got baptized by some Americans a decade ago and have no idea why we want them to come “back” to church! Sorry, it just that our area book in Perm was full of “less-actives” who didn’t even know who Joseph Smith is or understand that they are members of the church he restored. It’s a huge problem in the bigger areas of the mission that when the church was new here they got a lot of baptisms because it was a new American thing that people were interested in and now all those baptisms are just sad people who don’t understand anything about the gospel or what baptism means. I only elaborate on this because it’s so great to have a branch in a small manageable city free of tons of apostate sludge. We have a regular of 11 members at church a week and it’s great every week.
Like I said Elder Sh and I are staying for at least six more weeks and now we have a baptism coming up that came out of nowhere. We would teach this one very nice recent convert girl (about 13) a couple of times a week and she was really smart and took notes and could answer all of our questions and it was funny to meet with her because she knows enough to give us a look if we give her some lame spiritual thought, she wants hard core gospel doctrine. Anywho one day she brought her mom to church (whom we had never met) and she got up and bore her testimony and now she wants to get baptized. This would be my first baptism so it’s kind of weird for me right now. It’s scheduled for this Saturday so we’ll see if it all works out. Pray for her, (Natasha is her name)
Well, that’s it for me, Happy Birthday Grandma! It’s always an honor to be allowed to share the date with you.

-Elder Magleby