November 16, 2015

Your right mom, another week passed by and I honestly can't believe it!  My time in Nevsky could be coming to a close soon, and it makes me sad, because things are finally starting to happen here!  I think as Elder Simonsen and I have started to work a lot harder that there have been substantial differences in our contacting with people on the streets, not only in terms of how many people we talkt to, but the quality of the conversations with these people.  Anyway, before I get started on my week, I'll just give a little commentary on your email.  First, that's tons of fun that you had Grandpa and Sharon up for dinner, I'm glad things went well and I was laughing pretty hard at Nathan's comment, what a little stinker.  He's got a sharp wit, he and Caroline probably the most of us 6 in my opinion.  That's too funny about Spencer with braces, how long will it take do you know?  Yeah, tell him it's not too bad and that if you can have confidence with braces, then there's nothing that can stop you.  Haha, when I got my braces off Freshman year one of my friends posted in the BYU class of 2018 page on FaceBook about how I got my braces off and it got a whole bunch of likes and one person randomly on campus even asked me if I was the kid from the post.  I was just thinking about that and laughing and thought why not share.  Anyway, that's too funny about Alex Angus, I love that too much.  I can't believe you haven't seen her in that long, she and I hung out every now and again Freshman year.  Anyway, don't apologize too much about a not too very interesting email, because I don't have too much to share either!  Because...

I was on the toilet again this week!  One night we went out contacting, and I wasn't feeling too well and Elder Simonsen asked me if we should just go home.  Right as I was about to answer "No, I'm fine" my stomach shifted really loudly and I changed my answer to "I think you just heard the answer."  Anyway, we waited super long for public transportation that wouldn't come and ended up taking the metro.  Elder Simonsen said I was sweating with concentration trying to keep it all in.  Waddled from the metro home, and barely made it in time.  The closest that I have ever been to pooping my pants.  Sorry if that's too much detail, but it was pretty funny.  Elder Simonsen couldn't help but laughing the whole time because I was just focusing so hard on not having to get a new suit for reasons other than dropping weight.  Anyway, we had to stay inside a couple of days because of that, but it's nothing compared to last time. 

Other than that we had interviews with President Childs this week which went really well.  It really helped me step up my contacting people on the street.  We actually had a really cool experience just last night.  We had just a lot of fun stopping and talking to people, and we met all sorts of cool people.  Anyway, we were about home and a guy comes walking by.  Elder Simonsen was already getting out the keys but I just go behind him and start talking to the man.  We had set a goal of getting one referral that night  (which almost never happens) and 4 lessons (we had only taught 2 up to that point).  Anyway, the man stopped, was interested in the English Group and almost passed on his wife's information.  We didn't get the referral we had stretched for, and we didn't have the opportunity to teach one more lesson, but we kept stretching.  I've learned a lot that goals aren't always set just for you to reach them, but so that you have to stretch for them.  We really tried to stretch for our goals and even though we didn't reach them, we talked with more people than usual and had far more quality conversations than usual because we were really trying to stretch ourselves.  I know that as we stretch ourselves that the Lord acknowledges that and helps us.  He wants us to grow and be better people than we are now in all aspects of life.  As we truly strive to be better than we are today and stretch for that, his hand is more easily apparent in our lives.  Anyway, I love all of you so very much and I hope you just have the best week!  I love you allso much and you are in my prayers as well!

Love,

Elder Belnap

CAB in Novgorod earlier in November

CAB in Novgorod

November 9, 2015

Dear Family and Friends,

Wow, the one year I'm gone and now you decide to go on a trip for the Holidays?  If I didn't know any better, I would think you just didn't want me around.  Just kidding, sounds like a lot of fun, although I'm sad I'm missing out on it.  Is it just me or do you seem to do more fun things in Utah this time around as opposed to last time?  Maybe I was just on my phone the whole time and missed it all when I lived there (now that I think about it I've answered my own question :) ).  That's fun cleaning through Grandma and Grandpa's basement, I've always known there were treasures down there but it's just been a matter of finding them.  Send Matt my love, and let him know he's in my prayers!  I hope they find out what's the issue soon and he's able to go on back, and even if he's not, he's been a really stellar example of enduring your trials and enduring them well throughout this whole process.  It's cool to see how we've both changed :).  Anyway, I feel really bad because I don't have a lot to report this week!  Just some fun pictures I'll send your way in a few minutes.  Basically this week has just been a lot of contacting and trying to hold one another accountable for talking with more people when we're on the streets-what's the point in trying to find people who are interested if we're not talking to as many people as we can!-Anyway, sometimes it's easy to get down on yourself when there's not a lot of success, and we've found that just having fun with each other on the street makes it so much easier.  The other night we met this awesome man, and Elder Simonsen and I were in the middle of a conversation, but we broke it off to talk with this man, and as soon as the conversation was over we picked up right where we left off until the next person came by.  That person cursed us out for being Americans, but hey we were just still glowing from the wonderful conversation we just had.  We also had a lot of fun with the members of the ward this week.  I think everyone on this email lists knows that I like to talk and I like to joke around, well I'm proud to report that although I still can't talk in Russian, I can joke!  Which might just be the most important thing for building a solid relationship with these members!  My area has a bit of a reputation for being hard, and so a lot of Elders who have come here before hand have just done there time until they got sent somewhere else, and so the members didn't have the best opinions of the Elders.  We've been trying really hard to change that reputation, and little by little it's been happening.  We also ran into one of our potential investigators who hadn't called us back while out contacting which was just a miracle and a lot of fun!  He was pretty shocked just running into us, but I think it might have been just the push he needed. 

Other than that I'll just close with a spiritual thought.  I was reading in the Book of Mormon today and I was reading in 2nd Nephi 25.  Anyway, it just strikes me how much the Book of Mormon testifies of Christ.  So many people call us a sect and that we're not Christians here and we whip out the Book of Mormon and show them the name of Christ on the cover.  And now I'm going to start opening to that page in the Book of Mormon because the name of Christ is invoked 4 times in that verse, and 13 times (I think ) on that page overall.  We are Christians because we believe in Christ, and we try to follow his example in our lives.  Anyway, that was something that just hit me kindof strongly today, I love you all and I hope you have a great week!  You're all in my prayers!

Love,

Elder Belnap

Nimbus 2000 in Novgorod

I'm breaking free

Novgorod

CAB's run in with the tree in Novgorod

Novgorod Kremlin

November 2, 2015

Well, I do have time this week to send out a quick email!  And hopefully a couple pictures as well, but probably not!  We spent our P-day here in Novgorod, and it was so much fun!  We're starting our splits in a couple of hours, but we made it to the Kremlin, and out to this Wooden Village.  Elder Simonsen and I had a great time there, and we got some cool pictures of us jumping in the air with a brromstick that looked like a Nimbus 2000 (not really though, probably more similar to the brooms Fred and George would ride).  We also just had a great week, gave a blessing to a member, watched a regional broadcast which was just SO GOOD.  And I got to watch it in English too so I can actually say that it was so good!  We totally forgot it was Halloween until we stopped by a Less-Active Member's home and she wished us a Happy Halloween on our way out the door!  Oh well, it wouldn't have changed the plan for the night anyways.  I'll just share one really cool experience from this week and then I'll have to dip!  Also no pictures this week, but I have a lot of good ones for next!  Anyway, Elder Simonsen and I have been having our companionship unity issues for the last couple of weeks (sounding like an old married couple, which I guess we kinda are at this point) and we had Weekly Planning this last Saturday (had to move it around for Zone Training and MLC).  Anyway, we had just a lot of really good conversations and tried really hard to find out what the center of our issues were.  I got to close with a prayer, and usually we pray in Russian, but after saying the first couple of words in Russian, I just felt like I had to pray in English.  And it was awesome, easily the most powerful I've felt the Spirit while giving a prayer.  I know that the Lord is just waiting for a lot of us to really learn how to communicate and truly rely on him.  Praying in English was the best thing that could have happened because I was more able to accurately express the feelings I felt in my heart.  It was honestly just incredible.  We got on the streets that night and had what was easily our best contacting night, and we did the same yesterday, and we're planning on doing the same.  We've already found an awesome potential in that time who we're planning on reaching tonight.  Anyway, I love you all, and I love the opportunity I have to be here!  I hope you have a great week, and give dad a big hug and kiss from me for his birthday in just a couple days!  Glad you had a lot of fun, and I love the pictures of Nate and Rebecca by the way!  Anyway, have a great week, sorry I couldn't include more!  I'll say it again, love you tons!

Love, 

Elder Belnap

P.S.  Send Matt my love and support please, he's such a trooper :).   

October 26, 2015

Dear Family/Friends,

First off I just want to thank you all for your letters this week!  It's so much fun for me just to hear about all the fun little things that are going on in peoples lives, I think that's why I like talking to the бабушки so much because they just talk about the little things and it's tons of fun!  Also, I might not be able to write any letters next week because we have an awesome opportunity to go to Novgorod for P-Day and actually look around!  We have to do Zone Training the next day, so we just got permission for it and we'll go down a day early, start our splits that night and go home the next day!  Anyway, just wanted to let you know that first so that you're not too concerned if I don't write a letter next week!  Thanks for all the stories too mom, I love the one about the cat, just too cute!  You all are always in my prayers and I hope you know that (that goes for all my friends on this email list too)!  Anyway, I have to make this quick, but what DIDN'T happen this week, I'll try and make sense.

So we've had a lot better of a contacting week than usual.  It's funny, Elder Simonsen and I are just two entirely different people, but as we've communicated more, it's just made a world of difference.  We've been going around to meet with Less Active members in our area and we've had a lot of success and also a lot of curses thrown our way.  Nothing out of the ordinary though.  We have a new investigator named Viktor that we met with on the street and he's awesome.  We had a great conversation and we'll have our first meeting tomorrow.  We're also meeting with a less active family tonight with the sisters (in their area) and we have a message planned out that we really feel like they need to hear and we're just so excited!  We also had an experience the other day in the middle of ward council after church when these two rough looking guys came in asking about what we believe.  There were some lingerers who were talking with them and the Elders Quorum President and I went out and joined.  Anyway, it was just such a powerful experience about the importance of members.  It was a 4 member present lesson and it was just so awesome.  At one point one of the two guys was asking one of the members about what I was even doing here as an American who doesn't even understand what he was saying right then, and I just responded "Actually, I completely understood what was just said, and if you want to know why I'm here, it's because of this book."  And it was the strongest testimony of the Book of Mormon I've given on my mission.  It was just so awesome, and it really helped strengthen some relationships with some members of the ward.  One of the tiny little old бабушка's in our ward gave me all the days she was free to help with lessons right after.  We also called the two guys that night, and as soon as we find out if either tomorrow or Thursday works better for them, we'll have 3 new investigators!  And we got a referral the other day, and we're still trying to set up an appointment with him, but if that works out then 4!  AHHH, I'm just too excited right now, it feels good that we've been trying hard and things are finally starting to come together.  Also, I did get to see the Powell's which was a lot of fun (with permission from President Childs of course).  We get breakfast for a little bit and then Janae was like "Christopher you know I love you, but I'll see you again in 20 months.  This is my one chance to see the Hermitage."  I was laughing too hard.  Thanks for remembering everything mom!  We're pretty stoked for some pumpkin pie.  Anyway, we also did Hermitage service this week which was tons of fun, and I also just have a couple funny pictures of notebooks we found at a little store here!  That's pretty much all!  Love you tons, thanks again for all that you do, hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Belnap

Hermitage

Tapestry in Hermitage

CAB outside Hermitage

Gate opposite Hermitage

October 19, 2015

So drumroll please....Still in Nevsky for another 8 weeks!  This is a weird transfer, just because of the schedule of missionaries coming in, we need to have an extra long one this time.  I'm really excited because Elder Simonsen and I really seem to be hitting our stride.  We're still not nearly as good at contacting as we would like to be, but we've been improving a lot which has been nice.  It's really awkward sometimes because, as missionaries, our purpose is to invite others-as Elder Bednar so simply put it-to "Come and See."  Come and see if our message adds to what you already have in your life, come and see if it enriches what you already hold dear, just very simply, come and see if this is the truth for yourself.  That's why we don't walk around waving pamphlets in people's faces on their way out of the metro, but that we invite them politely, but firmly to see if this is something that they think would bless their lives.  BUT when we walk up to someone and introduce ourselves as missionaries, it immediately turns them off.  Then on the other hand, when we start a normal conversation (which are always so cool and interesting, even not as a missionary I want to do that because there are just so many cool and interesting people), it can be so awkward to try and introduce our message into the conversation.  I just need to remember what Elder Holland said that if we're trying to talk with them that at some point in the conversation, there will be a gospel truth that we can bear testimony of.  Anyway, that's sortof how the contacting goes for us, we're trying to be a lot better, and just not feeling so awkward.  Because if they don't listen, or they're not interested, then ok that's awesome, we're not trying to coerce anything out of you.  But if they are interested and do want to know more, then I don't want to think that I missed out on talking to that person just because I was too afraid to open my mouth.  And me being afraid to open my mouth?  It's never happened before, why should it happen now!

Anyway, I wasn't hurt too bad by the tree, it hurt to walk for a couple of days, Elder Williams got his suit all dry cleaned and he's all good, and other than the bruise on my leg I escaped with just a few bumps on my head.  To answer all your questions, we get up at 6:30, exercise, and then an hour for breakfast and showers, 8:00-11:00 we do personal study and 2 hours of companionship, then 11:00-12:00lunch, then 12:00-1:00 language, and then whatever comes up after until 5.  Then 5:00-6:00 we have dinner, 6:00-9:00 contact and then do our daily planning and get ready for bed.  Yeah I've kept losing weight, going to poke another whole in the belt soon, but Elder Simonsen and I have been eating REALLY well.  He's a good cook and we pooled our money together so it's all worked out really nicely, and I just help with all the little things while he also teaches me.  On P-Day we just do whatever needs to get done/miscellaneous things we've had on our to-do lists.  We've recently been contacting while going to less actives homes, so that we can ring their apartment and offer them a Liahona.  It hasn't worked out yet, but we've only been doing it for a couple days, we just feel strongly that we need to reach out to a lot of the Less-Active members of the ward here.  Anyway, this week Sister Wixom came along with Elder Porter and their respective spouses.  It was cool to find out that the Porter's knew you!  It was so much fun, and we just had a wonderful meeting where they all talked and a couple from the audience were asked to give their testimonies.  Also, I had a really good conversation with our Eternal Investigator, Alexander the other day.  I've felt that we still need to do the little things for that man, call him and invite him to things, ask him why he wasn't able to make it to church if he didn't, things like that.  Anyway, last night I called him just to see, and at the end of our conversation he said (in English) thank you for remembering me.  Thank you for caring about me.  It really touched me, and it just made me feel so happy.  People just need a little bit of love sometimes, just a little extra bit on your part can change people's hearts and make them feel so very grateful!  I just want to encourage all of you to be a little more aware of the little things in life you can do to help people around you!

I'm glad you've been able to do so many fun things while you've been in Utah this time around, you'll have to send me pictures from Halloween when that comes up.  Anyway, I love you so much Mom and Dad (and everyone else who gets this email).  Thanks for all your prayers/well wishes/good vibes in my direction!  Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Belnap

Got to see both Elder Mehr and Sonderegger!  Elder Mehr was shocked when he saw me and at how different I looked!  Also, I'm going to Novgorod this week again for a baptismal interview that Elder Simonsen needs to do!  I'll be aware of the trees!

October 12, 2015

Дерева упала на меня!

I couldn't think of what the subject for my email should be, so I just decided to tell you the craziest thing that happened this week, and then if you speak Russian you don't need to read the rest of this email, and if you don't then you'll find out soon.  Before I forget, the music you can put on an SD card or a CD (CD's work in every apartment, SD's might send better and should work in every apartment but apparently don't sometimes, it's really up to you and what's easiest for Spencer to do).  I also forgot that Piano Guys is можно as well.  Also, if you haven't already assembled the package, a small, spiral bound, laminated PMG would be great (I'm only 3 months in and mine is dying), a vacuum seal bag would be great too, along with some small and big ziploc bags (those can just be fillers if there is space), some scripture-underlining pencils, a small Merriam-Webster Dictionary (you'd be surprised how valued/needed and English dictionary is during personal study), and some American goodies if at all possible (preferably starbursts would be included).  Other than that if there's room, makings for pumpkin pie, and for stuffing (Elder Simonsen and want to eat nice for Thanksgiving).  Phew, now that I finally got all that taken care of I can tell you about this crazy week!

First off, this week has just felt like night and day.  Also, I was really lucky and I got to watch the Sunday Sessions, and Priesthood all in English one of the themes that I got from conference is that things take time, which was such a comfort to me.  Now, that's not to say that we can't work hard in the here and now, Elder Bennett (who we got to meet a few times in Moscow!) talked about how we need to counter the desire to procrastinate, put off, or give up.  We shouldn't say that it takes time in order to procrastinate, but just realize that God has a plan for us and that as we do our part that he will magnify our efforts (President Eyring).  I just love that message!  Don't put off and procrastinate, but also realize that we're moving in the right direction and that to reach our goals, time, patience, and enduring to the end are required.  I hope you all enjoyed General Conference as much as I did (although I didn't get too much out of the Saturday Sessions).  For those of you who don't know what that means, essentially it's a time for us to get council from the leaders of our church about how we can improve and change our lives to bring us greater and lasting happiness.  If that's something that would be interesting to any of you, it's easily accessible onhttps://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2015/10?lang=eng!

Anyway, from this week.  Oh how this week was just ridiculous.  So last week we had another Missionary Leadership Council which means that we get to do another Zone Training.  We got to go to Novgorod, and this time I wasn't sick for it!  It was so much fun, we just took the train down first thing in the morning and then at night we came back up.  After Zone Training we had a little bit of time, and I got to go on a mini split with Elder Williams who is just an absolute riot.  He reminds me a lot of Jeffrey McDonald actually.  Anyway, so we were contacting, and he asked me if there was anyplace in particular I wanted to go, and I said "It would be cool if we could go by the Kremlin" so we went that way.  Anyway, when we were there, we were walking through this grove of really tall trees around the Kremlin, when a big gust of wind blows in.  We were jokingly acting scared when all of a sudden, we heard a crack like thunder and we look back and the tree behind us was falling down right on us!  And it was big!  I wish my camera wouldn't have died otherwise I would've gotten a picture.  Anyway, I turned around and booked it, but then I realized I didn't know what direction it was falling, and I look back and it's about to fall on me!  Fortunately I was booking it, and it was a lot of smaller branches that hit me, but I still got knocked to the ground and got pretty scratched up along with a couple big old bruises on my leg.  Elder Williams was smarter than me and dove out of the way, but his suit was just covered in mud.  When he saw that it had knocked me to the ground, he ran over, but I got out just fine, we were just so shaken up by it, but the best part is we had a really nice contact right after with a lady who came and said "Дерева упала на тебя" and I replied, "Да дерева упала на меня!"  Which means, "yes, a tree fell on me!"  It was crazy, and Elder Williams and I were pretty shaken up so we started going back home after that, but they've started working with this lady and hopefully things will work out!

Anyway, I don't have a lot of time, but it's just been such a fun week.  Elder Williams and I were talking right after that experience how miracles really do exist.  We were talking about how what would have happened if we were just a little slower, or a little too slow to realize that it wasn't actually a crack of thunder.  We truly felt blessed and humbled by that experience, and I prayed really hard after that just thanking our Heavenly Father for the blessings that are in my life and the miracles that happen around the world daily.  I love you all so much and I hope you have a fantastic week! 

Love,

Elder Belnap

None with me in them, but one from when I first arrived in novgorod and one from my split with one of the AP's (we got to spend the whole time contacting on Nevsky Prospect!)  Anyway, love you, bye!

October 5, 2015

 I decided that I totally lost track of all the weeks, so that I'll just take after your example mom and just say what week it is.  When I can actually think of a creative title I'll try and be witty, but no time on P-days to waste!  It's so nice that we have a washer in our home and we just leave things out to dry (every apartment in the mission has one) because I have no idea how we would have enough time to do it all on P-days.  Today we're planning on just getting a couple things that are needed for the apartment (we'll get reimbursed, but it's a super nice, and fairly new apartment and a lot is missing) and then go back and just get some study of last General Conference because unfortunately I need to listen to it in Russian.  What my companion and I are doing right now is just listening to some of the talks while we are writing home.  It's not the most effective way to listen to conference, but I hope it'll help when I try to understand it in Russian.  Before I forget, I'll go ahead and let you know a couple of things I've thought of for the package (also would you mind telling the Powell's to try and get in contact with the mission office to get my phone number, I've still yet to talk to President Childs about getting permission to have lunch with them, but I've heard there's a precedent for that already so fingers crossed).  Anyway, I was thinking about what I would want, and as I said earlier, President is very lenient with music, and just says as long as it invites the Spirit, so I've talked with a couple Elders, and decided on stuff that will be appropriate.  As I said, Glorious by David Archuleta (for some reason everyone has that one) Vocal Point (BYU Accapella Group), MoTab, and the LOTR Soundtrack.  That was one that I asked a lot of people about, but I feel like it's можно (allowed).  

I'm so glad you've had such a great week, it seems that things are just going well at the home, and that you're actually able to leave it every once in a while, unlike our first year.  I'll go ahead and get started on this week.  Frankly, this week has been a little harder for me.  Elder Simonsen had his turn to spend most of the day on the toilet, so we stayed inside for a couple days this week.  Whatever it was, it wasn't what I had, because he still had an appetite, and he got better after a couple days.  It's just been a little harder, because we haven't felt very effective while contacting, our one investigator stopped contacting/responding to us on a dime, and I've frankly just felt weighed down by the wasted opportunities I had to prepare for a mission, and now I feel like I'm stuck playing catch up instead of trying to help people to come unto Christ with all the focus I can muster.  I'll just share a couple of things that have helped me.  Last night was especially hard for some reason, and I was reading through some talks from last conference and I read "Latter-day Saints Keep On Trying!" by Elder Dale G. Renlund.  He just talks a lot about how the Lord cares a lot more about where we are going and what we are becoming than where we were.  It's hard to know that instead of just having lived in Russia for a month, I've lived here for a year and a month, and instead of reading the scriptures, I watched Netflix and spent my whole day socializing.  I've just felt that weight a lot lately, but I hope that my word can be an example to others when I say, IT'S NOT WORTH IT.  Even though I've had a hard time, I'm happiest when I get to build relationships with people on the street, serve the bishop and make his burden easier, and establishing relationships with members of the ward.  I've just been trying really hard to focus that the Lord cares more about where I'm going than where I was. 

Anyway, I'm going to get going, I love you so much mom, I got to listen to Elder Holland's talk just a few minutes ago, and I have to agree with him about the love of a mother!  I love you so much, let everyone in the family know I love them so much, and I hope you all just have the best week! 

Love,

Elder Belnap

So there is a building being built next to ours, and we saw this guy rappelling down the building on literally just a little plank of wood, and he was just chilling there smoking a cigarette.  I'm not even going to try and understand.

our break the fast feast from yesterday.  Also, I forgot to mention in the email, I won't be at the Hermitage this week, because I get to go to Novgorod tomorrow!  Woot!  Anyway love you bye!