Oct 25, 2010

privyet

things are well.

investigators. we had two. one of them dropped this week, and the other is an old babooshka that i want to drop. needless to say, i am trying hard to find some new people. it... its just hard. if i had my say, we would contact and tract until we found someone to teach, but I'm not allowed to do that. this week was good though, i pretty much am senior companion, because of common sense. i have been using the area book a lot, finding old investigators and trying to contact them, meet with them and stuff. the problem is, is that i don't speak Russian, so i can't set up lessons, or teach lessons for that matter. so all this stuff i want to do, i feel like I'm just making my companion do it all. i pulled out like 20 old progress records that i want to contact, and i feel like I'm just delegating a lot of work to my comp. but oh well, we have had a couple lessons with them, which is something i have rarely seen, lessons with non members. nothing came out of them, but i at least feel like I'm doing my best.

like, my numbers have gone down, but i feel much better about my routine, schedule, it feels more real, less like I'm just pulling good numbers out of the members. and my companion comes home and falls immediately to sleep because we work so hard.

I'm doing better generally, I feel. I talk to more people on the streets, try and add to lessons, being more obedient generally. its a good feeling, though I'm really really tired.

right now I'm on a split with elder Richardson. I feel like he is my companion, its weird. his and my comps are in Bulgaria, well, will be tomorrow. so that's cool, we get along well, work really hard together. and he speaks really good Russian. like, best in the mission Russian. which is good for me, hopefully i soak some in. we set one really specific goal for our time together, a really far out there goal, I'm really excited to see it fulfilled. we are working really hard!

how do Ukrainians feel about Americans... i don't really know, i don't understand enough to try and figure that out yet. depends on the person i guess. like this one guy we tried to talk to didn't, said we stole Alaska, we blankety blanked his country, and now we are blankety blanking Ukraine. but those who aren't drunk usually think America is cool. the longer i stay here, the more awesome America seems. with Richardson, we talk about food that he is going to eat in America a lot. he goes home in like three weeks. there is so much good food in America! it is an amazing place. I'm really hungry right now, that doesn't help.

we take public transportation everywhere we go. it is like 12 cents a ride, one grivin. and no, i still need to koopit shapka and some gloves, then i will be complete.

me and Richardson have met some really cool people contacting. like, i don't know them and cant really understand them, but with those people who listen to us, i can just feel it when they are a legit contact. this one older guy was walking with his seven cows across the street, we stopped and talked to him, he said we could come back. i don't know how to describe it, he was just so AWESOME. then there was this other lady who was cool, we asked her how she thought about god, she said "ochen xorowo." she was joking around and laughing with us, thought the restoration was a really interesting idea, said we could come back. i guess it is because most people aren't interested, so just a little interest is enough to excite us, but i don't know. they are awesome.

then the members here, i could go on forever about how awesome they are. they are saints. we visited this one little family, they are just so humble and nice. just... people aren't like that. so it is awesome to have a chat with them, just normal, friendly people. ahhhh, they are so cool. people are the most interesting thing in the world.

thanks for the letters. oh, answer this: what are these "silly bands" you keep mentioning? shto takoy? good to hear the family news, I'm sorry about grandma Brimley and Bradshaw! i had no idea about grandma Bradshaw. i will pray for both, i wish there was anything i could do. send my love, i guess.

what else to write... I'm out. I'm trying to keep my emails repetition free.

ladna. vi have a good week. I'm going to. i know the church is true, and that god blesses us for making goals and working to reach them. i know he loves us and answers on our prayers. i gain a testimony of the

love Derek Brimley