Derek opens his mission call

Monday, November 1, 2010

November 1, 2010

Hello.

Firstly, thanks to the Pews for the awesome letter, always awesome to get a letter. and thanks to Alice Rogers from Australia, i didn't realize i had an international audience. and no, i never went to efy, but that's cool you are some sort of leader there. I'll try and write a letter back, but i don't have too much time.

This was an interesting week. not the happiest week of my life, not the funnest (most fun?) either. I still don't understand Russian, and i especially can't speak it. I still only have one really flaky investigator, and I'm still really really frustrated with everything. but i gained a hard testimony this week that really hard work is a soothing pain killer. I was with Richardson until Friday morning, and we just worked. every night we just laid there and just had no energy to do anything. we talked to so many people, tracted so much, we filled the days to the brim. and we met some really legit, awesome people. like the first day, we met this guy with cows. did i tell you about him? Well we went to him later, brought him some brownies. Then the day after that we found him in this field, just kind of watching these cows. (we asked him, they aren't his cows. they are some policeman's cows, and they don't milk, and they aren't for meat. they are just cows.) anyways, we had a legit first lesson with him, and he said we could come back. it was really cold just sitting in some field, plus it was just really cold in general. probably the coldest day here so far. he was just an awesome guy.

So Monday was cool, we went book shopping, as Richardson is soon leaving. he got some good ones, the classics, you know. we were sitting waiting for a bus with the books, and these old guys come up and ask if that is Dostoevsky. why yes, it is. they really respect their authors here, so we talked about books a little, then why we were here, then that is a nice easy way into teaching the first lesson. so we did, well a short one, gave them a book of Mormon. i should carry classic books around i guess.

Tuesday for English we carved pumpkins! they don't really have good pumpkins here, but we made it work. there were like five students there, they really liked it. i think i sent a picture of them. it felt like home, i had the song "Five Little Pumpkins" stuck in my head the whole time.

Wednesday just blurred by, i don't remember what we did. one thing was this crazy old guy we talked to. well he wasn't really crazy, but he kind of was. he was just funny to listen to. he really liked us and told us we could come back. he just got off on tangents and asked how to spell my name. i told him, and he took out a colored pencil and wrote it on his tree.

Thursday was our last day together, Richardson and I. We worked during the day, things mostly didn't work out. we were a little bummed by the end, but we had a few hours left to do something. We decided to tract, so we pulled out the map and Richardson saw a street and instantly knew that it was the right street. So we set off. we started knocking on doors, most people didn't answer, and the ones that did weren't interested. It didn't feel right, so we skipped ahead a few houses. we got to this one, and knocked on it. a guy walks out and we start talking about the restoration, and he seems legitimately interested. we give him a book of Mormon, he asks all the right questions, we answer them, he says we can come back and talk some more. Afterward we both just knew, that was the guy we were supposed to talk to on that street. it is cool following the spirit. it really does lead to miracles.

Friday morning we picked up our companions, and went home. prince said he was tired from his vacation in Bulgaria (he said it was the best three days of his mission, which i think is a little pathetic), so we stayed inside for a while, he took a nap. Saturday I had a good plan to go see some contacts, try to meet with a former investigator, and have a couple member lessons (I'm trying to compromise). I was ready to go at eleven, waiting at the door, and prince tells me he feels a little dizzy and he is going to lay down for a bit. he then takes a SEVEN HOUR NAP. we didn't leave the apartment on Saturday.

Sunday was...well... for the third hour it was combined men and women, with the four of us teaching. each of us had a little part to give, so yeah. i gave my part. i didn't have much time to prepare, like thirty minutes maybe, and I didn't have a dictionary with me, so it definitely wasn't perfect, but of course it wasn't going to be perfect. Lena did come up to me and say ti maladyets (it was a good job), so it was at least panyatna. (understandable)

after church I wanted to get to work, find some new investigators, or at least some people to talk to. instead prince took off his pants and took another nap. I guess its good, I've had lots of time to study Russian. just, I can't study for that long in a row, I get bored and zone out. I feel so unproductive. apparently this happens "every couple of weeks"- where he doesn't feel good enough to work, I guess. I've been trying really hard to maybe get him excited, help him be better, talk to him about things I want to do, but nothing. I don't know. like, he told me that he "never wants to tract or contact" this transfer, just have meetings with members. and I said I don't ever want to have a meeting with members unless we have to, as it says in the white handbook and preach my gospel. but I said, we should compromise and do some of both. unfortunately, we have done neither so far. he is dead, he is killing me. anyways, enough about that, because I'm not a complainer.

No, I haven't been sick. I feel very well actually. I haven't gotten gloves or a hat yet. annoyingly, Monday is like Ukrainians day off, so it is hard to buy stuff on p-days. Yes I have time to read all of your emails. I mean, there's only two of them. I'm a bit hungry right now, though I made myself a delicious breakfast this morning, fried potatoes, with a bunch of spicy stuff on them, and ketchup. and of course I enjoyed the candy, though unfortunately it is all gone now.

I can't help but feel I've left something out. I left my little outline back at the apartment, stupid me.

why didn't any of the siblings write me? They have been doing pretty good for the past few weeks.

Anyways, thanks for all the love and support, as always. I know the spirit is real and leads us to right. So follow it.

love, elderek brimley. (it's been a while)

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