zdraaaaastvoooyteeeeyeee!

zdraaaaastvoooyteeeeyeee!

good week, good week. sounds like y'all had an eventful week. what with all the happenings and things. in response to some questions: it is going good. we haven't had our pizza yet, we are going out today! it will be delicioso. and i haven't paid for the train ride to Kiev or back, just for the passport, so hopefully i never do. if they ever try to get me to pay for it, i will probably bring up that none of it was even close to my fault. yeah, my zone leader felt bad, but it was too late. now i just have a second passport to sell on the black market. so it will all work out for the good.

like i said, good week: Monday night we had a lesson with jamal, which went as it usually did. he went off about how Ukraine stinks, how he wants to go back to his home country Georgia. talked about politics a lot. it is pretty good for my Russian, i always write down some good words. whenever we teach something, he just doubts, rejects it. like, we said, eventually everyone will know that Jesus is their savior, and will bow to him. i mean, he says he believes scripture, but he was like, no. there will always be people who won't bow. he is just a hard investigator, probably won't go anywhere. but he feeds us awesome, he has a family, and he lets us into his house for a lesson every week. and he is really a great guy, just lacks faith i guess.

Tuesday! Tuesdays are not my favorite days of the week. then they get gradually better until p-day, which blows every day out of the water. i can't remember a day i have ever enjoyed more, in my entire life. which is why Tuesday is not my favorite. so last Tuesday we had interviews with President Frye. pretty routine for me, how are you doing, hows the area, hows the companion, hows the language, keep up the good work, bye. always good to talk to president of course. we had a few member lessons set up, only one of which fell through. oh, we made some awesome borchsh. my companion makes special 'texan' borchsh, with beans and barbecue sauce, and peppers. man, it was tasty. not exactly borchsh, but one of the tastiest soups ever. and the best thing about borchsh is that it gets gradually better each day. so like day three borsch is the tastiest.

Wednesday was a really fun day. it was my companions 21'st birthday. so i got up and made some awesome bleencheekie. crepes, and we had peanut butter and nutella to put on them. best breakfast I've had in a long time. actually one of the only breakfasts I've had. so then we go to district meeting, which was really just a district party. we made homemade tacos together, and the sisters brought a cake they had made. they made it out of pretty much just a bunch of candy bars, snickers, with coconut, and somehow it was a cake. it was like as thick as brownies. dang it was good. we all had like one piece and couldn't eat any more. like that one Costco cake. aaahhhhh Costco cake

that day we also got into this 81 YEAR OLD babooshka's apartment. they contacted her last transfer, and we finally got in. she was definitely old, especially for Ukraine, but she seemed more there than most. she could walk around pretty normally, she talked to us normally. we had a good basic lesson about god, prayer, Jesus, basically just a simple lesson to wet her taste buds. she invited us back and told us she wanted to come to church. as we were leaving she asked us what we believed about visions, and we said that they are possible. she then told us that she believed that she had a vision in her sleep, and she had seen Christ. it was interesting, she said that she knew it was Christ, but he didn't look anything like any pictures she had ever seen, on the icons or anything. that was cool.

Thursday and Friday i don't remember what happened. there is some bad news about volodia, one of our investigators. we keep trying to have lessons with him, and his mother in law always answers the phone and says he isn't there. she like hates the man, always just puts him down, says he'll never quit drinking or smoking. so we haven't been able to meet with him in a few weeks, he doesn't have a cell phone. we've tried to go over a few times, and he is never there. i think it was Friday night we call them, and his wife answers and says that no, he isn't there. she tells us that he no longer lives there. apparently they kicked him out of the house, so he is now homeless and without a phone or anything to get a hold of him with. we told her to tell him we called and want to meet if she sees him. I feel bad for the guy, that's got to stink . its cold out.

Saturday... it was OK. it was snowing really, well, annoyingly. there have been a couple of times when there are these enormous snowflakes falling, really slowly, and there is no wind, and it is just awesome. Saturday there were really tiny, cold, wet snowflakes flying in a fast wind right into my eyes. and it wasn't cold enough, so it turned all the snow into really deep slush. and i don't really have boots, so it all just flows into my feetsies. that made the walk to church an adventure as well. i don't think the word adventure is the one i meant to use. i think i meant to say it stunk.

hey i really appreciate the fasts in my name. i can really see their effects: Sunday at church, this random like 20 year old dude showed up. in gospel principles, he was like making comments and asking good questions. we asked him if he knew someone in our church and he said no. we got his number and asked if we could come over and meet with him he was like 'obshatsya ya loobloo', which means 'I love to chat', but the real meaning doesn't really translate. he seems way legit, he said call me anytime, any day. he said he really liked church. so that was a miracle. funny how fasting does that.

this letter is probably getting to that point of a bit too long, so I'll end here. love you all! thanks for the emails. talk to you next week.

love, elder brimley