Hello,
Just a fantastic week. One of my favorites on the mission. So, there is a number we count, at least in my mission, called 'other lessons.' Basically it means, every time on the street you teach somebody a principle. the mission standard per week is 15. me and my comp decided, well, we have no real investigators, and not too many contacts, so we better go find them. we made a goal to get about 10 other lessons a day, so 70 in one week. this would about double both of our best weeks. but, we have good contacting in our area, we are both capable, hard working missionaries, we figured we'd give it a shot.
Monday we didn't really have p-day, so we contacted a lot. which was good- we got 10 other lessons, some good contacts. Tuesday we only had 2 lessons, so we got 16 other lessons, and a few more contacts. Wednesday we had literally zero lessons. we got 30 other lessons. 9 contacts. so yeah. by the end of the week, we had taught 71 other lessons, and received 26 contacts. which is a very, very good week. it was pretty cool, we both were really amazed at how much success we got. we are both kind of curious what we have been doing our whole missions. it was a good experience- we went out every day with a goal in mind, and kept a good attitude, and didn't take it too seriously, but worked long and hard. and it pays off. it was cool to see.
So I also accumulated some stats for the week, as far as contacting goes. So, here are some interesting results: an hour of contacting will get you about 3 other lessons. and out of those three lessons, one will give you contact information. i have been surprised at how good these stats are. we have been able to set much more realistic goals too. and hopefully make some improvement. but i thought it was interesting. we will see how many investigators come from contacts- maybe the 1/3 percentage will stay? that would be about 9 new investigators. that would be a dream.
So our lesson on Tuesday was with the Rusinovs, the family whose kids aren't baptized, because of the father. we had a lesson about strengthening our families by having family home evenings, and we said that we would help them by coming over on Monday nights, instead of Tuesdays. they said cool, so tonight we are going over and teaching the lesson. and bringing some brownies. hopefully they will at least see our good intentions, and that will help. the problem is, the parents never know when they are going to work, until the day of. so hopefully they are there. i really just want to talk to the father.
Thursday was a good day too. our district made up p-day, because we were forced to miss most of it on Monday. so we had a good district meeting, and then we played some basketball at the church. it was a party, just hanging out for a good 4 hours. then we went and ate dinner at this delicious pizza place. it was a good time.
Friday we had three lessons, first with Anatolie. we found him at this park doing 'exercises'. he is so old, but he swings his arms around, and calls it exercising. it was pretty fun to watch. he is just amazing. such a funny guy. he always closes prayers in the name of Jesus, and the holy ghost. then we met with Alexander, the way fun crazy guy. he just got fired from work, so he was less fun, but it was still a good time. after that i started a split with elder shoen my zone leader. we had a way fun lesson with this family, a girl and her mom. the girl recently served a mission in Dnepropetrovsk, and they are both just way nice and fun. they complimented my Russian, and then said that i was a really fun missionary. so that was a good ego boost. that night, as is required on splits, my and shoen played risk until 12:30 and then talked for a while. don't worry, we got up on time.
Saturday was too bad, our lessons cancelled, so me and shoen just contacted around while looking for former investigators. we found one, who actually let us in! but as is usually the case, there is a reason he was dropped. he was kind of crazy. well, quite crazy. though he came to church the next day. but he was really weird.
Then for dinner we were making some tacos, and the meat smelled really bad. it smelled quite rotten, a bit like manure. we figured we would try to cook out the smell, but it didn't really work. they tasted pretty weird too. just kidding, we threw it away and got some chicken from the store. it was such a bad smell. oh! i had my first kvas, this drink that Ukrainians love. it was actually not bad. i got the best kind, from a company. i think it can be really bad, but the stuff i had was very...drinkable.
Then we ended the split and went home. Sunday was pretty normal. i had to translate for a senior couple for the second hour, but it was pretty fun. it is really hard, you miss a lot, and the lady talked really fast. but it was pretty simple, so not too bad. it kept me awake, at least. then we had our normal appointments, we focused on sharing the gospel with others. hopefully we can get some referrals one day.
When we got home we made a chocolate peanut butter smoothie with Oreo chunks! yeah, we have a blender. its legit. it was so dang tasty i cant even describe it. but anyways, this was a great week. one of those weeks where you look back, and can be pretty sure that you couldn't have done much better. it is obviously exactly what the area needs right now. so this week we are going to keep focusing on finding people to teach, and try to start teaching some of the people we have found. I'm glad to be here at this time, hopefully i will be able to see some of the fruits by the end of my stay. hopefully i stay for a couple more transfers. i love life! blue skies, warm air, these white fuzzy things are floating around everywhere. it is like summer snow almost. it is hard to breath in without getting them in your mouth, actually. kind of annoying. but better than real snow.
questions: we are trying to exercise, but it doesn't always happen. the goal is to run every other day (there is a very bad track near our house) but it doesn't often happen. i don't know my weight, but i think I'm getting fat. I don't speak or teach lessons in church, our branch is pretty strong. well it is now. it recently combined with another branch, so together, they are a strong branch. My comp and I are still doing awesome. working our tails off, and having a lot of fun. it's a great transfer.
well i love you all! thanks for all the letters and everything! i hope you are loving life as much as i am! i hope my emails prove enough that i know the church is true. doesn't me being on a mission prove that? oh well i guess i have to say it out loud as well. read your scriptures kids!
love elder Brimley
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