hello all,
THANK YOU FOR THE AWESOME PACKAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is great. thank you for all the messages on the rice krispy treats. though i think i like the treats themselves a bit better. the pants fit well. the tape recorder is legit, i enjoyed listening to you guys'...ramblings. no, i wasn't really fooled by the San Fransisco trick, because i knew the timing was off. and Scott, the repetition of 'we are in San Fransisco' hindered your cause. but you almost got me. i enjoyed listening. you guys are ridiculous. you got me way trunky. Is that new Italian restaurant true, or was that a trick as well? man.
today we were playing basketball, and i was going up for a slam dunk and this elder throws another ball at me and it stuffed my pinky pretty bad. so it is a bit painful to type. its all swollen. i don't think it's broken though. well i guess i don't know.
so my week went pretty well. nothing too extremely new to report. there was this epidemic sort of thing, several elders got pretty darn sick for the week, but it is pretty much all over now. or so it seems. i was unaffected, needless to say. Igor is doing well, came to church yesterday and doing fine. we need to work on making him some member friends. we brought him over to the klooyev's (gosh that looks weird in English) on Monday, and that was good. but he still kind of clings to me pretty bad. every day he calls and asks if we can meet. it's sad, but the goal is to transition him to the branch, so we can't meet him that often. he is... quite attached to me. on Sunday he said to me: 'i dreamed you two times'. its just a bit too much. there just aren't that many people for him to befriend his age. the eventual goal is for him to get married, but that doesn't seem to be on his agenda. hopefully as he comes to church more it will become one.
we had a good first lesson with a new investigator, a young kid named Kiril we met contacting last transfer. he is a good kid, really smart, knows English very well, but also quite agnostic. it is hard to convince him of anything, but we had a good discussion about the existence of god, and why religion matters, and the restoration. he is cool, doesn't have much faith, but it seems like he wants to believe, but just can't for whatever reason.
the next eventful thing wasn't until Thursday. in the morning we had a fun meeting with a couple of inactives, a brother and sister, young, fun people. still seems like they believe everything, but life is just in the way. they have just lost desire to go to church, i guess. but we had a good discussion, more just a get to know you discussion than anything else, but it is good to get to know people, i guess. they love to talk, so it was good Russian practice for me as well. after that was a big event: my first interview with the new mission president, president campero. great man. we had a very good interview. he is a good humored, smart, lovely man. his wife is great too, she can speak a little bit of English, and she is just a saint. I'm very excited that he is my mission president.
me and elder young took elder efoshkin, elder Neil's companion, for a couple days, because Neil has been sick, so efoshkin wanted to get out of the house. i don't like threesomes. contacting is awkward, teaching is harder, and everything we do has to be unanimous, which, with efoshkin, is difficult. but it was OK. we had a new investigator lesson in a park, a middle aged woman named galya. she is cool, she is very friendly and wants to meet, and come to church, but says she takes care of some kid on Sundays. but that shouldn't be too hard of a challenge to overcome. I've got high hopes, as usual.
Saturday was a frustrating day, we tried to work both ours and efoshkin's area, and it was just a lot of traveling. plus the lessons we had were just frustrating. one was with this couple, the wife an inactive, the husband a bible-basher. Every time i tried to talk the dude would pat me on the arm like I'm five years old, but he really liked efoshkin because he is Russian. the book of Mormon is for Americans, he says, and the bible is for Russians. he is a frustrating dude.
Sunday was good. at church Igor followed me around the whole time. i am trying to leave him in places with members, in hopes that they become friends, but it just hasn't worked. i was like, 'i gotta go to the bathroom', and he is like, 'oh, that’s a good idea. I'm going too.' man. but that night president had a fireside about less actives, and it was legit. president's Russian is amazing. better than mine already. well maybe. he is very fluent, knows a lot of phrases, and puts it all together beautifully. i guess that’s what studying in Moscow for 5 years does for you. he is going to be amazing by the end of three years.
to answer a question, yes. I'm pretty sure most missionaries have largely the same experience in this mission. lots of frustration, a lot of the same stuff that i have had. its good, so we all know how to comfort each other. kind of like Jesus.
yeah, so that was the week. sounds like you guys are partying it up in San Fran. buy me some chocolate, i guess.
love you guys! the church is true. have a good time for me in the city of "love".
elder Brimley
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