Hey, everybody! how are y'all doing? I had a great week. we got dogged a lot. does that make sense? it means a lot of lessons fell through. so that wasn't the great part. it has been extremely hot and humid. that wasn't the great part either. we found a really delicious french bakery with awesome pastries five minutes from our apartment! that made up for all the dropped lessons. me and the comp are doing good, he is a good kid. very focused. the only thing he every wants to talk about is the work, which is a good thing. he's a funny guy. I'd send a picture, but i can't really on this computer, unfortunately. just trust me- he looks like Zac Efron.
so remember when i told you about my finger getting jammed really bad, like a month ago? well after a month, it still hurt, so i figured i should get it checked out. on Tuesday i went to the hospital and got an x-ray. Ukrainian hospitals are sketchy, and it took forever. but eventually i got it taken (it cost 15 grivn, less than 2 dollars, in all). the picture looked normal to me, so i figured i was being a baby, but i gave it to the doctor who took it, glanced at it for a second, and said, "классно! сломался." "cool! its broken." so, I'm doing some crazy Ukrainian treatment now that I'll talk about later. after the hospital we went and had district meeting with the zone leaders, which was cut short because of lessons. i went on a split with elder Winchester, who is a cool kid. we went around and talked to some less actives that he knows (he was born here in mariupol). we also had a park lesson with this couple that speaks English, which went OK. then we all went to mama bigoon's house and had a lesson/ chatted.
the next day the zone leaders just hung out with us, we went and got a famous sharma (like a burrito), the 'super lukes', which is about 3 times the size of a normal sharma, and the best one in the country. delicioso! then we went and showed them the beach. the zone leaders left, and we went to a lesson, which dogged us. then we went to another lesson, which also dogged us. but it was a good day.
so on to that crazy treatment I'm getting: Thursday morning i go back to the hospital, and give them a piece of paper that the doctor gave me, and i couldn't understand at all. this lady tells me that it is free if i live here, but i need to prove that i live here. I'm not yet registered to the area, but she said i can do it, but i need to bring registration soon. they take me into this room, and i was kind of assuming that they were going to break my pinky again, because i don't know what else you can do. i was a bit worried about that, so i ask the nurse, are you going to break my pinky? and she was like, don't worry, don't worry. just relax. i was like, i just don't understand, what are you going to do? and she was like, its going to be WARM. understand? WARM. she thought i was stupid. but it turned out, that was exactly what it was. they put my hand in this weird warm gel stuff for about twenty minutes, and just warmed up my hand. it was nice, i guess. then they take me to another room, and this lady puts a pillow on my lap, then a wet towel, then my hand, and another wet towel, and another pillow. some wires connected to another machine are on both sides of my hand, and she turns on the machine. then she said something i didn't understand, here is the direct translation: do you hear a light warm? i said i didn't understand, and she started yelling, do you HEAR? do you HEAR? слышишь?! and i was just like...yes. so i just sat there for about fifteen minutes, then she said i can leave. i have to do that whole process ten times. the next time i went, when she asked if i can hear a soft warm, i said no, so she turned it up, and i felt some electricity shooting into my hand, and i said yes. so... i don't know if it will do anything, but so far, nothing has changed. its free, so i guess it doesn't matter.
later on Thursday we had a lesson with an investigator and this member was there, and he wasn't very helpful. he interrupted a lot, and went on wild tangents, talked for like an hour straight. that was pretty frustrating. Friday we had a really good lesson though with another investigator, sasha. we talked about the apostasy, and went into it really thoroughly, with the scriptures. it just went really well, i feel like he got it, and this is a point of the message that a lot of people don't get here. he is a cool guy, he is coming to family night tonight, and hopefully he will start coming to church once he makes some friends. that's a good thing about this branch, they are willing to go out of their way and make friends with investigators. there are some very outgoing people here.
Saturday we had SPORTS NIGHT! that was the best thing ever. it was a small beginning, but a lot of people just couldn't come for this one, and said they really want to come to ones later. i think it will get a lot bigger. this one we had about 10 people there, and we played Frisbee. mostly members, but the other set of elders here got an investigator there, and she loved it, made friends with everybody, so it was super effective. we are going to pass out invitations, and try really hard to get lots of less actives, more actives, and investigators there, because it is a great way to get them all together in a low stress environment. it was a lot of fun, and the first time I've played real sports in about 9 months, so it was needed.
at church on Sunday president Campero came. oh yeah, i forgot to mention that i gave a talk. it wasn't too big of a deal, but it was my first here. it is a lot easier to write Russian, so it wasn't too difficult. it was good practice. i talked about missionary work, and how missionaries and members can work together. president Campero gave a legit presentation about the same subject for the second and third hours. all in Russian. he is such a great speaker. He is very inspiring, i love listening to him. great man, all the members love him too. that night we met with this member named Leili, she has breast cancer, but she is a very strong member. a really good testimony. after that we met with our neighbors, who are pretty much just rich nice people who like having us over as guests and chatting. they were cool, it was nice to meet them. they say they have an apartment that is going to be open soon, so we actually might look into moving into it, if it is cheaper.
sorry i don't really have time to answer your questions, my district is all done with their internet time, everyone is waiting on me, so i better go. we are going bowling, should be fun. thanks for all your letters! i promise i read them, even if i don't have time to reply. i love you all! have a great week! talk to you then.
love, Elder Brimley
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