Derek opens his mission call

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Who doesn't love a taco?

Hello Americans,

OK, first: there is this legit lady in my ward who is super artistic, and makes hand drawn Russian stuff, like nesting dolls and eggs. if you want, i can order some cool stuff for you guys, just let me know. she said she is on Facebook, and there is a folder called 'my art'. her name is : Nadezhda Vydysh. so look her up, and if you want something, go ahead and let me know. she does pretty much anything you want. it isn't too pricey, either.

as for transfers, no surprises. i am staying, my companion is out. this next transfer should be a pretty exciting one. two more elders are coming down, so there will be six in Mariupol, there will be a zone conference, leadership training, general conference. Halloween, that should be fun too. I don't know who my companion will be, but i don't really care as much anymore. i mean, it matters, but most people are pretty similar, when it comes down to it.

yes, i remembered 9/11. i asked a few members if they knew what it is, and they said, of course, but no one really mentioned it yesterday. i didn't know what to do, really, in remembrance, but i think today I'm going to make some root beer. its pretty American. and no, i don't remember ever getting a card from your family, mom. maybe it will come.

so as for the week, we kind of got owned. we had a total of eight planned lessons, mostly with investigators, fall through on us. but it ended up ok. we had some good fun. Monday night, for family night, we went to one of the two families in the ward. some of the youth came as well. we had a good spiritual thought, a delicious meal, and we brought some brownies. which turned more into a cake, but they don't know the difference. then we hung out, played some games with the youth, it was a good night. i was talking politics/ economics with this guy about how bad the government is in Ukraine. pretty much, i don't know how they survive. its pretty corrupt here.

everything fell through on Tuesday except with a lesson with victor at night, an investigator. he is out of money (though he admitted to us that he had been smoking), and thus had zero food. so he kind of begged us for money. i went and bought him some groceries so that he wouldn't die. i felt good doing it, but...i don't think he is all that interested in anything except for getting money from the church. oh well.

the emptiness of Tuesday was made up for by the business of Wednesday. a good district meeting, then a good lesson with Sasha. we talked about desire, watched elder oaks talk about it, and then had a really good discussion. he is a great guy. progressing slowly, but progressing. then had a pretty bad investigator lesson with this lady who is only interested in English. we brought a member who doesn't understand English, to try and force her into Russian, but she wouldn't budge. she just isn't interested. but she pretends she is sometimes, which makes it hard to drop her. then we went and visited a member, with another member. which is good, because he was doing his home teaching, which he usually can't do, because he can't get his companion to go with him. it was good, her husband (not a member) was there, and took part.

taco Thursday was great. nothing worked out until youth night, but it was awesome. this dude named Igor, an investigator who has refused to meet with us for a while, came. i made taco's for like 15 people, it was actually a lot of fun, and everyone really loved them. who doesn't love a taco? I've gotten pretty good, i have to admit. it was a fun night. Mariupol is such a party.

Friday everything fell through except for a great lesson with Sasha. we met him with a member, mama bigoon, read through third nephi 11, and talked about it. he had some really good questions, which led to a great discussion. mama bigoon helped a lot. he seemed to really enjoy the lesson. he must have, because after 4 months of meeting with us, he finally came to church on Sunday! i was actually surprised. it was a huge step forward for him. hopefully we can get him to start coming regularly, that would be amazing.

Saturday everything fell through until sports night, which was, of course, fun. Igor came to that, and really enjoyed himself. he is a funny guy, pretty outgoing and a bit odd. so everyone likes him, pays attention to him. he enjoys the attention. i think that is a lot of the reason he also came to church. whatever it takes, i guess. after church, two lessons fell through, but then we had two member lessons, which went well. it was good to get to know some more of the branch.

so that was the week. transfers are on Thursday, so next week I'll have my new companion, whoever it is. i just realized that it is almost half-way through September. i have one question- what happened to august? time on a mission, man. quite the melancholy relationship, I'll tell you.

good to hear from you all, I'm glad to hear you like your job, mom. i hope you can start teaching older kids too. you are much too capable. but i guess you have to start somewhere. well everyone, i love you. have a great week!

love, elderek

No comments:

Post a Comment