:)

:)!!!!!!

it was WUUUUUUUNDERBAAAAAAAAAAAAR to talk with you all!!!! that was the fastest 30-40 minutes of my life ;) i can't wait till we can talk for realsies, without some ukrainian girl next to me telling me to be quiet the whole time ;) sorry if you couldn't tell i was really excited, i had to keep it down a little bit :( the internet club was surprisingly full :D whatever :b

well we pretty much covered it in our talk yesterday, so i don't know what else to write :l i guess i'll tell you about the week :)

we didn't get owned too bad this week, for the most part:) on wednesday we helped out festos, one of our brother investigators, buy some groceries. he is a really good guy, so sincere :D he was so appreciative, he loves the church. it is just sad, he can't pay for school, and the church cant pay for his schooling. our branch president out of his own pocket paid for the groceries. he'll probably have to go home :( we'll see.

thursday, i told you, we had an interesting meeting. president bennett of the area presidency and presidency of the seventy came and OWNED us. which was bad timing. he replaced three things at once: our annual christmas party, zone conference, and the christmas feast. just bad timing. that night we were contacting for a couple of hours, and for whatever reason, we saw some awesome success. we got three great contacts, contacts that i think we will definitely be able to meet with. especially this one guy seemed super interested, and really knew his beliefs. when we asked him what he believed, he said, in the father, and the son, and the holy ghost. most people here just say, i think that god is one. which is just another way to say, i've never read the bible, and just listen to what other people have told me. but we had a really good conversation, and he is a legit guy. i've got, hieeay hopes, i've got, hieeay hopes.

we met with micheal again, the kind of crazy nigerian brother. he was less crazy this time, and we were a bit more assertive so that we could stay more on topic. it worked, but he really didn't like the idea that there is only one true church. apparently he knows of a lot of african "prophets" that perform miracles and baptise people. he himself has been baptised twice. he said he believes in the book of mormon, the restoration, every single thing we said, except that there is only one true church. we told him to read the book of mormon and pray about it, and he said he would. so, we'll see where this one goes. what we really need is a brother to come to lessons with us, i think he would be able to relate better with him.

on saturday afternoon we had brother's institute, which in the past has been not very successful. but we changed the time to earlier, and lots of people came! members, and investigators! a new guy named kevin came, with a member brother! and he was cool, he was making comments. institute is great, because a senior couple named the bailey's teach it. straight out of the book of mormon, its great. so we had a really good institute, and after that we got dogged by an investigator. but then, we had an awesome lesson with this super legit guy, named anatoli alekseyevich. he is an old guy who admits that he is interested, but seems kind of worried about something. we tracted into him last week, and called him and set up a lesson. we had a first lesson outside at night, it was really cold, but it was one of the best first lessons ever. he was super teachable, asked questions, actually listened, and i could tell it all just clicked with him. he still wants to know more, but he said he would read the book of mormon and pray, so its over for him. he's practically already baptised. well, he was really cool and nice at least. sometimes you have lessons with people that maybe won't go anywhere, but at least raise your spirits.

then there was CHRISTMAS!!!!! it was awesome. we opened presents in the morning (THANK YOU!!!! I love the book and i'm going to learn how to play the card games (Mary sent a Sponge Bob card game). and i'll wear the shirt and eat all the candy :b then we went to an hour of church, and had the first presidency fireside. it was great, a couple of brother investigators came to church.

stupid internet club. power went out, and we had to go to another one. oh well. well christmas morning i also made some bomb diggety cinnamon rolls, with very expensive cream cheese frosting. but it is completely worth every kopeck. delicioso. after church we went to our apartment and made a christmas feast! pork tacos, to be exact. we made some corn bread, mashed potatoes, pico de gayo, the works. it was a good meal. and fun to make. and a big huge mess. we are still suffering the consequenses.

i'll say that this was a much, much, much better christmas than last year's. but i would also say that next years christmas will be even better! and then in three years time, the whole family will be back together! woohoo!!

which reminds me. i think i've made the decision. i'm going to try to come home may 29thish. prepare my ways, make my paths straight. (Derek, and the missionaries that went out with him, have the choice of going home in May, or wait until July because of when transfers are. May would be a couple of weeks early, and July would be a month later than the two year mark for his mission)

i'm going to send some pictures now. i hope you all had merry christmas's! i did. just remember the meaning of the season. i love you all! i love the mission, i love my savior. goodbye!

love, elder brimley