tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9368145687972875532024-03-13T14:09:18.078-07:00Elder Derek BrimleyBrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.comBlogger90125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-8227045556156175252012-02-06T20:57:00.000-08:002012-02-06T20:58:55.882-08:00Ukraine is experiencing a severe cold snaphey, everybody! i just realized that i missed groundhogs day! aaaahhh!!! darn.<br /><br />here are some answers to questions: i am doing well. we have found a few people, mostly more brothers. it is not quite alexeevka, but there are a lot of foreign students here as well. so we got several of their contacts, hopefully they will meet. but we shall see. it is pretty here, though usually it is too cold to take pictures. i will try to take some more this week, and send them next time. we both really want to go see the russian border. i'm not sure where it is, but we will figure it out. and the branch runs...but it struggles. <br /><br />the mission office just sent us an email regarding the cold. here is the first line:<br />European news sources are saying Ukraine is hardest hit by this recent arctic weather and has the highest mortality worldwide, of over 122 people to date who have died from the cold.<br /><br />so our investigator galina, who was on date, unfortunately slipped on the ice and fell, and she got pretty hurt, from what it sounds like. it was pretty terrible. she is getting some sort of surgery today, maybe. either way, it is a long process of healing. so it will be at least 3 weeks before she can meet with us or come to church. it was very bad news. so she could use your prayers.<br /><br />we had several meetings this week with investigators. it kind of seems that none of them are going anywhere. it is sad, because they are all really cool people with a lot of potential, but for one reason or another, are really slowly progressing. like this girl nina, she knows it is all true, totally believes everything, but her parents are competely against the church. her mom even said that she will kill herself if she gets baptized. and it has been like this for about 2 years. and then there is a new investigator, nicolai, who thinks the book of mormon is true, joseph smith is a prophet, and the church is true. but he thinks all churches are true if they are of god. and no matter how we explain it, he just can't get it. i've had a hundred investigators like him.<br /><br />our apartment is pretty cold. but it is my best apartment so far. it even has a piano! and a guitar, but i don't play the guitar. but it is still legit. this week the zone leaders came, and showed us around the area a little bit. they both served here earlier. we were walking around, and there was this place that was kind of like a wind tunnel effect, and we had to walk against it for like 10 minutes. it was the coldest my face has ever been. we were all crying. it was so cold. i can't describe how cold it was. it was unhealthy. <br /><br />things are well, not much new. i'm happy and taking my vitamin d daily. still not seeing much sun. they say it should warm up a little bit in another week or so. i don't know by how much, but any little bit helps. i'm pretty tired.<br /><br />in other news, i am about 20 pages away from the end of the old testament. so that is really good news.<br /><br />i love you guys. you are ze best! thanks for all the letters and other things. <br /><br />love, elder brimley<br /><br />(Below is a letter from the mission office to the parents of the missionaries)<br /><br />Dear Parents,<br />All missionaries here are safe and warm. Their health seems to be good; President has provided nutritional supplements and we are not hearing of respiratory illnesses. It is true Ukraine is experiencing a severe cold snap and there have been many deaths related to the cold weather as you have probably seen in the news. We are very concerned here for the safety of every missionary during this “at risk” time. Besides the typical safety net precautions such as staying in companionships, always having a working cell phone on their person and coming in on time, we have stressed the following to each missionary:<br />1. NEVER create supplemental heat in your apartment with any gas appliance or open flame.<br /><br />2. Always plan ahead so you do not miss bus schedules etc.<br /><br />3. Every time you leave the apartment, even if you think it will be for a moment, dress warmly.<br /><br />4. You are encouraged to discuss additional heating needs if your apartment is still cold after the supplemental electric oil filled heaters are not adequate.<br /><br />5. Wear proper thermals, scarves, gloves and hear gear.<br /><br />6. Gas detectors are in each apartment and should be checked regularly in addition to once a transfer checks by the mission.<br /><br />This note is meant to communicate our concerns and actions and not meant to alarm you. Most of the deaths are in the missions to the north of us and are homeless persons or those who got too drunk and fell down in the snow late at night. <br />Thank you for your son or daughter’s service and preparation to serve this mission. <br />We do love and appreciate them.<br />Ukraine Donetsk Mission<br />062-381-1977BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-57491556762251298952012-01-30T15:39:00.000-08:002012-01-30T15:40:26.976-08:00Lugansk is such a great place. It is a beautiful place.Hello from my new area (Lugansk)!!!!! <br /><br />If i'm not mistaken, Brad (Derek's cousin) served here (yes he did). I don't know if he reads this, but maybe he would like to pass a message or something along to somebody here. if they are still around, that could be cool. I literally thought that I had gone to the best area of the mission, Alexeevka, so anything next would be a step down. I was wrong. this is just as good. it is a satellite city about 5 hours north-east of donetsk. right on the border of russia. most people here consider themselves russians. It is one of two cities in our mission with a magical restaurant called 'blinok', a delicious crepe restaurant. man its good! my companion and I are white washing in, which means we both are new here. my companion is one transfer older than me, and going home in two transfers, so I will be his last companion. so out of all possible combinations of areas and companions, I have the very best of the very best. I literally couldn't possibly ask for better. I will probably die here after killing my companion. which sounds wonderful. I can't describe how lucky I am. luckiest person in the world. we are loving life. and eating a lot of blinok.<br /><br />saying goodbye to the brothers was sad. they are all pretty legit. saying goodbye to Festus and alfred was pretty sad, you never know what is going to happen to investigators, especially those from Africa. but actually, I got a call yesterday from Elder Hales, and they put alfred on date, so they could have 2 baptisms this transfer. in my area right now we have a cool lady on date to be baptized on february 18th, and she was at church yesterday! she is a middle aged woman with friends in the church, so it could definitely happen. and she has a daughter who is an investigator, as well. so good things are happening here. the branch is pretty weak. about 30 people come, there are probably about 3 solid priesthood holders, it is a lot like ol' Mariupol. growing, slowly.<br /><br />(Warning: Derek describes a crazy dream he had. This didn't really happen to him. And by the way he really does love Elder Mendoza.)<br />so I had a crazy dream to share with you. I had this dream thursday night. so it was me, and a few other missionaries, the only one I remember being was Elder Mendoza. we were in this crazy place, like an underground sewer place, but it was a sort of filthy sewer kingdom/ castle thing. its weird. there was the whole shebang there- a king, queen, princes, jesters, everything. well, Mendoza decided that we were going to start a revolution, so we started a little battle with them. it went on for a while, we were just killing each other. I was just killing everything in sight. just mercilessly. during the battle I wandered outside of the underground sewer castle and started killing people with another missionary, elder Nielsen. he kicked this little kid in the face, and it died. It was at about that moment when we both realized: this wasn't just an underground sewer kingdom. it was hell. we were in hell. and we realized that Mendoza was the devil. satan. we realized that we had been fighting for satan unbeknownst to us. we ran back to the castle, but it was too late. there was Mendoza, sitting on his throne, fire all around him. everyone was in chains. so i run up to him, to try to kill him, but there was an invisible force field around him, so i got knocked back. the dream ended with Mendoza laughing, and it was a pretty messed up dream. <br /><br />i dont remember dreams that often, so that was pretty exciting. the next day we met a member of the branch named lance. lance. he is from canada. he is something of a legend in our mission. we heard that he was a dream interpreter, so we asked him about my dream. he interpreted it, and it was madness- he went off for a while about rape in liberia. he's one of those guys in the mission. crazy. but funny.<br /><br />lugansk is such a great place. it is a beautiful place. i'm in the center of the city and it is just wonderful. it is also really cold. really, really cold. and everyone keeps telling us that it is going to get colder. our apartment is really cold too. but blinok cafe is nice and warm. seriously, our first night here was the coldest i've been on my mission. which probably means its the coldest i've been in my life. but don't worry. i will SURVIVE.<br /><br />We met the branch on sunday, they are all pretty great people. a lot of old ladies, a handful of men, and several young women. pretty much the same as everywhere. strong-faithed individuals, but just don't quite know how to function as a branch yet. they will learn. it will just take a few more years.<br /><br />so I'm very happy to be here. I should be finishing my mission here, if I have anything to do with it. I pray I do. great place, great companion, just perfect. couldn't ask for better. oh, by the way, my companion's name is Elder Pulsipher. he is from Colorado, at least that is where is family lives right now. he is Lizzie Fotheringham's cousin, which is funny. he is going to BYU this summer. we are getting along great.<br /><br />ok, I love you guys. the gospel is true, the church is true, and the book of mormon is true.<br /><br />love, elder BrimleyBrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-78644291058366247882012-01-24T07:52:00.001-08:002012-01-24T07:52:26.477-08:00I'm going to be leaving xarkovHello my dear family and friends and aquaintances!!!!!!!!!! and if any enemies read this, hello to you too!!!!!!!!!<br /><br />new jersey spanish speaking!!!!!! ive never heard of that town. i barely know anything about the whole state! oh that’s so great. may 16. poo. at least you don't have to wait so long. well that’s legit. just a few more months. for both of us! woo hoo!<br /><br />so all in all, my week was pretty eventless, except for one huge surprise: i got a transfer call. training is supposed to be for 2, and its only been one. so.... i don't really know what is up. i am pretty sad that i'm leaving alekseevka, but i guess i'll just have faith in the power of revelation, and do what i'm told. but lets pray its good. i'm going to be leaving xarkov on thursday, so before then i'm going to want to get some souvenirs. this is the best, cheapest place in the mission to get them. i think we will be going on either tuesday or wednesday morning. so.... if there were some money on my personal card, i wouldn't be angry. thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!<br /><br />so tuesday morning rolls around and lo and behold- my companion is as sick as a dog. he hasn't been sleeping, and he just has felt like garbage, so we figured the best thing to do is not go outside in the freezing cold and make it worse. we still did some work each day, but we were forced to take it easy, for his sake. but don't worry, we worked as much as we could. it was just one of those weeks... don't worry, we bought some sleeping pills, and he is feeling a lot better now. <br /><br />we had a funny lesson with this crazy less active lady. she just kind of talks. for every second you are there, she is talking. and it is all madness. she spends a lot of time in a hospital, and she was telling us about when she was leaving the hospital, someone asked her how she was going to live. she said "a hospital, it's a hospital. home, it is home. and that's that." she said this crazy 8 minute long prayer, where she blessed us with exactly what God had blessed her with: "one. a good member. two. a love for the people. three. a good voice, just in case they sing. and four. love for the people." and as always, she made sure to warn us before we left, to protect our legs! "for, if we will not protect our legs, then we will not be able to walk". she probably doesn't sound as crazy as she is in person. but she is. i promise.<br /><br />luckily, on sunday, we had two investigators there! festos came, and alfred, our new investigator came too. they both came 1 1/2 hours late, but oh well. they are both doing good. alfred we had a lesson with after church, and he is doing great. he is a way humble guy. he was really excited to learn about the plan of salvation. he loved the new things he learned, especially about how he chose to come here. he said he never knew that God had given him the choice to come to earth, and he had chosen. he really liked that. and the three kingdoms thing, he liked that as well. <br /><br />last night contacting, we met an american! he was from new york city. it was crazy to hear his queens accent, and talk to him for a bit. yesterday we got two cool contacts: one from pakistan, the other from jordan, both english speakers. i'm going to miss this area. best area in the mission. <br /><br />ok. thanks for everything. i love you guys. and i love the church! i know it's all true. i'm getting close to finishing the old testament, and i know that even it is true now. aaahhh i love it all. you guys are the best.<br /><br />love, <br />elder brimleyBrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-9016496392153148342012-01-16T21:05:00.000-08:002012-01-16T21:06:28.502-08:00So i kind of called him out for wearing the weapon that killed Christhello from ukraine!!! <br /><br />how are you all? unfortunately not too much to write about, really. we got some snow, finally! it sort of snows every day, and then melts the next day, and then snows, and then melts, and its been that for two or three weeks. which just makes for a big muddy mess. but right now its about -5, and there is snow on the ground. so lets pray it stays this time. i'm tired of having such muddy shoes all the time. <br /><br />as for Festos, i feel terrible. there is just nothing we can do. the church can't help him, and individuals can't either. our branch president called a bunch of people and said that no one can help him. he himself bought him groceries for a second time, but it doesn't look good for the poor guy. the problem is that he doesn't have any money. and he can't work here, so he can't get any money. and so any money we give him will only last so long, and eventually he will have to leave the country. its sad. i felt terrible telling him yesterday. there just isn't anything we can do. and i have no idea. that is really sad. so i don't really think we can baptize him, unless this is all magically fixed. <br /><br />my companion was only in donetsk for one day, and he is apparantly going to have to go back every 45 days, because his visa is messed up. that will be really annoying for him if he has to do that his whole mission. once a transfer trip to donetsk and back. but its not too big of a deal, i guess.<br /><br />We had an interesting week. on tuesday we had two set up meetings with new investigators, neither of them worked out. we even had members who were ready to be on the lessons with us. on wednesday we didn't have any lessons. on thursday we had another new investigator lesson that didn't work out. on friday we had two lessons set up with new investigators, neither of them worked out. again, both of those lessons we had members with us. saturday we had two lessons set up with new investigators, the first one dogged us, and the second one, when we tried to go into his hostel, it was quarantined, and he wouldn't answer his phone. so seven in a row. oh well. sunday was great, we had a new investigator lesson with a brother named alfred. he is great, way humble, nice, easy to understand. from kenya. way sincere. that made it all worth it. and later that night we had a good lesson with our recent convert anya. she is doing great. <br /><br />so yeah...got a little owned this week. but usually this area is the bomb. this area is still as good as i thought it would be. we have been contacting a lot recently, and keep filling up papers of contacts received. like this one drunk guy in the morning. when i realized he was drunk, i thought about just ending the conversation, and walking away. but i gave him a bit of a chance. he was complaining to us that we don't wear crosses, and saying we weren't christians. i figured i could, and kind of had to be, bold. so i kind of called him out for wearing the weapon that killed Christ. i tried to explain it nicely. usually a drunk wouldn't really listen, but he was actually surprised, and listened. he said that he had never thought about it, and that we had "touched his heart". he was amazed, gave us his number and address. we called, and it was the wrong number, and we stopped by, and it was the wrong address, but still. it was still fun. <br /><br />the new schedule is nice. it gets us out, and walking around, which wakes me up better for the rest of the day. it is a bit harder to schedule, especially in advance, but i like the change. it splits things up better. <br /><br />anyways, i'm doing great. i have been taking my vitamin D, and i think it is working. at least, i don't feel like i did last winter...though that was a lot colder, in very different circumstances. i'm doing my best not to die, in any and all meanings of the word. i love the work, i love my area, i love the mission. and i love you guys!<br /><br /><br />have a great week. <br /><br />love, derekBrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-48675370176651523322012-01-09T22:13:00.000-08:002012-01-09T22:14:09.230-08:00Pray for Festoszdrastvooytye everyone!!!!!! merry christmas again!!! russian christmas is on the seventh. this country is pretty awesome, because i get to celebrate every holiday twice. the 25th is real christmas, and then there is second christmas. the 1st is new years, but then there is 'old new years' on the 14th. because they changed their calendar, and the old new years used to be the 14th. so they figure they can just celebrate every holiday again 14 days later, and they can be justified in taking more time off work. i plan to apply this in my life.<br /><br />i'm doing good. we had a fun week. my poor companion just keeps getting owned. he has to get his visa renewed every 45 days, in donetsk. they found this out on monday, and it was pretty urgent, so we shipped him and one other elder on a night train the next day. so he had a three day trip tuesday, wednesday, and thursday. luckily, in our district, we have a three-some, and so i got to serve with haizen for those three days. it was fun. tuesday was haizens birthday, and luckily we had found a restaraunt called "texas". it was a steakhouse. haizen is a texan, so it was just natural. the steak was good, but the ribs were the first ribs i have had in a year and a half. they were incredible. i want to go again. it was so darn tootin good. giddy up, yall! <br /><br />we also had a fun christmas party on the 4th. the branch put on a little nativity with the primary kids, it was fun to watch. little ukranian kids are really funny. yesterday at church, they asked us to come and give a little spiritual thought to the primary kids, so we went in. they are so funny. we were supposed to talk about agency, so i asked them if they knew what freedom of choice was. no one said anything. i asked, do you know what freedom is? and one kid was like, "yeah! i know! freedom very good!" little kids are so funny sometimes. <br /><br />thursday was a great day. me and haizen had a lesson with festos, who has been doing really well. well we had a good lesson about the gospel of christ, and at the end of the lesson we put him on date!!! that is number 2 for me and haizen. and we are 100 % for people who we put on date and eventually get baptised. just saying. well he said he needs to know more, before he abandons his catholic faith, but accepted the 4th of february as a goal to be baptised. he is such a legit guy! my one worry, the one complication is that he is having some pretty serious financial issues. the branch can't really help him out, but we are going to try and gather up enough money from individual church members to help him pay his rent this month. i sure hope everything works out. africans who live here seem to get owned a lot. that would be way hard to try to live somewhere that you didn't understand the language. and they don't have a senior companion either.<br /><br />anyways, just pray for festos, he is a really cool guy. i really hope everything works out for him. i just feel like there isn't much i can do. we had an interesting zone conference on friday. actually i really like what we talked about. the biggest thing is that we got a new schedule for our days. i've been getting kind of bored of our same old schedule every day for my whole mission. it should be a really nice change. so basically, we are supposed to leave our apartment at 7 am and go out contacting for about an hour and a half. and then we come back in, exercise, eat, and do studies. then we go out and work, and then come back in and basically, it just breaks up the day more, so there aren't as many really long times of contacting. it breaks everything up a lot better, and we tried it out on saturday. i liked it. it is something different, at least. <br /><br />did i mention last week about all the muslims we've been associating with? well it has continued. on saturday night we had another lesson with a muslim named roma. once again, he wasn't as much interested in listening to our message as he was in telling us about his religion. muslims are pretty assertive. after listening to him for about an hour, we tried to teach the book of mormon to him, but he admitted that he doesn't think it is possible to be true. we told him to at least read it, and he said he would, but that no matter what, it can't be true. so, we will see what happens with our good friend roma.<br /><br />sunday was uneventful, except for during english gospel principles with the brothers, we discussed what color God is. that was an interesting conversation. <br /><br />another cool thing from zone conference: we can work fund vitamin D! :D so we went and got some, it should help with the whole no sun thing. speaking of the weather, it has been super warm here, around 40. no snow, just lots of mud everywhere, and gray skies all the time. its kind of lame, i want snow this year! it is really, really unusual. hopefully this week...<br /><br />in other news....i think that is about it. good week. good week. i love you guys! i love the mission, it is such a good time. scott, you are in for the best experience there is. <br /><br />have the best week!<br /><br />love, elder brimleyBrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-10356478457818332152012-01-03T06:50:00.000-08:002012-01-03T06:51:05.775-08:00Who else can go up to a random drunk guy and start talking to him about jesus?yo yo yo!!! <br /><br />happy new years!!!! i can't believe the year is already over. looking back, this was the fastest year of my life. i spent january first to december 31st in ukraine. my black year is over. five more months?! crazy stuff. <br /><br />so i left my planner at some other elder's apartment, which i usually use to remember what i did this week. so...i'll do my best. this was a great week. we had a lot of time to contact, which is pretty effective in my area. we have been working a lot with muslims, random i know. we just keep running in to them. we had a lesson in a cafe with a couple of them, even. they have some interesting beliefs. they don't all agree about the whole jesus thing. at least they believe he is a prophet, i guess. they are very firm in their beliefs, though. and to change their religion is really hard, and even dangerous. they are really nice, and like to talk at least. its just random, this week we have talked with probably 50 muslims. sometimes they are a little intense.<br /><br />mostly no one could meet because... new years. it is their biggest holiday and they party hard. we are not even allowed out of our apartments after four o'clock on new years eve, and then six o'clock on new years. <br /><br />i'm sorry, the guy in charge of this club is playing music really loud and it is really distracting. i have asked him twice to turn it down, and he said no. its hard to think.<br /><br />so on new years we did a split, so i went to the other elders (arrington and haizen). it was a fun night, we played a really long game of risk, ate A LOT of junk, and me and haizen talked about what we want to do for the next year. made lots of resolutions. it was a good night. ukranians love fireworks, lets say that. <br /><br />the next morning was church, which was only an hour long. and it started two hours late, so people would actually come. surprisingly, they did. it was good, we had an investigator there. <br /><br />new years has forced me to think a lot about going home. i have been doing a lot of that, unfortunately. i'm pretty proud, though, before this month i hadn't really thought about it at all. the mission has just become life. i can't really remember what i used to do, and trying to imagine what i'm going to do is hard. life is a lot more complicated out of the mission. which is awesome, i've had so much time to completely focus on the work, on the gospel, on myself. its been the best thing in the world for me. but thinking about it, it will be nice to get out of that missionary schedule: wake up, study, go contacting, eat dinner, have lessons or contact some more. i just need to take the good, and get rid of the unnecessary. but i'm glad i still have lots of time left. i'm not ready to go home yet. i really like being a missionary. it is a blast. who else can go up to a random drunk guy and start talking to him about jesus? it is a pretty unique experience.<br /><br />ok i'm out of things to say. sorry this is a really short letter. i love you guys! have a good week.<br /><br />love, elder brimleyBrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-44188534909674412382012-01-03T06:49:00.001-08:002012-01-03T06:50:23.522-08:00:):)!!!!!! <br /><br />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 <br /><br />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 :)<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!!<br /><br />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)<br /><br />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!<br /><br />love, elder brimleyBrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-68468688431195646222011-12-19T12:59:00.001-08:002011-12-19T12:59:40.845-08:00Carry the corpse downstairsприветствую! как же туха?<br /><br />merry holidays everyone! i congratulate you with christmas!<br /><br />we have been decorating our apartment. lets just say, we bought a christmas tree. a real one! they are pretty cheap here. we got it for less than ten bucks. in our apartment were already some lights and other decorations too. and thanks to my PACKAGES!!!!!!! i put up the merry christmas sign.<br /><br />THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGES!!!!!!! i am so excited for everything! they are so good. i think they got a little bit....ukrained...but hopefully everything important is still there. i'll send a picture. i love the pictures and letters!! that’s probably my favorite part. and the beef jerky. and mexican spices. mmmmmm. also, a big thank you to everyone who sent me christmas cards! thank you the pews! thank you the stauffers! i love getting letters. <br /><br />we had a good week. one of the more interesting days of my mission was thursday. there we were, sitting innocently in the morning. suddenly our branch president calls us and asks us for some help. so we go over to this member's house, and it turns out that his mom has died (no one was too surprised, she was like 95 years old). I hope this doesn't sound like i'm taking death lightly. so the help that was needed was for us to go up four stories, and carry the corpse downstairs. one of their weird traditions says that family members aren't allowed to do anything with the dead body. so first of all, the stench was aweful. she was laying there on a bed in their apartment. we picked up the four corners of the sheet she was laying on and started walking. ukrainian stairwells, if i haven't told you this before, are not very spacious. just imagine trying to be respectful of the dead while carrying her down stairs in bedsheets. just outside the door was the coffin, where we laid her. we sang a few hymns, and they nailed the coffin shut. then they shoved in in the back of a car, me and my comp got in with it, and we drove to the cemetary. once we got there, we waited a bit for some more people to come. about ten people were there. we just kind of tried to stay out of the way. some workers came and took the box and everyone followed. they put it in the ground. they threw some dirt on as i watched from a distance. they said a couple of words, and we walked away. <br /><br />ok so i just talked to you on skype, which took a lot of time away from writing. i'll be brief. tuesday was a really good day. we got two new brother investigators! one named philip, the other festos. both are way legit, festos says he already knows that the book of mormon is true and that our church is the true church. they are a spiritual race, i tell you what.<br /><br />unfortuanately hales got sick for his first time in ukraine (aww) on friday, so we didn't get much done. but it was my 18 month mark!! so i burned a shirt and tie. <br /><br />saturday was a day of business. i signed all the contracts and paid all the money for a new apartment in alexeevka. it was interesting...luckily it wasn't too complicated. i just signed all the papers, and now we own the apartment. <br /><br />yeah. i'm now out of things to write. it was great to talk with you. i can't wait for sunday. I love you!!!!<br /><br />love, elder derek brimleyBrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-29554722137551883012011-12-12T07:28:00.001-08:002011-12-12T07:28:35.320-08:00Trains New Missionary (Who Wrote the Book of Mormon)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">yo yo yo!</span><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">training is pretty fun. and funny sometimes. before i ruthlessly make fun of him, i'll say that we really get along, so it's ok. he's a cool kid. i'm glad i get to serve with him. we were walking home the first night, and there was this huge puddle of water. i told him that we should probably walk around, but i guess it didn't look too deep to him, so he starts making his way through. it got really deep and he just started running, yelling "its ochen deep! ochen deep!" haha, it was like above his ankles. i tried to warn him. </div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">it just reminds me of being a greenie myself. that was a really long time ago, but i remember it pretty well. not understanding most anything, no one understanding anything i say, just being completely overwhelmed with it all. allow me to introduce him: his name is elder hales, no relation to the other elder hales. he is straight out of high school, which is really funny hearing all his high school stories. i feel like i grew up a lot while i was at byu, even if i wasn't mature at all. its just funny, hearing about high school drama again. i'm sooooo happy i'm not in high school anymore. its been like...almost 3 years since senior year. geez. he's from roosevelt, utah, which makes him my fourth utahn out of 12. i'm doing pretty good. he's cool, chill, and fun. i'm happy.</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">we had a couple of good brother lessons this week. one with this guy named stanley and his roomate, yesse (sounds like a guy in the army saying, yessir). he turned out to be a jehovah's witness! who'da thunk? well, they are cool, but aren't too... reliable. but oh well. yesse was new, so we preached the book of mormon. he seemed interested and said he would start reading and praying. legit! the other new brother we found is named micheal. he is...interesting. really funny. he was saying stuff like, "God gave me so many talents! i can sing. i can act. i can play football. in my country, i was a great player. people would watch me play football, and they would say, wow. micheal, you are a great player. so i must use these talents to increase my popularity. but this is not to feed my VANITY! i will use my popularity to preach the GOSPEL! think about it. if out there on the streets, lil' wayne began to preach the gospel, what would you do? you would go and listen. everyone would go and listen. and probably 1000 people would have a baptism." he started talking about how some people were "destined for hellfire", and that if we could see with our spiritual eyes, we would see "thousands of demons flying around" outside. he was cool, a bit crazy, but cool. just crazy enough.</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">that reminds me of the lesson we had with brat gorskee. he is one of the strongest members of the church here in ukraine. he used to be our branch president, and we met with him the first time on tuesday or something. he told us this story of the day after a surgery, he was laying down in the recovery. this was the first day in his 17 years in the church that he hadn't read the book of mormon. yeah, he's legit. but he said that he felt an evil spirit of darkness around him because he hadn't read. he said he could feel hundreds of demons flying around the room. then he put his arm to the square and cast them out, and they all left. he has a lot of stories like that, he is a spiritual giant. awesome guy.</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">a couple of nights ago we were having a lesson with a member, and hales told her that he wrote the book of mormon. i did my best not to laugh, but that was a good one. </div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">wait did i tell you that i got my scriptures back? oh my gosh it was a miracle. so if you remember, i lost my scriptures when i came into country. i left them in some airplane and figured they were gone for good. well when the new greenies came to donetsk, some guy in the airport asked them if they knew elder brimley. they said no, but took the number. i called it, and they have kept them for the past year and 4 months. and now i have them back! and they are so much better. i'm so happy.</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">we've been really busy, which is good. but busy with stuff other than straight up missionary work, so not as good. but i like not having too much free time.</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">here is my favorite quote of the week. it is from a brother named bede. i asked him to give me some information about another brother, and he went off: 'i don't know! i don't know. i cannot give an account of what i do not know!" that’s just how they talk. it's so funny. i love the brothers. </div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">well, i love you guys. have great weeks, respectively.</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">cordially yours,</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; font-size: 13px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">elder brimley</div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-4394349292339310392011-12-08T18:53:00.000-08:002011-12-08T18:54:12.034-08:00Anya gets baptized<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">So, surprise!, I'm back in donetsk. There has been a total of 1 (yes, one) transfer, during which i did </span><u style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">not </u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">see donetsk. why, you may ask, am in donetsk this time? that is an excellent question. but to build suspense, i'm going to first talk about the baptism. </span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">it went great! kind of. here, unlike most of the civilized world/ church, missionaries are in charge of the entire baptism. and this week we have had a lot to do. i mean, a lot. i'll get to the rest of it later. suffice it to say, we unfortunately couldn't focus 100 percent of our attention on preparation for the baptism. it didn't help that when we got to the church, they had moved the piano into a different room, and said we couldn't move it. so we set everything up in that room, until our branch president came and told us that we had to do it in another room. so we had to re set up really quickly. and then it turned out that the baptismal program had a lot of mistakes (a LOT of mistakes) because, i was in charge of it completely. and i'm human. unfortunately, our branch presidency doesn't understand that, and combined with a preconceived hatred to all missionaries, it made for a long scolding for me. in the end, she was baptised, and everything worked out. but it was stress, ful! elder fish baptised her, and i gave her the holy ghost yesterday. she is great!</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">so lets go back to... tuesday. tuesday night i called into the zl's, and they mention that elder mcCallson is going home the next day, a week early because of his arm. remember him? yeah, he's going to need surgery. anyways, i wanted to say goodbye, so i called the ap's (one of which is a former companion, haizen). i said my goodbyes to mccallson, and then haizen said he wanted to talk to me. first thing he says: how would you feel if i told you that you were being transferred on sunday? i said that i would honestly be pissed. sorry mom, i couldn't think of a better word. you can edit that one out. he said, well...you are. the new greenies finally got their visa's (they have been serving in america for a month) and you are going to train one of them, and your companion fish will train one of them in alexeevka. needless to say, i was furious. i didn't sleep well that night out of rage. i was not happy. </span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">the next day- oh! i forgot to mention something awesome. wednesday, we had the baptismal interview with anya. the branch presidency were pretty against the baptism, because she couldn't really come to church because of school. well, we asked them to talk to her about it, because i still felt that she could be baptised, and that she would remain active. i just knew. well wednesday she told us that she decided not to take the extra courses next semester, so after three weeks, she will be able to come to church every week! it was a miracle. after the interview, we made president talk with her, because, we wanted him to put his stamp of approval on the baptism. i of course didn't want to baptise her without his permission. they had a good talk. </span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">so that day i was on a split with mendoza. we were eating dinner that night, and i get a call from elder haizen again. we made a mistake, he said. fish is leaving, and you are staying. i thanked my lucky stars, and made sure that it wasn't because of something i said that made them change it. he said that that day, he, his companion, and president prayed one last time about the transfer, and all felt like the change had to be made. it was a miracle! poor fish, i don't envy his position. i couldn't really pretend to be excited for him, because he saw how (sorry) pissed i was about leaving. i think he is ok with it. </span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">another thing we had to do- apparently they want to put another couple of missionaries in the alexeevka branch (which i am against, by the way). so we had to go check out an apartment that they picked out. we met with the landlord, talked about the apartment, looked at it, talked about what else missionaries will need (there is only one bed and no washing machine). but overall, it was really nice. i told them we will take it, and let the office talk with them about paperwork. the next day, saturday (yeah, baptism day), they called me up and said that they reconsidered and decided not to give us the apartment. before i could ask why they hung up. so i called the office, and he said he would figure it out. i haven't heard about it since.</span><br /><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">so sunday after church we headed by bus to donetsk to pick up the greenies. it was a really long ride because the stupid bus stopped in every city, and waited forever. and they were playing this stupid sitcom that was like scrubs but not funny. a normally 5 hour ride turned into 7 1/2. boo. oh well. we got in, and slept over at some elders house. </span><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">so this morning we went to the church and had a little transfer meeting, got our greenies, and had a good little meeting. we are leaving in about thirty minutes to catch a train. that should be fun. so now i'm with...elder hales, from utah! only my fourth from utah. we haven't had a chance to talk too much, but i think he will be good. this is a for sure 2 transfer companion. took a while to have one of those. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">ok questions. we had a thanksgiving for the ward. in ukraine they have 'harvest day', which they just stole from us. i don't know the life expectancy, but i think it is probably around 65 or so. its rare you meet any older than that. there are older men, they are usually jerks and drunk though. not too many old man investigators. there are many more women than men. but that is pretty church wide. my companion is feeling well. it is pretty cold, it stays around zero. part of the city is decorated, yes. it should be really pretty when there is snow. i don't know about the packages, but i hope they come soon!!!!! thanks for them in advance!!!! you are the best. i will look for a nativity thing. that is a way good idea.<br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">we are kind of in a hurry. thanks for everything! i love you! wish me luck...</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">love</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">elder brimley</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "></div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-50454625712179687532011-11-28T21:16:00.000-08:002011-11-28T21:17:35.257-08:00And Most Importantly<span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">ok this was quite the week, so here we go. </span><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">first of all, monday night. we had a lesson with anya, it was good. i don't know if the other elders before us ever tried to put her on date for baptism, but it was super easy. we just asked her to pick a date, and she picked december 3rd. so, we are having a baptism this week! four o'clock. she is so ready. there was one problem though. she can't come to church, because she goes to school on sundays. we talked it over with her, we talked with president campero, and he said that we are allowed to baptise her. she finishes school in may, and after that she will come to church every week. she has a super good friend in the church, so that was one big comfort, that she wasn't just going to go inactive. we thought it over, and figured that it would be ok. she is also only 17, so we got her parents permission, thankfully. so on sunday, we told our branch presidency, and they were pretty worried that we were baptizing yet another inactive girl. which is understandable- it happens all the time. luckily, we had a lesson set up for after church, so we asked the branch president to talk with her. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">so she comes for the lesson, and gives us the great news- she isn't going to enroll in the next semester, so she can come to church every week (after this semester ends in three weeks)! plus, she is coming to church this sunday to receive the holy ghost. that was just a miracle. president miroshnichenko (branch president) talked with her, made sure she was ready, and then gave his approval as well. its so great!! i am so excited for her. she is such a cool girl. its cool seeing the divine hand work everything out. everybody pray so that nothing goes wrong. ved it's ukraine. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">i went on a split with elder stradling on tuesday. we had a couple of funny meetings. first with this lady named zoya. she is crazy. but a fun sort of crazy. she starts out almost every sentence with the words, "and most importantly!" and then goes on to say what is most important. and usually, its not that important. "...and most importantly, you need to protect your legs from the cold." but she is a good lady. she gave us a referral! she said she was going to contact her for us, and then give us the ok to contact her. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">oh man. thanksgiving was awesome. we had a feast at the branch on wednesday night, and then a missionary feast on thursday. it was so awesome. i haven't had real pumpkin pie in a long time. mashed potatoes, gravy, yams, everything. it was so incredible. i just can't get over it. i stuffed myself to the brim, naturally. oh my boy it was so good. i can't wait for next years thanksgiving. oh man! </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">unfortunately, elder fish got pretty sick on friday and saturday. he's doing better, but still not 100%. oh! on saturday there was a baptism in center xarkov, so we went to see it. the lady that got baptised was interesting. she is an old lady, with this HUGE braid of hair that goes to her thighs. and she requested the water to be super cold. poor elder thornburg. when she got in the water, she was like, so, three times, right? he said no, just once. what!? its always three times! then she wouldn't give him her hands, saying that she wasn't afraid, and then tried to dunk herself. he finally got her to be still, said the prayer, and did it. afterwards, she bore her testimony and said that 3 was God's favorite number, so she has now been baptised 3 times! she is a sweet lady though. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">after the baptism, i had my first lesson with a brother! it went great. he is a legit, smart, really cool guy from nigeria. speaks english very... understandably. but, of course, he actually recently moved into the other elder's area. so we passed him to them. he is a cool guy. i think he can go the whole way. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">i gave a talk on sunday, and i tried to use a whole bunch of idiomatic phrases that i've picked up, and the members ate it up. everybody thought it was so funny. heres my favorite: in russian, you can say, "there are few of us, but we are in sailor shirts", and it means, basically, we can do it even though our numbers are few. they loved that one. and yes, i bought a sailor shirt down in mariupol, just in case you were wondering. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">that was the week. i think it was a good week. this week should be pretty busy with the baptism stuff, but that’s how i like it. i think that is about all that i've got. i'm still loving life in aleksayvka. i'm happy and working hard. that’s good. i hope all is well there, it sounds like it is. i love you guys, and always pray for you. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">have a great week. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); ">love elder brimley</div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-88977100486688130672011-11-22T19:08:00.001-08:002011-11-22T19:08:41.724-08:00Broken Toe<div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">haw fah? sorry just brushing up on my pidgen.</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">my return date has been changed. my visa expires on july 7th, so i can't go home july 10th, so either i'm going to get my visa renewed again, or i'm coming home at the end of may-ish. i don't know which, i guess i'll just wait and see. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">that was quite the letter, mom. i don't know what to say. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">my shoes, shirts, suits.... one pair of shoes is owned. the other is fine, and i got a pair of boots for the winter, so i should be good on shoes until the end. my shirts are fine, i still have some in the package. i pretty much never wear long sleeve, i always just have short sleeve under other layers. my suits are both fine, i don't wear them too often. my camera is AWESOME. it is so....sleek. i'm satisfied. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">this was another interesting week. so on monday playing soccer i messed up my big right toe pretty bad by kicking (accidentally) someones foot. yeah, i was pretty sure it was broken. it was really painful. i was limping around for like three days. it got swollen pretty bad, and turned purple-ish. but i got an x-ray on tuesday, and they didn't think it was broken. so i guess i'm good. it only kind of hurts now. tuesday i decided to take it easy, so i let my comp go on some splits for the lessons we had set up and i sat at home the whole day. i still think its broken, and ukranian doctors are just stupid. oh well. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">we had a big meeting on wednesday that took up most of the day. and then the church was closed for cleaning (no one told us, and actually the branch president didn't even know about it). so we had to cancel our investigator lesson/ coordination meeting. so that day was shot.</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">nobody ever can meet until night time here, thanks to school and work. so thursday we didn't have anything until six, a good lesson with anya, our cool investigator who is really close to baptism. we committed her to choose a date for baptism by our next meeting. and our next meeting is tonight! so lets pray for her. after that we had a member lesson with the coolest. family. ever. they fed us, and are just the funnest, funniest, most legit members ever. it is an older couple, probably in their 40's or 50's, and they are just a blast. we played uno with some of their special rules, and it was just a great night. awesome, awesome people. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">stanislav, another investigator is doing well. the church had an open house on saturday, and he came, and really liked it. we also met with him on friday. he has a 3-d tv, and showed us how it works. it was really legit. and we had a good lesson about putting God first in our lives, before anything else. i think he got it, i hope. he is leaving for a few weeks, so we won't be able to meet for a while. but we can stay in touch through TEXTING. did i tell you we can now TEXT? it is awesome!!!! i've been texting the brothers like crazy, reminding them of everything. its so so so great.</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">we had a pancake waffle night on saturday night, which was unfortunate, because our investigator ben, from america, said he was coming, and then dogged us. but we still got waffles and pancakes. it was delicious. i havent had waffles in over a year. and they made blueberry waffles as well! tasty.</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">THANKSGIVING is this week!!!!! our branch is having a huge feast celebration on wednesday, and then all of the kharkov missionaries are getting together thursday afternoon for another huge feast. i'm going to get huge. other than that, i hope nothing intrudes our week, because we should have a successful one if everything goes smoothly, and people can meet. we have so much potential in this area, if we can just meet with people! ugh. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">well, i love you. i love the mission, i love the church, and i love life! i'm getting trunky thinking about my release date. but not too bad. did i tell you that a subway is opening up in my area sometime? i don't know when, but i hope i'm here for it. i'll go everyday. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">ok i'm blabbering. once again, i love y'all. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">goodbye!</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">elder brimlez</div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-44099096891237049682011-11-15T14:45:00.000-08:002011-11-15T14:46:32.051-08:00Derek Loves the African-Ukranians<div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; ">hello!!!!</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; "><span style="font-size: 13px; "><br /></span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; "><span style="font-size: 13px; ">i've been working on my jive. you just replace all the t's with d's. id's hader dan choo dink. ad ids relly had da undastand. plus they mix up the accents in words all the time. its so hard to understand! but its still really cool. i actually didn't meet any of the brothers until sunday, though we had 8 set up lessons with them. they don't exactly...show up to lessons. we have changed our game plan. we are going to just meet with member brothers, and tell them to invite friends. we figure member brothers will be a bit more reliable. hopefully. </span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; "><span style="font-size: 13px; "><br /></span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; ">we keep really busy in this area. if people would come to their appointments, we would be doing awesome. we would have had around 10 investigator lessons. it's hard, they are so awesome if you meet with them, but getting them to where you want them is crazy difficult. i feel kind of racist all the time, but... its just their culture. about 10 percent of the time, brothers will answer their phones. if you talk to them, they will 90 percent of the time set up a lesson with you (though i usually only understand 20 percent of what they say). and then probably 5 percent of the time, they won't show. but, from what i hear, if you meet with them, 75 percent of the time, they agree to be baptised on the first lesson. probably about 10 percent get baptised eventually. that’s a lot better than the .01 percent for the average ukrainian, i guess. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; ">you might be interested to know that elder mendoza is in my district. i don't know if i've mentioned this, but me and him get along awesome. i love mendoza, we are tight friends now. maybe i have mentioned that. we went on a split this last week and it was a blast. we caught a pigeon out of his 7 story window. don't worry, we let it go. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; ">on saturday we did some service at a zoo, it was fun. our zone all came and cleaned up and planted some trees. i just realized that we planted trees in november. it is winter. then our branch president called us and we went and helped him move out of his apartment. he is really wealthy, and had a lot of stuff. and lives on the fourth floor without an elevator. they had this huge sofa, and couldn't figure out how to get it through the door, so we ended up lowering it down from his balcony using ropes. it was scary, i was at the bottom, and this giant sofa was lowering on top of me. if it had broken off, i'd be dead. but thanks to the mercy of God, i live. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; ">i'm loving life. i love staying busy, and i'm always busy in this area. i don't like being rushed, and that also happens, but i love being busy. i hope i stay here a long time. pray for me. </div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; ">i love you guys. thanks for sending me letters and reading mine. i cant wait to talk to you in what, six weeks? woohoo! and it will be skype!!!! i get to see you guys. oh yeah, i hit my 2/3rds mark on a mission this last thursday. crazy, huh? it feels like i'm about to go home, that is so sad! i wish i still had 2 years ahead of me. the mission is a heartwrenching experience. man.</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; ">ok i got sidetracked. have a great week!</div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 14px; ">love, elder brimley</div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-37801031640733632322011-11-08T06:50:00.000-08:002011-11-08T06:51:18.102-08:00me and fish white-washed in<span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 13px; "><div>Dear family and friends,</div><div><br /></div><div>as waz of explanation, the kezboard is prettz messed up. the y and z are mixed up, but it isnt worth taking time to fix. so deal with it. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am in Alexeevka!!!!! it is a part of xarkov. and actuallz, it is known throughout the mission as the best area. like, the verz best. it is true, i testifz. i have a list of about 20 current investigators. the secret of success? black people. so simple. there are a lot of english speaking universities around this area, and it is reallz cheap. so africans come bz the hundreds. and i tell zou what. thez are all reallz humble, happz, and willing to listen. thez are super faithful. </div><div><br /></div><div>here are a couple of miracles that have happened in the past two dazs. i got a call from this guz, he was speaking english. he set up a lesson with us for the next daz. turns out, he is from pakistan, was baptised there, and had to escape from the muslims that were going to kill him for being christian. but he is a super strong member, such simple, but strong faith. he is kind of culture shocked (he said when he got off the plane and saw his breath, because it is cold, he got afraid because he thought it was smoke, and he never has smoked!) and doesn't speak a lick of english. but he is a great guz. </div><div><br /></div><div>then we were walking to district conference zesterdaz, and this black guz, henceforth known as a brother, comes up to us. he is kind of an investigator, but we didnät know that. we saz we are going to church, and he was like, oh, i cant come. i just had a waz late night, i need sleep. we talk a bit more, and he was like, zou know what, im coming. theres no reason to miss church. turns out, he is from pennszlvania. he is an awesome, huge black guz, and he reallz liked conference. this area, man. its just...</div><div><br /></div><div>there is a store like costco about a 20 minute walk from mz house. and thez are building a mall right next to that, with a SUBWAZ!!!!!!! but i will probablz be home bz the time it is open. anzwazs, i want to die here. i love it so much. </div><div><br /></div><div>i called a brother zesterdaz 3 times, he said he was coming 3 times, and then he didnät come, and wouldnt answer his phone. but if zou meet with them, thez will get baptised. there are like 10 member brothers in the branch. lots of translating to do, zes. </div><div><br /></div><div>zour prazers worked out. i was reallz sad to leave mariupol after onlz 2, three is more common. it was sad to saz goodbze to everzone, and the delicious sharmas. sasha was doing great, he said this- i like mormons. i love mormons. mazbe, one daz, i will be a mormon. then i said- mormons love zou too! and he said- zes, and i can feel it. i hope he gets baptised. not too much happened my last week in mariupol. but i really love that place.</div></span><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 13px; "><div><br /></div></span><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">i never got anything ordered anything from the art lady, she was kind of hard to work with. she only lived in mariupol two days of the week, and i only really ever saw her on sundays. but i can still get stuff ordered, it will just be more difficult. i might. for the christmas package.... oh you know me. i never know what to ask for. i'm sure you guys can think of good stuff. nothing that i will have to bring back, unless it is really cool. i don't need any more weight. thanks!!!! and yes, i'm feeling completely well. maybe still a bit fat from halloween. (speaking of returning to BYU) i don't know about anything related to housing. i'm know absolutely nothing. i can figure it out, online, if you need me to. oh no. you made me TRUNKY. most missionaries i've talked to agree. trunkiness is more just like a state of being on a mission. it never goes away. sometimes you can just ignore it better than other times. less than nine months....</span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span >oh yeah, my companion is named elder fish. yeah, he gets lots of remarks about that from ukranians. ooh, kak riba, da? he is a young elder, from las vegas. (2nd from las vegas.) he is a good kid, friendly, hard worker.</span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span ><br /></span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span >hey i just noticed the keyboard is back to normal. oorah!!!</span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span ><br /></span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span >oh i don't think i mentioned that me and fish white-washed in. it means we both are new to the area. </span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span ><br /></span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span >i love you all, and hope you have as good of weeks as i'm about to have. but i doubt it.</span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span ><br /></span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial, sans-serif; text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); font-size: 13px; "><span >love, elder brimley</span></div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-35600728319559033492011-10-31T11:06:00.001-07:002011-10-31T11:12:47.832-07:00Happy Halloween<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rk6jVt9ipEA/Tq7lDtkt4QI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/zJe1-3oVf1o/s1600/topOfWorld.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rk6jVt9ipEA/Tq7lDtkt4QI/AAAAAAAAAEQ/zJe1-3oVf1o/s200/topOfWorld.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669720832841998594" /></a><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0hzeYAUcHP0/Tq7j3YuhEuI/AAAAAAAAADI/IVDarseEo3Y/s200/badHaircut.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669719521575899874" /><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">We decided to go all out this time, so we bought a whole bunch of Roshen candy. there is a Roshen factory right next to my apartment, so it was easy. yeah, it smells up the whole neighborhood, its great.</div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DCZUbneJTKs/Tq7kKe33r4I/AAAAAAAAADg/QP0dA1JFsZc/s200/Maripol.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669719849643257730" /><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">which i won't be smelling anymore because i </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">got a TRANSFER CALL! yeah, pretty unexpectedly on friday morning. I'm out. i've only had two transfers here, three months. it</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">went quick. really quick. time is just flying. which is better than the alternative. i'm happy, excited for the new area, companion, district, but i easily could have done another one here. after only three months, i still feel like there is stuff i missed. but what ever, i'll go where i'm told. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kpOL-NBiXv8/Tq7kp5WaufI/AAAAAAAAAD4/yiQsSeiVCno/s200/picnic.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669720389326649842" /><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">as way of answering your questions, yes i think i should have enough money. i have technically ordered a couple of things from the artist, i just need to pay her. and she will have to send it to me somehow. but that is ok. as for a christmas package....where to start. beef jerky is always good. spices (especially taco seasonings, i eat that a lot. although i still have some left from last christmas.) as for clothes, i can get it easier and cheaper here, so no need. garments i can get for super super cheap, and free shipping, so no need. candy is always appreciated, of course. by the way, the mission got the halloween package, but because i live in mariupol, i don't have it yet. i'll get it on thursday. thanks so much!!!!!!!</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_mewXXqn0Kw/Tq7j_d9602I/AAAAAAAAADU/2ZVOMkZBGUQ/s200/legoMan.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669719660421632866" /><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">my week went...fast. it was good though. we had a good less</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">on with sasha on tuesday, we talked about the vision of the tree of life. he said he really liked it. he kept on adding onto the vision, making cool observations. like: once you get closer to the tree, it won't be so dark, because the light from the tree will shine through the darkness. he is such a great guy. i'm sad to say goodbye. hopefully one day he</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">will be baptised. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">here is a quote from a kid in the mission: "a dude from siberia told me this place was cold. a black dude from africa told me it was hot here. i dude from iraq told me that this place is dangerous." i'd like to add my piece. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">a woman who cannot leave her apartment, dogged us on a lesson. yeah. that happened this week. our babooshka who told us that we could come any time, who can barely walk without the help of a chair, wasn't home when we knocked. that was a low for the week i think.</div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cqjvgXugMgc/Tq7kKlUkElI/AAAAAAAAADs/iYH6DO4mZ_Y/s200/oldHome.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669719851374219858" /><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">we did a split with borget, a greenie in the other area. it was good, we walked alot. we went looking for less active members, and one of them was on the very edge of the city. and by the time we got there it was dark. and it turned into a maze. and we don't have a good map. and dang ukraine doesn't know how to number their buildings understandably. but eventually we found the right apartment, and we are fairly sure no one lives there anymore. dang day light savings makes it really dark by 5:30. thats not good for the work. it was a good night, we were very tired by the end. lots of walking.</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><br /></span><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FTsAQ9qshdU/Tq7k01BoKxI/AAAAAAAAAEE/V1ooqPYAKTQ/s200/sharma.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5669720577144269586" style="float: right; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px; " /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">so ever since i got a transfer call, we have been contacting/ exploring a lot. it has been fun, we got a lot of good pictures and saw some cool things i haven't seen yet. and i also am going to eat a sharma every day until i leave. they are just so dang good here. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">anyways, thats pretty much it. i'm doing good. i'll let you know next week where i end up. if i stay in my next area for 3 transfers, this will be my thangsgiving, christmas, new years, russian christmas, valentines day, presidents day, and birthday area. this is a big one. just everyone pray for me that i don't go back to donetsk. i've had enough of that city. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">i love you guys. thanks for all the letters. thanks for the package! i hope you enjoy the pictures. i'll try to send a few more before i leave. </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">love you! </div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">love, elder brimley</div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-48721347022143937222011-10-31T11:03:00.000-07:002011-10-31T11:05:14.069-07:00Saturday night was pretty scary<p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Hello my american friends!</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">I am happy about the week. more things worked out than normally, people just seemed to meet with us. thats always good. it doesn't sound like much, but 10 lessons in a week for this area isn't bad. we met with pretty much everyone that is possible and willing to meet with us. and got two new investigators! not bad at all for one week. and some other...not so cool stuff happened. but not to me, so thats good. but i'll talk about that later.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">tuesday, we finally met with igor, a guy that has been coming to institute, ward activities, even church once, for months. but he has never just met with us missionaries for some reason. he is kind of an interesting guy. the other day, us and some youth were at the church, and he was like, when is somebody going to tell me about joseph smith? i told him anytime, and he kind of played it off like he was joking. but later i called him and finally got him to have a meeting with us. it's a big step. so we meet and talk, get to know each other. we planned on teaching the first lesson, but we got kind of sidetracted because he admitted to us (i don't think it was a secret, i just didn't know) that he was an atheist. but only kind of an atheist. it is pretty obvious to me that he is doubting his unbelief. we ended up just talking about God for an hour, and by then it was too late to teach the restoration thoroughly. it was still good though. we peaked his interest. the problem is, he is leaving for two weeks tomorrow, and i don't know if i'm staying that long. hopefully, i guess.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">i don't know if i'm staying or going. its pretty much 50-50. i don't mind either way, i'll be happy. i'll find out on friday. i love mariupol, but i also would love to go back to xarkov.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">we had couple of days without much to do other than contact, but we actually saw some (not a lot, but some) success. this area is hard for contacting, i don't really know why. luckily, we had some stuff to break it up with: a youth fireside, district meeting, youth night. sasha and igor came to youth night, which was good. we also had like five member lessons, talked about "my zion", which is a way to get referrals, but it didn't work very well. we will keep trying with that.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">on friday we got another new investigator, a babooshka who lives in our...stairwell. подъезд. we met her randomly thanks to a mistake i made a week or two ago, and in the process, we asked her if we could come over sometime and talk to her. she was ecstatic, yes! please! i spend every day alone in my apartment come over please! so we did, we had a nice visit. she is pretty brainwashed by the orthodox church, but she is sweet. taught a nice first lesson. it will be good to meet her, give her some company, and hopefully we can help her come closer to God.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">saturday night was pretty scary. we were at the church, it was sasha's (the guy who is going on a mission soon) birthday, so we were having a cake with him. a couple of elders in my district were messing around, trying to do a backflip off the others back, and basically, not surprisingly, it ended up bad. one elder got a really bad cut on his forehead, and dislocated his shoulder. he had to get stitches in his forehead, and he is getting an mri tomorrow for his shoulder. pretty scary, there was a lot of blood. but it is all taken care of, kind of. it was scary for a while.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">anyways, i'm doing good. i'm happy right now. i'm preparing for the long winter, it is getting cold already. but i'm excited. i'm still loving the mission. i love all of you guys. thanks for all the letters and everything.</p><p style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">love elder brimley</p>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-75513505117610318292011-10-17T11:54:00.000-07:002011-10-17T11:55:34.756-07:00Derek recovers<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small; "><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Dear family and friends,</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">So the craziness has passed. It was fun while it lasted, but I'm happy to be healthy--hopefully I'm healthy. the doctor in Donetsk told me, "you are a healthy person now. you can go eat McDonalds. but you aren't healthy." so I'm taking some stuff to heal me. i feel completely OK, i don't have any symptoms anymore. Dr. mayberry, the Kiev doctor, says I'm going to be totally fine, and i trust him. </span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">OK lets answer mom's questions: yes, my comp of course missed me when i was gone. everybody did. actually, i've felt a lot of love from the branch, all the members were pretty worried about me. i didn't do much work with them in Donetsk, unfortunately. i brought up my proselytes, but in the hurry, i forgot my pants. plus, the doctor told me to take it easy. but i was willing! we did have one lesson, with an investigator girl. my comp stayed down here with another companionship. they did some work in our area, so it wasn't a complete waste. i still don't know who that man was who yelled at us, i never heard of him again. probably a state health worker. Sasha is doing good, i hope he gets baptized soon. we talk about it often.</span></span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">ok so until thursday i was in Donetsk. which was pretty annoying, because we were mostly just waiting around by the end. its ok though. they had to figure out what was wrong. so monday night we had family night with a family in petrovsky, in the zone leader's area. it was good, they fed us deliciously. tuesday we finally got the results of the tests i took on monday. we got them around threeish, translated them, and sent them to dr. mayberry. he said i was doing a lot better, most of the bad signs had gone down, though there was still some stuff not perfect. he was also worried about the blood in my urine, so he advised to get another urine test. we couldn't that day, it was too late, so we did it the next day. i gave it Wednesday morning, got the results that night, and talked to a doctor about it. he gave me some ideas for medicine, and i talked to dr. mayberry about them, and he said that it would be good, so i've been taking them. it was too late to go home on wednesday, so we left thursday morning. i was pretty happy to be back. it was way annoying to just sit around, even though i felt better already. but there was nothing to be done. it was a fun little trip, but i realized that i still really want to be doing missionary work. </span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">the rest of that day on Thursday i just got re-settled in, showered, dressed, ate, and that night we had a youth night sort of thing, and we actually had three investigators there: Sasha, Igor, and this dude named Victor. that was crazy to see him. victor is like a forty year old man i first met in donetsk at english. he came regularly, but then english got cancelled, so i never saw him again. suddenly he shows up to the building and i was just in shock. so he said he would like to meet with us personally, and we definitely will. that would be crazy if he turned into a good investigator. it was an ok night, so not very many people showed up, and nobody really knew what we were doing. but it was good. </span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">so i want to survive a little bit more comfortably this winter. thus, friday morning we went to the market and bought a sweet hat (also to hide my terrible haircut.) and some legit warm pants. i still need to get some gloves, a sweater, and some winter boots. i really should have had those last winter. we had a good district meeting later that day, followed by correlation meeting. after that we had planning and dinner. Saturday was a pretty empty day, so we had lots of time to contact. we luckily had a lesson with Sasha, the member, not investigator. we gave him a suit that i found up in the office in Donetsk. he is going on a mission in about a month, and i knew he needed another suit, and it is a pretty nice one. actually i think it is a really nice suit. i don't know anything about suits, but another elder told me that it was a really nice brand, probably about a 500$ suit. he was very appreciative. he is an awesome guy. we talked about how to prepare to go on a mission.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">president campero came down for church on sunday, it was really good. he was awesome, and i think it helped them understand that they need to support us. he pretty much told them that if they don't support us, then he will take elders out of the branch. after church we had interviews. it is always good to talk with president. he is such a humble man. so loving. just what this mission needed. a perfect pick. by the way, he said that we will be able to Skype at Christmas. that will be good. whoa. thats only like two months away. we have almost made it through the biggest gap. </span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">OK my time is running out. but thank you all for your support, your prayers, and your love. i love you guys and miss you a lot. i want you to know that i know the church is true. and i love this gospel. i've been reading a lot of talks recently, especially Neal a. Maxwell, and i just love the gospel. it is so fascinating. you can never know it all. anyways, you guys have a great week.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">love, elder Brimley</span></div></span>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-13310467632111055432011-10-13T15:28:00.000-07:002011-10-13T15:29:05.288-07:00Update on Derek's illness<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Dear Family and Friends,<br /><br /> Many of you expressed concern about Derek based on his last<br />email, so I thought I would give you an update.<br /><br />I actually talked to him today. I called the mission office to get an<br />update and he was there. He went to see a doctor this morning and was<br />put on antibiotics for an infection. He was also diagnosed with<br />Gilbert's syndrome by a Dr in Salt Lake and a Dr. serving as an area<br />Doctor over Ukraine. He describes this syndrome this way:"After<br />discussing his case with a Gastrointestinal Specialist in SLC, we feel<br />your son has Gilbert's syndrome. This is were there is a mild<br />deficiency in a liver enzyme that processes bilirubin. It is a benign<br />process that does not need treatment. It can be caused from such<br />things as viral illnesses and prolonged fasting. It can also run in<br />certain families. I asked that he have his liver tests repeated in a<br />month to establish a new baseline"<br /><br />Steve actually has this syndrome also. I think his appearance of<br />yellowish eyes and skin is the reason the hospitals and Doctors in<br />Ukraine would not help him because of the fear of Hepatitis. Derek<br />sounded good although it has been quite an ordeal for him. A couple<br />scary experiences with the Ukrainian health care system. We are hoping<br />that he makes a full recovery and can focus on being a missionary. He<br />is anxious to get back to Mariupol where he is serving.<br /><br />We really appreciated Dr./Elder Mayberry who helped Derek and<br />communicated with us and let us know what was happening with him. He<br />told me to tell everyone hello and thanks you for prayers on his<br />behalf. I also wanted to thank you for your concern and kindness. We<br />are so lucky to have so many people who care for us.<br /> love to all,<br /><span > Mary<br /></span> PS Derek was worried that I would freak out...I didn't do too bad.</span>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-39411373782028564952011-10-10T12:29:00.000-07:002011-10-10T12:30:33.633-07:00Derek Learns About Ukrainian Hospitals--the Hard Way<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Hello everyone,</span><div><span style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span >I am so happy that p-day has come and i'm talking to you guys finally! it has been one of</span><i style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "> those </i><span >weeks. Mom, i kind of envision that you are going to freak out, so i will start out like this: don't freak out. i'm totally good. don't worry. i look great. i got a haircut yesterday and it looks good (actually elder winchester kind of messed up and i've got a weird part on the side of my head, but it will go away.) on saturday i had a huge beard and it looked great. but i'll get to that later. </span><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br /></div><div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">there is a lot to write. i don't think this has anything to do with it, but we had a barbeque with Rustam, this awesome member, in celebration of his birthday, on p-day. it was way fun, and i ate a whole lot of meat. it was so tasty. mmmm it was good. we had a blast celebrating and everything. that night we had a good family night with mama bigoon and our investigator sasha. we talked about doing missionary work, and sasha actually seemed very interested, so that is awesome. then, we went to sleep. or at least, tried. for some reason, i just couldn't get to sleep at all. sometimes that happens, i figure, but it was a long night. when we woke up, i felt pretty exhausted, which was understandable. i also had some pain just going through my body, but it wasn't too bad. and we didn't have too much to do that day, so we just took it easy, went and helped mow the lawn of the church, made phone calls, and at night had one member lesson. i figured afterwards that i was going to have a great night sleep, because i was so exhausted. i had no appetite so i didn't really eat all day except one pancake my companion made, and i had to force it down. not because it was disgusting, it was rather tasty.</div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">yeah, i didn't sleep at all again tuesday night. the pain was getting worse throughout my body, and especially my legs. i had taken a lot of advil, but it didn't do too much, it seemed. i just moved around all night, and got up to go to the bathroom several times during the night. i "woke up" feeling a bit better, but, trying to study was impossible. i was so tired, and my mind couldn't focus with all the pain. it wasn't like, extreme pain, but it was enough. that morning we started a split with mccallison, who came to me, and by then i was worse. we had a lesson with a member, and then came home and made tacos. again, i didn't have much appetite, so i had one small taco and called it good. then we walked to a lesson at the church. by the time we got there i was really exhausted, and in pain. our investigator dogged us, but luckily mama bigoon was there. she freaked out about my sickness. my eyes were yellow again, and my fever had risen. we measured my temperature, and it was 38,75- about a 102. thats not good. she suspected hepetitis again, and called a taxi to take me home. to break my fever, she did this weird thing. she rubbed me down with vinegar. don't worry, only partly. she told mccallison to do the rest, which he did. i thought it was pretty weird. but actually it helped. maybe. anyways, i call some people, and they tell me to get some blood tests done.</div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">that night again, like usual, not much sleep. and lots of peeing, which was painful. i wake up feeling better, but i knew that it was a lie. ok so this is now thursday. mama bigoon comes and picks us up, because she is amazing like that, and we walk together to the blood place. she used to work at the hospital, so she hooked us up, took us to the good place, got us good service. here in this country before blood tests you aren't supposed to eat the whole day before, so i hadn't. and i hadn't in the past few days. and i was just weak in general. so giving blood was actually worrisome, given my inclination to pass out like a little baby. plus they are ruthless sticking in their needles here. she sticks me, and i feel the blood rush out of my head. i knew what was coming, but i fought it off until she was done taking the blood. after, i must've looked bad, they start waving at me, keeping me consious. i needed some energy, so they brought me some tea. i started drinking and then i realized, this probably isn't fruit tea. its probably green tea. but then i thought, marijuana is bad unless you have a medical reason. i needed that tea. dont judge me! i'm a sinner. dont worry i repented.</div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">so then we go home and i took a little nap. i woke up and felt a lot better. we had district meeting and because of my fallen, pathetic state we had it in our apartment. the zl's bangeter and winchester came down. we had a good district meeting, but throughout it i just felt worse and worse. it started with the shivers, and i knew what that meant. i got myself warm and it turned into a fever. i was in a lot of pain and really weak and just out of it. the zl's and mccallison stayed with me afterwards while the rest of the district went to another meeting at the branch. they gave me a priesthood blessing. while they were there, mama bigoon came over and checked me out. so my fever was 103. she called an ambulance. but here ambulances come into the apartment to take care of you, and then if necessary, take you away. this huge fat dude who smelled strongly of smoke. basically he checked me and admitted that he had no idea. he really wanted to take me to the hospital, because it is like a law. we told him no, i'm not going to a mariupol hospital. they fought for a while, and eventually, we won. but they gave me a big ol' shot right in the cheek. not very pleasant. i don't recommend it. i don't know what was in the shot, but it made me feel great! really just fantastic. so i called dr. mayberry, the main doctor in kiev. i told him my symptoms, and he said that he couldn't diagnose it, that it was serious, and he wanted a hospital to check me out. and that he didn't trust public hospitals in ukraine, so i would need to go to donetsk.</div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">luckily, the zl's were already down, so i just went up with them. i quickly packed my bags, called a taxi, and left. it was way expensive, 500 grivin. we went straight to this really nice hospital there, and talked with this cool doctor. he checked me out a bit, and told me that he thought it was hepetitis. unfortunately, according to some stupid law, a person with my symptoms aren't allowed to stay with them. so they told me to get a blood and urine test to see if it was. i already had a blood test, so i decided to just go to the zl's to stay the night. there i had another long, sleepless night. </div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">ok that was all thursday. friday was another really long day. i woke up feeling better. after we woke up we drove to the office, where the mission driver picked us up in the (brand new) mission car. he drove us to the main donetsk public hospital. we walk into the dark, cold, scary building and ask the lady where to go with a sick person. she looked at us like we were crazy, so we explained further. she said she had no idea and went to ask someone else. someone else came out and told us to come back when we get the blood results. so we go back to the office and wait for results. as we were waiting this dude strolls in, sweating, in a suit, with a suitcase, and starts asking, where is the sick kid? i say, right here. he starts yelling at me for not going to a hospital yesterday after calling the ambulance. i say, i went to a hospital, but he wasn't listening. he was mad. he kept yelling, and other people came into the room until it was a full enough room, everyone just yelling. eventually we calm him down, and he leaves. we still don't know who sent him, or how he found out where i was.</div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br /></div><div><span >then the results come. they aren't good. so the normal belirubin count in blood should be from 1.7- 20.5. mine was 54.9. a lot of other bad things. we run back to the hospital where five different people check me out, and give me a diagnosis i can't remember. they wanted to hospitalize me there. i didn't want that. it was a terrible hospital. dirty, a bunch of babooshky running around everywhere. i didn't want that at all. we were trying to give our doctor (mission doctor) in kiev all this information, so he could figure out what to do next, and they refused to give us the information. they got angry when we asked, offended, started yelling at us and told us to leave. we told that to the doctor, and he was like, yeah, you don't have to deal with that crap. thats why we hate public hospitals. get out of there. so we went to that other hospital and got a sonogram. its a boy! they actually didn't find much.</span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">so then i was talking to the doctor in kiev again, and he sounded like i was doing ok and that i was going to get better without hospitilization. he said i should get some more tests but i didn't need anything too serious. so that was a weird shift. so i went home and slept again. i went on saturday morning to get the blood test but they are closed on the weekend! good job, ukraine. so i spent sat/sun watching conference. it was awesome! i loved it. i don't have too much else to say about it, but it was great. oh and on saturday a little bit of blood came out with my pee. it wasn't too much, i'm ok. and so this morning we went and gave the blood, three vials full, and a urine test too. i'll get the results tomorrow. so....i'm feeling much better! don't worry about me. everyone has been great to me. i'm in good hands.</div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">MOM DON'T FREAK OUT. I LOVE YOU. you are so great. i never appreciated you guys like i do now, and i'm so excited to see you all again. but i don't want to come home yet, i'm so glad i have another 9 months to serve. i love the mission. but being sick (sorry mom) stinks! thanks for everything. you guys rock, i love you.</div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "><br /></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">love, elder brimley </div></div></span></div></span>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-60106805916190682412011-10-04T21:55:00.000-07:002011-10-04T21:57:01.784-07:00Giant steel factory was beautiful<div>Dear family and friends,<br /> <br />Hey, so first off, so i don't forget: if you want anything from this art lady, you need to let me know by next monday. it takes a while to get things finished, as you might imagine. i think we should get at least something. it is pretty cheap: about 40 $ for a big egg. everything is probably around 30-50$. let me know, please.</div> <div><br /></div> what up, yo? no, we didn't get to watch conference. and because of some decisions somewhere, i don't know when we are going to get to watch it. we get owned here. when did the provo tabernacle burn down? that is cool they are making a new temple there, that will help with the traffic. it will have to be pretty small, i guess. <div> <br /></div> <div>oh and by the way, i heard through the grape vine that there was a physics discovery recently. and that neutrinos have broken the speed of light. so if that is true, that is the biggest thing in physics in like a hundred years. not that i'm some huge physicist or anything, but... you know. just keep me updated. (note: I guess Ukraine hears about scientific breakthroughs before the rest of the world)<br /></div> <div><br /></div> <div>OK on to the week. i don't know if i want to go through day by day this week. it isn't worth it. lets go through the big stuff. on Tuesday we were supposed to have a new investigator lesson, but the dude called and told us that he was out of town. so we had no lessons that day. in all we only had four lessons this week. i don't know what happened, we got dogged several times, a few people were out of town, people just couldn't meet. worse than usual, i mean. but its OK. we had a good day Wednesday to make up for it. we had a good district meeting, and then we went out as a district and contacted, basically. none of us had anything else to do, so we went on some little splits. then, that night i started a split with garlock, a kid in the district. he is a fun, cool kid, so it was a good time. he is in a hard area, so we didn't do any teaching or anything. but it was still good. </div> <div><br /></div> <div>so Sasha is doing really well. we met with him twice this week, once at family night with some youth, and then just a lesson on Friday. the lesson was really good. we talked about the atonement and repentance. he ate it up, he said he really enjoyed the lesson and learned a lot. he likes specifics, so we went pretty deep into the repentance process. he is such a legit guy. he loves meeting, loves the people, and came to church for his second time yesterday! I'm way happy for him, he is making good, slow maybe, but good progress. i love that guy. he brings us goodies pretty much every lesson. he works as a candy salesmen, so he knows the good stuff. that isn't the only reason i love him, don't worry.</div> <div><br /></div> <div>Saturday was pretty fun, too. it was church wide service day! we went to the church, and raked up leaves for about 30 minutes. we didn't make too much of a difference, and i don't know why we raked up leaves before any of them even fell, but rake we did. and then we had a delicious little picnic. sports night got cancelled so we had nothing to do the rest of the day, unfortunately. but what ev's. </div> <div><br /></div> <div>I'm trying to think of other things that happened. a couple of hours ago, me and my comp did monthly shopping at a wonderful store called metro. we spent 1000 grivin, which is about 150 bucks. approximately, half of our combined monthly funds. i think it was wise. i hope it was. oh! me and my comp have been running in the mornings, and the other day we ran to this legit 14 story abandoned apartment complex. we climbed to the top, which turned out to be super legit. the view was amazing! one of the best views I've seen in this country. the sunrise in the background of the giant steel factory was beautiful. </div> <div><br /></div> <div>OK. well I'm out. thanks for everything! love you guys!</div> <div><br /></div> <div>love, elder brimley</div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-84526853702579309702011-09-26T19:30:00.000-07:002011-09-26T19:31:17.234-07:00Zone conferenceHELLO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <div><br /></div> <div>How's you all be? I be well. i be real well. we had one of the quickest weeks of my mission this week. very busy. which is, of course, good. my district is legit, we have been having a really good time together. and we are actually seeing good success recently. referrals and stuff, out of nowhere. miraculous! </div> <div><br /></div> <div>wow, that was a crazy article about that guy dying! (Mary sent an article about a Ukranian man who died in a food eating contest)-- not exactly the most surprising thing. when it said 'buscuit', it meant 'vereniki,' which is one of the most widely eaten foods. even among missionaries. they are sketchy sometimes, but very cheap and easy to make. and delicious. i like how the grand prize was a carton of sour cream. that is so Ukraine. they eat that stuff plain. poor guy. i wonder if eating too much killed him, or eating vereniki. </div> <div><br /></div> <div>i am feeling good, i haven't felt sick since last week. the coal pills worked like a charm. i think it was food poisoning. but I'm good now. my eyes aren't yellow anymore. and my pinkie is better, though i can still tell it was broken. i don't know if it will ever feel completely normal. our trip to Donetsk was legendary.</div> <div><br /></div> <div>so here is the week: Monday we had an enjoyable p-day, played some sports with a few members. we had a referral from <a href="http://lds.org/" target="_blank">lds.org</a>, crazy. so we went and gave him a book of Mormon, he seemed cool, and pretty interested. i called him a couple days ago and he said he hadn't started yet, but he will. then we played monopoly, which we found at the church. we didn't finish the game, but i was losing anyways. then we had a family night with some youth and one of our investigators, Igor. we talked about general conference. hopefully we will be able to see it. </div> <div><br /></div> <div>Tuesday we had district meeting, the zone leaders came down and took it over. after, we had a good meeting with our new branch mission leader, we talked about how we are going to work together better. it was a good step forward. we have never had any correlation. now we do! right after that we had a lesson with Sasha, it was really good. kind of. we talked about baptism, because he doesn't believe it is necessary. so we tried to help him understand, but he still doesn't. but we always have such great meetings, awesome conversations. the spirit is always there, and he knows it. he has admitted to us that he knows the church is true. he is a great guy. after that we and the zone leaders went and met with sister bigoon, whose family was there from America. it was cool to meet with all them. </div> <div><br /></div> Wednesday things started to speed up even quicker. we went as a district and did some service for a member on her home about an hour out of the city. we dug up her garden, and then she fed us some... vereniki actually. mmm delicioso. it was fun, and of course always good to do some service to those in need. after that we hurried home, because we had to catch a train. yeah, we took a train to Donetsk. it was a blast, and actually cheaper, so we saved the mission money. we played some card games and chatted on the way up. when we got there me and my companion stayed over at the ap's apartment.<br /><br />the next two days were zone conference. it is crazy that zone conference is a whole two day experience, but apparently that is how it is supposed to be. it was great to see everybody, old friends i haven't seen in months. i love zone conference, man. i wish we had them every transfer like it used to be. that made it easier. we talked a lot about the atonement and repentance, and a lot of ideas how to do our work better. i learned a lot from everyone, especially from president. that man is legit. just straight up legit. anyways, it was a great couple of days. a lot of fun, and really uplifting.<br /><br />Saturday was good too, we had another lesson with Sasha, talked about the holy ghost, and why it is so important. less active artyom came on the lesson with us, which is always good. artyom actually gave us a referral the other day, and we have a lesson set up with him now. which is pretty awesome. anyways, Sasha's lesson went well. I'm telling you, every lesson gets more spiritual. he can't deny that he feels the spirit. he just doesn't logically understand baptism, and asks really good questions. i want him to get baptized so bad, man. that was pretty much it for that day.<br /><br />church on Sunday wasn't too great. not very many people. 34. including 6 missionaries, 2 guests. lots of people were out of town randomly. i ended up having to teach the second hour, which was...interesting. i didn't know what i was doing, and there was only one person in the room that was Russian, so i felt stupid speaking Russian. but oh well. victor, who hasn't come in a long time, came. he is our investigator that we haven't met with in a while, cuz he wasn't progressing. but maybe he will come back now. we came home, and my companion made a legit pizza. man that was good. and that was that.<br /><br />pretty fun week. the weather has been great. nice and cool, though i fear that soon its going to freeze over. it might be a long winter. yes, the summer was hot and humid, and no, they don't have air conditioners. yeah, the south park episode was about Mormons. it is pretty famous, I'm going to have to watch it when i get home. life is going great, I'm loving the transfer. we are doing good work, we have some good goals to find some new people, and more effectively work. its nice being in a companionship with two old people. i kind of want to stay with older elders the rest of my mission. i wouldn't mind that.<br /><br />well, thanks for everything. i love you and i know the church is true.<br /><br />love, elder brimleyBrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-43701311883599914262011-09-19T17:10:00.000-07:002011-09-19T17:11:09.848-07:0010th Transfer<div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">мормонам привет! this old dude yelled that at us the other day, i thought it was pretty funny.<br /> <br />so i forgot my old planner, which is what i always use to remember the week. lets see how much i can remember without it. it just might be a more scatterbrained email than usual. lets start with the questions, shall we? my mission has gotten more expensive, yes. for example, 100 grams of pastry used to cost 1.50 grivin. now, it is up to 4.00 grivin. and public transport used to be all 1.50, and now it's at the least 2.50. its pretty crazy. they are trying to raise our msf, but they've been trying for like a year now. </span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">I live in a city of about half a million people. not too big, but... i mean, that's like a fourth of Utah. i don't know if president does a blog. probably not, maybe they will later. My new companion is legit, he is just one transfer younger than me, and knows Russian well. we are probably about on the same level. he studied Russian for a while in college, too. we are getting along great, I'm really happy. his name is elder scovil- my third companion from Utah. </span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">as for the eggs/ dolls, I'll try to get you some prices, just tell me the specifics and i will order it. for a big egg, its going to be around, i don't know 350 grivin, which is like 40 bucks. pricey, but i mean, its hand made.</span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">anyways, we had a good week. transfer week is always pretty exciting. Monday night we had a family night with mama bigoon, Tuesday night we had family night with the gushins (the branch president). lots of goodbye lessons with everybody, for Elder smith's sake. Wednesday morning i woke up at like 5:30, i felt awful. i was all clogged up, and started vomiting pretty intensely. yeah, i was pretty bad. but it was smiths last day, so after i emptied, we went to the church to have district meeting. i felt really weak and very qweazy, so i went and laid down on this carpeted area. i told the district to do the meeting without me. mama bigoon came in and took good care of me, she went and bought me some water and lemon and some coal pills. she used to be a nurse. yeah, coal pills. i took ten of them. apparently they suck in all the bad stuff and then you clear them out, and you get better faster. i just laid there for a while, i just felt sick for a long time. i tried to do a lesson with sasha later, but he told me to go lay down, because apparently i looked like death. smith had the lesson alone with him, haha. mama bigoon was sure i had hepatitis, because my eyes turned yellow, but i don't. i went home and went to sleep. </span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">woke up, and felt pretty much 100%. apparently i looked like death still, because the other elders came over in the morning, and said i looked...bad. yeah, but i felt good, so i went to the bus stop and saw the two elders leaving mariupol off. then went back home and just kinda sat around, studied and stuff. i felt better, but i didn't really trust myself to do much. later, the four new elders came down, and i got my new companion, scovil. i love my district, its a good group of kids. </span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">Friday we pretty much contacted around the city, showed the comp around mariupol, the sea, all the big places. no one could really meet, because we met with everyone pretty recently for smith to say goodbye. but its OK. Saturday we met with sasha again, with a member present. we had a good lesson- he said he watched that one south park episode, and realized that he doesn't care if our church is true, he knows it is good, makes him happy, gives him peace, he loves the people. he still doesn't want to be baptised, because he doesn't know why it is necessary, but he said he is open to talk about it, so our next lesson is going to be all about baptism, and hopefully we can get him on date. he is such a great guy, i would love to see him get baptized. also, Saturday was mariupol day! which meant there were a whole bunch of drunk people partying. we saw a cool parade going down the main street, and a bunch of interesting stuff. like these knife throwers, who weren't very good. and this ten year old kid with a beer can. and these guys were beepboxing, it was pretty legit. they were talented. i like beepbox. </span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">Sunday like usual, we had a good amount of people come, 43. two extra missionaries, and a family visiting came. after church we brought the sacrament to this lady. and gave her husband, a nonmember, who is very sick, a blessing. it was a good day.</span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">this week is going to be really fun. the zone leaders are coming down for a day or two, we are going to do some service, then we go up to Donetsk for zone conference for two days. busy, but i haven't seen many missionaries in a long time. it is necessary. </span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">anyways, I'm having a really good time, this is going to be a great transfer. we are going to get a lot done, we are going to work hard. good to hear from all of you! love you! the church is true! </span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">have a great week, love</span></div> <div><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;">Derek</span></div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-66631628706303811852011-09-13T20:23:00.000-07:002011-09-13T20:24:28.650-07:00Who doesn't love a taco?Hello Americans,<br /><br />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. <div> <br /></div><div>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. </div> <div><br /></div><div>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.</div> <div><br /></div><div>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.</div> <div><br /></div><div>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.</div> <div><br /></div><div>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.</div> <div><br /></div><div>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.</div> <div><br /></div><div>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. </div> <div><br /></div><div>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. </div> <div><br /></div><div>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. </div> <div><br /></div><div>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!</div> <div><br /></div><div>love, elderek</div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-35425107520593376262011-09-05T19:18:00.001-07:002011-09-05T19:18:29.996-07:00Derek is a good listenerFAMILY AND FRIENDS! <div><br /></div> <div>and to the ward: thanks for the awesome package! totally unexpected. i appreciated the notes and drawings and stuff. it made my day. you guys are awesome!</div> <div><br /></div> <div>yes i mailed the tie. hopefully it reaches America. i sent it probably about 2 weeks ago, so any day now you should expect it. no, i don't need more money. the mission is working on getting us more msf, and I've just been using personal to buy groceries once i run out. I'll probably have to buy some more winter clothes, but it will be much cheaper for me to just buy them here, so don't worry about that. some boots, some warmer pants, maybe another sweater or two. as far as what you can do for people in Ukraine... i don't know. they all need new apartments. pictures of Christ is a cool idea. they all have pictures of him, but usually they are the orthodox, icon form of Christ. which is pretty creepy. i will think about it and get back to you. </div> <div><br /></div> we had a good week here. kept pretty busy, had quite a few investigator lessons. saw actually some cool success. monday was legit last week. we made shashliki, shiskabobs with this crazy man named rustam, who loves to hang out with missionaries. pretty out of his mind, but he is a lot of fun. out in the woods we had a delicious meal, me and him played some one on one tackle football. that was interesting. it was one of the best p-days of my mission, now that i think about it. oh rustam... i don't know how to describe him. <div><br /></div> <div>so we had some phone problems. it wouldn't charge, and to make a long story short, we had to buy a new one. which of course means the cheapest one in the store, about 20 bucks. but it is a lot better than the old one. i feel cool having the nicest phone in the mission now. it is white and slick. later on Tuesday we gave nastya, the girl we baptized, a blessing, because she has been feeling sick, and school started on the first of Sept. and then we got dogged by a new investigator, who was way drunk when i called him. so, a pretty average day. we ended up looking for the dudes house, because he said to come over, because we had nothing else to do. we couldn't find it, but we found this place, which felt like the sketchiest place I've ever been. in the background was this enormous factory making a bunch of noise, it was dark, there were drunks wandering around, i felt like i was in one of those movies that one guy made. whats his name...the dude who made Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton).</div> <div><br /></div> <div>Wednesday was way good. the day started out, sister bigoon fed us breakfast, because she heard that we had run out of money (because our msf was put on late, so everyone starved for a day or two). that was one of the nicest things anyone has done for me in this country. she is a really great, loving lady. so caring. then we had a good district meeting, which was cut short, because we had a lesson with an investigator, Tanya. me and this kid named mironchenko were on a split, by the way. we had not a very good lesson, the members there both said they felt like she was using us for English practice, which is what I've thought for a while too. but she is reading the book of Mormon, so we keep meeting. right after that, we had a good meeting with investigator Sasha. he is so legit. speaks English really well. we convinced him to read out of the book of Mormon every day. because he says he only does when he wants to. so then we talked about desire a lot, and where that comes from. i think it helped. he promised to try to read every day. then we had a quick member lesson, and came back to the church for a new investigator lesson. she dogged us, which gave us time to eat dinner (bread!). then we had another investigator lesson at the church, we taught him the second lesson, very detailed. he is kind of difficult. he doesn't seem all that open, i don't really know why he meets with us. when we ask him, he just says, to learn. but that was a good day, three whole investigator lessons. craziness.</div> <div><br /></div> <div>Thursday was my YEAR IN COUNTRY MARK!!! that was pretty crazy. we did some service in the morning, brought some potatoes and onions from this market to a ladies house. they were way heavy. then went to McDonald's, and then went contacting for a long time. that night was a youth night, we had a kind of investigator there. he just won't meet with us because he is Jewish. but comes to lots of activities, so that is cool. </div> <div><br /></div> <div>Friday was surprisingly good. i wasn't excited for it when i woke up. we had a lesson with Tanya again, and we planned on dropping her. but she surprised us, she seemed a lot more into it, seemed to understand better, and thanked us for the lesson. we now have two planned lessons for this week with her. then we had a lesson with Alexander, an inactive guy. he is an alcoholic, and he told us that after our last lesson with him, he hasn't drunk at all. he said we filled him with the spirit and his "soul rejoices" when we are there. he is now trying to quit smoking, which is a lot harder. then we had a lesson with a member, and randomly her husband came in and joined in with the lesson. we had just a good spiritual thought, and other relatives came in and took part too. it is cool, because apparently all her family is usually super against it all, but this time they were nice. good day.</div> <div><br /></div> <div>Saturday we did service in the morning, then had a lesson with a cool less active who could be the best member in the church. then we had sports night, which was a big success. lots of people showed up, it was great. afterwards, this member who is going on a mission soon invited us over to his place for some food, so we went and had dinner at his place.</div> <div><br /></div> <div>Sunday was interesting. the branch is falling apart, kind of. but they are trying to do better. we went over to sister bigoons, who was sick, and gave her a blessing. i had a long time to talk with her while other people got there, and we had a good discussion. she is having a hard time right now because of the problems with the branch. later that night, she called and gave me one of the best compliments I've ever gotten. she thanked me for the conversation i had, said that out of all the people that have tried to help her, for some reason i was the one that really comforted her. she said i had a "gift," that i was a good listener, and that i made her feel a lot better. that was really nice to hear. I'm glad i could help. we also got a random phone call from a member who gave us a referral. that was nice too.</div> <div><br /></div> <div>well I'm out of time again. we had a really good week, it turns out. thanks everybody for all the emails. this Friday is transfer calls, we will see what happens! always pretty scary. i love you all, and miss you a bunch. sorry i don't have time to personally reply to all of you. maybe in a couple weeks i will. </div> <div><br /></div> <div>love, Elder Brimley</div>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-936814568797287553.post-51095657816196098212011-08-29T08:21:00.000-07:002011-08-29T08:22:05.501-07:00I got bit by a dog<span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px"><div><span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px">hey yo. </span></div> <div><span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br /></span></div><div><span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px">happy p-day. Ukraine is awesome. i love every minute of it i hope it never ends!!!!!! </span></div> <div><span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br /></span></div><div><span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px">on to questions: I like Mariupol a lot. I'm enjoying my time here. we don't have enough money, no. our monthly fund is 1200 grivin, which is about enough to buy food and transportation for two weeks. i run out of money every month and use personal funds for groceries. the office asked for more money, and got denied. in Mariupol, we have to buy water, because the sewer lines got mixed with the water ones, so we have to buy water every couple of days. they pay us back for that, but sometimes the office forgets. so sorry if i'm draining your money. it is getting a bit cooler, it stays around 30 degrees, so i'm enjoying it while it lasts. the winter is just around the corner. i haven't gotten very sick since I've been in country, somehow. Me and the comp are getting along well. </span></div> <div><span style="border-collapse:collapse;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px">
<br /></span></div><div>We had a fun week. Monday we had family night with sister bigoon, and a couple other members. we had a good discussion, and then played some game, i can't remember. nothing too terribly exciting, but there are some really cool members here.
<br /></div> <div>
<br /></div><div>Tuesday was good, we got to go see the new apartment where the new missionaries are going to live. it is really small, probably the smallest i've seen, but it is nice. and on the first floor, which is very nice. I wouldn't mind living there. after that we had a good lesson with this member family. We had a nice pleasant visit. they gave us some cookies. he started complaining about us never doing service for anybody, so i offered to do service, and we are going to do some this saturday for him. he seemed to appreciate it. we have been trying to get him in line with the whole missionary work thing, because he kind of hinders the work, so i think it was a big step forward. then we had an investigator lesson at the church, it was in english. it was frustrating. they just don't understand the idea of restoration. i have gone through the entire first lesson in detail, as simply but thoroughly as possible, and they just won't understand. we will keep trying. oh! i got bit by a dog that day, too! this random stray. it didn't bite hard enough to break skin, or even my pants, so that was good. but it still bit me. and then ran away barking like crazy. that was interesting.</div> <div>
<br /></div><div>Wednesday was independence day here! we had a big party at the church to celebrate. a cool patriotic, historical program, some games, a bunch of food. we got an investigator to come a little bit late, so it was good for him. it was a lot of fun, hanging out with members, getting to know them a little bit. that day we also had a lesson with this dude named Alexander, who looks like Lenin. He's got the beard and everything. he is inactive, but still has a strong testimony. he wants to become an active member again. so we will work with him, hopefully help him out. he was a fun, crazy man. </div> <div>
<br /></div><div>Thursday we didn't do too much. no one could meet at all. that night though, we had a youth night, where we made this yummy salad called vinagret, which has a bunch of nasty ingredients, but ended up way tasty. we had like three investigators there, and everyone had a really good time. well i did, at least. Friday was the same, no one could meet.</div> <div>
<br /></div><div>Saturday we did service again, making cement for this family. it was fun, that went from 10-2, and then we had sports night from 5-7. an old investigator came to sports night, a cool kid who knows English really well. hopefully we can get him to come to other stuff, and slowly transition him into an investigator. Sunday was minors day, so they told us to stay in our apartment if we didn't have lessons. and our lesson dogged us, so we didn't. we made a delicious cake, though. i am still enjoying it. and we played 2 grueling games of chess, he won the first, and i won the second. </div> <div>
<br /></div><div>so I'm doing good. i heard about the hurricane, that is good that it wasn't as big as they said. we were imagining new york city being destroyed. but its good that didn't happen. don't worry, I'm happy. i think my emails sound depressed. i just have to write so darn fast, i don't have time to put some personality in 'em. maybe next transfer. anyways, i'll talk to you in a week! thanks for all the letters! love you all!</div> <div>
<br /></div><div>love, elder Brimley</div></span>BrimDawghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00899596404131330308noreply@blogger.com0