zdrastvooytye 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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
sunday was uneventful, except for during english gospel principles with the brothers, we discussed what color God is. that was an interesting conversation.
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...
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.
have the best week!
love, elder brimley
Derek opens his mission call
Monday, January 9, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Who else can go up to a random drunk guy and start talking to him about jesus?
yo yo yo!!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
ok i'm out of things to say. sorry this is a really short letter. i love you guys! have a good week.
love, elder brimley
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
ok i'm out of things to say. sorry this is a really short letter. i love you guys! have a good week.
love, elder brimley
:)
:)!!!!!!
it was WUUUUUUUNDERBAAAAAAAAAAAAR to talk with you all!!!! that was the fastest 30-40 minutes of my life ;) i can't wait till we can talk for realsies, without some ukrainian girl next to me telling me to be quiet the whole time ;) sorry if you couldn't tell i was really excited, i had to keep it down a little bit :( the internet club was surprisingly full :D whatever :b
well we pretty much covered it in our talk yesterday, so i don't know what else to write :l i guess i'll tell you about the week :)
we didn't get owned too bad this week, for the most part:) on wednesday we helped out festos, one of our brother investigators, buy some groceries. he is a really good guy, so sincere :D he was so appreciative, he loves the church. it is just sad, he can't pay for school, and the church cant pay for his schooling. our branch president out of his own pocket paid for the groceries. he'll probably have to go home :( we'll see.
thursday, i told you, we had an interesting meeting. president bennett of the area presidency and presidency of the seventy came and OWNED us. which was bad timing. he replaced three things at once: our annual christmas party, zone conference, and the christmas feast. just bad timing. that night we were contacting for a couple of hours, and for whatever reason, we saw some awesome success. we got three great contacts, contacts that i think we will definitely be able to meet with. especially this one guy seemed super interested, and really knew his beliefs. when we asked him what he believed, he said, in the father, and the son, and the holy ghost. most people here just say, i think that god is one. which is just another way to say, i've never read the bible, and just listen to what other people have told me. but we had a really good conversation, and he is a legit guy. i've got, hieeay hopes, i've got, hieeay hopes.
we met with micheal again, the kind of crazy nigerian brother. he was less crazy this time, and we were a bit more assertive so that we could stay more on topic. it worked, but he really didn't like the idea that there is only one true church. apparently he knows of a lot of african "prophets" that perform miracles and baptise people. he himself has been baptised twice. he said he believes in the book of mormon, the restoration, every single thing we said, except that there is only one true church. we told him to read the book of mormon and pray about it, and he said he would. so, we'll see where this one goes. what we really need is a brother to come to lessons with us, i think he would be able to relate better with him.
on saturday afternoon we had brother's institute, which in the past has been not very successful. but we changed the time to earlier, and lots of people came! members, and investigators! a new guy named kevin came, with a member brother! and he was cool, he was making comments. institute is great, because a senior couple named the bailey's teach it. straight out of the book of mormon, its great. so we had a really good institute, and after that we got dogged by an investigator. but then, we had an awesome lesson with this super legit guy, named anatoli alekseyevich. he is an old guy who admits that he is interested, but seems kind of worried about something. we tracted into him last week, and called him and set up a lesson. we had a first lesson outside at night, it was really cold, but it was one of the best first lessons ever. he was super teachable, asked questions, actually listened, and i could tell it all just clicked with him. he still wants to know more, but he said he would read the book of mormon and pray, so its over for him. he's practically already baptised. well, he was really cool and nice at least. sometimes you have lessons with people that maybe won't go anywhere, but at least raise your spirits.
then there was CHRISTMAS!!!!! it was awesome. we opened presents in the morning (THANK YOU!!!! I love the book and i'm going to learn how to play the card games (Mary sent a Sponge Bob card game). and i'll wear the shirt and eat all the candy :b then we went to an hour of church, and had the first presidency fireside. it was great, a couple of brother investigators came to church.
stupid internet club. power went out, and we had to go to another one. oh well. well christmas morning i also made some bomb diggety cinnamon rolls, with very expensive cream cheese frosting. but it is completely worth every kopeck. delicioso. after church we went to our apartment and made a christmas feast! pork tacos, to be exact. we made some corn bread, mashed potatoes, pico de gayo, the works. it was a good meal. and fun to make. and a big huge mess. we are still suffering the consequenses.
i'll say that this was a much, much, much better christmas than last year's. but i would also say that next years christmas will be even better! and then in three years time, the whole family will be back together! woohoo!!
which reminds me. i think i've made the decision. i'm going to try to come home may 29thish. prepare my ways, make my paths straight. (Derek, and the missionaries that went out with him, have the choice of going home in May, or wait until July because of when transfers are. May would be a couple of weeks early, and July would be a month later than the two year mark for his mission)
i'm going to send some pictures now. i hope you all had merry christmas's! i did. just remember the meaning of the season. i love you all! i love the mission, i love my savior. goodbye!
love, elder brimley
it was WUUUUUUUNDERBAAAAAAAAAAAAR to talk with you all!!!! that was the fastest 30-40 minutes of my life ;) i can't wait till we can talk for realsies, without some ukrainian girl next to me telling me to be quiet the whole time ;) sorry if you couldn't tell i was really excited, i had to keep it down a little bit :( the internet club was surprisingly full :D whatever :b
well we pretty much covered it in our talk yesterday, so i don't know what else to write :l i guess i'll tell you about the week :)
we didn't get owned too bad this week, for the most part:) on wednesday we helped out festos, one of our brother investigators, buy some groceries. he is a really good guy, so sincere :D he was so appreciative, he loves the church. it is just sad, he can't pay for school, and the church cant pay for his schooling. our branch president out of his own pocket paid for the groceries. he'll probably have to go home :( we'll see.
thursday, i told you, we had an interesting meeting. president bennett of the area presidency and presidency of the seventy came and OWNED us. which was bad timing. he replaced three things at once: our annual christmas party, zone conference, and the christmas feast. just bad timing. that night we were contacting for a couple of hours, and for whatever reason, we saw some awesome success. we got three great contacts, contacts that i think we will definitely be able to meet with. especially this one guy seemed super interested, and really knew his beliefs. when we asked him what he believed, he said, in the father, and the son, and the holy ghost. most people here just say, i think that god is one. which is just another way to say, i've never read the bible, and just listen to what other people have told me. but we had a really good conversation, and he is a legit guy. i've got, hieeay hopes, i've got, hieeay hopes.
we met with micheal again, the kind of crazy nigerian brother. he was less crazy this time, and we were a bit more assertive so that we could stay more on topic. it worked, but he really didn't like the idea that there is only one true church. apparently he knows of a lot of african "prophets" that perform miracles and baptise people. he himself has been baptised twice. he said he believes in the book of mormon, the restoration, every single thing we said, except that there is only one true church. we told him to read the book of mormon and pray about it, and he said he would. so, we'll see where this one goes. what we really need is a brother to come to lessons with us, i think he would be able to relate better with him.
on saturday afternoon we had brother's institute, which in the past has been not very successful. but we changed the time to earlier, and lots of people came! members, and investigators! a new guy named kevin came, with a member brother! and he was cool, he was making comments. institute is great, because a senior couple named the bailey's teach it. straight out of the book of mormon, its great. so we had a really good institute, and after that we got dogged by an investigator. but then, we had an awesome lesson with this super legit guy, named anatoli alekseyevich. he is an old guy who admits that he is interested, but seems kind of worried about something. we tracted into him last week, and called him and set up a lesson. we had a first lesson outside at night, it was really cold, but it was one of the best first lessons ever. he was super teachable, asked questions, actually listened, and i could tell it all just clicked with him. he still wants to know more, but he said he would read the book of mormon and pray, so its over for him. he's practically already baptised. well, he was really cool and nice at least. sometimes you have lessons with people that maybe won't go anywhere, but at least raise your spirits.
then there was CHRISTMAS!!!!! it was awesome. we opened presents in the morning (THANK YOU!!!! I love the book and i'm going to learn how to play the card games (Mary sent a Sponge Bob card game). and i'll wear the shirt and eat all the candy :b then we went to an hour of church, and had the first presidency fireside. it was great, a couple of brother investigators came to church.
stupid internet club. power went out, and we had to go to another one. oh well. well christmas morning i also made some bomb diggety cinnamon rolls, with very expensive cream cheese frosting. but it is completely worth every kopeck. delicioso. after church we went to our apartment and made a christmas feast! pork tacos, to be exact. we made some corn bread, mashed potatoes, pico de gayo, the works. it was a good meal. and fun to make. and a big huge mess. we are still suffering the consequenses.
i'll say that this was a much, much, much better christmas than last year's. but i would also say that next years christmas will be even better! and then in three years time, the whole family will be back together! woohoo!!
which reminds me. i think i've made the decision. i'm going to try to come home may 29thish. prepare my ways, make my paths straight. (Derek, and the missionaries that went out with him, have the choice of going home in May, or wait until July because of when transfers are. May would be a couple of weeks early, and July would be a month later than the two year mark for his mission)
i'm going to send some pictures now. i hope you all had merry christmas's! i did. just remember the meaning of the season. i love you all! i love the mission, i love my savior. goodbye!
love, elder brimley
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