Pray for the Republican Party

Dear family and friends,

it was an AWESOME week! i am still loving life right now, my companion and my area are doing great. and i have a bunch of new stuff! sorry, i spent a bit of money, but it was important stuff, i promise. on tuesday i went to BARBASHOVA for the first time, which is a very famous, extremely large rinok, market. it is just enormous, and everything is so cheap, especially ties, which are about 2-3 dollars. and they are beautiful ties. i'll send some pictures. so we had to go on tuesday because monday is ukraine's day off. i got about 10 new ties, a new, small bag, and a little bible. i've already used them all a lot, so they were very worthwhile purchases. beautiful, beautiful ties. later on tuesday we had a lesson with a member family, the roosinovs, who have 2 kids of age that aren't baptized, because their father won't give us permission, even though he knows it is true as well. it is so sad, the kids want to get baptized so bad, but we just can't. so hopefully we can fix that soon.

on Wednesday we had a cool lesson with a less active lady, we talked about coming to church, and the blessings, and by the end she told us that she is going to start coming regularly. and she came to district conference! so that was cool to see. and i got to use my new, fancy little bible during the lesson, so it was fantastic. then the next day we had a good district meeting, we learned from each other a lot of cool slang. and were spiritually uplifted. afterwards we met with this awesome guy named alexander. he is old and fairly crazy, but way nice. during the opening prayer, he thanked God for the united states of America, and especially for the great, foundational city of salt lake. then he thanked God for the republican party. after, he said, sorry, i got a bit political at the end there. we said it was fine. that’s ok, right? he was just a fun, happy, energetic old man. i'm excited for the next couple transfers with him.

we met with our one real investigator on friday, and we don't really know what to do with her. she loves to talk, seems very skeptical, we think she lied about reading the book of mormon, but she almost came to district conference, so we are going to give her a few more tries. that day we had yet another less active lesson, this one though with this cool dude who went on a mission to russia. we just had a good lesson, he said he knows he needs to go to church, but it is boring, and the women speakers aren't ever any good. he is a good guy, has a very good testimony, but apparently goes in waves of activity and inactivity. he came to conference, and came up to me and said, look! i came! i told him good job. so that was cool seeing a couple less actives start coming back to church this week, hopefully they keep coming. that night we made tacos! mmmmmm

saturday was frustrating, we tried to have a lesson, but transport is awful, and we had a wrong address, so all that we did was waste a bunch of time for a few hours. we cheered ourselves up by eating some kalinichies, (that tasty store) and then going to see a cool holocaust monument in our area, and then contacting for a while. well, for the rest of the night.

sunday was good, had a good district conference, then four member lessons. we have a good sunday routine, much better than just contacting. one new member (a 12 year old black kid), then a less active old dude, then a really old lady we bring the sacrament to, and then a less active, really emotional lady. all of them in need of support.

and that brings us to today. as for answers to questions: my comp is three transfers older than i am. he has been in this area for two already, so this is his third here. i don't know what people here do to work. there are no coal mines... and the tractor factory in my area is closed. i'm going to ask people that now. keep sending packages and letters to the same place.

man, it is getting fetching hot here. we are sweating pretty much constantly. it should help my figure, i suppose. it is better than winter, easily. though i hear it is going to get much worse pretty soon.

thanks for everything! glad to hear from all of you! i'm loving life, loving the work, loving the people! and it is going way too fast! love you guys!

love, elder brimlitchka