My companion looks just like Zach Efron

Dear Comrades,

Mariupol's legit. and my companion looks just like Zach Efron. and yes, of course i read your letter mom! tee shto?! yours is always the longest and the most detailed. here are the answers to your questions: my transfer just started today, but it's going to be legit. i'm in the center of mariupol, a small steel factory town on the beach of the azov sea. the beach is wonderful- actually it is pretty bad, but it is good to see nonetheless. my companion is young, with a lot of fire, which is good. the work is going amazingly, we have investigators up the wazoo. we have a little girl on date, and another dude close to baptism, and lots of other investigators with potential. pretty legit. my apartment is really big, not super nice, but my second best apartment so far. i like it a lot. my companion doesn't, but that's because he's never served anywhere else. he'll figure it out. i don't know if the mission president does a blog, probably not, at least not yet. i don't need anything. i am senior companion, and district leader. i have an assigned talk this coming sunday. the branch yesterday had thirty two people there, total, including missionaries. it needs some support. yes, i got the line of authority. that was way legit.

anyways. lets get started. saying goodbye to xtz was so sad. i love those people so much. saying goodbye to brat anatoli was terrible. and then the kluev's was bad too. two transfers wasn't enough. i learned a lot from my time there, from the people. sadder than anything, i didn't get to say goodbye to Alexander, the crazy less active guy. i loved him. Monday i said goodbye to the rusinovs, Tuesday i said my goodbyes to anatoli and the kluev's, Wednesday i said goodbye to Igor. Thursday morning i got on a bus to Donetsk. i better go back to xarkov, that's all I'm saying.

the bus down was cool though- i finally saw the sunflowers, there are a bunch of them. though the road was really bad, and i got car sick. i haven't gotten car sick in forever, it was weird. i got the front seat, it was like the good old days. we got to Donetsk after five hours or so, and had transfer meeting, which is always fun. it was pretty unnecessary, because everyone knew everything, thanks to a source. or at least, i knew everything. everybody got their comps, and then president campero got up to say a word, which was for me, one of the greatest speeches I've ever heard. he said that we are going to be a white handbook mission from now on, nothing more, nothing less. all those extra rules are now gone. we have to use our own judgment from now on. it was a breath of fresh air. needless to say, we are doing service on Wednesday, and sports night on Saturday.

then we headed down south. we got back in time to see this member open up his mission call- he is a cool kid, a relatively new member, and he is going to samara, Russia in November. he was way excited. then i got unpacked. the next day was pretty normal, we had planning and my companion told me all about the area, all the investigators and members. we did some contacting, saw the area, saw the beach, then had a small lesson at the church, then got dogged twice. its legit, the church is like a ten minute bus ride away, we do everything there. after all that, this legit member, we call her mama bigoon, took us and a few other youth over to her house and we had some green borsch and got to know each other. it was a fun night.

on Saturday we didn't have too much, but at night it was fun, the whole district went sign boarding. we brought a couple of members, it was a lot of fun. we invited a lot of people to sports night, and had some success. Sunday was awesome though. church was really small, but we have some way legit members who are great missionaries. right after church we had to do a split because some random people showed up, so we had three lessons with members present at the exact same time. that was just crazy. its good, lots of work is going on in this area, we should see some success.

i know that the church is true- it is God's church on the earth, and the only church that is completely true. i know the book of Mormon is what it proclaims to be, and that it brings the reader of it to a knowledge of the truth. I've never had an investigator that actually read the book of Mormon that didn't admit its truthfulness. i know that a prophet lives and guides us, and his teachings are what the lord wants us to hear. i know that prayers are answered. i know that our message is the most important message, because it is true.

i can't believe summer vacation is over. it is friggin hot down here, and way humid. and smelly- the giant steel factory stinks the whole city up. but i still love it.

alright I'm done. love you all! thanks for everything! sorry i don't have much time. have a good week!

love, elder brimley