Derek recovers

Dear family and friends,

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

love, elder Brimley