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