Saturday, December 12, 2009

Movie

12 December 2005
"The weather rocks! I love it. It is constantly snowing and there is already a ton of snow on the ground. It is way cool. It is also nice to be able to have a snowball fight and other things like that. It is so awesome.

So this morning we had to go pay for the place where the baptism will be, and that went well. We then had to find some ink replacement for the fax machine, and that was successful. Well, we came home for собрание округа which was a lot of fun, but hard as I was tired. Things seem to be going really slow right now, and it is hard. We got Subway for lunch and it is always nice to get some American food in the body. Максим then asked for a blessing and so we gave him one for his health. It has been a long time since I have given a blessing, but it is an awesome feeling when the spirit is working through you. I felt the words coming from somewhere else, and that is how the Lord blesses people.

We ran to a meeting with Баба Нина and she promised to come to the baptism, and she wants to come to church, but she says it is hard to get up. She will be trying. We then went to Афина's and had a good lesson with her, watching "The Restoration." It was a really good meeting. We enjoyed that, and then we played a bit with her. What an amazing time it was, and it is so amazing to teach the gospel. I love it here."

Friday, December 11, 2009

Doubt

11 December 2005
"Today we didn't have a lot of meetings, but it was a pretty good day. I was dead tired this morning, and didn't have much energy. I didn't feel like doing much and that is the worst feeling in the world. Well, I did, and we had a good time one we go to the meeting. There was a guy that Kotov and I talked to yesterday and gave a Book or Mormon to. He was at the meeting today, and he really enjoyed it quite a bit. He read the 1st chapter and felt that he needed to come to church today. It was cool, and the members were so friendly and introduced themselves and invited him to meet with us at their houses. Well, after the meeting, we had branch council, and that went for 2 hours. We talked a lot about home and visiting teaching. It was crazy, and there were some people who said that it is not possible to do 100% home/visiting teaching. They talked about how immediately it will not be like that. After that, we finally went and checked out the Баня where the baptism will be. Things worked out well for that.

We came home and ate before we went with all the other missionaries to Андре's to get ready for our New Year's skit that we will have. We were there for awhile, and had an interesting time answering her questions about the scriptures. She knows a lot, and doubts a lot. Now we are home, and tomorrow, we are back to work!"

Thursday, December 10, 2009

No Temptation

10 December 2005
"Today we had an interesting meeting with Афина. We talked about knowing the truth and about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon every day. She said that she wasn't ready for baptism because she has a pull to do wrong. We talked with her about how this temptation will never leave and that she needs to be strong. It was interesting hear her wish to get baptized only when there is no temptation. I think that we all wish that we could have something like that but it will never happen. Also, her cousin Роза was there and she is the cutest little girl ever - she is 9 and is tiny. It was so awesome to be there.

This morning we went contacting with the APs and that was cool. We also ate some German Pancakes that were tasty too. I was with Котов and we talked with a ton of people. They then left, and we had our sports time. That was pretty cool as we walked up a big hill, and looked out over the city. It was cool, and the view was amazing. We hurried and made it on собрание миссионеров which was sure interesting. It seems that people are really starting to hate how things are going in the branch because they are voicing a strong opinion. They don't completely understand the importance of strengthening the branch by doing all that they can. I am not sure how to help them, but we need to do something to get them more excited, and so that there was excitement in the branch."

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

APs

9 December 2005
"Today was sweet other then the fact that the weather is really terrible. All this snow came down, and now it is melting. There are huge puddles, and we walked through them, and we got our socks and shoes super wet. It was sure crazy, and not that much fun to walk through, but I guess that is part of life.

We stopped by and got the APs this morning at the vokzal and then we took our walk home. We had waffles for breakfast, and that was way cool. We then studied and prepared for our days. It was certainly interesting, and we also planned for the next week and set goals. We finished planning, and then we head to Трио Пицца to get some lunch, and that was way awesome.

Elder Nance and I were together, and we contacted for a bit, and it went way awesome. We found several new people and we talked with a ton. We then had a meeting with a member that went well. We talked about the Melchizedek Priesthood, and about how we can work to receive it. We then had another meeting with шавкат - that was interesting. We first had to get out to the древня where he lives, and in all the water, that was interesting. There we had an interesting meeting - Шавкат blamed his wife for all the problems, and she blamed him. They just blame each other, and solve nothing. Shavkat is a good guy, but he doesn't want to listen. If they would just have FHE and family scripture study and prayer, life would be so much more enjoyable for them. it is sure interesting how such things can bless people's lives so much. It is something that has to be done to greatly bless lives.

It was way awesome with Nance today. He is an awesome elder, and we are such awesome friends. I am going to miss him and Bennett as they are leaving home. We just talked about all the good time that we had together, and the great people that we served with. I can't believe how fast time is going, and it is sure insane. I need to start focusing more, and really kick in the last few months on my mission. The last ones are the ones I will remember the most of all."

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Fun Day

8 December 2005
"Today was a sweet day. We had a good time writing home and doing all that way. We were home for awhile, and then we went out to write home, and all is well at home. We came back home after I bought some cool Christmas socks and then we just worked on getting pictures all in order. I have ton from Riga and Moscow, and so I put those in order.

We went to scripture study, and had a good time talking about Mark 7. It was awesome with all the people. We then had молодежный вечер and that was a lot of fun. We had few people there, but we played in the snow, and had a huge snowball fight. It was sweet, and we were soaking wet afterwards. The rain came too, so it was fun but wet to play there in the snow. We came home, and then we have been planning as the APs will be here tomorrow. I am dead tired too. It is crazy!"

Monday, December 7, 2009

Heading Home

7 December 2005
"We are heading back to Penza, and it was a nice vacation. This morning we got into Moscow and we ran to McDonalds to get the breakfast, and fortunately I got it. They changed the sign about 2 minutes after I got there, but I was the only one of us 3 to get it - breakfast. We then took off to the рынок on the Metro. It is so awesome, and I love how well it is set up. We searched for this рынок for a bit, and then we found it. It was huge, and they had all kinds of awesome stuff for really cheap. I got a ton of things there for the family and it is going to be sweet. We bought and bargained all kinds of stuff - shirts, shapkas, and matroshkas.

We then went to the airport where we had a bit of a problem. The dates on our tickets were for yesterday, and so that meant that we had to change them, but they only had business class. Non problem though, and it cost me 22,300 ($745) for our 3 tickets, and I just used my church card as I have a bunch of zone money there. Anyhow, we made it on the plane, and had a good flight home with great service. We flew in and went with Роман (the mission driver) to the office.

There I sat around for awhile, but I was able to read my mail. We went to MickeyD's and then back to the office. There I chatted with the sisters and they are doing well."

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Walking Around

6 December 2005
"We are back on the train to Moscow. We had a pretty interesting day in Riga, Latvia this morning. We got in and started to walk around the city a bit. We had no clue where we were going and so we just wandered around and took some cool pictures. Riga is way clean compared to Russia, and there are tons of really nice cars. The language doesn't make sense, but almost everyone speaks Russian so that is way cool. We checked out a bunch of the old city before we went and looked at the Stockman's store where they have all kinds of American goods for sale. It was way sweet, and they have some crazy things.

Well, we went and ate at McDonald's as we knew where it was, and we knew the food was decent. We grabbed some good postcards from a place before we just walked around. There are a lot of super nice stores in Riga, and they are like malls. We got our food, and then we got on the train. Tomorrow we will be in Moscow and then back to Самара. Oh, the joys of train traveling!"