Saturday, December 26, 2009

Crazy Girl

26 December 2005
"We are so confused at the day today. We are not sure how to help Афина. She is a great young lady, and she is doing a lot, but she is out of control a lot. She can't control her own actions - well she can - but she just is so crazy out of control sometime. I know she is only 13, but she really needs to calm down. It was really bad today, and almost impossible to conduct a lesson with her. She just has so little interaction with others, that she goes crazy when we are there. We are going to pray a lot for her, and hope that she is ready for baptism. She is ready, but still needs to understand.

This morning we had собрание округа which was super fast and we didn't have a ton of time for that as a couple of the elders were late. We worked on setting goals for 2006 and that went well. We got a lot done, and there should be a lot of good next year. We then went to Афина's house after which we went to another member's house - Нина Краснова. She is well, and her son is here. He is mentally handicapped, but a really nice guy. It was interesting to be there as he doesn't comprehend completely. I think I am going crazy as every day I want to sleep more and more. I guess that is part of life, and in 4 days I will have my wish."

Friday, December 25, 2009

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

25 December 2005
"Another Christmas passed by here on the mission. It is crazy how they pass without much noticing. We had church this morning and that was good. Once again, Владик was there and he enjoyed it all very much. He is a great guy, and we have another meeting with him on Tuesday. Well, after the meeting, we went to the branch apartment, and made cookies. It took about 3 hours, and I was ready to die by the end. It was really a huge waste of time, and I was the only one who even worked on the cookies. We took off to a few members, and gave them what we had made, and sang a bit with them. It was cool, and it was nice to sing to people.

We then ran back here as I had to talk with the family. That was awesome, and at the same time really weird. They are doing well and it was cool to talk with them. It was really cool to talk with my sister Elsa. I also chatted with my Mom for a few minutes and that was nice. She is doing well, and having a good Christmas break. My brother should have called, but I must have given the wrong number because he hasn't called yet. Tomorrow we will be back to work, and it will be super cool. I love work, and it helps me not worry about dumb things."

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Getting Ready

24 December 2005
"I felt a lot better today although we didn't a whole lot. We started the day out by doing some contacting, and then we went and bought Santa hats and a Christmas tree. We got things all decorated, and then we tried to relax a bit, but ended up going to sport time quick like, and that was a huge waste of time. We sat there and just chatted and then we played a little chess which was our sport. We came home, changed, and then went back for a meeting that we had there. It was pretty cool, and we had a good discussion about our investigators. After that, we stayed there and had a little get pumped up for Christmas and watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas, and that was a lot of fun. We sat and chatted for a bit before we went with Андре to find some more presents. We were wearing our Santa hats, and tons of people wanted us to give them as presents. All these young ladies came up to us, and it was funny. We didn't buy anything other the some food for tomorrow. We came home, and now we are just chillin. Андре stopped by to get his book, and is still here. I talked with my Dad quick like, and now we are going to bed soon. Christmas eve - that is sure crazy!"

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Kill Me

23 December 2005
"You can kill me. That is all that I have wanted all day. I am so dead tired that I have almost no energy to do anything. it is all thanks to the nice long train ride that I didn't sleep much, and worse than that is all the time we spent yesterday sitting in the office. Today we had an interesting day as not only I was out of it, but my companion also. We planned our week next week, and that should be cool. After that, we had some lunch before we went to see Афина.

The meeting with her didn't help my mood or energy level. In fact, it probably got worse because of it. We talked with her Mom for a while and we wanted to explain baptism to her, but it didn't work that well. We mostly just chatted for 3 or 4 hours! I was ready to fall over along with Elder Steiner. The one good thing was that we set the baptismal date for the 4th of January. We are going to be working towards that.

We went and gave Anna K. a blessing and then we went to finish the night with a meeting at the Старостины. That was good, and we talked about Joseph Smith as today was his 200th birthday. What a blessing, and I can't even think what my life would be without the gospel. It would be so much different. I can't believe how blessed I am to know the truth, and have this knowledge. I am so blessed! Off to die!"

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Made It

22 December 2005
"I am going crazy. We were in Samara all day today, and in fact we were in the office the whole time. We had a good time this evening doing absolutely nothing. We got in this morning, and that was alright, but I was tired. We chilled in the office until Council started. We had a good time there, and not a whole ton there. We learned about enduring to the end, and how we can help people do that. We mainly just used preach My Gospel and talked about how we can prepare people better for baptism. I thought a lot about the people that we are working with, and we can help them even more than we have.

We had a way awesome lunch, and I ate a ton. It was sweet, and I sure miss eating in the office. Well, after ZLC we did some crap in the office before we were just sitting there doing nothing. Basically we just chatted with a bunch of the other ZLs and enjoyed it. We took some crazy pictures. It was sweet. I then saw Sister Silva and talked with her for like 15 minutes. She is way cool, and I sure miss serving with her in my district. We had an interesting experience making it to the train. I ordered the taxi an hour before we needed it to be to the office, and then it showed up 15 minutes late. We had to run to the train with tons of boxes in our hands, and we barely made. We were both praying like crazy and we are so happy to be here on this train. What a day, and back to Penza to work we go."

Monday, December 21, 2009

Good P-day

21 December 2005
" It was nice to be able to take a break today. My hands are really cold and it is tough to write. It is super cold outside and so I can barely write. We started out this morning by chilling here at home, and then we went to Gene's house where we had a good time. I really just sat there while they played a bunch of songs and practiced for a concert that we are going to have in a week and a half. After we sat there for about 3 hours, we finally got out of there.

Steiner and I went and looked around a bit, and bought a few things. I got a couple of discs and a new photo album and they are my gifts for Christmas. We had a sweet time looking, and it was fun to see what there was. Well, then we met up with Boster and Condie at Subway where we grabbed a bite to eat before going to write home. The family is good and it will be weird to talk with them in a couple of days. We then had English and that was cool I just sat and listened, and really enjoyed the lesson. We practiced a little more for the New Year's party, and then we took off to come home. We chatted with some of the youth from the branch for a bit, and now we are home. Tomorrow we will be in Samara and tonight we will be on the train."

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Investigators

20 December 2005
"The day went really well, and we met with almost all of our investigators today. We started by going contacting as usual, and that was alright. We had the worst meal ever - fried noodles and sausage. We were dead tired because we talked till about 12:30 last night and so we were hardly moving. We did go to Raisa's house and she is doing great. She is so happy, and all is going so well for her. She wants to quit smoking, so hopefully that will work out well. We will be helping her with that.

We then met up with a member - Люда - and went to Афина's place. She is doing well and getting ready for baptism. We need to talk with her parents still and get permission for her baptism. We talked about haunted houses a bit and everyone there was so freaked out. It was funny and we had a good time.

We finished the night at Алексей Гладков's house and had a meeting with Владик. He is doing awesome, and accepting a lot of what we say, and feeling the spirit. The only problem was that Алексей talked way too much at the meeting and we couldn't really do a lesson. All the same, Владик is moving along well. We came home, and now we are chillin' here and having a good time as tomorrow is p-day!"