Elder Andrew Gwilliam: Привет мои дорогие люди (Hello My Dear People)

It was another good week here in Russia. On Tuesday we had zone conference from 8:30 in the morning until about 3:30 in the afternoon, that was an experience. It was like school, but sitting in one chair the whole time. It was scheduled to be only until 2, but President Clark likes to say what he's feeling and he's always got a funny line or two to slip into his teaching. It was fun to be in the city and to see Elder Kartchner again. On Wednesday, we had a lesson with our branch president's dad. He's interested in the church, and that's the reason Elder Kennedy got transferred here. To teach this man, President Clark gave him a special assignment. It was a good lesson, there were lots of good questions asked, and we'll have lots of answers when we meet next. On Thursday, we helped our branch president move a piano from his house to the branch building, it's about the same size as ours at home. It doesn't seem like it would be so hard to move it, but going down flights and flights and flights of stairs, in a skinny stairwell, holding a piano was a crazy experience. Then lifting it into the back of a big truck, then reassembling it because it fell apart. That was fun. We also had three lessons that day, which is tied for the highest I've had in a day. Two were with our branch president, that was a really good day. On Friday, we had a lesson with one of our eternal investigators that was a little strange. He had just been watching on youtube about how some US government official had said that there will be a war with Russia and the US if things don't get better soon. So we talked about politics. We tried to just teach him a lesson, but he wouldn't have it. He wanted to talk about American happiness and how it was different than Russian happiness. It was a crazy lesson, I don't have that vocabulary yet. Maybe someday. On Saturday, I heard the song "What is Love?" on the bus. A tender mercy. I couldn't help but bounce my head. I don't think anybody got the reference, but that's ok. We also had a lesson on Saturday night with a referral from lds.org, this guy just went on and watched some conference talks and other movies, liked what he saw, liked what he felt, and put his number in the computer. So we got his number on Monday and had a meeting on Saturday. We met with him, he just said that he liked how we are focused on the family, and just the messages that he heard. It was awesome. He's about 35-40 years old. We taught him a really smooth Restoration lesson, and at the end he said that when he finds out that it's true, he'll be baptized. We set a goal with him for March 22. That's after the next transfer, so I hope I get to stay for at least one more transfer. It was awesome, the best lesson yet. Then on Sunday, after church, we didn't have anything planned. So we walked the streets and went to some less actives. Yesterday was also a holiday here, Defender of the Fatherland day, so there were a lot of drunk people that we saw. It's sad that drinking and partying is how everybody here celebrates. Bummer.

Other than that, not much else happened this week. People here all of a sudden don't care too much about hockey. Funny how that happens. I haven't heard anybody talk about how Russia won overall in medals, other than the members just answering our questions about it. It's fun here, I can't complain.

Lots of good things are happening in our mission, there were two baptisms this last week, and lots of baptismal dates. Lots of just good things. You're all the best!

Andrew