Monday, October 6, 2014

Wow. Just, wow.


So, I'll start off with this. If this is going to be the next 3 months of my mission, me as a lone Zone Leader and trainer, it will be the most hectic, busy, fun, strange, difficult, uncomfortable, wacky, and fulfilling time of my mission (probably in my life thus far). It is so busy. I don't think that I've had free time to even write in my journal since last Monday. It's also really really fun. I love it. It's just so hectic. Here's the week. Monday we went to the Peter-Paul Fortress after we emailed. It was really fun and really pretty. We went to the Cathedral and the prison. It was fun to go to the prison and see the history of that place (plus everything was in english and russian, I felt like I learned more than I usually do in historic places here). That was it for Monday. On Tuesday we had district meeting bright and early, we had a good time together. It was our last district meeting with those guys because we have our own district now. Right after that we had a meeting for the trainers, really similar to the one that I had six months ago. We just talked about how to be a good trainer. Elder Kartchner was feeling like Father Abraham because he was there, I was there, Elder Saxton was there. That means he has a great grandson in the mission now. It was really fun. That night we went to our less-active's house and taught him a good lesson. We committed him to start reading the Book of Mormon again. He said ok. To be continued... On Wednesday, we had breakfast and met our new companions. Here's the stats. My companion is cool. He's a teeny bit shorter than me. He played soccer at Brighton and then at Corner Canyon his senior year. He's right out of high school. He is the second youngest, with 7 siblings. His dad has been stake president for 10 years now. He's a cool guy. His eardrum burst on the flight here, so we're going to the doctor in a few weeks to check that out. I don't know what else. He's better at Russian than I was when I came. So we met them and had breakfast, then we went to the office to have our visa training for the new ones. Then we got lunch fed to us, that was good. I liked that part. Then we had transfer meeting. It was good. There were 8 new elders and 4 Elders left. None of them were too special. There were almost no sisters there, they all about stayed put. But not next transfer, they'll be all over the place. So after that meeting we went home and had a bite to eat. Then we went back to the church and had english group. That was fun, three older citizens came and we had a good time. Thursday was ruled by MLC. It was good to have some changes in the leadership with the big talkers and chatters gone, now we're all thinkers. It was really great and we got a lot of things done. That night we went back to our less active and checked up on the reading. He wasn't doing it. DARN IT. So we read Alma 34 with him and he really liked it. Then we set up a service project at his house for Saturday. Friday I had a visa trip, pretty uneventful. I was with two new missionaries on their first trip, so it was fun to help them out. Saturday we had zone training for the missionaries in our zone in the city. It was good. My companion helped out quite a bit and it was cool. He just jumped right in. We then helped the less-active clean out his kitchen. COCKROACHES is all I have to say about that. Sunday was good, a little strange though. There's been this burst of Russian pride in our ward and one of the prelude songs was the Russian National anthem and everybody but the young members and missionaries stood up. I think some people got more emotional at that point than at any other. That night we went to a family in the ward that we've gone to a lot, and it was fun to be with them. Next week I'm making Enchiladas for them.
So we didn't get to watch conference, but we'll watch it at the stake center this next weekend.
This last week I read 1 Nephi 18:21, and I really thought about this concept, that prayer can calm the storm. I really love the last phrase of that verse. I know that whatever storms are whirling around us, temptations, deaths, homework assisgnments, we can have peace through prayer.
I love you all! Thanks for the emails.
Elder G




The buds (Elder Butters and me)


Summer Gardens


This is where Russia was dedicated for missionary work.

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