Well my first full week in Russia has been going pretty good. Me and Elder Dannenberg have been working pretty hard in the area and we have been having some success, its just hard to meet with people right now because most of the Russian people take off the summer to go to summer homes. This means that for the most part, they aren't in the city for most of the time so we have a hard time consistently meeting with the new people we talk to. However, this will change come next month when the summer starts to end and people have to come back to Nizhny Novgorod and start working or going to school again. Plus it will be too cold for them to go on the spontaneous walks that the Russian people love to do so much.
One thing I have come to love here in the city is the Church members. We have a little group of them known as a branch, and they make the missionaries feel right at home. Everybody is so kind and wants to know all about my family and my friends and what I did before the mission, and I'm usually able to explain it to them in my very very limited Russian. It makes me laugh though because they always try to speak English when I can't understand, and I always tell them how much I appreciate that they do that but I need to practice my Russian! But at any rate, the branch here is amazing and they are so strong and helpful for the missionaries. I don't know what we would do without them.
So I've met a ton of interesting people here so far just talking to people on the street and teaching. I meet a guy who tried to convince us that he was God, it was really weird. We've also met quite a few people of different ethnicity's and such, which is pretty amazing. Some of my favorite are these two Muslim boys who we invited to branch sports day on Saturday. They are both a lot of fun and try to help me with my Russian. Also one of them looks like the Muslim Russian version of Ringo Starr. It's actually pretty shocking how close the resemblance is. Also, I've got to sit in on two lessons with one of the other investigators for the other Elders (we have three companionships of Elders here and one companionship of Sisters). I can't pronounce his name, because he is an African and he speaks English and French and very bad Russian, so we teach him in English. I did not expect to be teaching an African man in English when I came to Russia, but its been nice to teach him.
Well I really don't have a whole lot of time so I just would like to say how much I am loving Russia. It is really a great place and the people here are great, even though a lot of the time they like to ignore us on the street and even sometimes run away.It really doesn't matter though because I truly love it here in Russia, and especially Nizhny Novgorod. I'll try to get some pictures out as soon as I can, but I can't really download them onto these computers.
From Russia with Love
Старейшина Зак Брэйжер
Moscow Time
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