Myxomatosis (Or: The Airborne Diseases of Russia are Out to Get Us!)

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

As inferred by the title of my e-mail, this week has been characterized by sicknesses in Smolensk. Not specifically my sickness, for I have escaped unharmed for now (I chalk that up to the exceptional work of my T Cell and B Cell lymphocytes, but I still am knocking on wood so that I don't pick up anything in the future). Elder Jewkes has been down and out for almost a week and a half now and Elder Mitchell is starting to become symptomatic. One of our ward members thinks that we have problems with our blood circulation and pressure, but as far as I can tell we are all doing alright (although mine was a little low last night.) At any rate that is just a passing thing and everybody is getting back to our normal healthy selves.

This week I was able to go to Moscow for a zone conference, and much to my surprise it ended up being a nearly whole mission conference, so I got to see my good friends Elder Olsen, Elder Bressler and Sister Hansen once again! It is always so fun to go to conferences and see all your friends and exchange crazy stories and such. I am always so happy to see that everybody is doing good and continuing to carry out their missionary work in their respective cities. We arrived quite early into Moscow Wednesday morning and thus the Yaroslavl Elders and us went to tour Red Square. I was kicking myself that I forgot my camera, because right now Red Square looks a lot more stereotypical then when I first saw it (you know: with snow and wind and coldness like it shows in nearly every American movie). But alas, my camera was sitting uselessly at my apartment in Smolensk. After a good motivating conference and some nice home cook food, our district went and toured Arbat Street, which is one of the tourist trap souvenir centers in Moscow. As missionaries we have an advantage over other tourists in that we can speak Russian fairly well, so we can barter for our souvenirs. In many of the stores I was just watching people get ripped off! We found a pretty sweet military surplus store where I picked up some propaganda posters and a sweet USSR t-shirt, and while we were there some Germans were getting played with some fake "Soviet" military hats! People really need to check the serial numbers and materials when they are buying military surplus! At any rate, after some successful bartering and exciting purchases we returned home to Smolensk on a night train.

And as for our missionary work... Well things aren't going too badly right now. This week was a little messed up with some logistics involving a young orphan child, infectious diseases and the Moscow conference, but we were able to get some things done. We had a lesson with a man who was more or less crazy. I won't spell it out for you because it would take too long, but he started out his arguing with the phrase: "God is an orange!" then continued to tell us that everybody in the world is Buddah and with committing us to look at our hands every night for ten minutes and repeat the phrase: "I exist." Yes, he won't be a long term investigator. However, we did find some good people on the street and two of our contacts have told us that they are reading the Book of Mormon, they just haven't had time to meet quite yet. Also, we had some very spiritual lessons with members about the Plan of Salvation and how God provided a plan for us. I love teaching the Plan of Salvation to people because it strengthens my testimony and makes me grateful for the ability that we have to learn the fullness of God's plan for us and find comfort and hope in that. I can't imagine how hard it would be to have no conception of this doctrine and just live thinking that life is purposeless. I'm grateful that I know that my life has a purpose and most importantly that even after I die I can live with the people I love, even after years of separation by death. This gives me so much hope and joy in the future!

At any rate, this week is what can be called a slow week. However, slow weeks always motivate me to work harder next week (as if it will make some sort of compensation in my missionary work balance.) We've got some good potential investigators and I'm excited to start working with some new people.

Lately I haven't mentioned much about Vladimir because he is not in my area anymore so we aren't teaching him. He is doing good though. His work is insane right now, he is working the jobs of three doctors! He is getting payed more but the man has to be exhausted. Unfortunately this has also caused a delay with his marriage documents! But we call him frequently and talk to him and he is doing good. He always says something like: "My brothers, I pray almost constantly because with out Heavenly Father I can do nothing!" or "I read some bad things people said about Joseph Smith on the Internet, but I don't believe them! I only trust you my brothers, because you are looking out for me!" A few days ago he got a hold of President Monson's talk from last Priesthood Session. He especially liked the part where President Monson said, "Dare to be a Mormon; Dare to stand alone. Dare to have a purpose firm; dare to make it known." Vladimir loved that quote and told us that he would never betray us, because he dares to be a Mormon (he said this while referencing some members who have removed their names from the church recently). I love Vladimir, his faith and diligence is so inspirational to me, and he hasn't even been baptized yet!

Well that's all I've got for now. General Conference is coming up soon and I am getting way pumped. Conference is so exciting for missionaries. We love the chance to hear new talks and get new guidance from our living Prophet and Apostles. I've been getting pumped up by reading all the talks from last Conference, so I'm ready for a new one!

At any rate, live long and prosper!

Never tell me the odds,

Elder Zachery Brasier

PS- None of us actually have Myxomatosis so don't worry, because none of us are rabbits, thus making it impossible to catch that disease.

PPS- Since I'm a missionary I would like to start sharing some scriptures I like with you. This week I was really struck by Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!  I like that promise and love to apply it to missionary service.

Fig Factory

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

This week has flown by rather quickly, and unfortunately not a whole lot has happened worthy of note. Elder Mitchell and I are continuing to work together and I rather enjoy working with him. Also, the weather has finally gotten above the 0 degree C mark, which means that everything is starting to melt. While this is a good thing, it also provides some problems for us. Russian roads do not come equipped with the adequate draining like in America. As the snow melts, everything collects into miniature lakes that we have to walk through. Normally this wouldn't be a huge problem, but my boots have recently acquired some leaks, so after a day or two of this I was concerned that I may develop a case of trench foot! Never fear, today I used the power of super glue to put my boots back together.

As for the title of my e-mail allow me to explain. In Russia there is a hand gesture known as a "fig". It consists of sticking your thumb in between your index and middle fingers in some sort of twisted fist. It is two or three degrees down from the middle finger of American contempt and is used to designate that something is stupid or undesirable. Also it isn't offensive. As missionaries in Russia the word "fig" has become part of our vernacular. For us, "getting a fig" means to have somebody cancel on a lesson or to just not have somebody show up for a lesson. We have been receiving quite a bit of figs recently, and thus our investigator pool at this time could be designated as a "fig factory". Unfortunately, we have not met with Daniil at all this week and we have only met with Gokul once. Many of our other investigators have given us figs as well.

 

So what do missionaries do when they receive figs? Well they go street contacting and tracking of course! This is what Elder Mitchell and I have been doing quite frequently now. We usually just pick a direction that we have never been and contact in that direction. I actually rather like this because 1) It keeps me in shape (hiking 10 miles around Smolensk everyday will certainly work of a diet of SuperSnickers and Ramen) and 2) I get to see parts of the city I have never seen before, thus fulfilling my desire to do missionary work and to see the city. We have found some quite interesting places. Some of my favorites have been a Catholic Cathedral we found that had been closed since the October Revolution in 1917 (I was extremely shocked to find a Catholic cathedral in the middle of Russia, a through and through Eastern Orthodox country), a plethora of Yuri Gagaran statues (since he was born not far from here), and many strange and inexplicable buildings (the best being the one that had a huge symbol painted on it that look liked the Tri-Force symbol of Legend of Zelda fame.) It is really great to see many parts of this city while meeting and talking to new people every day about the gospel, and we sure have found some interesting people! The best experience this week while contacting and tracking was a great door that we tracked into a few nights ago. This older lady opened the door and we told her who we were and such, and she invited us in. As we were standing in front of the door she yelled for her husband saying: "Alexandr come here! The church is here to atone our sins for us!!!" Her husband came out, a very nice man who has some sort of physical hip deformity that makes it hard for him to walk. After we explained to him that we don't atone for people's sins we gave him a Book of Mormon and he promised to read it. Last time we called him he said he had been reading but wants to read just a little bit more before he talks to us. I'm hoping that that turns into something in the future.

 

Wednesday was Pi Day. I explained why I was excited that it was Pi day in English club and everybody thought I was a huge nerd, except for the Belarusian medical student who came for the second time (the last time she asked me who to say words like "gastro-intestinal system", "aorta", "thrombosis" in English. It was the most anatomically detailed English club I had every done.) After words we had a lesson of sorts with Igor (who I mentioned last week) and I was able to have a great discussion with him for about an hour and a half about why he needed God in his life. It was so interesting for me to talk with him and kind of discuss how certain philosophies (Platonic Theory, Existentialism, Fatalism, Socratic Theory) relate to the gospel. I don't know how effective it was, but one of the other English Club girls was listening and asked for a Book of Mormon afterwards, so I guess it was somewhat worth it.

 

Saturday was St. Patricks Day and I made sure to wear a green tie to celebrate my Irish heritage (I only have one green tie, so I was extremely glad I hadn't worn it earlier in the week). I also made sure to explain to some of the branch members why it was so important to me. I don't think they really understood exactly why Saint Patricks Day was a big deal, but I was glad to bring just a little bit of Irish culture to the branch here in Smolensk. Unfortunately we also had ran out of potatoes (and by ran out I mean we bought potatoes a month ago and put them in our dark cupboard and then forgot they were there so when we wanted to use them they had all sprouted nasty potato alien plants so we couldn't eat any of the potatoes) and I couldn't locate any corned beef. But I'm sure that it was the thought that counted.

 

Well that's all I've got for this week. Tuesday night I leave on a night train for Moscow which should be exciting. I'm excited to go see my friends and get to hang around Moscow for a day (however last time I blew the rest of my Christmas money!). And, we will certainly go and visit our favorite spot in Moscow: One of the two Wendy's in Russia! Mmmm..... Wendy's......

 

Sincerely Over and Out,

Elder Zachery Brasier

 

P.S. Did you know that Isaac Asimov was born not far from here? I didn't either, until recently!

I Keep Hearing About How the Winter Is Over, but I Really Don't Believe It......

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Things are going good this week. In order to clear up any concerns about the craziness connected with the Russian elections, it didn't really effect us at all. The only thing that really happened is that the police were patrolling the streets a lot more and fewer people were at sacrament meeting. Otherwise, it was pretty much normal. We didn't have to stay in or anything and there was no political unrest in Smolensk. I actually wasn't even aware that there were problems in Moscow, we have been hearing more about Mitt Romney then Vladimir Putin lately. So don't worry, we were pretty safe!

The end of this week was a vacation week for Russia. On the 8th was Women's Day and then after that everybody was off from work and school for three days, which meant a lot of people were less willing to meet with us. However, Elder Mitchell and I have continued to work rather hard. I forgot to mention, but he is originally from California but was living in Kirtland, Ohio before he went on his mission. We have been working to increase our investigator pool and work towards some baptisms here. Right now our best investigator is this Indian guy named Gokul who randomly called us one day and wanted to meet. He speaks English, Hindi, Russian, and some other language I didn't recognize, so we teach him in English and he teaches us how to spell our names and say phrases in Hindi. Currently his religion is Krishnaism (Taylor Jensen, I thought you might find that interesting) so it has been a very interesting experience for us. We essentially have to give him the Christian background that most Russians grow up with and teach him about God and Jesus Christ. The cool thing is that we inexplicably had two Hindi Book of Mormons in our branch. For the longest time I was so confused as to why we had these books, but I guess one of them was meant for Gokul. Our other solid investigator is a man named Daniil. He is a great guy but kind of a Bible Basher. When we teach he likes to play the "devil's advocate" role and tear down our doctrine, but he does it in order to see how we can explain things from his viewpoint. I love lessons with him because I have to keep on my toes and really use the Bible to teach. Investigators like Daniil are always interesting because they force me to really figure out where the doctrine comes from. We always tell people that there was an apostasy from the truth and thus a restoration was restored. Most people don't ask a whole lot about that, but Daniil does, so it forces me to go back and look in the scriptures for the scriptural proof. Teaching him has been fascinating and I recently drew what I called the "Super Plan of Salvation" detailing God's plan for us and listing nearly a hundred scriptural references to back everything up. I became so grateful for modern day restoration and the understanding that comes from having a prophet of God right now on the Earth. Sometimes though, I get frustrated though while teaching him. However, the other day we got done with a lesson and Daniil said: "I'm sorry I am so hard to teach and I argue so much, but I am just like Joseph Smith, I need to know the truth." That really made my day.

Speaking of Bible Bashers, we seemed to have run into a ton of them lately! It seems like nearly every lesson we have had has been with a Bible Basher for the past few days. We have had people come with Lingustics arguments about the language of the Book of Mormon, mathematics arguments concerning the weight of the Golden Plates, scriptural arguements (the prophetic test in Deuteronomy 18: 20-22) and so on. It has been a really test of strength on my testimony to be confronted with all this stuff. We have been running into anti-Mormon arguments since Day 1 in Smolensk and I am grateful that my testimony of the church has not been shaken much by what people have thrown at us. However, let this be a warning to all prospective missionaries! Make sure you have a solid testimony when you get in the field, because out in the mission field people shoot to kill! In the midst of all this though, I find comfort in the fact that as missionaries we don't have to get worried about what other people might say, because we know the truth, and we have the Word of God to back us up, and I have been strengthened time and time again but being able to find the answers to all this opposition quite easily by researching and praying about the truth. Every time we run into somebody adverse to our cause, it ultimately strengthens my testimony.

I recently had a bit of a self searching moment. It has been interesting for me to be serving with somebody who is the same age on the mission as me. Probably for the rest of my mission now, I will no longer be the junior companion, or if I am, not by much. Thus, it really is up to Elder Mitchell and I to figure out how to work best. It is crazy to me to step back from the missionary program for a little bit and just look at it from an outsiders view. Two 19 year old young men, not even graduated from college go on the streets every day and try to bring people to word of God. We spend our whole day worrying and working towards other people's eternal salvation. The salvation of some random 45 year old man on the street in essence lies on the shoulders of two young people who can barely hack their way through the Russian language. People who say that God no longer performs miracles need only look at the missionary program to see a miracle in progress. Sometimes I don't like to think about how much pressure is on us but sometimes it is cool to realize that the growth of the church essentially relies on the efforts of 19-26 year old young men and women. Today during scriptures study I read this verse, Doctrine and Covenants 133:58-59 (emphasis added): "... for the Lord's errand in the day when the weak shall confound the wise and the little ones become a strong nation and the two shall put their tens of thousands to flight. And by the weak things of the earth the Lord shall thrash the nations by the power of his Spirit." So yes, I just thought I would share that moment of introspection with you all. I am just so thankful to be on a mission (even though sometimes I feel so much significantly older than I really am!)

Well that is about all that happened this week. I am really excited because next Wednesday we have a Zone Conference in Moscow and my trainer Elder Dannenberg just got transferred to Tver, which is in our zone, so I get to see him again (he has been in Kazakhstan for the past six months)! I'm excited to show him my significantly improved Russian skills! Also tomorrow is Pi Day (3/14) and following that is Saint Patricks Day (3/17). I have got to figure out some great ways to celebrate this two days.

On a cool note, one of our regular English club goers Igor (who is a big fan of Radiohead, Pixies, a bunch of trippy weird movies and such. Essentially he is the only person in Smolensk I can talk to about stuff like that) told me that on the outskirts of the city is a Nazi bunker complex that people can go and see. He suggested I wait till the snow melts because it would be hard to hike through the forest right now, but come April our district will be making it a priority to go out and tour the bunker complex. So I am pretty excited about that!

Come on snow... melt, melt, melt, melt......

As Always,

Elder Zachery Brasier

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

I must apologize for the delay on my weekly update. There were some logistical issues. Our normal Internet cafe got closed down for a repair (I think this is the word, I can only remember the word in Russian: Ремонт and it means to go and to fix up the store, give it new wallpaper and stuff. I can't for the life of me remember the English word!) so we had to use the post office but for some reason my computer was not loading LDS Mail services so I had to wait until today to have time to write. Once again, I offer my humble and sincere apologies.

This week has not been an extremely exciting week, excluding a few events. First of all, this six week transfer is ending tomorrow and transfer calls came in. It looks as though I'll be staying in Smolensk for another transfer and will be serving with Elder Mitchell who I knew in the MTC. That should be exciting. Elder Jewkes became the official branch president of the Smolensk Branch of the church and Elder Melling heads home tomorrow. An Elder from Voronezh will be replacing him on Thursday. Also, I got released from being the branch pianist. The lady who used to play the piano finally decided that she wanted to play again, so she will be doing that job.

President Woolley came and visited us this week and we had an activity for Women's Day and Men's Day/Day of the Defence of the Motherland. It was a pretty good activity and we had a lot of non-members come. President Woolley also seemed to have enjoyed our activity and I was quite pleased that everything ran smoothly. A few days earlier, Elder Bitner and Elder Hasbuillin (the Assistants to the President) came. I also enjoy having the AP's around. Elder Bitner and I had quite a successful day, and since it was the same day as transfer calls he was able to inform me of where all my friends were being transferred. Transfers is one of the most exciting times for the missionaries and there is always a lot of speculation about who is moving where. Unfortunately we are almost always wrong because President always pulls some sort of unexpected transfer that throws off all of our "transfer tracking."

On my day with Elder Bitner I was able to teach the strangest lesson I have yet to run into on his mission. A few weeks earlier, Elder Jewkes and I had met a man named Sergei on the street who was a political activist who was trying to get us interested in a political party attempting to create a Russian empire with an Emperor at the head and all that jazz. He gave us his business card and told us to call him. One night we decided to just call him (almost as a joke) and he said he wanted to meet, especially because he had met with missionaries earlier in his life and really liked them. So, Elder Bitner and I went to the appointment.

Things started out rather smoothly. Sergei gave us some literature about the party (which I cut pictures out of and send them in letters) and told us about his life. Then we prayed together and Elder Bitner and I started teaching by asking him what he believed about God. This is where things went downhill. He started to tell us about how God was not like us at all, just something indescribable, (this is not that strange for us since we get this response alot) specifically, God is an alien. According to Sergei God has green skin and big eyes and sends his angels (also aliens) to visit us. How does he know this? Well because he has had an extraterrestrial encounter! About 20 years ago he was sitting in his house and suddenly the room filled with light and all his electronic devices started to go wild. A figure started to descend from the ceiling! Sergei knew exactly what to do and ran into the kitchen and bathroom, turning on all the faucets and showers. He did this because, as we all know, aliens are terrified of water (I think he might have seen "Signs" a few too many times). Fortunately for Sergei the alien left, but for the next 20 years he has been constantly followed by Flying Cigars and Saucers that have been trying to send him messages. This is Sergei's religious foundation. Also he explained to us how Jesus Christ was not a human (Homo Sapien specifically) but was some sort of alternate species of humanity with some crazy features and some very specific evolutionary traits that we didn't quite understand. He rambled on for about 38 minutes until we cut him off and told him to read the Book of Mormon and come to church, after which we promptly left. Sergei is a really nice guy, but we didn't set up a return appointment. Elder Bitner is going home also on Wednesday and told me that after more than 2 years on his mission, that was the weirdest "lesson" he had ever had. I would had to agree (even though the lesson where our investigator predicted the downfall of America with the Book of Daniel was a close second.) Experiences like that make me love my mission, since at what other time can you experience something like that?

Well that is about all I have for now. I am now working with new investigators since Elder Jewkes is keeping our old investigators and I am starting to work with Elder Mitchell's old investigators. I don't know a whole lot of them besides this Indian guy who I met on Saturday. Once I find out more about them I will let you know how things are going. For now at least, I am happy because the winter is now officially over, even though it was -20 C today! The snow should start melting soon and the spring will come, which supposedly is a beautiful time in Smolensk.

At any rate, I wish you all luck!

As Always,

Elder Zachery Brasier