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
Moscow Time
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