Kafka's Revenge

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Well this week has officially seen a bit of a logistical breakdown of our mission (as implied somewhat by the title of this e-mail). I will explain this in just a few seconds.

The week started out pretty much uninteresting with nothing really exciting going on, basically just routine. We had a good lesson with Gokul about the Plan of Salvation and cleared up a lot of his concerns about reincarnation and how that works with God's Plan. I was quite glad that I had studied a little bit of Hinduism in college so I could better relate and understand his religious background. It reminded me of the scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants where we are commanded to learn about the world so that we may "be prepared in all things when I send send you again to magnify the calling whereunto I have called you, and the mission with which I have commissioned you." (DC 88:78-80). Gokul is way cool and he promised to pray about the Plan of Salvation. He also really likes the story of Nephi in the Book of Mormon and told us all about how we should honor our parents and such. Gokul is a really awesome guy, he just passed his exams to become a doctor and he really is starting to grasp the role of Jesus Christ in his life and the Plan of God. Every lesson he prays in Hindi because it is more comfortable for him, so I am starting to learn some Hindi words like Father, friends, and such. Also during the week we found some new investigators and had some pretty successful English clubs. More and more people are coming each week and I have really begun to understand how to teach the English language. Teaching your native tongue is somewhat difficult because you understand instinctively why the language is the way it is, but it can be difficult at times to explain the grammar or mechanics of the language.

And thus the week was going along quite swimmingly when President mysteriously called us on Thursday. He began talking to me with the shocking sentence: "Well Elder Brasier I am giving you a mid-transfer transfer." I was shocked, but was somewhat expecting to be transferred back to Nizhny or maybe to Voronezh due to the fact that mini-missionaries are currently serving there. However I was wrong. President informed me that I was being transferred into the office to serve as one of the Office Elders in Moscow. This was slightly shocking to me because it was completely unexpected. President told me that I had a few more days in Smolensk and I would be leaving on Monday to serve in the office with Elder Lantukh (who I served with earlier in Nizhny) so I should say good bye to everybody in Smolensk.
Thus, for the next few days I called all the people I cared about the most, got them to write in my journal, took pictures of the city and the people, prepared my farewell talk, and started to pack. Then, Saturday night President calls me again and says: "Elder Brasier you aren't coming into the Office on Monday, the mission is really messed up right now and we don't know what is going on really. You will probably come in sometime over the next few weeks, just be ready to transfer." So now I am just sitting in Smolensk (working still) wondering when I am going to get transferred in Moscow.

Here is the problem. Kazakhstan is having huge issues right now. Astana just got shut down for missionary work and Almaty is having issues. So Elder Dannenberg is stuck in Astana because of Visa problems that aren't allowing him to LEAVE Kazakhstan. Elder Starr (my original replacement in Smolensk) has been bouncing around three cities for two weeks before finally ending up as the acting Branch President of Tver. The old branch president, Elder Jensen, has been in Ukraine for a week trying to get a Kazakh Visa which has now been denied. The problem is he doesn't have a current Russian Visa so has been stuck in Ukraine. The mini-missionary in Vorenezh can't go home for another three weeks (this is a problem because the missionary who I would replace in the office was supposed to go there) and pretty much things don't make any sense right now. I feel bad for President Woolley because the man has to be incredibly stressed right now. Some of the missionaries in our mission have been on a train ten times in the past week while everybody gets shuffled around trying to get all the cities manned while President tries to figure out what to do. Sometimes my mission is crazy.

More or less that is the state of affairs right now. It is really weird to have said goodbye to everybody but actually not leave, especially because I don't know when will be leaving Smolensk now! It's not a big problem, because I love Smolensk and we are starting to see a little bit of progress with the branch and our investigators. The snow is also starting to melt (theoretically, it snows lightly almost every morning) which means spring is coming eventually. I can't believe it is still snowing and 0 degrees Celsius in April!

Essentially I have not a whole lot to report about this week besides the Kafkaesque logistics. I spent most of my week saying goodbye to people and spending time with the youth and the investigators which we have. I'll make sure to let you all know when I eventually get transferred to Moscow, because as of right now I don't know when that will be!


As Always,
Elder Zachery Brasier

PS: A good scripture I really liked this week from the Book of Mormon: 2 Nephi 26:23-24: "For behold my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness. He doeth not anything anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation." Everybody is invited to partake of the salvation of God and everything that God and Christ has done is for our benefit. I know this to be true because I have seen it so many times on my mission!

PSS- Also I receive all the packages that are sent to me. I appreciate them so much, and I've sent out cards to everybody who I got stuff from, they just might take awhile to get to America!