This week was actually a pretty fun week, so in order to give some sort of structure to my letter, I will order events sequentially, and hopefully it all makes sense.
Early in this week we went to this Supermarket called OK (Окей in Russian). This was essentially the Russian version of a SuperWalmart which was absolutely fascinating for me. It was more or less a slice of American retail and was the biggest super market that I have ever been in yet on my mission. Of course, I had to take a good look at the foreign cheese section, and was able to find a great selection of French Blue and Brie cheeses, which made me quite happy. I could go into much detail about the myriad of food selection at this store, but that would get quite boring. I must say that it was an awesome store though and consistently blew my mind. The best part about it was an oxymoron that I found upon entering the store. Since Victory Day is coming up very soon, there were a ton of banners for Victory Day all decorated with Hammers and Sickles and multiple Soviet images, but I thought it was funny that these huge Soviet banners were in the middle of a Walmart (for all intents and purposes). Lenin would be rolling in his glass box coffin on Red Square if he knew about that!
As much as I enjoyed finding a contradiction of economic policies while grocery shopping, that was not the most exciting thing that happened this week. The best part of our week was our weekly jaunt to another city. This week we went back to my old city, Nizhny Novgorod! I was extremely excited when I heard that we were going back to Nizhny, since I had promised all the members there that I would return before I ended my mission, and I was able to make good on my promise! Also, we ended up staying at Elder Olsen's apartment, which I enjoyed quite a bit.
We arrived at Nizhny late Friday night, and poor Elder Olsen had one of the most stressful days of his mission, so he really needed to sleep but we ended up waking him up at midnight. When he opened up his apartment door for us I laughed a little because he looked absolutely exhausted, it was the most tired I had ever seen him. At any rate, we slept over that night and woke up in the morning to a very familiar phone alarm (the recording of one of Elder Hoffman's morning wake up motivation). I really had a great time hanging out with Elder Olsen, but I felt bad for his greenie because we had so much to talk about and so many old "war stories" to tell about our missionary adventures that he had no clue what we were talking about. One of my favorite things though about getting older on my mission is the ability to tell old mission war stories about crazy contacts, being chased out of apartments and creepy experiences, especially when you can talk to someone else about your experiences who understands or experienced them with you. On Saturday night Elder Olsen and I accidentally stayed up until about one o'clock chatting, listening to classical music and killing cockroaches that were climbing up the walls (we named one Bethusalah). It was quite good times, but every time one of us tried to go to sleep the other would bring up something like the Gary Powers U-2 incident, crazy Kazakhstan rumors, or the Dyatlov pass mystery, and start a new line of conversation. I really enjoyed hanging out with Elder Olsen!
The best part of going to Nizhny was seeing the church members (of course). We were lucky enough to go when they were having a sports day, so we got to spend Saturday afternoon playing volleyball and soccer with church members, investigators and BYU exchange students. Right now there is a group of BYU exchange students in Nizhny who are learning Russian and experiencing the country. They were all super cool and it was really nice to talk to American's who weren't missionaries! I realized that I can still integrate into normal society! However, I must get sidetracked and tell a slightly funny story. I was asked to help lead a group of the students to the Lower Branch on Sunday morning, but I didn't have any of their numbers so I couldn't coordinate with them. After searching for awhile, we found one number from them, one of the girl students. For some reason my awkwardness level skyrocketed when I realized that I had to call a non-missionary girl BYU student. Elder Olsen, always so supportive, reassured me by promising that I could use speakerphone and he would sit and listen to the conversation and help me out. It was ridiculous how awkward I felt, especially when I couldn't think of what to say to say goodbye and ended with a short: "Ok Goodbye" and hung up without any reply. I looked over at Elder Olsen and told him that that was the worst phone conversation of my life, to which he responded: "Not ready to talk to girls on telephones yet?" No, of course not! But otherwise, the BYU students were way cool and I really enjoyed talking to them.
All of the members at Nizhny were great. It was so fun to see that they didn't change a whole lot, and the same personalities still existed. All of my friends, Ilya, Slava, Natasha, Dasha, Tonya and others were still awesome and the families that I loved to be around were still doing great! Everybody kept asking if I had come back to serve with them again, and it kind of broke my heart to tell them that I was only there for to weekend. I would have loved to tell them yes, but I guess it is not to be. It was also great to see some of my old investigators again, especially Alexander, which was out of the city when I left Nizhny so I haven't seen for almost seven months! He was doing great, and it was good to see him again. On Sunday evening we went to dinner at the Bagachev/Chesnakova family, which is one of my favorite families in Nizhny, and had a great time chatting with them. They were really interested in what I did in Smolensk so I was able to tell them all about Smolensk and also catch up on their lives. I felt so much love and Spirit in their house, I just keep thinking how much I love that family!
Last night we left Nizhny after a great trip and the youth all came to the train station to see us off as they always do. It was just as sad to leave them the second time as it was the first time. I really loved being in Nizhny again and it was a much needed "recharge" of sorts to go back to my older area where the members were so kind and so generous to my companions and I. I always felt loved and appreciated in Nizhny, so going back for the weekend felt like taking a trip back home, to a place were I knew I was loved. I think that I feel in a way the kinship that Paul felt for the church in Philippi, where the people were so kind and accepting and grateful for his service. I could probably go on for awhile about how much I love Nizhny, but I think you get the point. This was a very great weekend.
Well that's all I've got for the week, I hope you all have a great week, and remember to celebrate Victory Day on May 9th! Also, I wish you a late "Happy Star Wars Day" which is celebrated on May the Fourth (get it?). Have a nice week and stay classy!
As Always,
Elder Zachery Brasier
Moscow Time
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