If I had to give one nickname to Russia, it would be: "The Home of Extreme Weather Conditions." In Russia we rarely have just a nice, partly cloudy, mid 70's day. Instead we either have pounding snow, blazing heat, dreary overcast, or pouring rain. Pick one of the three! This week the weather decided to rain. One day it was unseasonably cold and the next the clouds above opened up and let it all out. Rain, rain, rain (leading me to make references to many songs about rain. I always sing Banana Pancakes by Jake Johnson when it starts raining and my companions always beg me to stop after about two lines because of my great singing skills. Otherwise I just hum to myself "Rain" by The Beatles or "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.) The rain that we have seen in Russia has been outstanding. A few nights ago Elder Hunt and I got caught in the rain when our bus overshot our stop, thus forcing us to run through pouring rains and shin deep puddles. That was entertaining. Yesterday, we decided to do a contacting activity, and go give out Book of Mormons and a nearby square. In theory, it was a good plan. However, the rain stopped us dead in our tracks. We had walked about half way to the square when the lightning crashed and the rain came thundering down from heaven. Quickly, we found a small awning and hid under that. Imagine it, six American missionaries (two Elders, two Sisters, and a senior couple) hiding under a small awning in the middle of an intense Russia rain storm. Our hiding place worked well, until the wind came, suddenly turning the falling rain into horizontally flying water daggers of death. I felt like the rain was chasing us like the cold would chase the characters in "The Day After Tomorrow" and I couldn't help but thinking about a certain Ray Bradbury short story (you know; the one where the astronauts get trapped on Venus and are driven insane by the rain?) I really feel bad for my friends in the wet forests and islands of the world (and the people in Noah's time), because I feel like I really understand what they deal with. Yes, so our contacting activity was effectively ruined, but we have a good story to tell now (and good pictures, which I would send but I left my camera in my apartment.)
Otherwise, the weather is very nice now. Right now is the rare time of the year when Russia has really nice weather two or three days out of the week. With all the rain and melted snow from early months, spring has come into full bloom. The trees are huge and beautiful and everything is green. Russia really is a beautiful country in the spring and fall (and I think the winter as well, but some people would disagree with me). Thus, I am enjoying the great seasonal changes that have been occurring, even though they have come with a few colds and allergy attacks.
Missionary work has been coming along here in Ryazan. We do a lot of English lessons because that is what the university kids are most interested in. For English lessons we teach them thirty minutes English and thirty minutes about the gospel, that way we can still teach them missionary lessons while helping them learn the English language. We also run two English clubs, one on Tuesday and one on Friday. Our clubs are a huge contacting tool for us. Once or twice a week we'll go street contacting in normal "civilian" clothes and give out hundreds of paper invitations to English club. So far, it has been pretty successful and we have a developed a pretty solid group of people who come to English Club and also our Sports Day.
Our investigators are coming along. Right now we have a few difficulties because when Elder Beckh transferred out of Ryazan many of our investigators stopped meeting with us or have said that they aren't interested. Often times, when a missionary leaves an area after serving their for six months or so, the next missionaries have to rebuild the teaching pool, since some people become converted to a specific missionary and not the gospel itself. However, we still are working hard with our investigators and we have found some great new ones. Alexander Pushkin accepted a baptismal commitment this week so we just have to set a baptismal date and teach him a little bit more. We've had some pretty good lessons with Denis and will soon be having some English lessons with some of the college students. Tonya and Louis are doing pretty good. Today we had a really good lesson with them. We had the senior missionaries (the Storm's) help us out, since Tonya is their translator and Louis speaks pretty good English. At the end of the lesson Louis told us about how his dad died when he was young and recounted his own personal search for God. After he finished his story he told us that he liked meeting with us since we can all speak on common ground about God (also I was able to understand when he asked me what a certain French word meant! Yeah!) Tonya also said that she likes meeting with us because she can feel something different when she talks to us. That may not seem like a whole lot, but that is really big progress for Tonya. They are both really awesome, and their three year old son, Lev, is awesome.
Late last week we had a meeting with Vitalii. After telling us about some more of his conspiracy theories and stories (such as his courtship of Barbara Bush which didn't work out) he told Elder Hunt that he had created an operational alias for him. Thus Elder Hunt was nicknamed "Sniper Scout", since he is a hunter. Then Vitalii looked at my name and asked: "What is that name? Is it French?" Of course I responded yes. He continued:' "Well that's easy, your from the Foreign Legion, they are going to go take down Syria soon. You're like the Foreign Legion guy.... That's your name." And thus my operational is "The Foreign Legion" or simply, "The Legionnaire." So I guess I'm set for secret services. Vitalii is easily my favorite member. He is a great guy, and has a really strong testimony, once you can get him on topic. We watched the hour long Joseph Smith movie with him and afterwards he bore one of the most sincere testimony's I had ever heard (after which he told us about how Moscow was going to be destroyed by the World Power Peace organization.) It was really nice.
That is pretty much the state of things hear in Ryazan. Sometimes I idly wonder how long I'll stay here.... I guess I'll find out shortly, but the future is still in flux...
As always with love,
Elder Zachery "The Legionnaire" Brasier
PS: Another great Vitalii quote: "Elder Brasier you seem like a smart guy. Smart guys are dangerous, so you're a dangerous man..... I like that!"
Moscow Time
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