Well as you might have guessed from the title of my email this week we have been dealing with the heat. I heard that there is a heat wave right now in America, and I'm convinced that there is also a heat wave here in Russia. Throughout the week we have been dealing with temperatures around +30 Celsius and ridiculous humidity. Here's the kicker, we have absolutely no air conditioning! Thus our two rotary fans are working full power and I pretty much carry my fan around as I do things in the apartment like cook, shave, read and try to live. I guess the heat is livable but I am still looking forward to the fall that will start in September.
Our past week was pretty exciting. On P Day we went bowling which was nice, even though my skills are still sub par to say the least. Then the next day we jumped on an "elektrichka" on the way to Moscow. These are small commuter electric trains that run between the cities. They also feel like I'm some soldier shipping off to the Westren Front, because they are essentially packed like cattle cars. So they are always an adventure. The conference itself was interesting since it was the first mission conference of the new Moscow mission. I of course enjoyed seeing all my friends and I found out that I'll be pulling another transfer in Ryazan! So it looks like I'll be here for a while longer, which I am perfectly happy with. I really love Ryazan and I love working with the members and investigators. On the way back from conference we rode on a bus that was so humid that the windows were sweating from condensation. That was really enjoyable.
The rest of the week went by somewhat smoothly. Fortunately, the university exams have ended and thus next week we can begin to meet with our best two investigators Misha and Alexander Pushkin. I am incredibly excited about this development, and it seems as though the drought of investigators is finally coming to an end, as many of the people we have been trying to meet with have decided to start visiting with the missionaries! Also, for some reason we have been finding the coolest people contacting. Early this week we found a guy named Max who speaks English like a champ, and has been to America quite a few times. He loves talking with us and also has a small family, so we are going to try to start officially teaching him. Also, yesterday we found this guy named Alex who is some sort of incredible chef in Russia. Alex owns two restaurants in Moscow and one in Ryazan and frequently appears on the Russia cooking channel. During his time as a chef, he also has been able to meet tons of famous people and even cooked for the President of Kazakhstan, which is quite a feat. So yes, we are secretly hoping that one day he'll just set us up with some sweet food. Finally, we met some two random Algerian guys on the street who tried to speak to us in English and I tried the few French phrases that I knew. I have been tempted often to keep a tally of the different nationalities I have met on my mission, because I've met quite a few different people.
Otherwise, things are pretty much business as usual here in Ryazan. I'm excited to be pushing another transfer here and probably another few months. I must say, the work here is going along much better then some of my old areas and I feel as though I really am making some sort of minor difference here in Ryazan, which is a good feeling, since many times you can feel somewhat unappreciated and useless as a missionary. I have not however felt that way in this city, and thus I'm excited to be able to help the branch and people here more over the next few months. Everybody have a great week!
Sincerely,
Elder Zachery Brasier
PS- The AP's are here on splits right now and Elder Turner and I just had to break into the branch building in order to write home, since we didn't have a key. Fortunately one of the windows had been left open, so we were able to get in through the window, which was probably somewhat sketchy looking, since two guys in ties and white shirts were climbing up a wall into a second story window always looking over their shoulders. Sometimes we create the myth that we are actually CIA agents!
Moscow Time
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