This week has been the week of visitors to Ryazan. President Sorenson decided to come down and visit with some of the members of the Ryazan branch and the following day Elder Jewkes and Elder Palmer (the Zone Leaders) came down to Ryazan in order to do splits with us and give a little bit of training.
President Sorenson's visit was pretty fun, mostly because I have become more or less the official translator of the Ryazan branch (besides Vitaliy from time to time). Almost every week I translate for Elder Ottly as we try to reorganize the branch and get it running smoothly and when President Sorenson came I became the official translator for all of his interviews. I really enjoyed that because I got to spend a lot of time with President Sorenson during his visit, and I am very grateful that we have such a great and friendly leader in our mission. President Sorenson also took the time to teach me a little Finnish, since he served his mission there. I am incredibly glad that I am learning Russian and not Finnish! I have massive amounts of respect for all the people who try to learn the Finnish language... It sure is a tough one (even though President Sorenson says that Russian is harder.. I somehow doubt that!)
The following day the Zone Leaders came. I was way excited to work with Elder Jewkes for a day, just like old times! He also brought good news. Vladimir, the doctor investigator from Smolensk who couldn't get baptized due to his girlfriend, finally got baptized! They had the baptism two weeks ago and it sounds like he was extremely happy to finally get baptized after such a long time. His girlfriend even came to the baptism and invited the missionaries over to their apartment. I really gained a testimony that eventually people will be able to fulfill the righteous desires of their heart and the Lord will always provide a way for people to choose righteousness. I don't know exactly why Vladimir had to wait so long to be baptized, but I know the there was a bigger purpose in the whole ordeal. Somehow, Vladimir got strengthened by the experience and is now prepared to be a leader in Smolensk. I am just so happy to know that I helped just a little with his teaching and conversion and that even though his situation seemed pretty hopeless before, he is now baptized and can begin working on his goal to attend the temple. I am really so happy for him!
Elder Jewkes and I had a good day, trying to help unload wheelchairs for the upcoming humanitarian project (trying because they actually didn't need our help at all, they just forgot to tell us that they already had everything under control), contacting on Victory Square, having (possibly) mafia men swear at us, avoiding Gypsies trying to steal our money, listening to Vitaliy's plans for world domination and almost missing buses. You know, just a standard day in the trenches! Once again, I am grateful for my good friends here on the mission who are always steadfast with their missionary work.
Otherwise, this has a been a pretty fun week. We've had some good lessons, especially with Alex who is way great and spiritually prepared and Felix who came to church once again and had a really great time at church. A lot of our investigators are moving towards baptism but at the same time a lot of our investigators are beginning to slough off. This is the way things are in the kingdom of God and in the fight to get people on the true path. As missionaries we are here to provide people with enough spiritual opportunities and ample knowledge that they can make an informed and spiritual choice about which path to follow. It all hinges on peoples freedom of agency and choice, unfortunately many people, even when presented with the light and knowledge of the gospel will choose not to accept it, to no fault of the missionaries or anybody else. Eventually all people are backed up against the wall of faith and have to decide for themselves whether or not to take a stand and choose to follow Jesus Christ, or to back down and retreat into darkness. Some people are just more comfortable with darkness, and the missionaries have to stop meeting with them in order to find the people prepared to hear our message. Anabolism and catabolism are always at work in the kingdom of God.
During the week, I have had a few harrowing experiences which have once again reminded me that as missionaries we are in a very literal fight against the forces of darkness. Sin is very real, and the world we live in can be a dark and evil place. It really excites me to know that on my mission I truly do have to responsibility to work my hardest in order to combat the evil in the world. I really am glad that I have to gospel in my life and I have the mission to share it with others.
On a less serious note, my name changed this week. I recently ordered new tags from the MTC because I lost my tag with a pin, which I need during the winter. It is probably obvious that all of our names as missionaries have to be transcribed using the Cyrillic alphabet, thus my name on my old pin tag and my current clip on tag was Брэйжер which transliterates as "Breyzhyer". That is about as close as you can get to my last name using the Cyrillic alphabet. Well, for some reason the MTC decided to send me a new pin tag with my name spelt as Брэйзер which transliterates as "Breyzyer". Брэйзер? A hard "z" instead of a tasteful "zh"? I am quite indignant, but I guess while I have my coat on I'll be Брэйзер now instead of Брэйжер, but at least I'll have my correct name when I take my coat off!
Ok, enough of that. Have a nice week.
As Always,
Elder (Sir) Zachery E. Brasier
Quotes of the Week:
-Me: "Hey Felix, your looking good today." Felix: "Yeah thanks, I'm always looking good." (Which is true)
-Vladimir: "ITS A TRUE!" (responding to a joke that somebody made).
Moscow Time
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