From Russia With Love: Not for all my little words.

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

In a shocking turn of events, the weather has become significantly warmer, so it is probably going to be a little bit of time before the snow comes once again. I only tell you this because there always seems to be a bit of a morbid curiosity with the weather in Russia and thus I would like you all to know: I am not frozen just quite yet.

From an uneventful start, this week has become quite interesting. Last week we weren't able to go to the zone conference for our zone due to the untimely death of Sergei Markin, and thus our plan was to go to Moscow this week for the other zone conference Thursday. We bought bus tickets and were all ready to go, when I get a call from Elder Olsen in the middle of a lesson telling me that the zone conference doesn't start at ten o'clock like we had been told but actually at nine o'clock! Thus, we had to go buy train tickets last minute. With a few quick phone calls I cancelled all of our lessons and ran down to the train station hoping that tickets still existed for the 3:40 out of Ryazan the following morning. Fortunately, their was and all was good. On return home I settled back to enjoy some halvah and a successful last minute change of plans. Elder Merrill and I decided to go to bed early to get some extra sleep and right as we are turning off the lights I get a call from our zone leaders, Elder Jewkes and Palmer. "I have some bad news Elder Brasier," starts Elder Jewkes. Me, being fairly sick of getting bad news on Wednesday night, asks him to share. "There is going to be an anti-Mormon demonstration tomorrow in Moscow! Don't come into Moscow! And also, lay low tomorrow..." And so it was.

Instead of going to Moscow on Thursday we instead laid low in Ryazan while this demonstration worked itself out. Don't worry, we were completely safe, and for that matter everybody in Moscow was perfectly safe. This week, we should be going to Moscow on Thursday for zone conference, but seeing as twice in a row something extraordinary has come up, I'm not holding my breathe just quite yet.

Also this week, we had a Halloween party! It was quite fun. I think that my two Halloweens in Russia have been my favorite in my life. We of course bought tons of candy, lots of cake and just everything that contributes to cardio-vascular impairment. Lots of our investigators showed up as many of our members and it was a great night that gave people the opportunity to have some good clean fun and learn that the missionaries aren't just weird robot men from Alpha Centauri or Betelgeuse (although I did wear my welding/viewing nuclear test detonation goggles, so I did look slightly strange. But honestly, is that different than any other day?) I really enjoyed myself and once again I realized how great it is to have all of these good friends here in Ryazan. I really have met some of the most interesting people in my tenure here, and I am quite grateful for that. The night rounded off with a little bit of smashing pumpkins (which we did a pretty bad job cleaning off of the sidewalk) and guitar serenades from a random guy who just showed up. Overall effective.

Sunday was a great day. Last Sunday, this man just randomly showed up to church named Anton. Conveniently enough, President Sorenson was speaking so it was an especially interesting Sunday, and he even told us that he wanted to be baptized. For whatever reason we couldn't meet with him during the week so we invited him to church. Our church starts at 11 and as soon as 10:55 rolls around you start getting a sinking feeling when your investigator doesn't show up. Some other investigators do come, but we really want Anton to come! All during the meeting I keep listening for steps in the hallway but every time, it is either my imagination or the girl who just went to the bathroom. Blasted bathroom breaks. Finally we get a text message from Anton and he apologizes because his alarm didn't go off but the fire alarm/sprinkler system did, so he had to evacuate the place he was staying in and save the documents. Well that's not a bad reason to miss church I guess. Disappointed, we plan to meet next week but suddenly an hour after the meeting is over he texts us and asks when we can be at the branch. Right now, of course. We end up meeting with him an hour and a half after church and it was a great lesson! Anton pretty much said all the right things and we just flew through it, until the end, when he asked us about baptism. We had mentioned it earlier, but now it was on the table! So, with a little bit of courage we asked him to be baptized on the November the 24th, and he accepted! Then he almost started crying. Then I almost started crying. Then Anton ended that by putting his hands up and saying: "No no, we all have to be men here!" Ok, good plan. We are meeting with him again today, and I am supper excited. Once again, the best investigator comes out of nowhere. The Lord truly does bless us.

Alright, well that's all I've got. I'll try to send some Halloween pictures to. Stay frosty my friends!

As Always,

Elder Zachery E. Brasier

From left to right: Random guitar guy, Elder Merrill, Alex (one of my favorite people ever), Me, Anton (investigator who I talked about)