The Continuing Adventures of The Achiever and Pretzel No.2

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

The adventures continue here in Moscow. As I approach the end of my mission we are continuing to face the weather, sometimes hostile people, and off the wall investigator questions with the same tenacity that has graced the past few weeks.

Easter is coming up. Actually a lot of holidays are coming up. On the 1st is International Labor Day, then Easter then on the 9th Victory Day. May is a holiday season here in Russia.

Our investigators are doing pretty good. Not much to report. We will be moving back the baptismal date for Wu-Tao just a little bit, but just enough that I won't be able to see it happen. Oh well. The most important thing is that he gets baptized, and whether or not I am there isn't important, as long as it happens. For the most part, our investigators probably won't be baptized any time in the near future, but they are all on the path. I'm alright with that, because I still love teaching them and seeing their faith grow step by step. A big breakthrough this week was that Vladimir finally came to our church building. We had been trying to get him to come to church for weeks and felt like if we could just get him to come to the building, not even on Sunday, it would make a big difference. So we convinced him to come. I wasn't at the lesson, because I was on splits, but evidently it went really good. The missionaries watched the church produced movie "Finding Faith and Christ" and said that he cried the whole time. Vladimir has so much faith in Jesus Christ, and it is really evident in the way he lives his life. I wish I could have as much faith as he has.

Speaking of splits, they happened. This week I went on splits with the Mitishi elders. As I might have mentioned before, they live in the suburbs of Moscow, and are responsible for a few rad little towns like Pushkino and Voronok. That means a lot of train riding on the intercity "elektrichka" trains, which I rather like, because I have become quite fond of rail transportation. So, I spent the weekend out their, working with those Elders, which was a lot of fun, even though we got caught in the rain on Saturday and had to seek shelter in a shopping mall.

On Sunday I had a pleasant surprise. Some members from Nizhniy were coming back from the temple in Kiev. I was really excited to find out that it was some of my favorite members, and we got to catch up and talk for awhile. It was great to see them again, and even better that they still remembered me, because I left the city almost one and a half years ago! I also forgot to mention that last week some members from Smolensk came to our sacrament meeting, so I have been blessed to seat a lot of my old friends from my old areas.

Well I must apologize that this letter might not be super interesting. I feel bad that as I near the end of my mission, these letters aren't providing some sort of climax to a resounding resolution. Maybe I have just trained myself to think in terms of climax and rising action from my love of literature and film, but the idea of climax on a mission is inherently flawed, for it presupposes eventual falling action. For a disciple of Jesus Christ there is no falling action. As Neal A Maxwell once said, discipleship is meant to be lived in crescendo and that means a steady upward course, and that is how I feel about my mission. Sure there have been low moments or momentary decreases of resolve but overall I feel satisfied in saying (and not meaning to be prideful) that I have lived my mission in crescendo. I am just hoping to carry this upward course that I have been blessed with on through life and continue to progress in the ways that only my Heavenly Father can plan for me.

I hope you all are enjoying the spring and the nice weather it provides. Have a nice week, and live long and prosper.

As Always,

Elder Zachery E. Brasier

Turn a card for my life.

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

It is a beautiful time in Russia! The sun is gone, the days are warm, but not blazing hot like the summer, people are out on the streets and much happier, and most of the museums are open. I love the spring time in Russia! I actually really enjoy being on the streets contacting because the weather is so nice and now we can start hitting the parks because people actually walk in the them (interestingly enough the park near our apartment, Sokolniki park actually plays Kings of Convenience, a Swedish band, on the loud speakers from time to time. It really shocked me.) Really, it is just a good time to be in Russia, and these last few weeks of my mission are shaping up to be some of the best.

Well the investigators are going well. We met with Wu-Tao a lot today to start teaching him the commandments. The lessons are going great with him, and now Mike can help us once again, so my life is becoming slightly more Chinese, for the better. Wu-Tao is super awesome. He is such a great example from me and I learn so much from him. Sometimes I learn Chinese from him. He says that my tones are pretty good.

Also in the international department we had a lesson with a South African protestant missionary this week. It was a break up lesson. He wanted to meet with us to tell us that he doesn't want to meet with us. Unfortunate, but I was really appreciative of the fact that he sat down and told us why he wasn't interested instead of just disappearing or blocking our calls. He knows the classy way to break up with your friendly neighborhood Mormon missionaries.

Vladimir is continuing to do well. He asks a ton of good questions, and I am really glad that I finished reading the Bible cover to cover not too long ago. He loves when we use Biblical scriptures to teach the doctrine, which I enjoy too. It is kind of like friendly Bible bashing, but the other person actually accepts what we are talking about. Last week we had a lesson about the apostasy and after I explained some details he looked at me and said; "Do you mean that [random revival preacher] does not have the fullness of the gospel?" I looked him strait in the eye and said; "Yes." He responded: "And you are telling me that your church is the full restored gospel." Again, I answered simply: "Yes." and then he just sat there and looked at me and eventually started laughing and carrying on about how "cool" we are. I can't really convey how that felt, but I love being able to really simply and boldly declare the doctrine and look somebody in the eye and tell them what you know without a doubt in your mind. It is a thrill, and I love when the Spirit is with us and the timing is right and everything works out. I really love teaching people about the gospel.

Before the Vladimir lesson of which I was talking occurred a funny thing happened. We walked up to his apartment and this little kid was sitting in front of it holding a toy gun. He pointed at us and yelled: "AGENTS!" I laughed and smiled at the boy. He followed us into the apartment and asked really quietly: "Are you agents?" I spun around, looked at him and said really softly: "No, just normal people, now go play..." The kid definitely heard my accent and definitely did not believe me. After the lesson as we exited the apartment the kid was still sitting there and yelled to all his friends: "LOOK ITS THE AGENTS!!!" A walked by as he kept yelling that and then suddenly turned around and stared at him for a good 10 seconds with the most steely eyed look I could muster. Oh man, you should have seen how wide his eyes got! Funny times...

And one more thing. Since the weather is getting better the gypsies are coming out again. They like to go on the Metro and play accordion songs and beg for money. I don't necessarily like gypsies, but the entertainment is nice. However yesterday we made the big mistake of watching one play and we ended up getting chased down the wagon of the train with this gypsy poking Elder Kelly and asking him for money. Blasted gypsies.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I really appreciated them. Have a great week everybody, enjoy the spring weather!

As Always,
Elder Zachery E. Brasier

Spring and the Air Museum

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Spring has officially arrived. Today I had the joyous experience of standing outside and thinking: "Wow, it is pretty hot, I need to take off my jacket." I had this experience while looking at a Tu-4 strategic bomber with the worlds largest helicopter behind my back... But we'll get back to that later.

This week went pretty well. The Assistants to the President came and did splits with us on Thursday. I got to serve the day with Elder Jewkes, which was great, and just like old times, we couldn't get any lessons all day and ended up spending a day contacting. That was alright though, since I like Elder Jewkes (I hope so, since we are going to be roommates up at college!).

In other news, Wu-Tao came back! For the past few weeks I had somewhat half-heartily called him every night only to hear the phone tell me that he was out of service coverage. Then, on Monday night I thought: "Oh, what the heck, lets just call Wu-Tao." I called... and the phone rang... and rang.. and rang... and rang.. and he didn't pick up. Still, it was progress. The next night I gave  him another call and the phone rang.. rang.. rang and Wu-Tao picked up! So we set up a lesson and went over to his apartment. He is doing really great. When he went to China he had some delays, but eventually everything got figured out. He was able to see his family (he has two brothers and a sister, which is out of the ordinary in China) and said that he only brought two books on the trip, his Chinese and English Book of Mormon! We had a great lesson, got to catch up and we are shooting for a mid-May baptism, hopefully right before I go home. It was so great to see him again.

During the weekend we watched General Conference. I really enjoyed being with all the fellow missionaries (and others who wanted to watch in English, like the Stake President) and to listen to the messages from our apostles and prophets. General Conference is always great, especially while on the mission, I feel like every conference I get more out of it, and this conference was no different. I had a lot of questions and concerns that I had been working on, and the talks of conference really helped me out. Here are my favorites (since everybody inevitably asks) in order of appearance:

*These Things I Know- President Boyd K. Packer (especially the part about tolerance and differentiating between the sin and sinner)

*The Savior Wants to Forgive- Elder Craig A Cardon

*For Peace at Home- Elder Richard G. Scott

*Four Titles- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf (this was probably my favorite talk from conference, it was exactly what I need at this time.)

*The Hope of God's Light- President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

*Marriage: Watch and Learn- Elder L. Whitney Clayton

*Obedience to the Law is Liberty- Elder L. Tom Perry

*Lord, I Believe- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (of course this one gets on the list. Can Elder Holland ever give a bad talk? I think it is impossible!)

* And of course I loved both of the talks from President Thomas S. Monson, but I think that goes without saying!

Yes, so conference was great and I am once again so thankful that we have living prophets and apostles today that can teach and inspire us in such great ways!

And so, to round of this letter, let me explain why I was viewing strategic bombers and the world's largest helicopter today. Well my birthday is tomorrow, and my companion asked me what I wanted to do. In our area is a small suburb of Moscow called Monino. In Monino is the Russian Air Force Academy, also it has the Central Air Museum of the Russian Air Force. I learned about this museum when I was 12 or 13 years old, but never thought I would get the chance to see it. Well, today was my chance to fulfill a dream! We went out to the museum and fortunately it was open. The museum has more than 100 types of Russian aircraft, including some very rare one of a kind types. I felt like I was at Disneyland! It was great to see all of those aircraft, and so that any aircraft buffs can get jealous, a few notable types where the M-53, T-4, Mil V-12, Tu-4, Tu-144, ANT-25, An-22 and many others (if all this is just random numbers and letters, don't worry, my district who so blessedly humoured me and came out as well didn't know anything about them, but I played the tour guide!) P-Day of dreams...

Well then, I hope everybody enjoys the spring and the good times it brings (that was going to be a lot more poetic and corny, but I ran out of ideas.) Have a great week!

Sincerely,

Elder Zachery Brasier

In Passing...

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Unfortunately, I had a lot of administrative tasks to do during my hour of e-mailing, so I won't be able to write you a whole lot of details this week. Here are some highlights in passing.

FALCON MAN- On the metro the other day we saw a man who had a blind folded falcon on his arm walking out of a train. I had to do a double take, but sure enough he was a falcon trainer. As he walked away from the platform and disappeared from sight we heard a loud and piercing falcon cry from the direction he went. The things you see on the metro!

THE FIRST 19 YEAR OLD- This week the mission recieved our first 19 year old sister missionary, and she is serving in our district! That is pretty exciting news and a new step forward for our mission. However, I am weirded out that I am about a year and a half older than a sister missionary. Usually they are much older than me.

VLADIMIR... PROGRESSES?- We are still working with Vladimir, and he is doing pretty well, all though we had some disagreement about the doctrine of the Fall of Adam and Eve. That is always a hard one for people, and so our meeting was less than productive, essentially ending in an agreement to disagree. We did end on a good note though, and Vladimir prayed that Elder Kelly and I would be better able to understand how important our mission is to the Russian people. I was really touched by that, especially coming from somebody who is not yet a member. Vladimir also gave me some old Soviet money. I would say that this was a roller coaster lesson.

IT SNOWS... AGAIN- It snowed again. I am not ok with that. Today the sun is out though. That is a plus.

AUSTIN GETS HIS MISSION CALL- I was extremely excited to hear about Austin's call to the Raleigh North Carolina mission! I'm sure it will be awesome for him and I'm excited that yet another Elder Brasier gets to go do the work in a little part of the Lord's vineyard.

TIMES ARE GOOD- They are. It's true.

As Always,
Elder Zachery E. Brasier

Continuing Adventures in the Increasingly Thalassic Empire of Russia

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

First things first. The weather. I can't get the hang of the weather. It has been off and on snowing for the past week and today we are getting a pretty heavy rainstorm. I will be excited for the spring once it comes. In the meantime, the streets of Russia and becoming inudated with water, since the country hasn't really developed an incredibly effective way of draining the water, mostly because usually the soil absorbs it all. But for now, we have to deal with the puddles. Now I understand why both Napoleon and Hitler had a hard time in this country. The weather is less than ideal for prolonged military campaigns!

The week was, in all honestly, not too promising. We have lost contact with both Wu-Tao and Sasha. We know that Wu-Tao will be back eventually (he is enrolled in a university here, you can't just leave that on a whim) but Sasha's disappearance has been troubling, especially because he has a baptismal date! Hopefully he'll show up once again. Other than those two, we met with Vladimir (the man who had his Book of Mormon epiphany) a few other investigators, but mostly our investigators were too busy to meet with us, for varying reasons; hospital trips, work, and in one case a cabin that burnt down. Oh well, there is always next week.

Other than that, I don't have a whole lot to write this week. Transfer calls came in and it looks like Elder Kelly and I will be staying together for the rest of the the next transfer, barring any unforeseen circumstances. I am pretty excited about that because Elder Kelly is awesome and we have really enjoyed working with each other thus far.

A few days ago we were teaching Vladimir and I had one of those moments when you realize how crazy it is to be on a mission. He had some questions about something he read in the Book of Mormon and it involved the Plan of Salvation, so I briefly explained the related doctrine but it was obvious that he didn't really understand. We had only about 15 minutes left before we had to get to another appointment, so I ended up explaining the whole Plan of Salvation in that time. He loved it and said that it was a huge revelation in his life, but wanted to check in the Bible if the doctrine was written there, so I showed him some Biblical verses really quickly and we left. Afterwards I was thinking about the lesson and realized how crazy that was. I had explained in less than 15 minutes, in understandable Russian, to a 60 year old man who lived under the Soviet Union and with Biblical backup the plan of God for him. I could not have even imagined doing that even a year ago, much less a little more than two years ago before I even started my mission. I realized how blessed I have been that God has helped me gain the ability to teach his gospel and help these people. I have truly been blessed.

Well, I just realized that this weekend was Easter in America. We have Easter here in a few weeks, because we use a different calender. I'll write more about it then. Also, as a note, I heard recently that this has been the longest, on average coldest and wettest winter in Russia for the past 130 years. Yep, we're pretty hard core here.

Well, live long and prosper,

As Always,
Elder Zachery E. Brasier