Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Well its been a pretty uneventful week this week. Me and Elder Lantuk are still together while we wait for him and Elder Wadsworth to get their Kazakhstani Visa's. The reason that this week has been relatively uneventful is because unfortunately me and Lantuk inherited an area that hadn't been worked for almost two months due to an unfortunate logistics nightmare involving Elder Erikson. So that basically means that we have no investigators and no clue where to start working the area, especially because we know that our time together is really only temporary until Lantuk moves to Kazakhstan, so any work we end up doing will be kind of pointless. With that situation me and Lantuk have just been doing a ton of door knocking and street contacting.

That being said, I am having a great time with Elder Lantuk. It is interesting for me to see the difference of style between Lantuk and Dannenberg when it comes to work. Lantuk is much more relaxed so its been kind of nice to work with him. Plus he is one of the weirdest persons I have ever met, so I never know exactly what he is going to do from time to time. We have been having quite a bit of fun though. It has also been fun to have Elder Olsen and Elder Wadsworth in Nizhny (even though Wadsworth will just be temporary). Those two were a lot of fun in the MTC and are a lot of fun here in Nizhny, especially because we all like the same movies and same music so we end up talking about that a ton. Also this week we had a baptism so Elder Erikson returned from Kaluga because the baptism was one of his old investigators. I was way happy to see him and it was a blast having him back in Nizhny for a day. On Saturday we have a double baptism for two investigators (one of them an African student) so Elder Bitner (with his companion Elder Winters) and Elder Beck (with his Ukranian companion who doesn't really like me all that much) will be coming to Nizhny that day. I am excited to see them and their companions.

One fun thing about having Lantuk as a companion is that I've been eating a lot more Russian food (and junk food) than I had with Dannenberg. My Russian culinary knowledge has been expanded and I've got to eat some of the more interesting foods of Russia. What has been blowing my mind recently has been Russian Lays Potato Chips. You would think that they would be the same flavors as in America right? Wrong! Of the choices of Lay's chips in Russia you have the following flavors: Onion and Sour Cream, Mushrooms and Sour Cream, Red Caviar, Pickle, Crab, Green Seasonings, and just cheese. I am very partial to the Mushrooms and Sour Cream flavor and am trying to get used to the Red Caviar one (it is very strange).

Well that's all I've got for now! Stay excellent my friends.

From Russian with Love,

(Dr.) Elder Zachery Brasier (Esq.)

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Unfortunately it took a while to send the pictures on from my camera so this is going to be kind of short, but I hope you enjoy the pictures that I sent and enjoy seeing some of the cool sights of Russia and some pictures of my friends and my companion.

So basically here is what happened this week.  I have a new companion for two weeks because his Visa to Kazakhstan didn't go through.  His name is Elder Lantook and he is from Vladivostok, Russia, which is way cool because now on my mission I have served with a Swede, a German, and a Russian, making me one of the most ethnically diverse missionaries in the field.  I just need to serve with a Ukrainian and an American now and I'll have served with every possible nationality in our mission.

The cool thing is that we moved to the other Lower Area apartment, which is the second biggest in the mission (after the Smolensk apartment which has cathedral ceilings).  What is interesting though, is that our apartment is directly across the street from an extremely low security women's prison.  It's very interesting and we see them do roll call and other such prison related activities every morning.  The bad news is that we have almost no investigators to work with so, we have just been doing a ton of street contacting and visiting inactive members.

So that's about it, I'm running short of time so I'll answer some questions,  First of all I've got a question about if there are any Russian desserts that are like American desserts.  The closest one is these waffle cookies that are pretty much the same as the ones you can find in America.  Otherwise they are pretty different and mostly based on bread and fruit.  Also to answer the question about if Mikhail likes the Book of Mormon: He does, to a degree.  He is an extremely intelligent man so is super-analyzing it.  He has made about six pages of questions for us to handle.  We have our hands full!

Sincerely,
Elder Zachery Brasier

Pictures From Moscow and Nizhniy Novgorod

Red Square on my first day in Russia.

Me and Anatoly

Elder Dannenberg my companion

Nizhniy from my window.

Nizhniy Novgorod

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Well, it's been an interesting week here in Russia.  Transfers are this week, which means that missionaries are being moved around to different cities and a fresh batch of missionaries come in from the MTC, which means I am no longer the youngest missionary in the field!  It was kind of sad though because Elder Harrison is leaving for Minsk, Belarus and Elder Erikson is leaving for Kaluga, Russia.  Fortunately though I'll be able to see them again most likely.  On the same day we found out that Erikson is leaving we found out that Anatoly, one of our really good friends in the branch is leaving next month for his mandatory year of army service, so we are really going to miss him a lot.  Hopefully though he'll be sent somewhere with missionaries so that he can continue to learn about the gospel. 

Tuesday this week was on of those days that was just ridiculous.  In the morning one of our investigators  Зух (pronounced Zookh, but the  transliteration looks really stupid so I'll just go with the Russian) called us to see if we could visit him in the hospital , so of course we said yes.  However, we had the most difficult time finding the hospital, and actually ended up in an old train museum that we had never seen before.  It was quite strange.  The day got more weird when we met with out investigator and found out why he was in the hospital.  Evidently he was walking along, late at night, in a dark park (a triple combination of things never to do in Russia) and got stabbed.  Don't worry though he's going to be alright because I guess his abs were rock solid from karate training, so the knife didn't go that far in.  He'll be out of the hospital on Friday.  As we were walking outside the hospital with him, we heard a lady screaming that she wanted to die.  We looked over at her as she was screaming and sitting in front of a bar and then she just collapsed and lay unconscious.  Me and Dannenberg thought her wish had come true.  So we called the paramedics and they revived her which we thought was pretty good.....Until the lady started yelling at us for calling  the paramedics.  I guess she was really angry about that.  Sometimes in Russia everything is ridiculous.

Otherwise, it was a somewhat uneventful week.  One of our investigators Mikhail (the former Seven Day Adventist) is reading the Book of Mormon and seems really interested in our church, so we are hoping that he eventually wants to be baptized.  He really is a great guy, and I love meeting with him, even though sometimes I have a hard time understanding him because he uses way big words.

This week, I have officially decided to coin the term "The Curse of Russian Desserts".  I'm going to explain this briefly, because I haven't really talked about Russian food on this blog.  Russian Desserts always look excessively delicious but never are.  Russian's just aren't big on sweet desserts so they tend to be pretty bland but always look way delicious.  It's really quite unfortunate.  But the Russian's make up for it with really good meat and fruit juice.  Mmmmm....Russian fruit juice.  It's probably the best fruit based drink ever.  Maybe next blog post I'll discuss some more Russian food, if the week is overall uneventful.

Anyways that's about it.  If you have any questions, post a comment on the blog post and my mother will forward it too me.  I would love to answer any questions to help people better understand Russia and Russian culture.

 Remain excellent as always,

 Elder Zachery Brasier

P.S.- Congratulations to Riley Creer and Bryce LeFevre on their mission calls!!!  They will both do awesome in their respective fields of service!!!!

Another Week!

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

This has been a bit of an interesting week because we had one great
baptism and mission conference in Moscow.

On Saturday, our African friend Stanaslaus got baptized which was
awesome, it was such a great baptism and I have really enjoyed seeing
him change as he tries to live his life correctly and enjoys all the
friendship of the church members here in Nizhny. The missionaries love
the African students so much because the original two that got
baptized, Joseph and Kenneth are awesome at giving us people to teach,
unfortunately though the people they give us aren't in my area so I
never directly teach them. However, we do so much things with the
other missionaries in Nizhny that the people that we end up caring a
ton about the people they teach, which is why it has been so great to
see Stanaslaus get baptized. Also Joseph and Kenneth brought another
friend to the baptism who is from Namibia so we are hoping he'll be
our next African friend to join the church.

The rest of the week was shockingly uneventful though until Tuesday
when we all went to mission conference in Moscow on an early morning
high speed train. Moscow is a way cool city. It is a lot like a
European version of New York City, except that instead of growing up
with tall buildings it grows outwards. I really enjoy being in the
huge city though and it was a ton of fun to be in Moscow. It was
really cool to see all the other missionaries in our mission
(excluding the Kazakhstan missionaries cause they are too far away)
and I got to see my old friends from the MTC Elder Mitchell and Elder
Stegeby, which I really enjoyed catching up with.

The Nizhny people were lucky because we all got to stay an extra day
for the new missionary training, which I had to attend with all the
other missionaries who have only been here for 1-3 months. Most other
missionaries had to leave Moscow on Tuesday but we got to stay
overnight in the office Elder's apartment. It was certainly
interesting to have 14 Elder's in one apartment, we didn't get to
sleep for quite a while, and then in the morning we spent most of the
time throwing paper airplanes out the window of the office Elder's
apartment since it was on the 17th story of their building. Also, I
had a significantly more successful McDonald's trip in the morning,
but mostly because Elder Bressler helped me out with the Russian. I
still am not very good at McDonalds vocabulary.

Really that's about it though, it was a pretty uneventful week. I was
super excited to be in Moscow, but we didn't really do a whole lot of
noteworthy things! Next week, we get new missionaries from the MTC,
and my good friend Elder Olsen is coming to Nizhny, which I am pumped
about.

And to answer a question from Austin Brasier: The weather here is
getting a little chilly, its been overcast for quite a while and
really wet, which has kind of been nice for me because I was getting
sick of the heat. Basically Russia is just like most European climates
(especially my part) just colder. Nizhny is actually colder though
than Moscow most of the time. Also we've been getting some sweet
sunset because of the cloud cover. Russia really is quite a beautiful
place.

Yeah so that's about it for now!

Wearing Hipster Glasses in Russia,

Elder Zachery Brasier

Another Week in Nizhny Novgorod

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Well its been another interesting week here in Nizhny Novgorod. As of
today all of the Russian schools start which actually made last week
quite a pain, because everybody we meet with decided to take last
minute vacations before school started so we had almost no
appointments and spent a ridiculous amount of time street contacting
and knocking doors, which is always an interesting experience.

On a plus side we met with Mikhail twice and talked to him a lot about
the prophet Joseph Smith. We had him read the Joseph Smith history and
I could see him began to gain a testimony of the prophet. After we
got done he said that he thinks that it is real because according to
him the Bible says that a story like Joseph Smith is possible. He is
still hung up though about how we worship the Sabbath on Sunday and
not Saturday so we just need to work with him through that concern. I
think he is progressing a lot and he loves meeting with us, he even
made us borscht!

In an unfortunate turn of events Zhenna is not going to be able to get
baptized soon. She is only 15 and her mother did not give permission,
and even threw out her Book of Mormon. Her older sister Asya will be
baptized though because she is 18, but its was very sad to hear that
they couldn't be getting baptized together.

We have an exciting month coming up though with baptisms ever week! On
Saturday Stanaslaus (the African man) is getting baptized and I am so
pumped for that. Then a bunch of other people are getting baptized,
but unfortunately none of our investigators! However we think that
Mikhail might want to get baptized soon and a guy we met on the
street, Andrei seems incredibly interested in the church, so we have
hope things will work up.

To explain why I was in the woods. We had a picnic for all the church
members in Nizhny Novgorod out in the woods outside of the city. It
was so much fun, and I had a blast with all the word members. The
youth here are really amazing and all have incredibly strong
testimonies. Plus our non-member friends Sasha and his girlfriend came
so that was quite a bit of fun. As with every Russian activity, we had
a ton of  watermelon, because Russian love watermelon! They eat it all
the time, I have only been offered a meal three times were watermelon
wasn't involved.

We liked going out in the woods so much we did it for P-Day today. The
Assistants to the Mission President are in Nizhny and all the
missionaries in Nizhny went out to the forest again in the morning. We
spent the whole morning in this huge sand pit  that had been dug out
jumping off the dirt cliffs into the sand. It was a blast, but then it
started raining! So we ran and tried to hide in the forest, but the
trees weren't blocking too much rain, so Elder Bressler tried to build
a shelter. It didn't work so we just sat there and ate sandwiches in
the rain. Also the Russian army was doing some sort of exercise out in
the woods so we could here machine gun fire in the distance!!! Finally
the rain stopped and on our way out I looked up and a MiG-29 (a
Russian jet fighter) flew over doing airelon rolls! It certain was an
eventful P-Day.

So that's about all I've got for now. I'm working on getting pictures
to you guys, but me and Elder Erikson are still trying to figure out
the computers. At any rate, keep being awesome everybody and enjoy the
start of school!

As Always,

Elder Zachery Brasier

Everytime I Sit At A Computer I Can Never Come Up With A Good Title For An E-Mail!

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers!

Well its been a pretty good week in Russia. I can't say that things are actually starting to look up with the people we are teaching because they all seem to be so busy all the time that we can never actually meet with them, which can get pretty frustrating. I think the amount of irregularity is really getting to Dannenberg because he gets so frustrated but as he has told me many times it is because he is German and needs order in his life, so haphazard meetings without a regular schedule drives him nuts.

But there has been some pretty good things in the past week. First of all, we have been teaching Mikhail and Nadya (the break off group from their church) on Saturdays and Mikhail came to church on Sunday. He had quite a bit of questions because the man knows the Bible so well and likes to check everything through the Bible, which is perfect for us because we get to use the scriptures alot when we talk to him. The problem is that his questions are incredibly deep and specific so I don't know the Russian words to explain or even understand what he is talking about. Even Dannenberg struggles so last time we brought a member Nikoli on the lesson and he helped a ton. During that lesson we had a really cool experience. We were talking about how the Priesthood or authority to work on God's behalf is passed down to people and Nikoli had his line of authority, or how the Priesthood has been passed down for generations and we were able to explain it. What was interesting is that Nikoli got the Priesthood by the means of an Elder Abel back in 1995. When we mentioned his name Mikhail pulled out an old Book of Mormon that he had got in 1996 from the missionaries, and guess who's name was in the front? Elder Abel. It really was cool to me to see how so many years down the line Elder Abel's work has influenced these two lives for the better and he probably doesn't even know it.

On Tuesday two girls in our branch announced that they wanted to get baptized and will get baptized on September 13. They have been coming to our activities for awhile now and finally have decided to commit to baptism and I'm pretty sure that their parents will allow them too, which is awesome because then we won't have to worry about any complications with the parents. I am so excited to them to be baptized and its been amazing to see their lives change. Me and Dannenberg haven't officially taught them because they are our age and we try not to teach girls our age, but we have worked with them a little and I count them as my friends, so its great to see them get baptized.

So I want to explain for just a little Russian public transit in Nizhny Novgorod. Missionaries don't have cars or use bikes in Russia for a variety of reasons so we use public transit. Nizhny has a Metro system that connects the districts of the Lower City and is quite convenient. Nizhny also uses a trolly car system that we don't use that often since it really doesn't have a lot of stops. What me and Elder Dannenberg use the most is the bus system. Now there are two types of buses: Normal buses that you are probably familiar with because we use the same ones in America and the Marshuka (I think that is how it is spelt in English). The Marshuka is... interesting. They are more or less mini buses with incredibly high centers of gravity that go almost everywhere in the city. We use them quite often but they are incredibly sketchy because the drivers are insane and the buses have almost no suspension and an extremely high center of gravity. Pretty much riding a Marshuka is like riding the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, in a bus, standing, and blasting electronic music. Yesterday we were riding one and the driver almost hit a car and started weaving in and out of traffic. The conductor apologized by saying: "I'm sorry, the driver doesn't have a drivers license." Dead serious.

Yep so things are going pretty well in Russia right now. Thanks for all your support and care! One word of note really quick. If you wrote me in July and early August, unfortunately I lost all of your letters in the transit from America to Russia so I have no clue who wrote me and I have no clue who to reply to. So if you sent a letter in those times and haven't received a reply, just resend another one and I'll reply to that. Sorry!!

From Russia with Love,

Elder Zachery Brasier

Having A Lack Of A Title For E-Mails Sometimes Makes Me Angry!

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Well its been another good week in Russia. Me and Elder Dannenberg are
teaching quite a bit of people since we have been really trying to get
appointments. We have a pretty big pool of people whom we can meet
with, but unfortunately they all have incredibly busy schedules or go
out of town every week to their summer Dasha, which is like a summer
home in the middle of nowhere that a lot of Russians have. So it gets
incredibly frustrating when we know that there are people that we can
be teaching but they just won't meet with us!

But we have had a few interesting meetings. Last Saturday we taught a
group of people who held their own Bible study club because they had
left the Seven Day Adventist church due to some doctrinal issues. What
was awesome is that they were concerned about doctrinal issues that we
had the answers too. We talked for almost three hours with them (we
had no other appointments that day) and are going back Saturday. Me
and Dannenberg were blown away how prepared those people were.

In contrast, the next day we went to a lesson that ended up being in
another Protestant church. We meet a German and a Swiss there, and it
was funny to see Dannenberg speak and teach in German a little, since
he only speaks English and Russian with me. So we talked to those two
guys and ended up setting up a return appointment at the local
McDonalds. It was a very frustrating lesson since they basically came
to argue with us about doctrinal points. I was getting frustrated
since they just wouldn't listen and ended up completely shooting us
down. I wasn't particularly happy, especially since I was teaching in
English so I knew exactly what was going on.

Otherwise we have been doing some good lessons and trying to get
people progressing by keeping commitments and learning about the
Gospel.

Monday was the weirdest day I've had on my mission. It started out
normal, and we had a nice lesson with one of our investigators,
Mikhail. Then we needed to get to the other side of the city so he
offered us a ride. This is where things start going weird. Mikhail's
car is a 1971 bright red Soviet era car with no seatbelts and no
airconditioning. But it had a good sound system as we found out as he
blasted music on our ride. It was strange to hear "Sweet Dreams" by
the Eurythmatics on my mission! So after that strange car ride we got
dropped off in the Upper part of the city, our lesson cancelled on us
so we went street contacting where we ran into a former investigator.
He wanted to go to McDonalds, which we did, but then he ditched us
when we were in line ordering food. I completely messed up my order
and ended up with a single kids size hamburger instead of a double
cheeseburger and we ended up catching up with our investigator in a
park were we sat down. Right when we sat down a man dressed up as
Superman came and offered us a chance to test drive a Suzuki and I
realized I had sat in a huge pile of gum. Then as we were talking to
our investigator four other people just ended up randomly jumping  in
on the conversation. It was a weird day, but I've come to realize that
sometimes in Russia, everything is just ridiculous.

Anyways, that's pretty much all I've got for the week, its been pretty
exciting, but I feel bad because I experience so much everyday that I
can't even write a fraction of it. I guess this will just have to
suffice.

Also, for anybody wanting to write me, please send everything to the
mission office in Moscow (mom, if you could put that address on this).
Its safer and more dependable and I'll probably get it faster since
there are always people coming from Moscow to Ninzhy and vice versa.

You all rock!

Indubitably,
Старейшина Зак Брэйжер
Elder Zachery Brasier
Muravskaya Street, Bldg. 1, Floor 3
Moscow 125310
Russia

(No Subject) 1st Week In Nizhny Novgorod

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,
Well my first full week in Russia has been going pretty good. Me and Elder Dannenberg have been working pretty hard in the area and we have been having some success, its just hard to meet with people right now because most of the Russian people take off the summer to go to summer homes. This means that for the most part, they aren't in the city for most of the time so we have a hard time consistently meeting with the new people we talk to. However, this will change come next month when the summer starts to end and people have to come back to Nizhny Novgorod and start working or going to school again. Plus it will be too cold for them to go on the spontaneous walks that the Russian people love to do so much.

One thing I have come to love here in the city is the Church members. We have a little group of them known as a branch, and they make the missionaries feel right at home. Everybody is so kind and wants to know all about my family and my friends and what I did before the mission, and I'm usually able to explain it to them in my very very limited Russian. It makes me laugh though because they always try to speak English when I can't understand, and I always tell them how much I appreciate that they do that but I need to practice my Russian! But at any rate, the branch here is amazing and they are so strong and helpful for the missionaries. I don't know what we would do without them.

So I've met a ton of interesting people here so far just talking to people on the street and teaching. I meet a guy who tried to convince us that he was God, it was really weird. We've also met quite a few people of different ethnicity's and such, which is pretty amazing. Some of my favorite are these two Muslim boys who we invited to branch sports day on Saturday. They are both a lot of fun and try to help me with my Russian. Also one of them looks like the Muslim Russian version of Ringo Starr. It's actually pretty shocking how close the resemblance is. Also, I've got to sit in on two lessons with one of the other investigators for the other Elders (we have three companionships of Elders here and one companionship of Sisters). I can't pronounce his name, because he is an African and he speaks English and French and very bad Russian, so we teach him in English. I did not expect to be teaching an African man in English when I came to Russia, but its been nice to teach him.

Well I really don't have a whole lot of time so I just would like to say how much I am loving Russia. It is really a great place and the people here are great, even though a lot of the time they like to ignore us on the street and even sometimes run away.It really doesn't matter though because I truly love it here in Russia, and especially Nizhny Novgorod. I'll try to get some pictures out as soon as I can, but I can't really download them onto these computers.

From Russia with Love

Старейшина Зак Брэйжер

Welcome To Russia

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,
Well I made it, today is my first time that I am actually writing from the country of Russia, after a somewhat long and confusing flight, I was dropped off in Moscow at the mission home and as of yesterday was assigned to my first area, the city of Nizhny Novgorod (or something like that, I'm not sure exactly how it works out in English). In Moscow I was able to see a few of the sites, mainly the Kremlin and Red Square as well as some old Eastern Orthodox churches. I was pretty jet lagged at the time so the whole day seems like a bit of a blur, but I really enjoyed seeing those sites and acting like a tourist for a few hours. The only really intimidating part was that pretty much everybody was speaking Russian, the language I theoretically learned in the MTC. At any rate, it is a pretty exciting place and I'm pretty excited to be out of the MTC and into the actual mission field.

Nizhny is a pretty large city due East of Moscow. It is the fourth largest city in Russia and the used to be a Soviet manufacturing facility for all sorts of munitions during World War II. In fact, it was quite impossible for anybody non-Russian to get into the city during that time and on a lot of old maps it doesn't even show up, despite being such a big city. Now though, it is a thriving commercial center and its nice to be in a big city.

My companion right now is Elder Dannenberg from Hamburg, Germany. He has been out on his mission for 11 months now and I am the first missionary he has trained. Dannenberg is a bit of vetern in this city, he has been here for the longest part of his mission but usually has worked the upper part of the city so he's new to the lower part. Perhaps I should explain a little bit of city geography: Nizhny is divided in half by two rivers, the Volga and another one that starts with an R. The western part is known as the lower city, and the Eastern as the upper city. So we are serving in the western part of the city. From what I've seen in the area book, we have a lot of people that we can teach and a lot of less active ward members that we need to work with, so it looks like I am going to be pretty busy here for a while.

Besides all of that technical stuff, my first few days in Russia have been pretty interesting. I've already got to experience some Russian food, which for the most part has been pretty delicious. The best Russian food I've had so far is the fruit juice. Russian fruit juice is delicious, it is almost like drinking directly from the fruit. This is specifically true for apple juice which is unlike Mott's or other apple juice brand tastes exactly like an apple. It doesn't have a whole lot of sugar or stuff in it, just straight juice. It is very very delicious. Also they have this yogurt drink called Чудо which is pretty good too, its pretty much just yogurt and fruit in a bottle.

I wish I had more to report right now from Russia, but I haven't seen or done a whole lot just yet. Me and Elder Dannenberg will be going up to the Upper Part of the city tonight to get some of his clothes and toiletries and while we are there we will be going to a game night with the Upper Branch church members, which should be fun, even though I am well aware that I will probably not understand a whole lot of what they are saying. I am excited though to meet some of church members and possibly see one of my MTC friends Elder Harrison again.

Overall, Russia has been pretty cool for these first few days. I've enjoyed seeing and being in a new country, and also have been enjoying the weather, which has been quite nice compared to the desert conditions of Las Vegas and to a certain degree Provo. I can't wait to meet some of the investigators and start teaching very simple in Russian. I'll let you know how that goes. Everybody have a great week and I'll let you know how my first full week in Russia goes!

From Russia with Love

Старейшина Зак Брэйжер

P.S- I also had my first run in with a Russian police officer yesterday, for some reason I looked really foreign so he demanded my passport before I got on a subway to get to the train station. Ironically though he didn't ask Elder Dannenberg, I guess German's look less foreign than Americans!

Last Pictures From The MTC.

Elder Patterson, Zach, Elder Hughes, Elder Dougherty, Elder Larsen

Russian standard works.  Hymn Book, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price, Book of Mormon, Bible, and Preach My Gospel

Sister Sanford and Zach

Sister Sanford, Zach, Sister Denning

Zach and Elder Prestwich

Brother Porter (His teacher)

Zach and Sister Tenney

Back Row Left to Right.  Elder Stegeby, Elder Christensen, Elder Porter, Elder Yefoshkin, Elder Harris, Elder Mitchell, Elder Beam

Front Row. Elder Tantkus, Zach

Elder Bodily, Zach, Elder Lassen

Zach, Sister Chang, Elder Stegeby, Elder Porter, ?, Elder Harris

Zach and Elder Lythagoe

Elder Been, Zach, Elder Silver

Zach and Elder Hill

Elder Harris, Tantkus, Porter, and Zach

Zach and Elder Hills (District Leader of District B)

Elder Elwood, Zach, Elder Dougherty, Elder Glad

Zach and Elder Patterson (My old District Leader.)

Elder Porter, Sister Tenney, Zach, Sister Paletta

Quick Message From Zach

Dear Parents and Family!

So we are allowed to shoot off some quick e-mails before we leave so I have a mission for you! I know tonight you have FHE and I have a thing for you to do. Go on LDS.org and search for the Kyiv Temple Celebration. There should be a video with a bunch of Russian teenagers talking about the Kyiv temple and the celebration they will be having. Its a super cool video and I've seen it like a million times. Every time it brings the Spirit and I feel so happy to serve those people. Also, I want you to see a little bit of the culture of where I am going. They have people from Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus talking so you can see a little bit of what the culture is like where I'll be going. If you could also put the video on the blog and Facebook that would be awesome so everybody can see some of the culture, and maybe ease a few peoples minds about where I am going. Ok so I have limited time, but I'll write on P-Day, which is on Thursday in the Moscow West mission. I love you all and I hope you enjoy the video!

Yep,

Elder Zachery Brasier

You can click on the full screen icon on the right of the video.  You can barely see it, but it's there.  Or you can click on the link.
https://lds.org/youth/video/kyiv-ukraine-temple-cultural-celebration?lang=eng

My Last Letter from The MTC, Utah, America, and Ultimately This Side of the Atlantic

Dear Blog and Loyal Family Readers,

 

Well this is it. My last letter from the Provo MTC. This is pretty exciting for me, because it's a moment that I never really quite expected. In many ways I logically knew that at some point I would leave the MTC, but the goal always seemed quite a bit aways so my mindset still hasn't changed. For some reason I still am thinking like I have two months left or something along those lines. My brain will probably be in a big state of shock when I board the plane in Salt Lake and depart for this adventurous undertaking in Russia.

 

Fortunately for me, all international flight plans and VISA information came through and I am good to go. I will be leaving early in the morning on the 2nd from Salt Lake, arriving in the afternoon in Atlanta and showing up in Russia in the afternoon.. of the next day. Its going to be a pretty darn exciting flight. I'm pretty excited too because some of my other friends who will be serving in the Moscow-proper mission will be flying with me, so its going to be a bit of a long flight.

 

Other than all this exciting travel plans and the fact that we are leaving quite soon, this week has been like every other week I have spent here in the MTC, so nothing new to report there.

 

I feel as though that as this is the final e-mail I will be sending from America, I should make some sort of grand lesson, tell you about all the things I have learned, and utter some pretty good idealistic (if not slightly propaganda-esque) phrases. Well I probably won't do any of that, but I can sum up what I've learned here.

 

I think that although in all honesty I can't say that I loved the MTC, I have learned alot about myself that I otherwise wouldn't have. I have really started to realize what is truly important to me in my life and the goals that I have. I also feel like I have been able to appreciate more of the things around me. For instance, since my toe got all messed up, I haven't been able to play soccer very much so I spend my gym time laying in the grass, sometimes writing short stories or writing poetry, but most of the time looking around at the Utah valley, specifically the pretty cool looking mountains behind the MTC. Its so cool to see all of the beauty of the mountains and of the world from my little vantage point, and I think I have come to appreciate all of the beauty of the world. No matter were we are or what situation we are in, there is always something that we can admire and love, just sometimes we have to look really hard for it. Over the past few weeks I have been trying hard to do that.

 

I have also decided a lot about what is truly important in my life and what is important in my future. It's interesting how much a mission forces you to think about that and mature a little. A lot of the other Elders came and there goals in life were to be famous, get rich quick and go on hundreds of adventures. I must say those things never really made me excited, and I've realized even more that the most I could want in my future is to have a family of my own and to be the best to them. I honestly regret taking family for granted, and I've realized that that is the most important thing I could want in my future life. I've learned a ton of other stuff too, but a lot of it is pretty personal, so sorry, I'm not going to share it, you'll just have to wait until I return to see the external effects of much of my thinking!

 

Finally, I am so excited to go serve the people of Russia. Right now I am so fired up, I want to talk to everybody I possibly can to tell them the good news of the gospel. If I could stand up in the airplane over and start teaching on a soap box I would (but we can't, very specifically we are told not too). In the Old Testament the prophet Jeremiah talks about how he just has to go talk to people and tell them about God and Jesus Christ, he can't be restrained. I feel like I am feeling a sliver of that emotional state. I can not wait to talk to the people of Russia.

 

Well folks, that's about all I've got for now. Next e-mail comes in from Russia, so I'm sure I am going to have seem pretty cool stories already to tell you. It's a strange land over there and I really am not quite sure what I am getting myself into but I have faith and confidence that this is where I am supposed to be going, so I think I'm entitled to a little extra power than most people. I'll let you know how things go!

 

Signing off from the MTC one final time,

 

Elder Zachery Donovich Brasier

 

P.S.- I leave August the Second, which is a Tuesday, so please do not send any mail after August the First (Monday) I will not get it for a long time. As soon as I know I will give you my Russia mailing address.

Why Medical Experimentation And Practice Is Not Fun For The Patient!

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,
Well my days in the USA are finally numbered. Yesterday we received our full Cyrillic tags with my last name in Cyrillic letters and we might very well be getting our travel plans tomorrow or some other time in the coming week. I'll let you know as soon as my travel plans come in where I am going and which airports I am flying through. I'm hoping for JFK in New York and Charles de Gualle in Paris, France. But we'll see.

So I had an ingrown toenail removed on Monday. It was fun, except that it really wasn't that fun. Here is the story. I go in and the doctor looks at my toe, and then after he decided not to remove the whole toenail, he decided to just cut off half of it, which I was fine with. But then the injection came. In order to numb my toe they had to quickly but some Novocaine in a nerve in my toe, which would hurt but only briefly because the doctor assured me it would be quick.

Unfortunately I made a mistake here. The doctor told me that he had a medical student doing some sort of internship and asked me if he could practice the injection. I thought "Who am I to stop the medical training of an individual" and gave him permission. I openly admit that this was an error, because the new guy wasn't used to the resistance of the needle and I had a needle stuck in a nerve in my toe for FIVE MINUTES! I was not a happy camper because as you might guess, it was a bit painful. Eventually the doctor got impatient, took the needle and did the rest quickly. I was very grateful for that..... The rest of the surgery was uneventful. But I'm getting all healed up now and I feel pretty good with it.

I went to that on Monday, and Monday was just an off day for everybody. The night before my teacher Brother Porter got in a car accident on his mo-ped. He got hit by a F-350 and was thrown sliding across and intersection. A cop saw the whole thing and thought he was dead, but he wasn't, he just got up and walked over to his mo-ped. He did get a little injured though and has some nasty road burn. Then Monday night Elder Porter went to the bathroom at 3:00 AM but locked himself out of his room. In an unfortunate turn of events his roommates sleep with ear plugs so they couldn't hear him knock. So he just curled up in a ball in the hallway and tried to sleep until the cleaning crew made him get up because they had to clean. So we all had a bit of some off days.

Otherwise, things are going well. We are all getting pretty anxious due to the fact that our departure is quite imminent. I can not tell you how excited I am. I want to meet and teach the Russian people so badly! I was reading the story of an early Mormon missionary named Heber C. Kimball who was so excited to get to England he jumped off the boat onto the dock as soon as he could, nearly broke his ankles I assume, and talked to the first person he saw. I might very well do that (except that I'll be in an airplane, and may not have a parachute but if I could I would). At any rate, I tell you this to tell you that I kind of understand the feeling Heber C. Kimball had. I am absolutely pumped to go and teach the people.

So I've got very little more to write. Next week I will send my last e-mail from the MTC and by extension from America! I feel bad that I don't have more to write to you, but it would just be a rote recitation of trivia that you already know. Also, I am trying to respond to everybod's letters as quick as possible, but even on Preparation Day I have very little time, especially since I have to start organizing my suitcase! Thanks for all the support you give me! You all rock!

Sincerely Wishing These Spanish Speaking Elders next to me Would Stop Being So Loud and Annoying,

Elder Zach Donovich Brasier

P.S.- The day Harry Potter came out was hilarious in the MTC. When we played soccer we were commentating it like it was Quidditch so there was a lot of "KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE QUAFFLE!" "My Firebolt is much faster than your Cleansweep 9" "Watch out Harry, there are dementors on the field!" "(when somebody messed up) Who let Neville Longbottom play Quidditch?!" "Thats a nasty blugger, looks like somebody is going to the Hospital Wing." and since we play Red vs. Yellow, we made it Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff my favorite quote was "Nobody cares about Hufflepuff! All you've got is Cedric Digory...... and he's dead!" Missionaries are even more nerdy than normal people sometimes!

Unfortunately I Don't Think This Is The Right Scripture.

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,
Unfortunately I find myself somewhat unable to use the Cyrillic alphabet in this letter because of some sort of technologically problem currently being experienced by the software at hand. For this I sincerely apologize. Nevertheless, I will proceed to inform you about my week.

This week has kind of been an up and down week, and I don't mind telling everybody this because I think that people should realize that sometimes, missions are pretty darn difficult. We had a lot of problems with my District early this week, so I was very concerned and had no clue what do to fix the problems that we were experiencing. However after much prayer and consulting with some of our Branch leadership I was able to work out a lot of the personnel issues that we were experiencing. So for the beginning of the week this was weighing heavily on my mind. Then one of my good friends went home somewhat inexplicably. She had been having quite a bit of issues in the MTC and had talked to me about a few of them. I guess things just got too much for her, so she packed up and left Thursday morning. That was pretty hard for me to have one of my friends leave and go home. Otherwise, for some reason I just was not on my A-game this week and was kind of struggling, but I'm feeling a lot better nowadays and have worked everything out. I don't tell you this to worry you, but I think it's important to acknowledge that missions can be quite challenging at times, especially in the MTC, but I've learned a lot from the hard times and my resolve and faith to spread the gospel increases every time I have a bit of a rough patch.

This week, even though challenging has actually been pretty funny. Me and Elder Stegeby have had quite a few scripturally problems in the past week teaching lessons. I will explain:

EXPLANATION!

The Russian Bible is organized differently than ours. The Epistles of the New Testament are organized chronologically instead of by length, as is common in the King James Version of the Bible. This proves to be problematic since our meager Russian skills sometimes have a hard time discerning what book we are in and have a hard time determining which scriptures we are giving. Three times we have struggled (and mom, if you could put in the scriptures, I'll just put the reference)

- I was teaching about sin and wanted to give Romans 3:23 (For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;), but I couldn't find Romans, so I found what I thought to be Romans, but turned out to be Acts. And so I gave a "new investigator" Acts 3:23 (And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.) and told her to ponder how we all sin in our lives. Yeah, that didn't go over well.

- To correct my mistake I tried to give the same investigator 1 John 4:3 (And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.) but instead thought it was St. John 3:4-5 (Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old?  can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.). So I had her read the scripture and since I don't know Russian didn't know what she was saying and then asked her about what that scripture said about sin. She was very confused.

- We also tried to give another investigator 1 Corinthians 6:19 (What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?) which talks about how our body is a temple. Unfortunately Elder Stegeby though we were on the wrong page and flipped the page so that our investigator ended up reading 1 Corinthians 7:19.  (Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.) Yes, that was pretty bad as well.

END OF EXPLANATION

So that was all very interesting. Other than that things are going pretty good here in the MTC. We are in the home stretch now, and its crazy to think that in a little under 20 days I will be in Russia. Thanks everybody for all the support that you have given me and the letters that you write. I really appreciate it. I'm trying to respond to them as quick as I can, so I'm sorry if it has taken awhile. You all rock!

Yes,

Elder Zachery Donovich Brasier!

Once Again I Find Myself At A Loss For A Title For This Email

Дорогой семья и други,

That's right, I figure out how to type in Русский (Russian) on these computers! Unfortunately it also takes significantly longer since I am not quite used to the Cyrillic layout of the keyboard, so I will be unable to type very much of the language to you, even though I would really like to. Also seeing the Cyrillic way of writing Russian feels significantly more natural to me than typing out Russian, if that makes any sense.

So this week was 4th of July, with was pretty exciting. On the 1st of July a hot-air balloon almost landed in the MTC. They had developed a tear in the fabric of the balloon and were dramatically loosing altitude. They almost hit some of the buildings a few times and were very close to landing in the parking lot. It was pretty exciting and fortunately they were able to just clear all of the buildings and trees to make a relatively safe landing. Sometimes we have a problem with people trying to "escape" the MTC by jumping the fences and running away, but that was the first time I had ever seen anybody try to break in, and in such an interesting way as hot air balloon.

We celebrated the 4th of July on the 2nd and it was probably the coolest 4th of July that I've ever had. We had a big meeting with all the missionaries and had some speakers and sang some American songs. Then they focused on the Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith and how it was important to have a country with freedom of religion in order for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to come forth in the modern time. They had a Scottish bagpipe band come and play "Praise to the Man" which was way cool and they had a big montage showing all the missions in the world on a big map. When Russia and Ukraine came up, we were cheering pretty loudly. I think that only the Pacific Island missionaries were louder. Afterwards, we were allowed to go outside and see the Stadium of Fire fireworks which were pretty awesome. Since we were allowed to stay out later, me and Elder Porter just kind of sat outside and talked about life and stuff. I really enjoyed it because Elder Porter is pretty much my favorite person here in the MTC.

All of the new missionaries have been getting their bearings in the MTC. It feels really weird to be the "older" more experienced missionaries. A lot of the new Elders and Sister's commented on how we seemed like we were all 21 or older. I thought it was funny how much the mission really matures you. It was also fun to speak Russian to the new Elder's because obviously they do not know as much as we do. It's hard to believe that only 7 weeks ago I was in that same situation. I really enjoy having the new Elder's and Sisters around though, especially because their are five new Elders and a new Sister going to my mission!

My district is also doing pretty good right now. I am a lot busier nowadays with meetings and interviews and reports to fill out! But I enjoy being able to serve the members in my district, even though most of the times I feel like they deserve a better leader than me. I always use a Batman quote to describe: "I am the hero Gotham has, but not the one it deserves." In my situation I like to say : "I am the District Leader District A has, but not the one it deserves." And yes, I do say that in my Batman voice.

Otherwise, it has kind of been an uneventful week, so I'm sorry this e-mail hasn't been the most exciting thing you have ever read in your life. In less then a month I'll been in Russian though and I promise to have significantly more awesome stories then! Thanks for all the support and love that all of you show, you don't know how much that means to me to know of the support I have!

Stay classy my friends,

Старейшина Зак Донович Брэйжер

(Elder Zach Donovich Brasier [We have started using Russian middle names, which are your fathers name + ovich for men, yep, its pretty cool])

Yet Another Exciting Week In The MTC (and that isn't sarcastic, it was actually pretty darn exciting)

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

So this was an exciting week in the MTC, but also a very busy one. Last Wednesday we got 500 new missionaries, which is a huge amount and we also had all of the new Mission Presidents show up for a mission president seminar. The bad part was that the MTC was quite crowded and the meal lines were a mess, but the plus side was that we were all on General Authority watch during the week.

 

Now sometimes I realize that I use LDS terminology and don't explain it. A General Authority is one of the leaders of the LDS church. We have a prophet, Thomas S. Monson who has two councilers, President Deiter F Uchtdorf and President Henry B. Eyring. Then we have a group or Quorum of 12 apostles who help run the church and advise the prophet. For missionaries, General Authorities are pretty much the most exciting people we can see in the mission field, so we were all on the look out for some General Authorities.

I was disappointed at first because my whole district got to meet and shake hands with one of the 12 Apostles, Elder D. Todd Christopherson while me and Elder Stegeby were in the bathroom. That was the most inconveniently timed bathroom break I had ever participated in. But don't worry, things get better! On Friday we were walking back from the soccer field after destroying the Italians in a Russian-Italian Soccer game. A few of us like to run back to get a little bit of a cool down afterwards so we were running to the MTC gate. Suddenly, this gigantic security guard stopped us and said we couldn't enter the MTC yet. At this point, all 40 or so missionaries that were with us had caught up and we were all crowding around the entrance gate.

 

We were all very confused when suddenly this black BMW drove up and stopped in front of the main building. Then, to my happiness, President Deiter F Uchtdorf came and got into the BMW! As he drove out he had all the windows down and was waving to us and giving us thumbs up. It was pretty awesome because he is my favorite General Authority. Of course, the missionaries were pretty excited so we had started cheering, and he pointed to his wife and made us cheer for her too. The whole thing was such an awesome experience. He had really really white teeth, just so you know.

 

That night we had a "special" devotional. Of course we had heard that Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the 12 was going to talk to us, which I was excited about since he is my 2nd favorite General Authority. So I showed up early to perform with the choir, but I was not ready for how many apostles came. The devotional ended up being attended by Elders David A. Bednar, Dallin H. Oaks, M. Russell Ballard, Russell M. Nelson, Neil L. Andersen, Jeffery R. Holland (my 3rd favorite General Authority) and Richard G. Scott. Needless to say, it was pretty darn awesome. I had never seen that many General Authorities in one place outside of General Conference, and too see them all in person was so great. Elder David A. Bednar gave an extremely motivational talk about become a "Preach My Gospel" missionary that really fired me up for the work. It was one of the coolest experiences I have ever had.

 

So I thought that the week was pretty much over in terms of excitement, but I was mistaken. On Sunday I got two quite inexplicable interviews from members of my Branch Presidency. I thought I was in trouble, but I wasn't. Turns out they were interviewing me so that they could call me to be the District Leader of my district. In the mission, a District is a group of 10-12 missionaries overseen by a District Leader. Then four-six districts make up a Zone, which is lead by a Zone Leader. So for the next few weeks I have to the leader of my District. It is a very humbling and intimidating assignment, so I hope I can do my best in my calling and work for the benefit of my District.

 

Pretty much that is it for the week. The Russian has been progressing, we are really hitting the vocabulary now. Things are getting exciting because we get 40 new Elders in our Zone today and we have this and four more P-Days until we are in Russia. Thanks for all the care and support that you all give me, it is so nice to know that there are people back home who care. I love you all!

 

Wondering Why the Laundry Room is So Darn Hot,

Elder Zachery Brasier

A Letter That In No Way Is About The Mysterious Production Of Eggs.

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Its been an interesting and exciting week here in the MTC. Right now you might be thinking: "But why Elder Brasier is it so exciting?" Well do not worry, I will tell you!!!

 

First of all, the older districts are all gone as of Tuesday. That means that we are now the older Russian districts, which is pretty awesome, but also a little bittersweet. The bitter part is that a lot of my good friends are now gone, like Elder Arndt, LeFevre, Rooney (whose awesome desk I inherited as well as his huge supply of salt water taffy), Woodard, Bradford and worst of all Yefoshkin. Elder Yefoshkin was only here for four weeks because he already spoke Russian and is now in Donetsk, Ukraine. I am really going to miss him, because me and him became very close over the short month I knew him. It was a really blessing to have him around because I was able to learn how to connect and talk to Russian people and I was able to ask him about pointers for being in Russia. Besides the great learning experience he was, I really enjoyed him as a person. We both traded contact information so hopefully I will be able to keep in touch with him after the mission. The sweet part is that we are now the experienced missionaries around the block and most importantly we have less then six weeks until we are in Russia (or in my case Russia, Belarus or Kazakhstan). So we have officially passed the half way point.

 

This week I decided that I wanted to become more involved in the activities provided by the MTC. So I joined the MTC Choir. Elder Porter has started to teach me how to sing and says that I am actually pretty good for just starting. I picked a great time to join up though, because for our first number we sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" which was amazing, yet relatively challenging. It was a real baptism by fire for my meager singing talents. I was pleased though that after a bit of practice I was able to hold my own with the more experienced singers. Another interesting side effect of my recent Choir joining is that on Friday we have a special devotional. We usually don't have a devotional on Friday but a few General Authorities are currently on campus to train new mission presidents. Also, the Choir is preforming a "special" musical number on Friday. So connecting the dots, I think that we are about to have a high ranking General Authority speak to us in devotional. You didn't hear it from me, but the rumor is that its somebody who's name starts with a D and rhymes with Bavid B Gednar..... That's just the rumor. Also, I joined the Russian soccer team for the daily Russian vs. Italian soccer games during gym time. I officially now play left defense and have been doing pretty good. I think this week we won 3 games and only lost 2. It helped that some of the good Italian players shipped off to Rome or somewhere this week.

 

So the Russian is going quite swimmingly. We are now teaching in almost 100% Russian and as such my grammar has been starting to slip big time and I sound like a character out of the book A Clockwork Orange, speaking in some weird Russian combo English vernacular. Its pretty fun though when we run into non-Russian speaking Elders and they have a hard time understanding what we are talking about. Also, things have been getting better with Elder Stegeby. He still struggles teaching but we have been getting along pretty well recently which has been nice. I've really started to learn that he is a great guy, just really weird, which is perfectly fine.

 

I feel like I want to address a question I've got a few times: What is Cyrillic? I'm sorry that I haven't explained it, since I'm just used to saying it and having everybody know what I am talking about. So here's a quick linguistic lesson. Cyrillic is the alphabet used by Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and a few other Easter European Slavic based languages. All those weird characters on my name tag are Cyrillic characters. The alphabet was created around 800 AD by a Catholic Monk who wanted to bring the scriptures to the Eastern European tribes. It is a combination between the Greek and Latin (the one we use) alphabets, but is more closely related to Greek, since it has a lot of characters roughly analogous to Greek characters such as Pi, Theta, Beta, Epsilon, Lambda and a few others I can't remember off the top of my head. So that's what Cyrillic is, its just a different alphabet.

 

So I hope everything is going well for everybody. Feel free to write, but I'm sorry if it takes me a while for me to write back. Also, one day I'm going to figure out how to use Cryllic characters in these e-mails!

 

Looking Dashing As Always,

Elder Zach Brasier

Pictures!

My name tag.  The last name isn't in Cyrillic but will be once I go to Russia, but everything else is.

District Leader Elder Patterson looking confused at the complexity of Russian gammar.

Left to right: Elder Stegeby, Mitchell, and Christenson

Left To Right: Elder Taulious, Porter, Harris

Me and Elder Yefoshkin, my first Russian friend.

A standard day at the MTC.

Front Row, Left to Right:  Elder Patterson, Bean, Me, Christenson, Stegeby, and Mitchell

Back Row, Left To Right:  Elder Silver, Gulbransen, Taulicous, Harris, and Porter

Elder Stegeby and Me

Untitled Letter Due To My Current Block On Writing Creative Titles

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

I really don't have a whole lot to write this week since it was pretty much just a standard week at the MTC. Our zone made a big push on the Russian language this week and we have been working so hard, so I have been a little behind on letter writing. Anybody who sent me a letter recently, thanks for the letter and I am trying to get back to you as quick as I possibly can, but its been busy. A side effect of the big Russian push besides headaches has been the fact that my English grammar has been slowly being destroyed and I have almost completely stopped using certain English words and replaced them with Russian equivalents. I wish I could show you some of my Russian, but unfortunately the computer doesn't let me type in Cyrillic so I have to use Latin letters. For instance, writing "Russian" is so weird for me, since I exclusively use the Cyrillic equivalent.

 

This week I made a goal to meet at least two new people every day because I think it is fascinating to meet all sorts of people who are on their mission who come from all walks of life and incredibly diverse backgrounds. It has been quite a bit of fun meetings all of the other Russian missionaries and learning about them. What is so cool about being in the MTC is that you can be friends with people you usually wouldn't associate with. For instance some of my best friends here are a film student, a future business man, the Oregon State long snapper, a weight lifter from Virgina, a Russian from Moscow, and many other people. I just like how even though we are so so different, we are all united in missionary work and a common desire to make people happier.

 

There has been a bit of excitement this week because the older districts are shipping out next week, which is pretty darn exciting for them. There has been a lot of weighing luggage and giving away free stuff. I'm excited to become the older district for when the new Russian elders come in a week. Unfortunately, that means some of my friends are leaving, including Elder Yefoshkin. I am really going to miss him, because he has really become one of my best friends. Once again, its cool that in the MTC I have been able to become such good friends with this Russian elder who I would never have met otherwise. Yefoshkin made me laugh the other day because he invited me to go running with him during gym time. Now, you have to understand that Russian's can be very stubborn people. They do not give up very easily. So we started running and I just assumed that he would let me know how long he wanted to go since he invited me. Well we just kept running because he thought I was going to set the distance. I felt bad because after about 3 and a half miles he finally gave up and admitted that I had beat him. I didn't even know we were racing! He just didn't want to give up and wasn't going to stop until I stopped! We both laughed about that for awhile and Yefoshkin was walking really really slow for the next day.

 

I really am sorry I don't have anything more to share. As always I am trying to work hard and learn all I can before I go to Russia. One exciting thing is that next Wednesday all the new mission presidents come into the MTC in order to get trained by the church leaders. So that means that we are definitely going to have some high level General Authorities on campus, maybe even a prophet! I am going to keep my eyes open.

 

As Always,

Elder Zach Brasier.

 

PS- I almost forgot to tell you about the Quest for the Pillow Room! Its going good, and we've narrowed down the possibilities to a few hallways. Our goal is in sight!

 

PSS- Thanks for your support of Elder Harris. The day before I wrote my e-mail his best friend almost died and then he had some personal problems that needed to be worked out. Everything is ok now though and he is as happy as can be!