День Победы!

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

As signified by the title of this e-mail, this week we celebrated the holiday of День Победы (pronounced Dyen' Pobedy) or Victory Day!

 

For those unaware, this is one of the most important holiday's in Russia. It commemorates the victory of the Allied Powers in World War II and has become roughly equivalent to American Independence Day. Victory Day is celebrated the 9th of May in Russia (opposed to the 8th of May in the Western Europe) because due to the time zone difference the treaty was signed on the 8th of May in Germany, but the 9th of May in Russia. Victory Day is celebrated by massive parades and fireworks in all the cities, especially those who were directly involved in a World War II battle. The most elaborate and ornate parade is done on Red Square in Moscow, and consists of tanks, APC's, mobile ICBM missiles, jet fighters, bombers, helicopters and thousands of soldiers. Essentially, it is a display of Russian military force and a day of remembrance for the millions of people who where killed in World War II. Special emphasis is placed on veterans of Russian military campaigns, especially those few World War II veterans who still survive to this very day. Essentially Victory could be described as Independence Day, but with much more military equipment, slightly less fireworks and a huge serving of Russian national pride.

 

For our Victory Day observances, Elder Lantukh and I went down to Victory Park. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to get near the city center or Red Square because it had been deemed hazardous for missionaries. Instead we decided to head down to Victory Park, where the celebration was much less elaborate but nonetheless had the same feeling and concepts. Victory Park is most famous for its large World War II museum, which we were able to tour free of charge and also tour the large Park which is filled with various pieces of military equipment, most notably a huge rail cannon and full naval destroyers.

 

I really enjoyed the Victory Day celebrations and it was very interesting to see how the Russians celebrated this very important holiday. It was really interesting to see how much pride they had in the victory over the Axis Powers and how much pride they had in their own country. Even though I am obviously not Russian, I was able to understand the importance of this event to their national heritage and cultural identity. Basically, it was just a really cool day, and I'm glad that I was able to experience such an important part of Russia. I've decided to show some pictures in order to show what we did. (Now I must say, the Victory Park celebration does not even hold a candle to Red Square celebrations. The Red Square celebrations are literally 2000x more complex and awe-inspiring. I STRONGLY recommend that you spend a few moments on Google Image search to see what it looked like on Red Square.)

Moscow!

 Victory Park with the World War II museum in the back complete with the Victory Obelisk (it was a foggy day)

 1942, commemorated with flowers

A Russian military band of sorts.

 A blimp

Some military re-en-actors (I just thought I'd note that this is a great combination of soldiers, Alexander Nevsky's knights on the far right, World War II soldiers in the middle, and Neapolitan era soldiers interspersed.

Some young soldiers

 A World War II vet who served as an artillery man during the Battle of Leningrad

A statue in the museum

 The view from our apartment (just kidding, its actually a mural of the Battle of Leningrad

 These murals are huge.

 Just another day in the trenches doing a contacting activity here in Moscow. Elder Bressler in the middle raising his weapon, I am two people left of the flag with my face visible, Elder Lantukh is to the right of the flag with his back to the camera, Elder Olsen is off to the right of Elder Bressler. It was an intense contacting activity.

View from Elder Olsen's apartment in Nizhny (I wonder how long this joke can last, it's actually the Battle of Berlin)

  The Hall of Glory, I hope this picture gives you a sense of the immense size of this Hall. The statue itself is probably 30 feet tall and the dome is huge!

Smolensk in the Hall of Glory

 Moscow in the Hall of Glory

A sword, representing the strength and resolve of the Russian people

Another picture of the Hall of Glory, I hope you can see how awesome this Hall was. All of those names are Heroes of the Soviet Union (similar to the American Medal of Honor) and each carving on the wall is a city that was critical in the war effort. Above the statue is the huge dome previously shone. The Hall is a circle and all the walls are decorated in this way.

 Hey America helped win World War II as well! (Note my Orange and Black Victory Day ribbon. Just trying to fit in with the people) [Also: "США" is Russian for USA, but it doesn't directly transliterate. "США" is pronounced "Se-sha-aa" is Russian]

A huge rail gun.

I really like airplanes

German Bf-109G from World War II with a Soviet Yak-3 (also from World War II) in the background.

The Ilyushin Il-2 "Shturmovik" attack bomber. During World War II Joseph Stalin said that the Il-2 was more important to the Soviet war effort than bread and water.

 A Soviet anti-air rail car. I like the sayings on the side (From left to right): "For the Homeland!" "Our doings are just!" "The enemy will be destroyed!"

Elder Lantukh in the trenches.

This is a statue in Victory Park that was been a sort of joke between us and the AP's. It is a statue of the Allied Powers of World War II and thus:

I am on the far left, because of my French heritage, Elder Lantukh is the second from the left because he is Russian, Elder Bressler is the third from the left because he is the one with the most patriotism so he gets to be the American soldier, and Elder Turner is the far right British soldier because of his heritage and because all the other ones are taken.

 

I Have Returned

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

This week was actually a pretty fun week, so in order to give some sort of structure to my letter, I will order events sequentially, and hopefully it all makes sense.

 

Early in this week we went to this Supermarket called OK (Окей in Russian). This was essentially the Russian version of a SuperWalmart which was absolutely fascinating for me. It was more or less a slice of American retail and was the biggest super market that I have ever been in yet on my mission. Of course, I had to take a good look at the foreign cheese section, and was able to find a great selection of French Blue and Brie cheeses, which made me quite happy. I could go into much detail about the myriad of food selection at this store, but that would get quite boring. I must say that it was an awesome store though and consistently blew my mind. The best part about it was an oxymoron that I found upon entering the store. Since Victory Day is coming up very soon, there were a ton of banners for Victory Day all decorated with Hammers and Sickles and multiple Soviet images, but I thought it was funny that these huge Soviet banners were in the middle of a Walmart (for all intents and purposes). Lenin would be rolling in his glass box coffin on Red Square if he knew about that!

As much as I enjoyed finding a contradiction of economic policies while grocery shopping, that was not the most exciting thing that happened this week. The best part of our week was our weekly jaunt to another city. This week we went back to my old city, Nizhny Novgorod! I was extremely excited when I heard that we were going back to Nizhny, since I had promised all the members there that I would return before I ended my mission, and I was able to make good on my promise! Also, we ended up staying at Elder Olsen's apartment, which I enjoyed quite a bit.

 

We arrived at Nizhny late Friday night, and poor Elder Olsen had one of the most stressful days of his mission, so he really needed to sleep but we ended up waking him up at midnight. When he opened up his apartment door for us I laughed a little because he looked absolutely exhausted, it was the most tired I had ever seen him. At any rate, we slept over that night and woke up in the morning to a very familiar phone alarm (the recording of one of Elder Hoffman's morning wake up motivation). I really had a great time hanging out with Elder Olsen, but I felt bad for his greenie because we had so much to talk about and so many old "war stories" to tell about our missionary adventures that he had no clue what we were talking about. One of my favorite things though about getting older on my mission is the ability to tell old mission war stories about crazy contacts, being chased out of apartments and creepy experiences, especially when you can talk to someone else about your experiences who understands or experienced them with you. On Saturday night Elder Olsen and I accidentally stayed up until about one o'clock chatting, listening to classical music and killing cockroaches that were climbing up the walls (we named one Bethusalah). It was quite good times, but every time one of us tried to go to sleep the other would bring up something like the Gary Powers U-2 incident, crazy Kazakhstan rumors, or the Dyatlov pass mystery, and start a new line of conversation. I really enjoyed hanging out with Elder Olsen!

 

The best part of going to Nizhny was seeing the church members (of course). We were lucky enough to go when they were having a sports day, so we got to spend Saturday afternoon playing volleyball and soccer with church members, investigators and BYU exchange students. Right now there is a group of BYU exchange students in Nizhny who are learning Russian and experiencing the country. They were all super cool and it was really nice to talk to American's who weren't missionaries! I realized that I can still integrate into normal society! However, I must get sidetracked and tell a slightly funny story. I was asked to help lead a group of the students to the Lower Branch on Sunday morning, but I didn't have any of their numbers so I couldn't coordinate with them. After searching for awhile, we found one number from them, one of the girl students. For some reason my awkwardness level skyrocketed when I realized that I had to call a non-missionary girl BYU student. Elder Olsen, always so supportive, reassured me by promising that I could use speakerphone and he would sit and listen to the conversation and help me out. It was ridiculous how awkward I felt, especially when I couldn't think of what to say to say goodbye and ended with a short: "Ok Goodbye" and hung up without any reply. I looked over at Elder Olsen and told him that that was the worst phone conversation of my life, to which he responded: "Not ready to talk to girls on telephones yet?" No, of course not! But otherwise, the BYU students were way cool and I really enjoyed talking to them.

All of the members at Nizhny were great. It was so fun to see that they didn't change a whole lot, and the same personalities still existed. All of my friends, Ilya, Slava, Natasha, Dasha, Tonya and others were still awesome and the families that I loved to be around were still doing great! Everybody kept asking if I had come back to serve with them again, and it kind of broke my heart to tell them that I was only there for to weekend. I would have loved to tell them yes, but I guess it is not to be. It was also great to see some of my old investigators again, especially Alexander, which was out of the city when I left Nizhny so I haven't seen for almost seven months! He was doing great, and it was good to see him again. On Sunday evening we went to dinner at the Bagachev/Chesnakova family, which is one of my favorite families in Nizhny, and had a great time chatting with them. They were really interested in what I did in Smolensk so I was able to tell them all about Smolensk and also catch up on their lives. I felt so much love and Spirit in their house, I just keep thinking how much I love that family!

 

Last night we left Nizhny after a great trip and the youth all came to the train station to see us off as they always do. It was just as sad to leave them the second time as it was the first time. I really loved being in Nizhny again and it was a much needed "recharge" of sorts to go back to my older area where the members were so kind and so generous to my companions and I. I always felt loved and appreciated in Nizhny, so going back for the weekend felt like taking a trip back home, to a place were I knew I was loved. I think that I feel in a way the kinship that Paul felt for the church in Philippi, where the people were so kind and accepting and grateful for his service. I could probably go on for awhile about how much I love Nizhny, but I think you get the point. This was a very great weekend.

 

Well that's all I've got for the week, I hope you all have a great week, and remember to celebrate Victory Day on May 9th! Also, I wish you a late "Happy Star Wars Day" which is celebrated on May the Fourth (get it?). Have a nice week and stay classy!

 

As Always,

Elder Zachery Brasier

Come on, Hands! Come on, Feet!

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

Once again, I am reporting another week of the office, this time a week filled with the excitement of Kafkaesque Visa requirements and road trips to Tula. What else is new?

 

This week was a bit of a heavy logistics week because President Woolley has started his mission tour for the transfer. This means that we need to get him all over western Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan over the next three weeks and make sure he has adequate transportation and hotel accomidations. Also, we had to get him a Visa to both Kazakhstan and Belarus which was a pretty big task. The Kazakhstan Visa went through quite swimmingly, even though the people in the Kazakhstan Visa office looked absolutely miserable in their jobs. I don't really understand why (and that sentence would have been spoken with a heavy dosage of sarcasm.) The Belarus Visa was quite a bit more challenging, since it relied on a circle of people getting doing paperwork, and if one person dropped the ball, the whole logistical circle collapsed under the super critical weight of its own paperwork. And that is exactly what happened, so Elder Lantukh and I spent three mornings waiting in the Belarusian Visa office trying to get President's Visa. It was quite Kafkaesque if I must say so myself. On a positive note, I met some Americans (it is always fun to meet Americans who aren't missionaries or even church members) and got to try some Belarusian chocolate, which was incredibly delicious. After much waiting and calling Belarus officials and such, we eventually received the Visa's and everything went well. Other than that little adventure our week went by pretty uneventfully in the office, and it has been shockingly quiet since both the Assistants to the President and President have been gone. It is however, quite fun when the Assistants are in the office because Elder Bressler (I'm sure you'll remember him from my Nizhny adventures) is one of my best friends on the mission and so is Elder Turner.

 

As always, the most exciting part of our week is travelling on the road to a different city. These week we decided to go to Tula, which is a small city about three hours by bus outside of Moscow. Tula is famous for being near the birthplace of writer Leo Tolstoy (he was born in a suburb of the city), having the first Russian armament factory (built by Peter the Great) and having a pretty sizable airbase nearby for bomber planes. Also, they make a very famous Russian gingerbread in Tula which I like quite a bit, even though it is super thick and heavy so I feel like I'm eating a brick when I eat it. On Saturday morning Elder Lantukh and I jumped on a bus and after getting stuck in traffic for two hours we finally made it to Tula, which was ridiculously hot and dusty! Tula was an interesting little city, I couldn't really get a good feel for it, so I can't really tell you my opinion. It seemed to exist, and have no extremely defining characteristics or personality, which was weird. We did have a good time though in the city, contacting a little, seeing some of the sights and sampling the Tula brand of kvas (Russian bread soda). Unfortunately I keep forgetting my camera on these inter-city adventures.

My favorite part of the weekend though was going on a road trip on the Russian highway. I really have grown quite fond of travelling, since we travel so often in our mission. I love riding buses, trains and airplanes to locations all over Eastern Europe. I especially enjoyed riding on the bus to Tula, watching the rolling hills of the countryside oscillate, seeing the traditional Dacha houses and picking up hitchhikers inexplicably stuck on the highway. The Russian countryside is very pretty. It has gently sweeping hills filled with various pine and spruce trees and the white trunked Russian trees whose name I always forget. There isn't a whole lot of animals in the Russian countryside, but there are huge fields of potatoes and other crops that are being cultivated in the spring and summer. Of course one of my favorite parts of our road trips are the gas stations in the middle of nowhere (just like in America) staffed with one or two persons faithfully making Russian bread and pastries, and stocking the under cooled refrigerators to provide relief for the weary road travelers on the poorly paved Russian highways. I just love seeing all of the different places in Russia that I never would see in any other situation and meeting people who run in absolutely no common social circles. Travelling is just a blast for me, and I always enjoy being on buses or trains (unless I'm sick, then I don't enjoy it but even then I drag myself along: "Come on, hands! Come on, feet! Let's go somewhere new, let's go work!"). Next week I think we'll be heading off on a train to Yaroslavl (supposedly one of the prettiest cities in our mission) but we don't know our plans just quite yet. I am continually hoping for a trip to Nizhny since I told the members there that I would return one day before my mission ends, and I plan to make good on that promise!

 

I must apologize for the shortness of this letter! Like I said, this has been a pretty routine week, and being in the office I don't have too many exciting stories that I am willing to share. Maybe next week I'll have some more exciting things to tell you, but until then, take luck wherever you might go!

 

As Always,

Старейшина Закари Брэйжер

 

PS. There was a lightning storm again last night, this time it was very close to us so we could hear the thunder and get the rain. I guess Sunday night lightning storms will be something commonly reoccurring!

Veðrar vel til loftarasa

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

As of now I have officially been working in the office for a full week! Now you may be asking yourself: What exactly does that entail? I shall explain.

Pretty much Elder Lantukh and I are in charge of the logistical operations of our rather complex mission. Thus, we are responsible for buying train tickets, making sure missionaries get where they want to be, make sure that they stay legal with the Russian government and make sure all of the technical aspects of our mission work. The last item is my main job. Basically, I am in charge of the technology of the mission, i.e. making sure the computers, iPod's and all other technical assets of our mission function as they should. This last week we were quite busy due to the transfer that just occurred. We had to make sure that 20+ missionaries left their cities, came to Moscow and got to their new cities without problems or delay. This was quite the task. Otherwise, we just make sure the mission runs and every weekend we go to one of the other cities to help out and keep our missionary skills sharp. This week we went to Tver for two days, which is a city close to Moscow on the Volga River. It was fun to see a different city and also go and contact in a new location. It was quite enjoyable I must say.

 

One of my favorite parts about working in the office is that I get to see a lot of the other missionaries from the mission, so I get to stay in contact with my friends more often. I also have been able to see all of my old companions and I realized how lucky I was to have the companions that I did. Even though some of them really pushed my buttons, they all helped me grow in different ways and now we are all good friends, even if our time together had been kind of rough. My companionship with Elder Lantukh has been going well. We were able to sort out a lot of the problems with our old companionship and it really helps that I speak much better Russian now, since he pretty much refuses to speak English to anybody, only if they absolutely do not understand Russian. So that fact has really helped us get along better, and I know exactly what he doesn't like, so I can avoid doing those things. Thus, things have been slightly better, but we also don't talk to each other very much since we both have our office work to get done. Also (because I forgot to mention this) a fresh batch of greenies (new missionaries) came in this week. I love new missionaries because they have so much energy and enthusiasm after being couped up in the MTC for 11 weeks. Everything for them is a new experience and the things I take for granted about Russia are fascinating to them. They also speak pretty bad Russian, which limits their amount of things they can say, thus they cut to the gospel pretty quite while contacting. To illustrate my point I will share a story. On Tuesday Elder Olsen, his greenie (Elder Browning) and I went contacting and also went to find an ATM for some money. We went into one of the stores and I stopped and glanced at the movie stand near the ATM and the worker their asked if I wanted anything. Of course I responded with a curt: "No" and went about my business. However Elder Browning, ready for some action, quickly said: "We are missionaries from America have you ever heard of the Book of Mormon." Just like that, right to the punch. I kind of laughed and shook my head while withdrawing money but before I knew it, Elder Olsen and Elder Browning were talking to this random guy at the video stand about our church and actually gave him baptismal commitment in a way. I really realized how important it is to talk to everyone I see and I decided to have more greenie like enthusiasm. Greenies are just a lot of fun. (In an interesting note one greenie, Elder Simmons, followed this blog so he knew all about my mission already. I guess the only information he could find about our mission was on this blog. The good old paranoia returned for a little bit when I found this out!)

 

Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot to report since our week has been pretty booked with our work and I haven't had much time to go and explore Moscow. However, the other day we did go on Arbat Street and ate Wendys. Mmmm.... I really enjoy Wendys. Also since the weather is better all the street bands come out with their generators, amplifiers, electric guitars, drum kits and a whole lot of bravery. Honestly, most of them don't sound very good at all, but I give credit to anybody who will go set up on a street corner and give a free concert (I give even more respect for the bands that actually sound good!)

 

Last night I saw my first Russian lightning storm. It was incredibly cool since I love lightning anyways. Something about seeing gigantic discharges of atmospheric static electricity puts me in a reflective mood. As I sat watching lightning and looking at the highway that runs right by our apartment, I really realized my own smallness. There are so many people in the world it is overwhelming to have the responsibility to teach and preach the word of God. I just can't get to all of them! That day I had gotten three contacts and given out two Book of Mormons and thought that that I had done pretty good, but compared to the 8 million or so people in Moscow that is nothing! I really understood the saying of Alma: "O that I were an angel.. that I might go forth and speak with the trump of God.. and cry repentance unto every people." (Alma 29:1) It really is overwhelming to realize how big missionary work is, and I just enjoyed that reflective moment while watching one of my favorite natural phenomenon. I decided to work even harder to teach and reach those few people who do fall in my way every day.

 

Really that's all I have right now to say. I enjoy being in Moscow. My old love for big cities has been rekindled. Although I enjoyed the sleepy quietness of Smolensk, I feel more at home in the buzzing metropolis of Moscow, winding my way through the labyrinthine Metro subway system and being dwarfed by the shockingly ominous neo-classicalism of the Seven Sisters (or Stalin's high-rises). Being in this great world city has been such a thrill for me, I love being in the one of the centers of civilization, and the biggest city in this vast country of Russia. Being in the big city is truly a great experience!

 

As Always,

Elder Zachery Brasier

 

PS- A good scripture: Doctrine and Covenants 132:49 :" For I am the Lord thy God, and will be with thee even unto the end of the world, and through all eternity; for verily I seal upon you your exaltation, and prepare a throne for you in the kingdom of my Father, with Abraham your father."

 

PPS: I just got back from a visa trip in Kyiv, Ukraine, and returned with some more Ukrainian money! The weather is great right now in Ukraine! I have been travelling a lot lately.

Last of the Pictures!

Elder Jewkes and I

Elder Mitchell and I

At the war museum

Pictures of Zach!

Smolensk!

More Smolensk

At the river!

Dima and I

Vladimir and I

Valetina, Nina, Me

Galena and I

 Elder Jones and Elder Mitchell

Easter food! Easter cakes.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

The cathedral

In a fortress

My "O Smolensk" shot

On a wall

Elder Mitchell, Irina, Elder Brasier

English Club

Still More!

Elder Jones, Me, Elder Mitchell, Elder Jewkes

 Elder Jewkes and Elder Jones with French toast!

Tanks

 Airplanes!

Joseph Smith (just kidding, its some sort of Russian general)

Elder Mitchell in a fortress

Me in said fortress

 Fortress

On a fortress wall!