А вы могли бы....

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

This week many things happened, and I can't figure out a good way to organize them in a logical sense. Thus I will just break them up into short vignettes, and I hope you will get the idea.

-Sasha's Goodness- I never cease to be amazed by the goodness of people. I mentioned Sasha earlier, he is this great Uzbek guy who we teach English. For this wheel chair projected we needed a bench for measuring the wheelchair candidates and we asked him to make it, since he works in a furniture store. The night before we needed it, he called me and said that he had a huge problem with the project. We meet and he told me that the other workers had all got way drunk and could not operate heavy machinery and also lost all of the dimensions. I gave him a new copy of the dimensions and told him not to worry if he couldn't finish it, we would make due without. The next morning he called me and brought me to his store where he showed me a beautiful bench. He had worked all night to get it done to make good on his promise and then refused to accept any money for his work. He said: "It's my small part to help those people, I can't accept money.." Sasha is one of the most Christlike people I know, and an inspiration for me.

- Andrei's Lesson/Spiritual strength- For a long time we've been teaching an investigator called Andrei. He has a really hard time accepting that there is one true church and even though we have good lessons, he never prays or comes to church. Basically he is what we term an eternal investigator. Well sometimes we have to drop people to get them serious so we usually have an intense do or die lesson with them. We planned to do one with Andrei, but that morning I got very sick, and felt weak and nauseous the whole day. During the lesson I started out kind of out of it, but then started to testify and to unload all that I wanted to tell him. I felt such a strength come over me as I testified with the Spirit, but as soon as we said the closing prayer, I walked into another room and all the sickness came back, and I nearly collapsed on a chair. It is crazy how much strength you can receive when testifying with the Holy Ghost.

- Vladimir's Faith- Vladimir is a great member in our branch, I think I have sent a few pictures of him. He loves a drink called Baikal, which I tried a few times and enjoyed. One day I was looking at the label and noticed that it had black tea extract in it, making it a violation of the Word of Wisdom. I quickly told Vladimir, and he looked crushed that his favorite drink was actually bad, we both did not even know it. I told him that we probably should not drink it now that we know, which isn't that hard for me, I'd only had it maybe three times, but this is Vladimir's favorite drink. He decided right there to stop drinking this drink and only drink milk! I was amazed by his determined resolve to follow the commandments when confronted by them. I wish I had faith like Vladimir.

- I Ride in a Russian Ambulance- The day for the wheelchair project came and we had to transport the bench that Sasha made to the hospital. The hospital decided to send us a driver, and the driver was driving an ambulance! It was really fun because essentially the ambulance was the same van as the normal buses that we take everyday, making it very shaky, unstable and prone to lurching stops and starts. It was certainly an adventure to weave in an out of traffic with our camouflage wearing driver alternatively driving, shifting gears and talking on his cell phone all at once. We made it in one piece, and I remembered why sometimes Russian driving is quite terrifying.

- The Project- The wheelchair project was great. We didn't need to translate as much as we originally thought but it was fun to get to work with the medical staff and learn who to fit wheelchairs. While not an expert, I am pretty sure that I am an amateur wheelchair fitter by now. Three people came from Utah to help and we where even able to meet some patients who would receive the wheelchairs. I was so happy to see these peoples lives change for the positive and that I was able to help just a little bit. I am amazed to see all of these humanitarian projects that the church does and how so many people donate their time and money so selflessly to help people that they don't even know.

- I eat good food- We had great lunches and dinners for two days. We even went to a restaurant where they told us to not worry about the bill and just get what we want! Tiger Prawns, Swiss Chocolate Ice cream and apple juice for me!

- "Huston We Have A Problem"- One of the small boys at the project did not have a wheelchair small enough for him, thus we needed to make some pads to fit him in. Unfortunately the Russian stores didn't have a material. Thus, Elder Ottley and I had to engineer a way to make makeshift pads for this boy's wheelchair. Elder Ottley came up with a great idea to wrap thin boards in insulation material to create something similar to closed cell foam, and that we did. It was fun to do a little bit of problem solving to help a small boy who really needed a wheelchair.

- Art Museum- Today we went to an art museum, which was really cool, but on the way we had an awesome experience. As we were walking a guy behind us started to talk to Elder Merrill and I. He told us that he was a member of our church who hadn't come for years now. He was one of the first members in Ryazan and even baptized some of our members. He recognized the missionaries, gave us his number and still wears and English CTR ring. I was amazed that we were so fortunate. If we had taken a different bus, gone to a different museum, taken a little longer to eat or anything else, we would have missed him. I guess that the Lord puts you in the right place at the right time, even on P-Day!

Well, that is all.

Elder Zachery Brasier

Cracks in the Pavement Underneath My Feet

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

This week has been the week of visitors to Ryazan. President Sorenson decided to come down and visit with some of the members of the Ryazan branch and the following day Elder Jewkes and Elder Palmer (the Zone Leaders) came down to Ryazan in order to do splits with us and give a little bit of training.

 

President Sorenson's visit was pretty fun, mostly because I have  become more or less the official translator of the Ryazan branch (besides Vitaliy from time to time). Almost every week I translate for Elder Ottly as we try to reorganize the branch and get it running smoothly and when President Sorenson came I became the official translator for all of his interviews. I really enjoyed that because I got to spend a lot of time with President Sorenson during his visit, and I am very grateful that we have such a great and friendly leader in our mission. President Sorenson also took the time to teach me a little Finnish, since he served his mission there. I am incredibly glad that I am learning Russian and not Finnish! I have massive amounts of respect for all the people who try to learn the Finnish language... It sure is a tough one (even though President Sorenson says that Russian is harder.. I somehow doubt that!)

 

The following day the Zone Leaders came. I was way excited to work with Elder Jewkes for a day, just like old times! He also brought good news. Vladimir, the doctor investigator from Smolensk who couldn't get baptized due to his girlfriend, finally got baptized! They had the baptism two weeks ago and it sounds like he was extremely happy to finally get baptized after such a long time. His girlfriend even came to the baptism and invited the missionaries over to their apartment. I really gained a testimony that eventually people will be able to fulfill the righteous desires of their heart and the Lord will always provide a way for people to choose righteousness. I don't know exactly why Vladimir had to wait so long to be baptized, but I know the there was a bigger purpose in the whole ordeal. Somehow, Vladimir got strengthened by the experience and is now prepared to be a leader in Smolensk. I am just so happy to know that I helped just a little with his teaching and conversion and that even though his situation seemed pretty hopeless before, he is now baptized and can begin working on his goal to attend the temple. I am really so happy for him!

 

Elder Jewkes and I had a good day, trying to help unload wheelchairs for the upcoming humanitarian project (trying because they actually didn't need our help at all, they just forgot to tell us that they already had everything under control), contacting on Victory Square, having (possibly) mafia men swear at us, avoiding Gypsies trying to steal our money, listening to Vitaliy's plans for world domination and almost missing buses. You know, just a standard day in the trenches! Once again, I am grateful for my good friends here on the mission who are always steadfast with their missionary work.

 

Otherwise, this has a been a pretty fun week. We've had some good lessons, especially with Alex who is way great and spiritually prepared and Felix who came to church once again and had a really great time at church. A lot of our investigators are moving towards baptism but at the same time a lot of our investigators are beginning to slough off. This is the way things are in the kingdom of God and in the fight to get people on the true path. As missionaries we are here to provide people with enough spiritual opportunities and ample knowledge that they can make an informed and spiritual choice about which path to follow. It all hinges on peoples freedom of agency and choice, unfortunately many people, even when presented with the light and knowledge of the gospel will choose not to accept it, to no fault of the missionaries or anybody else. Eventually all people are backed up against the wall of faith and have to decide for themselves whether or not to take a stand and choose to follow Jesus Christ, or to back down and retreat into darkness. Some people are just more comfortable with darkness, and the missionaries have to stop meeting with them in order to find the people prepared to hear our message. Anabolism and catabolism are always at work in the kingdom of God.

 

During the week, I have had a few harrowing experiences which have once again reminded me that as missionaries we are in a very literal fight against the forces of darkness. Sin is very real, and the world we live in can be a dark and evil place. It really excites me to know that on my mission I truly do have to responsibility to work my hardest in order to combat the evil in the world. I really am glad that I have to gospel in my life and I have the mission to share it with others.

 

On a less serious note, my name changed this week. I recently ordered new tags from the MTC because I lost my tag with a pin, which I need during the winter. It is probably obvious that all of our names as missionaries have to be transcribed using the Cyrillic alphabet, thus my name on my old pin tag and my current clip on tag was Брэйжер which transliterates as "Breyzhyer". That is about as close as you can get to my last name using the Cyrillic alphabet. Well, for some reason the MTC decided to send me a new pin tag with my name spelt as Брэйзер which transliterates as "Breyzyer". Брэйзер? A hard "z" instead of a tasteful "zh"? I am quite indignant, but I guess while I have my coat on I'll be Брэйзер now instead of Брэйжер, but at least I'll have my correct name when I take my coat off!

 

Ok, enough of that. Have a nice week.

 

As Always,

Elder (Sir) Zachery E. Brasier

 

Quotes of the Week:

-Me: "Hey Felix, your looking good today." Felix: "Yeah thanks, I'm always looking good." (Which is true)

-Vladimir: "ITS A TRUE!" (responding to a joke that somebody made).

Friendly Paramecia

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

Since the return of our friendly revenants, things have been well here in Ryazan. For the most part, missionary work has turned towards the business as usual sort of things, so I don't have a whole lot that I would like to report at this time, but I'll try to figure something out in order to entertain you with various mission adventures.

 

Considering all things, Friday was a pretty interesting day. We had a joint zone conference with my native South Zone and the East Zone, the zone of my good friend Elder Olsen, including the well treasured city of Nizhniy Novgorod. Also, Elder Eliason from Tula came so it was really fun to see all of my good friends once again. Conference was so so good. I actually am going to consider it as a big turning point of my mission, because I had a really great spiritual experience during the trainings and on my way home. I really was able to understand somethings that I need to be better in my mission and how to dedicate myself more to the mission. I really love conferences and I love the opportunity to re-assess what I am doing in the mission and how to work better to help people come closer to God and Jesus Christ. It is also very fun to see all of my good friends and have entertaining leadership trainings. In and unfortunate turn of events, I found out that I am officially on the mission "Kill Board" the white board that President Sorenson has to track when people are leaving! But lets not think about those sorts of things shall we?

 

Today, we had a very interesting experience. Recently, the Storm's ( a senior couple in our mission) have been working with some groups in Ryazan to do humanitarian work. One of their biggest projects was the purchasing of a Braille printer for a blind library here in Ryazan. This printer is a big step forward because it allows the library to print documents and pictures using Braille printing. In order to celebrate this event, the library has decided to throw a little party for us, which involved lots of food and lots of signing of Russian folk songs. It was a way fun, especially because some of the people had decided to drink a little champagne, which loosens up the Russian people. Thus, we spent at least 45 minutes singing folk songs and watching this Kazakh theatre actor acting out the story of the song and I got to tell all the people many interesting facts about Las Vegas. Wow, I really had a lot of fun, and we got to talk a lot about our church and our beliefs. They were blown away when we told them that we don't drink black or green tea, alcohol, smoke or take drugs. Everybody gasped and then started congratulating us on such a life. I want to tell them that they could have it too, but the moment wasn't really correct....

 

Otherwise, our investigators are doing quite well. We are meeting a lot with our investigators and are trying to move them closer and closer to baptism. I've realized that on my mission I'm really good at finding and starting to teach investigators, but I'm not nearly as talented at closing the deal. So we're trying to move a few of our investigators closer to membership in the church. This is actually quite the novel experience for me, but I've really enjoyed having so many investigators doing progress and finding their way to the church. This is a very different situation than Smolensk with Elder Jewkes, opening up a new area, no investigators, contacting everyday in -25 degree C weather... Yeah, it's a little better than that.

 

Elder Ottly and I have been teaming up in order to help the branch get back on logistical course. This week we had the highest number of people at sacrament meeting which we've had for awhile (24 people! That's a good improvement!). Now that that is moving up, we are trying to help the branch organize so that they can effective fulfill the three-fold mission of the church. It has really taxed my translating skills, especially in Branch Council which sometimes dissolves into a rigmarole.... one that is especially difficult to translate. But I've really enjoyed learning all about church organization and how to effectively run the branch.

 

Well like I said, I don't have a whole lot to write, so I apologize, because I know that some people like reading these sorts of things. But at any rate, have a good week!

 

As Always,

Elder Zachery E. Brasier

Oh, How the Revenants Came Down...

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Reader,

 

Well summer is officially over, so my long wait till fall has finally come to an end. What a relief it is to be heading into the bleak cold months of the year, something I have been waiting for ever since the end of May. Sweaters and jackets are the vogue now, and soon enough I'll break out my peacoat and give my best impersonation of a Danish fisherman while contacting the streets of Russia. But lets not get to far into the future shall we?

 

Things seem to be on an upward climb, the slope of missionary work would probably be positive (if we were to map it mathematically). In a fortunate turn of events, Felix returned after a long absence. I had been calling him for quite some time but unfortunately his phone was turned off. Instantly, the various reasons for this flashed through my head. Was he offended? Did he find anti-Mormon literature? Did the KGB get him? In fact, he was just in Moscow for a work program and returned just in time to come to church this Sunday. I was so glad to see him once again, since it had been quite a long time. We have also had some success recently finding new investigators. If you remember from a few months back, I mentioned that Elder Turner (one of the assistants to the president) and I had met some sort of famous chef while contacting. For the longest time he was completely unable to meet, but we finally were able to get an appointment with him and chat with him about the gospel. He is an awesome guy and asked all the right questions such as: "Do you have any literature specific to your church?" or "But how did you know that the Book of Mormon is true?" or "I don't think we should pray to icons, shouldn't we pray in our own words?" Yes, things went quite well. Also, we met with a guy who has known about the church for 16 years! I didn't even know that the church was here in Ryazan back in 1996, but evidently it was. We had a very good lesson with him and even challenged him to baptism, with a soft commitment (you know: If you come to know that these things are true, will you be baptized?") and he accepted! And, in one final note, the two rock band investigators finally became interested in the gospel, so that is really good news for us.

 

On a more humorous note, two interesting things happened to me this week.

 

Interesting thing #1 (or: How I have lost all ability to contact in English): While contacting on Victory Square a few days ago, I was able to contact some African students from Botswana, so they spoke English, and I realized very quickly that I have no clue how to contact somebody about the Book of Mormon in English. It was one of the worst contact approaches I have had for quite a while, and I even felt like I was a greenie once again, because I had no clue how to express myself to them in English. I actually found myself translating from Russian into English. In my mind I was thinking: "Это - летопись древних пророков" and I had no clue how to express that in English! I had to translate: "This is... a .... um... record (oh yes that's it).... old prophets, oh I mean OF old prophets.... (yeah, that's right)" I still got his contact, but it seems as though I am completely inept at contacting in the English language.

 

Interesting thing #2 (or: Why I should have taught my greenie how to get off a bus.): A few days ago we were returning home from an appointment at a members apartment. It was time for us to be home so we were kind of in a hurry, and didn't have time to do much else, so we got on a bus and started heading towards our bus stop on Lenin Square. As we approach the stop I yell to the driver to stop (this is what you have to do in Russia, or else the drivers keep going, so you have to know where you are and yell loud enough to make him stop) and started working my way to the door of the bus. Finally the bus stops and I begin to shove people out of the way in order to get through the door, seeing as the bus was exceptionally crowded, AND people were getting on at the same time. Finally I escape out into fresh air right as the bus starts driving forward and the doors close. Since the driver let us off in the middle of the street, I quickly ran to the sidewalk and turned around to make a joke to Elder Merrill about how many people were on the bus, only to find that Elder Merrill wasn't with me! I looked over to the bus and saw a white shirt and tie pressed up against a window as the bus sped away. I just stood there..... Oh no...... and started sprinting down the street to the next stop, hoping that he'll have to common sense to get off on the next stop...... Fortunately he did, and we reunited at the next stop. I was so glad that that situation worked out alright. Elder Merrill might have been a little shaken, seeing as that was the first time it had happened to him, but all worked out in the end.

 

End of interesting things.

 

In other news, things seem to be getting better in the branch. Elder Ottly (the senior couple missionary) and I have been working really hard in order to get the branch organized in the correct way and get the work moving. This means that I've really learned a lot about church organization and how to run things in a branch of the church. This has been a really valuable learning experience for me and has also sharpened up my translating skills. Speaking of translating, I just received an assignment from President Sorenson to translate for a two day wheel chair donation project that the mission is doing here in Ryazan. I am actually a little apprehensive of this, mostly because I have yet to study my "Technical Wheelchair and Accessories Vocabulary" from my Russian study manual (don't be fooled, that section obviously does not exist.) Hopefully though things will go well and I'll be able to effectively translate to help all these people in Ryazan learn how to use these wheelchairs that were so generously donated by affluent saints.

 

And so yes, that is all that is really going on right now. A few days ago I thought that Ryazan was under attack! As I was laying in my bed slowly falling to sleep, suddenly I heard explosions and blasts right above my head! I suddenly jumped out of my bed and remembering stories of early missionaries being shot at by anti-Mormon forces, ducked down as my room was filled with multi-color lights and flashes. Gaining courage, I tentatively lifted my eyes just above the window seal to look out the window. To my surprise, the explosions were just fireworks which were being launched so low that they were nearly level with my window. I guess that I survived the Battle of Ryazan.

 

Everybody have a great week!

 

As Always

Elder Z. E. Brasier

PS- Vitaliy quote of the week: "Physical elimination is my hobby!" Oh Vitaliy...

 

PPS- Here is a quote from one of our branch councilors, Gennadiy, who was a rather high ranking KGB commander, in the top ten of the the command. One day, while giving a talk, he said this: "We should spend our time developing Christ-like attributes. In my past work [KGB commander] I spent my time developing different..... attributes.... But now I develop Christ like ones!" I really liked that quote.

You Know I Know This One, I Know This One

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

August is rapidly closing up, which means that September and the official spring is coming shortly. Also that means that school is starting up again, as is normal work so the more normal missionary meeting schedule will be restored. I for one and rather happy with the changing of season, for although I do enjoy the summer here in Russia, I do enjoy the fall much much more, with its changing colors and brisk temperatures.

 

Well I've received my new companion, my new greenie. His name is Elder Merrill, and he is from Salt Lake City, Utah. Interestingly enough he is my first companion that I have served with who is from Utah, much less Salt Lake City. I thought for sure that I was going to serve my whole mission without ever serving with somebody from Utah, which would have been insane, considering the fact that a lot of Mormon's live in Utah, but alas, it was not to be. At any rate, he's a good kid and I've enjoyed serving with him so far. I feel bad for the guy though because he is still so jet lagged and I, obviously, am not, so I think sometimes I kill him with my working speed.

 

Our area has been going pretty good. We've had some good meetings with our friend Andrei, who is 20-something and such a good guy. I really like meeting with him because we are such good friends that it doesn't feel awkward at all to teach or discuss the gospel with him, it just feels like two friends chatting about something important. We've also been meeting a lot recently with Zhenya, who is a way cool guy who is a bassist in a cross-over hard rock band. Me and him have a lot in common and we think nearly the same way, which is really great. Also, we like similar music which gives us a real connection and something to talk about, because we can talk about the real technical aspects of the musical industry. In this situation also, I find it really easy to share our message with him, we even decided one day to show him the Brandon Flowers message on Mormon.org (maybe something a little bit different than usual, but it opened up a great conversation.) I am writing this to tell you that I love when your in a city for a long enough time that the members and non-members become your friends, and the relationship is no longer some awkward teacher-student relationship, but rather the relationship between two friends, one of which being a missionary with a message that can change their lives. Otherwise, we are constantly trying to find new people to meet with and working our hardest. I'm happy right now because for a few weeks it looked like our investigator pool was starting to dry up, but now things are turning back around again.

 

Things in the branch are going pretty well. We continue to work with Vitaliy and help him along. He has been bringing his girlfriend to church and the sister missionaries are teaching her right now. His girlfriend should have a baptismal date pretty soon! Even though I am not teaching her personally, it is rewarding to see that our work with Vitaliy and our friendship with him has payed off in that he trusts us enough to have the missionaries teach his girlfriend. We've also been giving him our old white shirts, ties and belts, and he's started to look rather sharp, like 007, as he says. Otherwise the branch is going well. I decided yesterday that the scriptures should read: "Sunday is a day of rest (unless your a missionary in a small branch in mainland Russia)" because on Sunday I spend my time running around, translating for the senior couples, trying to have at least a small conversation with nearly everybody in the building, going to couples, doing ward finances, explaining scriptures to Brother Kondratev and all sorts of tasks. I am always absolutely exhausted on Sunday! The good thing is that on Sunday we usually go to Larisa, the old crippled ward member who always corrects our Russian, and help her with groceries, bless the sacrament and just help her feel less lonely. Larisa is a great woman with such strong faith, and it is the least we can do for her to be her friends and keep her spiritually uplifted.

 

I am sending pictures today so I apologize that my letter is so short. One thing I would like to note was that the Office Elders, Elder Stegeby and Elder Ayers, were here this weekend. That was a lot of fun since both of them had been in the MTC with me, we all reported on the same day (which seems so long ago) so we all have great stories and things to catch up on.

 

At any rate, have a nice week. Enjoy school all you poor people who have to still study!

 

Live Long and Prosper,

Elder Z. E. Brasier

 Elder Hunt and I in front of the Zanzibar circus sign of absolute creepiness

 Graves at Solochta Monastary

 A beam of light from.. somewhere...

A random guy with a cow

 Elder Hunt, wishing that he recieved mail

Me in the library

My new apartment... haha (just kidding)

 My new apartment, and the Russian squat

 A prosterity pictures: Elder Merrill, Elder Dannenberg (my trainer) and I. I forgot to mention that Elder Dannenberg finished his mission this week. I'm really going to miss seeing him around now.

At the Ryazan stadium as my favorite team scores a goal. Just kidding, nobody else was there, obviously...

  Ryazan Stadium

This cat just chilling on the seats

Vladimir, our member

Valentin, one of our English Club attendees

 Vladimir, with his Pokemon diary, where he keeps all of his important documents

Victor, one of our English Club attendees

Galavanting in the woods

 Ready to put out to sea!

The bus that took us back to Ryazan

 Hot chocolate in McDonalds

Our good friend Lenin in Solochta

 Solochta monastary

Il-76 over Solochta

 

These are all from hiking around in Constantinovo, and I realized that most of these pictures feature me in civilian clothes, but don't worry, these are just P-Day pictures when we were hiking around or doing more atheletic things

 Me being pensive

The Oka River

Naval Adventure awaits!

 To the sea!

 Some crazy Masonic grafitti that I found

Elder Hunt and I on the banks of the Oka

 Me being pensive, once again.

 Il-76 over Solochta

 The same aircraft

Elder Hunt and I in Solochta

 Solochta

 

 

 

 

 

Radiolarians

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

Well what to say, what to say. This week has gone by pretty normally. Elder Hunt is gearing up to go to Tver and I am getting excited to receive my greenie. On Thursday we'll be going to Moscow to drop Elder Hunt off and so that I can attend the new missionary training meeting. I am pretty excited for that, partly because I get to see a lot of my old friends, like Elder Eliason and Elder Barker who are training, Elder Olsen who has been sitting in Nizhniy for forever and a day and also Elder Stegeby who just received a transfer call to the office (I called him for a little bit of friendly needling, but to my surprise he is incredibly excited to be an office Elder. I must say he has a much better attitude than I did about that transfer.) We will be getting so many new missionaries in our mission over the next few transfers, so the missionary work in this part of the world will be picking up. It is really cool because I can see the Lords hand in how the missions were split and then combined and now the Moscow Mission is taking off. Every missionary and every event of the Moscow West Mission played a critical role in further establishing the stake in Moscow and strengthening the church.

 

In the mean time things here in Ryazan are going along quite well. Right now Elder Hunt and I are trying to emphasize finding and contacting new investigators, since a lot of our old ones have started falling away. This has lead to a plethora of contacting adventures, the least of which being when I contacted a pirate the other day. The man was literally dressed like a pirate, carried a cane, spoke how I imagine a pirate would speak in Russian and also took a Book of Mormon! As I asked him for his number he produced a "business" card with his name and phone number, introducing himself as Adreas von Lepioschkin and garnished with his pirate crest. If I don't end up teaching him I think my mission will be a total failure. Otherwise the contacting is going well and we have found some great people that will be excited to hear the restored gospel.

 

Sasha (the awesome Uzbek who we are teaching English/gospel with) is still doing great. Last night we watched the Joseph Smith movie with him, and the Spirit was so strong in the room, and then Sasha started asking tons of questions about our religion, which was great since we got to explain to him the difference between our religion and other Christian religions. Sasha is amazing, he is so receptive to the Spirit and such a great overall guy. His whole goal in life is to build parks and hospitals for children! Right now he is pretty set on remaining Muslim, but meeting him has really strenghtened my testimony that there are amazing people from all countries, all religions, and all walks of life.

 

Vitaliy is doing great too. He gave us a few letters that we need to forward to Mitt Romney through our contacts with the American embassy here in Russia (we are still working on that....) and has also started to bring his girlfriend to church! It has been so great to see member missionary in action! His girlfriend Angela gave the Sister missionaries her number and they will be meeting with her shortly. I really hope that things work out for them, since Vitaliy is one of our best friends here in Ryazan.

 

Otherwise, the only exciting thing that has happened this week is that we went out to an old monastery in Solotcha, a small town about 30 kilometers outside of Ryazan. In our mission we now have culture nights once every other transfer, and for our culture night, we decided to go out to Solotcha and see what was there. Honestly, it wasn't anything too interesting, just like every other Orthodox monastery/church which I've seen, but the highlights of which were two low level passes of some Il-76 transport planes (of which I got awesome pictures) and an awesome cemetery, which I also loved and took copious amounts of pictures. Next culture night I hope to go to a symphony orchestra.

 

Well, I hope you all have a great week and keep being awesome. Congratulations to Ronald Francis McGhin III and Matt Doxey for finishing their missions! Those guys are awesome!

 

As Always,

Elder Z. E. Brasier

Too Long Till Fall..

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

As my title may have implied I am eagerly looking forward to the fall. It is almost upon us. Right now we are experiencing that delightful time of the year when the seasons experience multiple personality disorder and can't exactly decide what personality they want to commit to. They are like our investigators sometimes, ready to make a change but still holding onto those little habits that are holding them back. At least it's not blazing hot anymore!

 

Today started out eventfully. Our landlords called and decided to do a deep cleaning of our apartment. Of course Elder Hunt and I were a little disappointed about this, so we decided to do it ourselves all morning. So we cleaned, cleaned, cleaned and eventually 10 o'clock rolls around, time for them to come. Well they call and tell us that they are stuck in traffic..... Three hours later they show up. Fortunately we had cleaned likes champs so they didn't stay long but while they were fixing some of our window drapes President Sorenson called with the news of transfers. In an interesting turn of events, Elder Hunt is being transferred to Tver, a city north-west of Moscow on the Volga River (I've been there once, it's a pretty city and has this nice Ferris wheel which Elder Lantukh convinced me that we needed to ride so we had a slow Ferris Wheel ride together overlooking the Volga River. It was really cute...) and I will be receiving a new companion. Not just any new companion, but a greenie, fresh from the MTC! I am really excited. I'm already planning our first meal together (you know, with all the worst Russian foods that take a few months to really get a hang of) and our first P-Day and such. I've also forgot his name already... so that's a good start....

 

Other than that exciting bit of news, this has been a pretty routine week. Just trying to meet with all of our investigators. Since the summer is ending, everybody has decided to take their last minute trips out to The Middle Of Nowhere, Russia or to work an extreme amount of hours before school and real work starts again. Our branch president has left for Bulgaria for three weeks (which has already caused a plethora of problems), our investigator Andrei has been MIA for the last month, and the Sister's lady who was going to get baptized has completely disappeared. On an interesting note, one of our "investigators" Oleg has received permission from the Russian government to start his own religious proselyting organization. Obviously we are meeting less and less with him, but the other night he called us and wanted to plan a "contacting activity" with us where we would hand out Books of Mormon and he would hand out New Testaments. I had to laugh that of all the people who want to assist us in our missionary work the most, it is a non-member. Even our members don't want to help most of the time! Also, Felix is doing good, he is a really great guy, he just is working so often that we are having a really hard time meeting with him. And thus, when our investigator pool starts to thin out, what do we do? We go hit the streets and start calling every phone number we can find in our old area book!

 

I actually had a really cool experience the other day. We were teaching a lady in our branch who has a few problems with her testimony. After pretty much destroying the Sister's during a lesson, we decided to just read the Book of Mormon with her and try to help her build her own testimony that way. We started reading Alma chapter 32 (you know, the really good chapter about faith as a seed) and only got through two verses before she started telling us about some very deep and concerning trials that she had in life. I was shocked that she had opened up to us so much and we were able to have one of the most spiritual lessons that I have had on my mission. After we had finished, we asked her to pray and as she prayed she specifically thanked God for the two missionaries who he had sent to help her out. I really started to choked up. I suddenly realized that I had been in the perfect time and place to help this woman through her issues, and it was a real testimony builder to me that I needed to be her in Ryazan. This has been a challenge my whole mission. I've already learned why I am on a mission, but I've often wondered why exactly I, Zachery Edwin Brasier, needs to be in these cities. We are always told that our personalities and gifts are exactly what people need, but often I feel like somebody else could do the job, if not better. But, on this lesson it was one of those great moments where I realized that for some reason, Elder Hunt and I were needed at that time to help this lady, and it was a really touching and spiritual experience for me, one of the most important I think I've experienced on my mission.

 

Otherwise, I really don't have a whole lot to report. The branch is holding together, we have some problems right now but they'll work out. On the plus side Vitalii is now coming to church again and even bringing his girlfriend! Oh my word! I almost forgot something awesome that happened to me this week. Our investigator Sasha works for this lady whose brother just died. He was a book collector. Sasha told her that he has some friends who like to read, and asked if we could go grab some books, since they would all be thrown away anyways. She agreed and we all went together into an essentially up for grabs library of Russian books. I was blown away! Of course, I looked for rare Soviet books first. I found some Soviet magazines in pretty good condition from 1952, which blew me away. Then I found a Soviet book entitled: "What America is really like." After words I found a treasure trove of Soviet children books, which I made sure to grab because they are incredibly interesting and also much easier to read in Russian, which will be nice after my mission. I found Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in Russian as well as some Mayakovskii poetry books. Although I was happy, our member Vladimir (who you saw last week) was in heaven. He entered the building, and exclaimed "I LOVE TO READ!" and emptied three whole shelves of history, classic literature and poetry into a huge box! The man was literally running around in a euphoria of the written word for two hours, scrambling to get anything he could. I had never seen him so excited before! I am super glad that I had that opportunity, because I don't know if I'll have another opportunity again to salvage what I can from a large Russian library, right?

 

Well that is all I have for today. Have a nice week everyone!

 

As Always,

 

Elder Z. E. Brasier

It's Happened Before...

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,
Well this has certainly been a fun week. The problem with this week is that I can't exactly remember if things that I think happened this week actually happened this week or if they actually occurred in the previous week. Honestly this wouldn't be a problem if my journal wasn't so darn non-linear all the time, jumping back in forth between different times and events in a completely random fashion...
I do know that the Zone Leaders came this week, which was quite fun, since I got to work with my good friend Elder Jewkes, who I served with back in the Smolensk days. He's a really good guy and we had a lot of fun. Half of the day was spent on a contacting activity on Victory Square. We recently received a new box of Books of Mormon and so we made a goal to give the whole box out as a district... and we succeeded! For our past few contacting activities we have been running into this 16 year old kid who is incredibly kind and straight forward, but hangs out with a bunch of plastered and high druggies. Every time we see him we want to talk to this kid and invite him to English Club and our activities, but our conversations always get ruined by his friends. Well, this time when we were contacting he ran into us again, but this time with out his druggie friends. In fact, he had been planning to meet them but for some reason they all didn't show up, and thus I got to have a good conversation with him, invite him to English Club and basically get to know him. Honestly, it was a great conversation. Afterwards I was talking about it, and Sister Hawkins (one of our sister missionaries) freaked out! I was shocked that she was so excited about this simple conversation I had had. As I sat there with a quizzical look on my face she explained that that morning she had been praying so that we would meet this 16 year old kid today without any of his druggie friends and thus we would just be able to talk to him. I was absolutely amazed that her prayer had been answered in such an overt and somewhat miraculous way. It really showed me that prayers do get answered.
The next day was VDV Day. VDV is the Russian paratroopers, and Ryazan is the capital of the VDV. The main training school is about 400 meters away from my apartment as a matter of fact. For the past few weeks people have been asking us if we are scared for VDV day. I honestly didn't know it was that big of a deal, but evidently the holiday is well known for violence and terribleness for foreigners. Mostly the problem is the drinking and a main feature of VDV Day is paratroopers attempting to break glass bottles on their own heads (or other peoples heads at times). Thus, we went into spy mode, with no missionary tags and no street contacting all day, for our safety. It was kind of a boring day because we just sat in the branch building and I spent a lot of time playing piano. As I was playing piano I heard a strange roaring sound that sounded a lot like jet engines. I stopped playing and started listening and I realized that it was getting closer and closer and louder and louder. Quickly I sprinted through the branch building, kicked open the door to see the Su-27's of the Russian Air Force Knights fly a few hundred feet overhead! I was blown away, and was even more blown away as they circled around for another low level pass! So yeah, that was pretty exciting, now I can say that I've the seen the Russian Air Force Demonstration Team.
Other than those two things, our week has gone by quite swimmingly. Supposedly this is the last week of summer, so I am just enduring through this last shuttering breathe of the season. By the end of the month fall should be starting, and that is my favorite time in Russia. Our investigators are doing quite well. We've met a ton of people lately and our English Club is getting way awesome. Last time we played a game in conversational group called "Presidential Elections" where one person is pretending to be a politician, and the rest of the class gets to ask him any question, and he has to answer by saying "You are absolutely right.." and then twisting the answer to make him look good. This was probably the funniest game I have ever played on my mission. It was awesome!
Interestingly enough the people we are teaching now fall into three categories: People in rock bands, people not from Russia, and people from Russia who speak English. We have also made a ton of Muslim friends, including Sasha who I've mentioned before and is literally the nicest, most Christ-like person I've ever met in my life. We also found a ton of people from Turkmenistan who just moved to Russia and have been coming to our activities lately. They are way awesome. Last week we started teaching English/Gospel to a guy who plays bass in a rock band, and he liked it so much he is getting his friends interested, so we are spending time with all these 20 year old Russian guys who play in metal bands and have crazy hair and stuff. It really is quite fun. Also Felix came to church yesterday and loved it. It was testimony meeting so whoever wanted to could talk, and at the very end one of our Senior Missionaries got up and bore an awesome testimony, and it really touched Felix's heart. Felix is such a great guy, and is such a great example to me.
Basically that is all that has been going on. I am really loving my life here in Ryazan. The people here are awesome and I'm amazed at all the great people that we have met! Hopefully I'll stay here for awhile!
Well have a great week everybody. Those in warmer climates, remember to hydrate and eat your carrots.

From Russia With Love,
Elder Zachery E. Brasier

Our awesome member Vladimir

 Me cooking (in my sweet USSR t-shirt)

 Elder Hunt and I

  Me+ a tank

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

I wish that I could recite to you all sorts of amazing stories and entertaining anecdotes that I happened to me over the last week. However, nothing really exciting happened over the past week. We had a lot to do but nothing really out of the ordinary or overly interesting to tell. Thus I was considering just writing a few sentences and calling it quits. But, I instead decided to write a little bit about what an normal week is like in our mission in Russia. And so, I will attempt to tell you about a few things that we usually do in our mission and what an average day is like for me here in Ryazan.

 

As you are all probably aware, we wake up at 6:30 every morning. Lately I've been waking up around 5:00 in the morning because that is when the sun starts coming through our windows. Every morning I suddenly have sun shining in my eyes, and I freak out because I always feel like I overslept the alarm, snap up instantly, check the alarm, sigh and sigh of relief when I realize that it is only 5:00... An extra hour and half of sleep is so nice. Other than that the mornings aren't that exciting, I usually eat granola in the morning with Russian milk. Russian milk is rather strange tasting and bland. I don't know exactly why. Probably because they chalk it full of chemicals and preservatives. Conveniently enough, that means that you don't have to refrigerate it, but the milk still tastes weird. I eat at ton of yogurt. Studies start at 8 (sometimes it's a real struggle to stay awake), companionship study/planning at 9, Russian study at 10, and then lunch at eleven, which I usually make. My favorite food to make is pelmeni, which is a type of Russian dumpling that I fry with soy sauce and rice vinegar in order to make a delicious Asian fried dish. Otherwise I make a ton of pasta, with various sauces that I like to whip up from time to time. So yeah, that is pretty much my morning. After words we hit the streets and go do the work.

 

CONTACTING

We spend a lot of time street contacting. If we can get 2-3 lessons a day, that is a pretty good day, but that still leaves a lot of time open to go hit the streets. Contacting usually involves us purposefully walking against the flow of traffic and stopping every random person we can see with a hardy: "Hello! Can I ask you something!" This may sound odd in English, but it is perfectly culturally acceptable. About 50% of the time people stop. Sometimes they yell at us, sometimes they yell at us in English, one man put his hand right in my face and said in perfect English: "Sorry guys, I'm a Jew." Now if we get people to stop, that is about a fourth of the battle. After they've stopped we usually ask them something like: "My friend and I are missionaries on church service and we wanted to ask if you are a believing person." We usually get one of 4 answers. 1) "No, I'm an atheist" 2) "No, I'm Russian Orthodox" (that one always confuses me). 3) "Yes, I'm Russian Orthodox." 4) Simply: "Yes". Guess which one we like the best. Following that we explain a little bit about our church, invariably get asked if we are Christian, and if things go really well, we can get their phone number, give them a Book of Mormon and get an appointment later in the week. Other times we try to get contacts for people who are interested in English Club. Every once in a while we do a contacting activity, which means that all the missionaries go on a town square with a box of Books of Mormon and a sign that says: "Free book with a promise!" and try to give out the whole box. This is the closest we get to the street corner preaching that used to be done in old times. Contacting can be pretty fun and pretty tiring at the same time. Too much contacting makes a missionary go insane, so in order to shake it up, we go tract-ing

 

TRACTING

Tracting is the classic door knocking that everybody knows Mormon missionaries for. In Russia, there are almost no houses, they are all apartment complexes, so we don't really go door to door in the same way that our American counterparts do. Instead we track in Russian a "подъезд".This is pronounced "Pod-yezd". It translates to something like "stairwell" or "entry way", but I think it is best described as a stairwell with all the apartment doors in it, but that just doesn't do a подъезд justice. However, anybody who has lived in Russia realizes that подъезд means so much more than that. They really are quite an adventure. Well when we track we have to get in the huge metal door to the подъезд. I swear that these doors were designed to withstand most nuclear blasts, they are so thick and heavy. Also they are magnetically locked so we have to call every person in the apartment and hope that one of them opens up the door for us. This takes a lot of finesse to talk people into to opening up the door. I usually go with a good ol' : "OPEN the door! (in command form)." I'd say that that works about 32% of the time. Usually though we get the response: "Who is there!" If I'm in a good mood I'll explain that we are church volunteers with an important message about family and we want to share it with them. Unfortunately this tends to be ineffective. If I'm in a more snarky mood I respond: "It's us!" Sometimes that works because people think: "Oh I guess it must be someone I know who wants to visit" (imagine their surprise when it is actually two American missionaries with thick accents... Jokes on you!) Other times they ask: "Who are you?" Dang it..... Back to explaining why we are here. Alternate tracking techniques include such things as pretending to talk on the phone and waiting for somebody with a key to open it up and walk in after them as if you have a friend who lives in the apartment and you were just calling them. Elder Lantukh loved that technique. Tracting is certainly an adventure. Lots of doors get slammed in your face, you get to see some interesting apartment buildings and you learn to really rely on the Spirit, because out of all the apartment complexes in Russia, you have to choose the right one.

 

ENGLISH CLUB

Every city offers an English Club. The missionaries do this free of charge to help people learn the English language. Then, we always have a spiritual thought at the end to try and find people interested in the gospel. English Club is an extremely effective tool for us because it helps people be more comfortable with the missionaries and is also a lot of fun. In all my cities I have really enjoyed teaching English Club. Here in Ryazan I teach the conversational group for those who already speak English already. We talk about all sorts of topics ranging from mathematical constants to UFO sittings to Tupac Shakur. I really love English Club, it is always very interesting to meet other people and other opinions, especially because the club itself isn't really gospel focused, but the spiritual thoughts always are. We just try to provide a good, clean, free environment for those who want to better themselves and learn another language.

 

CHURCH

On Sunday we have our church meeting at 11 o'clock. In most branches church is only two hours and we alternate what types of lessons are taught every Sunday. Our branch building here is an old kindergarten that has been refurbished to suit our needs. Usually we get about 30 people to come to the meeting and usually the missionaries speak, and bless the sacrament, and pass the sacrament and sometimes play the piano. Every person in the small branches are important and since the missionaries have the most experience with how the church runs we usually have a lot to do! In Ryazan we have a Elder's Quorum of about 9 men, and a small relief society. We also have a Primary for the branch president's son, Matfei, who is 8 and our only young kid. Unfortunately we have no youth. Sunday is a busy day for all of us. We usually have a ton of leadership meetings to attend, I got called to be the Branch Financial Secretary so I have to do all the finances and we go out to some of our members who weren't able to make it to church. On Sunday we tend to go out to a lady named Larisa, who had an illness that crippled her legs. She used to be the Russian tutor for our missionaries in Ryazan, but since the illness she has been completely immobile. Lately we have been going to her with the Senior Missionaries and a member named Galina, who is struggling a little with her testimony. Larisa, who has a very strong testimony and speaks English, has been trying to get Galina to pray more, but it hasn't been effective. Yesterday we all went over to Larisa's apartment and half way through the lesson Larisa asks: "Galina, my dear, have you been praying?" Galina responds: "Well, no not really..." Larisa suddenly becomes infuriated and raising herself as much as she can from her bed yells: "GALINA! Я убью тебя! I SHALL KILL YOU!", translating for the sake of our senior couple who don't speak Russian. I was laughing so hard I couldn't contain myself, which was ok because suddenly a four way conversation occurs with Galina and Larisa arguing, Elder Ottly (the senior Elder) and Elder Hunt talking about why Larisa said that, Sister Ottly asking me to translate and me laughing uncontrollably. It certainly was quite a funny lesson and ended with Larisa discussing how much she loved President Dieter F Uchtdorf, how handsome he is, how spiritual he is and so on... I really hope that some of my friends who have returned from their missions and served in Ryazan can imagine what this lesson was like, because it was quite hilarious.

 

So I hope that gives you a bit of a slice of my life on the mission. Things can be quite crazy here but I do like it a lot. Our investigators right now are great and I'm just waiting for the summer to end so everybody can become so tied up in school and work that they can't leave the city and go hang out in The Middle of Nowhere, Russia. Plus, I just don't really like the summer. The winter is much better.

Well everybody have a great week, and here are some pictures so that you can see what we did last P-Day. I do enjoy gallivanting through the fields of Russia.

 

Live Long and Prosper,

Elder Zachery E. Brasier

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

From time to time we as missionaries take what we like to call "vacations". They aren't really vacations because we are still are missionaries and we still try to find and contact new people. However, since we travel and go away from our home cities, they feel like vacations and it is always nice. This week I got to take a two day "vacation" to Moscow and then Riga, Latvia.

 

On Thursday we had the first zone conference of the newly formed Moscow South Zone, basically Ryazan, Kaluga, Tula and a few Moscow areas. Elder Jewkes, my old companion from the Smolensk days, is one of the zone leaders, so every night I text him some sort of interesting fact that I've been thinking about. Every transfer, the missionaries from our zone get together and talk about the work in our areas, how to do better, and all sorts of other fascinating and interesting talking points. Also pizza or Subway usually caters. Guess which part of zone conference I like the best?

Thus, at 4:30 on Thursday morning we left Ryazan for Moscow. This is usually when we have to leave Ryazan to get to Moscow, and thus we are always tired for the next day. I for some reason couldn't sleep, but I was rewarded for my insomnia because, as I looked out the window pondering the deep metaphysical questions of life, I saw a big old Tu-95 bomber coming in for a low level landing approach! I was so excited that I woke up Elder Hunt and told him all about it. I think he might not have been too happy with me, but I get to check off another box on my "Aircraft that I have seen in Russia on my mission that I haven't seen yet in America" list.

 

Zone conference itself was fun. I enjoyed seeing all of my old friends like Elder Jewkes, Elder Stegeby and Elder Eliason. They are all doing so good in there areas and I have been really blessed to meet such good friends and missionaries. Fortunately for Elder Stegeby, Elder Eliason and I, we had a visa trip the next day, so we got the spend the day in Moscow. We didn't really feel like seeing any museums, instead we went tie shopping at this large indoor marketplace in Moscow. Imagine in your mind one of those stereotypical Middle Eastern outdoor markets on the inside of a huge multilevel warehouse that takes a map to navigate with people from almost every immigrant nationality who barely speak Russian much less English trying to sale you hideous shirts and occasionally nice ties. Congratulations, you just imagined the indoor market. The missionaries like to go to the market due to the fact that usually you can pick up ties for around 3 American dollars, which is a sweet deal. Elder Eliason tried to help me break out of my habit of only black ties with a little bit of color. Honestly, it didn't work, but I picked up some not technically black ties...

 

That night we had a great time because everybody going on the visa trip was in the same apartment, including Elder Dannenberg, my old trainer and another German missionary, Elder Finke. We honestly didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night, especially because Elder Eliason and I got stuck in the same room and spent most of the night talking about the very important things in life. We kept trying to go to bed, but then somebody would crack a joke or bring up something, and the conversation continued. So we didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night, which was unfortunate when we woke up at 5 in the morning the following day for our flight out to Riga.

 

Riga was awesome. We didn't get to see much outside of the airport, but I really thought that the country was beautiful from my view from the aeroplane over the sea. The Batlic sea was beautiful, especially because I haven't seen a major body of water for over a year. In the airport I was amazed by a few things, mostly by international banking. They take Visa cards in Latvia! It is so convenient. I never realized how awesome international banking is!

 

Possibly the best thing about Riga was black licorice. I love black licorice, and of course, Europe supplies the best. As Elder Stegeby and I explored the airport we found a store that had cans and cans of black licorice. We were so amazed that we couldn't decide which to get. Elder Stegeby picked up a delicious Turkish variety and I picked up a salted Norwegian variety, mostly because I remember reading that this particular brand was considered by most Americans to be the worst candy ever created. I however, really enjoyed it. Everybody else, on the other hand, spit it out or silently suffered, the exception being the two Germans who came with us, Elders Dannenberg and Finke. Thus, Elder Stegeby, Elder Dannenberg, Elder Finke and I all enjoyed our purchases, but made sure to save some for home. Later Elder Dannenberg told me that I was the most European of all of his American companions, mostly for my food tastes. This was such a great compliment, since I am a bit of a latent Europhile.

 

Friday night we arrived back in Ryazan, exhausted and tired. Although I was absolutely beat from two 3 hour bus rides and two 2 hour flights in the space of two days, I was happy to have gone on the trips, first of all because now I am a legal guest in the Russian Federation and also because I got to see all of my good friends, especially Elder Dannenberg, who goes home next transfer. Most likely I'll never see him again before he goes home. I guess that is a big turning point in your mission, when your trainer goes home.

 

Things are going good here in Ryazan. The sisters have a baptism coming up that we are planning for, and I'm studying how to do baptismal interviews, and getting a little nervous for the responsibility. Our investigators are doing really well. They all want to meet with us, but they don't seem to want to progress forward! Also, the summer is still in swing so all of our college students are out in the Middle of Nowhere, Russia doing who knows what! The bright exception to this is Felix, who actually came to church on Sunday. He had told me that he would call me at when he got to the gate to our branch building, but our meeting started and he hadn't called. I was a little disappointed, but half way through the opening hymn I felt very distinctly that I should go outside and wait by the gate. I hesitated a little, but then remembered a quote from President Monson and awkwardly made my way out of my seat and outside. To my surprise Felix was standing right at the gate, and his phone wasn't working! I was really glad that I had followed that impression, because Felix felt really awkward about coming in on his own. During church he kept saying "Oh this is good.." and was very interested in the Book of Mormon lesson after the sacrament meeting. We have really high hopes for him, we just need to help him realize that the true church has been restored and there is one true church.

 

Otherwise, I have nothing exciting to report! I'll send some pictures of our trip and other events to compensate for this!

 

Live Long and Prosper

Elder Zachery E. Brasier

Us at dinner with Sasha

 This is what missionaries do while waiting for a visa trip, order pizza and watch drive safety videos

 Latvia

 District meeting

 Yes, see the water is Russia is bad!

 Sports day