Come on Snow! Come on Car!

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

Well this is it, my last e-mail from Ryazan. My last few days have been great, and a great way to end a tour of duty in an area.

 

On Saturday we had the baptism of Anton! It went super well. The water was shockingly cold evidently, but we still got him under and everything is going well. He really enjoyed the baptism and his confirmation on Sunday, and it was a very spiritual experience. Anton's baptism was a great miracle. He just walked into the branch less than a month and decided to be baptized on our first lesson. All the lessons went through perfectly well and he had almost no concerns. It was a great teaching process. I believe that Anton truly was prepared by the Lord for his baptism because nobody I have ever taught was that easy to teach and so willing to do everything possible to be baptized. I know that it will really bless his life and he'll be a huge blessing for the church here in Ryazan. Also, it was great to have a baptism right before I left, because it was a great capstone on my work here. I feel as though I really saw the fruits of my labors here in Ryazan.

 

Sunday went by really well. I gave my final talk about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and it went really well. I was pretty emotional to leave Ryazan since I really loved serving in the city, and it was nice to say goodbye to all my friends and members that I met here in Ryazan. Then, on the way home from a lesson last night, we contacted these people on a trolleybus who were relatively drunk and decided to start singing Russian folk songs on the bus super loud. I was laughing so hard when people started putting in earplugs and earphones in order to drown out the sound. It was such a great way to end my last night in Ryazan. Then this morning I woke up to snow covered streets and housetops. It has been snowing all morning! Now the winter has finally come, just as I'm leaving the city.

 

Otherwise, I don't have a whole lot to write right now. I really feel as though I have grown a lot during my time in Ryazan. So many crazy things have happened and I feel that only in this city have I truly began to understand what missionary work really means. I have seen such great miracles here and have met so many great and wonderful people. I think that this is my first area that I truly feel quite sad to leave, and I think that is because I have really learned to love the people because of the trials and service that we had to render. However, the time has come to leave, and my "accidental transfer" has come to an end. Then again, accidental is such a misleading term, because I throughly believe that I was supposed to serve here, and the logistics, though seemingly accidental, came together to give me the oppurtunity to serve in Ryazan. Today I'll be on a train to Moscow to serve in my new area, and I'll be eternally grateful for the lessons that I have learned and the people I have met in Ryazan.

 

I'll let you know how things go in Moscow. Live long and prosper,

Elder Z. E. Brasier

Anton's Baptism

Family Home Evening

Elder Reshitnokov: far right, front row, with green and black tie

 

 

Is it strange that you perpetuate yourself?

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

Well to start I would like to wish you all a very happy and joyous Thanksgiving! However, I would also like to ask you all to take a moment of silence for the many turkeys who gave their lives to contribute to this splendid holiday. Without their sacrifice for the greater good we would not be able to correctly celebrate our thankfulness for all that we do have. Here's to you, random turkeys!

 

Life has been flowing along here in Ryazan. I will officially be going to Moscow on the 26th to meet my new companion, Elder Steele, from Canada. I've been really fortunate in that for more than half of my mission I have served with people who aren't American. I've served with a Swede, a German, a Russian, a Ukrainian and soon a Canadian! That is pretty cool in my opinion. Due to my transfer of the near future I have been saying goodbye to everybody here in Ryazan, which is pretty sad, but that is life, and so it goes...

 

Sunday was pretty interesting. We were fortunate to have a branch conference this week. That meant that President Sorenson came down to talk to the branch and also Anatoly K. Reshetnikov, an Area Seventy here in Russia come down with President Sorenson in order to do some branch business. It was pretty awesome. Elder Reshetnikov was a great guy, and really instilled some enthusiasm into our branch. I was also very touched by how interested he was in our missionary work and testified often that we were great missionaries and doing a good job in Ryazan. He even helped us on a lesson with Anton! It was the first missionary lesson I ever had with the help of a General Authority! (Also, later in the evening we had a dinner at the Ottly's and as I was doing the dishes he insisted on helping, so that was also the first time that I cleaned dishes with a General Authority).

Speaking of Anton, things are going quite well for him. We've taught him all of the lessons and he had a great baptismal interview. He will be baptized this Saturday. I am super excited for him and I am really amazed how this all happened. He investigated two years ago, never went anywhere with it, and decided to randomly walk into church a month ago, and now he will be baptized. It really is a miracle. One lesson that Anton's teaching has really taught me is that when we are in the line of duty and doing all that we can to continue the work of the Lord, God will bless us in ways that we don't really expect. We didn't contact Anton, we had absolutely no hand in finding him, but somehow, through God's will, he was able to motivate himself to come to our church meeting and eventually get baptized. We truly are blessed.

Well, I'm half in a food coma right now due to Thanksgiving so I hope that you don't mind that this is short. Anyways, I'll be sending another e-mail on Monday! I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving!

As Always,

Elder Zachery E. Brasier

Inoculation Nation

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

This week we finally went to Moscow!... On the 3.40 in the morning train....

Conference was really great. I really enjoyed seeing everybody once again. Every conference gets stranger and stranger however as more and more of my friends bear their final testimony's (also known as the Last Will and Testament of mission life.) This time Elder Barker and Elder Turner both gave their final testimonies, seeing as they will both be leaving the mission in the foreseeable future. It is always strange when your friends leave the mission, especially ones that you really got to know. Other than that conference was pretty uneventful. I was rather sick. Then again, I always feel rather sick at conference. Maybe I'm allergic to the Central Building. This might be a problem, because that will be my next building in my new transfer.

 

Speaking of new transfers, I got one. For the next two weeks I will be staying in Ryazan as Elder Hark and a greenie come. We will be in a threesome together to show them around the city, and help them get a hang of it. Also, with the baptism of Anton coming up, President Sorenson didn't want both Elders leaving the area and leaving an investigator with a baptismal date flat-footed. After those weeks, I'll be heading over to Moscow to serve with Elder Steele from Canada and serve as the district leader of the Sokolniki district (I'm not quite sure how to spell that.) Elder Jewkes was laughing at me because once again I got a logistically unusual transfer. He jokes that I never get a transfer where I just peacefully move to a new, already established area with a companion. Lets review shall we?

 

-Nizhiny Novgorod to Smolensk- "Elder Brasier, you and Elder Jewkes will be going to Smolensk to open up a new area. Both of you have never been there. You'll have no investigators and are responsible for building the area. Good luck.

 

-Smolensk to the Office- Half way through the transfer: "Elder Brasier you are coming to the office for a mid-transfer transfer. Say goodbye to everybody because you leave in three days." I pack and on the night before I leave President Woolley calls: "Actually Elder Brasier, stay in Smolensk for the next three weeks. We'll have you come in later..."

 

- Office to Ryazan- President: "We just need you to go down to Ryazan for one week, and then you'll be coming back to the office with Elder Anisiforov.." Six months later....

 

So yes, it is all good fun. I love all of these interesting transfers, it keeps my life interesting, which is always important. I have yet to tell anybody here about my transfer because I didn't want to overshadow Elder Merrill (who is leaving next week to Tver, to serve with Elder Hunt, my old companion) and get people to worked up. I'll be telling them in a week or two, so don't tell anybody, especially anybody from Ryazan who might end up reading this somehow! (Irina!)

 

Other than that, this week has been pretty much business as usual. Anton is doing really good. He keeps talking about his baptism and really liked church this week, mostly because Elder Merrill and I gave talks at church. We have been really working with him to develop his testimony of Joseph Smith, but he has such a strong testimony of the church and God's love for him. This week we introduced him to the Word of Wisdom, which is always a big concern for us because tea is such a big part of Russia culture, as well as alcohol for certain people. I was really praying that Anton would accept it well, and to my slight surprise he loved it! We introduced it by saying telling him how Joseph Smith received the revelation and once I said that it was a law of health he snatched the pamphlet out of my hand and said: "We're talking about health! Give me more!!" Yeah... he really like the precepts and committed to quite drinking black, green or oolong tea, and was quite relieved that herbal tea and mint tea was alright. And thus things are going really well with Anton. He's a great guy.

 

Well, that is all I've got. This was a business as usual week. Things are going well, and I'm exciting to see what the future brings during this next phase of my missionary service! Oh, also, we had to get flu shots at the zone conference. That was dreadful.

 

As Always,

Elder Zachery E. Brasier

Not for all my little words.

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

As Always,

 

Elder Zachery E. Brasier

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

 Preparing for Halloween

 Sonya and Valentin (left to right)

 Alex, Alex and I

Me

Valentin and me

 Roman as King Soloman

  Vladimir as... a muppet?... the Joker?..... Donald Trump?.... himself?

 Alex apple eating

 Vladimir apple eating

 Roman bursting the bands of his mummy cloth.

Pumpkin carving

 Our pumpkin, entitled "Smoking Kills". Yeah, we were really political.

  Everybody minus some people

 

 

 

Jumped in the river what did I see?

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

It snowed in Moscow yesterday. It did not snow here. It did, however, rain an excessive amount. We are all eagerly waiting for the winter to come, some with slight dread and some with excitement. I for one am excited for the snow to come.

 

On the topic of our missionary work, things have been going along. A lot of our investigators have become less then interested or have inexplicably disappeared, thus we are now trying to find new investigators to teach. In a fortunate turn of events, this Sunday at church was good for both the sisters (our one companionship of sister missionaries) and us, seeing as we both got new investigators out of it. President Sorenson came down to visit with the branch members and to provide a little bit of instruction, and suddenly a ton of investigators showed up at the meeting. One man who we had never met before really loved the meeting and said that he would be interested in taking the lessons and considering baptism and another man showed up from a town 200 km outside of Ryazan. He was also interested in meeting with us (although I'm not quite sure how the logistics for that would work out.) Also, an older lady who we contacted outside of our branch on Tuesday showed up. We had given her a quick tour of our meeting house, and now the sisters and going to be teaching her. Thus, we now have some good new potential in our investigator pool. Otherwise things are business as usual. This transfer is coming closer and closer to its end and I can't believe that I have been in Ryazan for nearly 6 months! Time certainly does fly by.

 

Although the missionary work has been going well, this week we experienced what could be termed as a tragedy. Thursday was a scheduled zone conference for our zone, and Wednesday night Elder Merrill and I went to the bus station to buy tickets. While giving the sisters their tickets, Elder Ottley called us to tell us that one of our members, Sergei Markin, died Tuesday night from a brain aneurysm. I was completely shocked. He was in his forties and seemed to be in perfect health, but suddenly was gone. I was especially sad since he was one of my favorite members here in Ryazan, I felt like we had a really good relationship and were good friends. At first, it just seemed like some weird, dark joke, but that night the branch president, Vladimir, Elder Ottley, Elder Merrill and I went over to his house to talk about funeral arrangements with his mother, and sure enough, there he was, laying coldly and peaceful in a casket in his apartment building. The funeral was held on Thursday, so we didn't go to the zone conference, and we were able to give him full burial services according to our religious beliefs (after the Orthodox service, which his mother wanted). It was all a strange turn of events, almost an inverted world, since everything had happened so quickly. One day we are here, the next we are gone, or in the more ecclesiastical words of the Epistle of James: "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

Though Sergei's death was unexpected and sad, it gave me really time to think about the knowledge of the gospel. Death, it seems, brings everything into focus. You really have to ask yourself: "Do I really believe this? Do I really believe in life after death?" In the bleakness of the death of a friends, a person is backed up against the wall of faith, where, besides confronting their own mortality, they are confronted by a sudden need for the application of principles generally believed but rarely tested to such an extreme degree. Walking back from the funeral, and the cold burial spot where one of my friends now lays I could not help but think about every lesson I thought about the Plan of Salvation, and every investigator that I gave the promise of being able to see their friends and loved ones once again, and maybe it was the suddenness of the moment, or maybe the cold weather made me philosophical, but I had to ask myself: "Do you really believe that? Is their really a plan?" I would like to assert that I know that their is a plan. Death is not the end. All of our friends and family who have died have gone to another place, and we will see them again. Better yet, and most glorious, we will be able to all receive these bodies again, due to the infinite and wonderful resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the words of our prophet Thomas S. Monson: "My beloved brothers and sisters, in our hour of deepest sorrow, we can receive profound peace from the words of the angel that first Easter morning: “He is not here: for he is risen." He is risen! He is risen! Tell it out with joyful voice. He has burst his three days’ prison; Let the whole wide earth rejoice. Death is conquered; man is free. Christ has won the victory!" I know that Christ lives, and I know that we will all live. I know that God has a plan for us and that this Earth life is the time to prepare to meet them. Like the 2nd act of a three-act play, we have lived before, we live now and we will live again. This is my testimony.

 

It is an interesting juxtaposition comparing this weeks funeral to last weeks baptism, and that both were testimony building experiences, each in their own very different ways. What a strange time the mission can be. You can literally experience most of what can happen to a person in such a short time. I am glad as always to be a missionary and to have the opportunity to teach people this gospel and to give them hope for a better world or for life after this one.

Sorry if I got a little bleak, I would like to end on a happier note than reminiscing about a funeral. And thus, cue the happier note: Our member Vladimir is going to be going to America soon. We has begun making "west side" gang signs and calling himself a gangster (did I mention he is about 60 years old, short and wears thick coke-bottle glasses?). Our best quote from him is this period has been: "I'm a gangster, a gangster on pension!!" What a great guy!

Live long and prosper!

As Always,

Elder Zachery E. Brasier

 

Jackknifed a Juggernaut

Dear family and loyal blog readers,

 

Everybody is waiting for the snow here. It should be coming soon. I am getting my jackets out and finally got my boots repaired ( So that I don't get a case if trench foot again). I am more than prepared and ready for the winter.

 

The most exciting thing that happened this week was the baptism of Angela. Here in the outer cities of the mission we don't have a baptismal font so we really only have two options: baptism in the river or baptism in a sauna. Angela preferred the sauna so the sister missionaries searched and eventually found one in our price range. It must have been interesting to the owner of the Egyptian themed sauna for two sister missionaries to rent a sauna room for two hours and then have an eccentric group of Russians and Americans dressed in suits and ties, singing hymns about Jesus Christ and talking about baptism show up to use the sauna room. Really this shows me that the place of the baptism really isn't important as long as we can invite the spirit into the building. Any place can become a holy place with testimony, music and the right Spirit.

 

In itself the baptism was interesting. Nobody decided to check on the depth of the small "pool" in which we would be doing the baptism. I got in first to help Angela in. I climb down the ladder and expect to be at the bottom if the small pool, so I let go of the ladder and was suddenly up to my neck in water! The whole pool was nearly six feet deep! I was almost immersed in it! Angela is 5'2"! After thinking a little bit we just decided to have her hang onto the latter and essentially just let go and let herself fall until she was immersed completely and then I would just lift her out. Poor Angela was rather flustered, especially after the first attempt failed. On the second time we got her all the way under the water, and even though she came up sputtering it was still a great and spiritual experience. I really am amazed by Angela and her testimony. She is a orphan and really has nothing in life, however she accepted the gospel right off the bat. It really goes to show you that the gospel is for the humble and meek of the earth. I have taught so many Biblical scholars and engineers and professors who let all of their knowledge and so called sophistication get in the way of their conversion, but this young orphan girl was able to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ with all her heart and mind because she was humble enough to accept it. I wish that I could be that humble in my life.

 

Otherwise this has been a pretty normal week. We watched conference in church ( this time in Russian) and a few of our investigators who have never come to church before decided to come. Also Elder Turner and his companion came down for the baptism so I really enjoyed catching up with him, especially since he is going home in a month or two.

 

As always I want you to know that I love this work and this church. I am so grateful to be able to represent The Lord here in Russia and to preach and defend his gospel. I love these people even if they drive me crazy sometimes, but mostly I am glad to have the experience and opportunity to serve and help them.

 

As always

Elder Zachery E Brasier

 

Ps- Vitaliy now says that I am Angela's godfather because I sponsored her baptism. I hope I can fulfill my god fatherly responsibilities haha time we got her all the way

E-Mail From The Senior Couple In Zach's City

Hello! I was going through pictures and thought I would share a few with you of Elder Brasier. We think he is a great missionary and he is such a great help to us. He is funny and fun. We are so glad that we have been able to meet him and work with him. Probably never would have happened without our missions.

Hope you are well. Sister Ottley & Elder Ottley

 

Elder Hunt and Elder Brasier being Russian

When the Office Elders Came to Visit. The letter is to Mitt Romney from one of our members.

 

 

Lost in the cloud again...

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

A yes, the coldness increases degree by degree. Fog increases and the leaves are nearly gone from the trees. The winter is almost here, and I'm just waiting for the winter and the snow!

 

I didn't write on Monday because I was in Riga receiving a new visa. These trips are always a lot of fun because I get to see all of my old friends and catch up what is going on in far flung areas of the mission. I really like our visa group because we have all been on the mission for quite a bit and so we all have served in the same cities and all have the same outlook on the mission. It is a lot of fun to see all of these friends who I've known for awhile and have enjoyed being around. In Riga, we made a concerted effort to go to TGI Fridays and eat some good American food. We succeeded! I really enjoyed some real French fries, fried mozzarella, and Buffalo chicken wings. I was quite the happy man!

 

Otherwise, our investigators are going pretty well. We have been meeting a lot with Natalya lately. She has a lot of concerns about baptism and what that means for her, and she is really having a hard time developing a testimony of the Book of Mormon. We have been working really hard with her and have been trying to give her a lot of opportunities to feel the influence of the Holy Ghost and make a good decision and choose to follow Jesus Christ. The other day, she did say that she feels good when we were around, and Elder Merrill and I were able to strongly testify that this is the Holy Ghost telling her that we are bringing the truth, and that if she prayed about it with a sincere and humble heart, she would receive a testimony by the same power. I am always fascinated when people say that they can feel a difference when we meet with them. I honestly am pretty oblivious to this phenomena, but I think that we can really see how the Holy Ghost can start testifying to people just as we walk into their apartment or they walk into the church and before we even begin to teach. When are worthy for it, we will be able to have this blessing in every one of our meetings.

 

Last night we had a very cool lesson with an investigator, one of the most spiritual moments of my life, and afterwards as I was writing in my journal about it, I noticed a racket from outside. We had cracked our window open and thus the noise from a small square outside our apartment was floating into the house. A bunch of teenagers, obviously very drunk, were yelling, swearing, carrying on with all sorts of shenanigans and basically not obeying very many commandments. I became philosophical as I noticed the difference between the experience that I was currently writing and the activities and actions of this group of teenagers. They were complete polar opposites. The difference between the wonderfully peaceful and great experience with the Holy Ghost and the experience that those teenagers were experiencing at that moment really showed me the difference between us and the world. Often times we like to make reference to the scripture in the New Testament about being "in the world but not off the world." It is always interesting to me to notice what a difference the gospel has made in my life and the life of those people that I have taught, opposed to the people who have either rejected or never found it, trading happiness in the moment for eternal and perpetuating peace and security. I don't know why, but at that moment I was really struck by the difference.

 

This week we also had the opportunity to watch general conference. It was so good! Every conference just seems to be getting better and better, but I think that this might be because I am becoming more spiritually mature as my mission progresses. At any rate, I enjoyed all of the talks and was amazed by how much direct council that was given. I felt like many of the talks included very direct and concrete actions or commitments that we should be doing in our life, which I really enjoyed. I can't wait to get them on audio and in print so I can study them more thoroughly. On first impression my favorite talks where:

-All the talks from the 1st Presidency, especially Henry B. Eyring's Priesthood Session talk, Dieter F. Uchtdorf's Saturday talk, and President Monson's talk about appreciating the blessings in life.

- Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk, of course.

- M. Russell Ballard's talk, which was probably my favorite talk by him up to this point.

- D. Todd Christofferson's talk! That was a really great one, straight, direct and crystal clear. It made we want to be a much better person.

- Russel M. Nelson's talk. "Ask a missionary, they can help you!" Also, he gave the perfect outline for a 1st lesson discussion!

As always I am very thankful for living prophets who speak in the name of God on Earth today.

 

This week we have the baptism, Elder Turner comes down to see Ryazan one final time, which will be awesome, and hopefully everything goes well! Talk to you next week!

 

As Always,

 

Elder Zachery E Brasier

 

If anyone wants to listen to the talks Zachery is talking about, click HERE.

You and Your Autumn Sweater

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

 

Today we were talking in district meeting about what the church could do to hasten the work. We thought: Maybe the general authorities should change the mission age lower. Maybe one less year for Elders and maybe 19 or 20 for the Sisters. Maybe that would work, but we try to avoid all sorts of idle speculation and let the general authorities decide what they should do to make missionary work hastened. I just thought I'd let you know what we talk about it in our free time.

 

This week has been a bit of a slow week. We've been meeting with all of our old investigators and also found one new investigator. Well technically we didn't find her, the Elder's in Moscow found her, but now she has moved to Ryazan. Her name is Natalya Alexanderovna. Interestingly enough she has a son who is on a mission in Yekaterinburg who really wants us to teach her. I am really excited to help this Elder out and try our best to bring his mother to the truth that he is now spreading in another part of Russia. She is one of the few people that we meet with in their own homes, and her home is way out in the boondocks of Ryazan. We took a bus and kept getting farther and farther from the center of the city until we finally reached our stop. We were the last ones to get off the bus at the end of the city. After hiking through muddy and slippery dirt roads we finally found her house (actually due to a navigation error, we took a huge circular route to find it) and met her. The trek was forth it because she is a great lady.

 

In other news, the Sisters have committed Vitaliy's girlfriend Angela to baptism, and I did the interview yesterday. She is great, and I can really see how our friendship has payed off with Vitaliy. Sometimes it seemed that we were meeting with him for no real reason, but now I understand that it was at least partially to give Angela the opportunity to hear and accept the gospel. After the interview, she shocked me by asking me to baptize her! That was pretty novel, so I am really quite honored that she would want me to baptize her. I'm hoping things go through. The baptism should be in two Saturdays.

 

Unfortunately that is all I really have, so I am going to send you some pictures today! (Also I'm rather tired after writing a ton of letters today [incidentally, thanks everybody who wrote me letters, it was sure great to receive so much mail, I'll be responding to them all as soon as I have the time]). Also, I am aware now of the mission age change! (The little anecdote at the beginning was just my way of making a joke. Feel free to oblige me with a small chuckle to yourself at this point.) No, I haven't watched general conference yet. In fact, nobody in the mission has watched conference, but of course, that sort of news travels very quickly. I was blown away when I heard the news. I really felt a strong confirmation that this is what the Lord wants. We have all been talking about this new change and I can really see the wisdom that is behind this decision. It will be so great to see the increase of missionaries in the coming month, and is such a blessing that everybody can serve earlier now. My testimony has really grown that there indeed is a living prophet today who is authorized to make these changes and decisions based on guidance from God. I am of course jealous for all the young men who can now serve earlier. This is truly an historic time, and I'm happy that I am on my mission for this change. I am more thrilled for the prospective missionaries who will be able to tell all of their posterity that when the prophet made the change and made the call, they responded and rose to the challenge. The world will truly be blessed by this change in the missionary program and everybody who now steps up and serves at the earlier age will be blessed for heeding the prophetic call and truly showing that they are on the Lord's side!

 

Well that's all, I hope you enjoy the pictures!

 

As Always,

Elder Zachery E Brasier

 Me pondering life on the banks of the river

 P-Day hike

Trying to find Natalya Alexanderovna

On the road

 Still trying to find Natalya Alexanderovna

Graffiti!

 Graffiti!

 A classic Russian tire garden

A street in fall

 A tree in fall

Street show on Victory Square

This crazy monument to Polish-Soviet cooperation. I'd rather think that it's a monument to Quidditch

A detail shot of the monument. Unfortunately they are riding machine guns, not broom sticks.

A tree

In the woods

Me, being whimsical

 Elder Merrill and I in a park

The forest

Me on the train tracks.

 The tracks

 

 

 

You're not obliged to swallow anything you despise...

Dear Family and Loyal Blog Readers,

I realize that because of unfortunate technical difficulties you were are unable to receive the promised pictures from last e-mail. And thus, because of that technical difficulty and the fact that not a lot happened between Wednesday and today, I will not be writing a super long letter, but I will be attempting to send those pictures, and that should make up for any perceived lack of length.

The weather has officially crossed the threshold. Summer is over. Fall is upon us. Winter will be coming shortly. I for one am happy that the weather has turned to a more dull and monotonous shade of gray and that the leafs have all started to fall from the trees. Soon we will have snow, and that will be perfect. As of now, I'm enjoying to reprieve from extreme weather conditions while simultaneously cursing the fact that when I wake up at 6:30 now, it is still dark outside which leads to a whole group of various illusions/dreams. Usually I wake up saying: "Did I just imagine that alarm... I hope so.... Oh no, it really is time to get up.."

As we have become more visible in the community more people are beginning to come to our activities i.e. English Club and Sports Day. I have a great English Club group filled with a bunch of college students that keep inviting their friends to come and study with us. I really love teaching English club, especially when the main participants are college students, because I am usually able to relate to them much better. Also, we have generated quite a bit of interest in Sports Day and now the neighborhood kids know that Americans come and play sports on a field at 18:00 every Saturday and everybody is invited. Thus, we get a lot of the neighborhood playing ultimate Frisbee and soccer with us. I have termed it the Russian YMCA. I really enjoy doing this because it gives these younger people something constructive to do with their time, and even though many of them are too young to be investigators, the good example we are setting right now will pay off later in their lives when they run into missionaries on the street and are ready to accept the Gospel.

We have also been making an increased effort to get acquainted with every member of the branch, and the Ottley's help us by providing their home for dinner. This week we got to have dinner with the Armenian part member family in our branch. The dad and one of the daughters aren't members but the mom and older daughter is. The dad is awesome though and he tells us that as soon as his other daughter gets baptized he will get baptized. I hope he gets baptized because he will be a future branch president (at least I hope so). I love meeting with all these people and really getting to know our members much better, especially the Armenian family because they have such a good spirit.

When we teach people we sometimes do what we call 50/50 lessons. This means that we will do half English practice and half spiritual thought in Russian. Often we do 50/50 lessons with our band member investigators Vova and Zhenya. This week we planned to do them back to back. Vova however came late and Zhenya came early, so we just decided to teach them together. What was funny is that as we are waiting (since we didn't know exactly when Vova would show up) the Sisters were doing another 50/50 lesson with the door open, and it was funny to hear what they talked about compared to what we talked about:

Sisters: Carpets, Ancestors, Weddings, Louis Armstrong
Elders: Water balloons, Square Water Melons, the meaning of various Ebonic phrases, and modernist ideas

I really laughed when I considered the difference between the two companionship's, but most importantly, we both had great spiritual thoughts at the end!

Well that is about all! I hope that things go well for all of you this week

As Always,

Elder Zachery Brasier

 Me at dinner, and a very close shot of my face

 Me, very tired

 The Ryazan branch!

 Dinner with the Armenian family

 

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.