June 17, 1997 - Tuesday

Well today I woke up like 10 or something.  It was great.  The weather was almost cold and I could sleep really good.  Last night we had a lot of fun at семеный вечер [Family Home Evening].  Today we had our собрание округа [District Meeting] and I did get some mail.  I told Ст. Schwartz that I was going to scream if I didn't get anything but I did, so I didn't get to scream.  Still nothing from my mom, but oh well.  I got two packages also.  From Tammy Krajnik.  Cool huh?  They are cookies.  Pretty good ones in fact.  Well on came in a "Pringles" can and the cookies are so thrashed that I can't eat them.  So I am going to use them for cereal in the morning.  I got a letter from Nick also.  And one from Grandma and Kathy Bishop and Sister (I forgot her name, but she's psycho anyways) D... 

Nick's letter is pretty hard to read but I assume mine was like that also.  We made chili again but it doesn't taste right and it's so freaking hot (spicy).  I still hate mail days.  They freaking suck so bad.  I hate it when I get hardly any mail.  Actually I could get a whole lot of mail and still be upset.  I just want to be home, because Russian f'ing sucks dude.  (?!# Bleep Bleep 

[mid-journal chat - Alright - for some reason I was pretty upset here.  It's a good thing that a journal is a private place - haha - where I can vent my feelings so that I don't vent during my missionary work.  I look back at my mission and I see times when sometimes for no reasons at all I get depressed, or even if I think there is a reason - looking back it seems like my feelings are all out of proportion to what they should be.]

Well we are done with our D with Евгений [Evgeny or Eugene in English] and some dude followed us from the metro.  We got in the elevator with this old dude and his dog and then this other guy got in with us.  We got out on the 6th [floor] and the guy also got out.  It was really weird he didn't get in the elevator again.  And then he asked "which one of you is going to help me, I'm from Afghanistan."  It was freaking strange.  Anyways we just told him that we can't help that way and he eventually left.  Man it's wigging me out.  Well I gotta write some letters, so bye for now.

June 15, 1997 - Sunday

Today was pretty cool.  We went to Church and after we were going to leave but there was a problem.  Володия Кабанов [Volodiya Kabanov] has these two friends that he is helping teach the Ds to.  Well he scheduled a D this Sunday (today) after Church and Сты. Reagan & Nelson already had something going on so they couldn't make it.  So they asked us if they could give us the investigators.  So we now have 6 investigators, two of them being at Church.  It's cool!  We are slowly building up our investigator pool.  Then after the D we came home and ate the rest of our chili and then I took a nap.  I was so freaking hot.  Then we went over to Wright's to plan the семеный вачер [Family Home Evening] tomorrow night.  We got home kind of late and so now it's time to sleep.  Night Dude!!

June 11, 1997 - Wednesday

Actually it's 40 min. after midnight on the 10th, well 11th.  Today showed me just not to worry about things.  We went to district meeting and I didn't get any mail.  It's the first week I've never gotten mail.  I was pretty pissed and I had a really bad mood.  Which was really bad because we had a D with Лариса [Larissa].  So I was sitting on the metro and fuming when after praying for God to "take these bad feelings from my heart."  After I prayed I was sitting a couple of seats to my left.  This old couple were sitting across from me and they smiled at the baby.  Well seeing this weathered old Russian man's face brighten up really touched me and I couldn't be mad or depressed anymore.  It's weird how the Lord answers prayers. 

Then while at the D with Лариса, which went really well, I really felt the Spirit and she did too.  It was cool.  She committed again to pray for answers about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.  I explain[ed] why it was important for her to know.  Then she'd know for sure about what we're talking is true.  I think I got her to see a little about how it would help her.



Sister Vera Yagadkina, Nadia Yagadkina, Sveta Borisova & Sasha -
evidently the two girls not too happy with me taking a picture.



Then we came home and sweated in the apartment while eating dinner.  Man it is so humid lately.  So hot.  Getting to the point of where I started about things always working out.  Last night we got told that there would be this New Era thing.  A reporter was coming - we were supposed to set up a FHE.  Well Elder Reagan said to meet the reporters or Ст. Gammon & them in the metro at a little before 7.  The Family Home Evening was to be at 7 over at Ягодкина's [Yagadkina's] house.  Well I worry a lot about it - we were suppose to plan a game and Саша [Sasha] planned a spiritual thought.  So we worried and waited in the metro until about 7:10 and then just decided to go to the place.  So the whole ride to the Ягодкина's I was fuming - dang Gammon etc. because I was afraid the night would flop.  Well we got there at 7:30 - a half an hour late - expecting to have to tell them that the reported hadn't showed.  We even had a game planned and we brought drinks.  So we showed up and 'lo and behold' the reporter and Сты. Gammon & Ludwig are already there with the reporter. 

It turned out all cool and the kids  - Саша [Sasha], Света [Sveta], & Надя [Nadia - hahaha kids - Sveta might have been 16, but Nadia was 19, and Sasha was 18 or 19 as well.  A note about Sveta's name - Svet is light, and if I translated it into English I would call her Lucy???  Lucent - glowing with light, Lucid - shining or glowing, Lucifer (not the best example) - son of the morning etc.  So...the the kids] gave some really good answers to his questions.  It was really cool.  Then after the reporter and the future A.P.s [Assistants to the Presidents - future because we had learned that the mission was going to split on July 1st, and Сты. Gammon & Ludwig were going to be the new president's assistants when he got here.] left we drank the pop and ate this cake Сестра Ягодкина [Sister Yagadkina] made for us.  It was pretty good.  Then we went to the Red Square and hung out with [Ст.] Woolverton and ate at McDonald's and came home late.

[Post-Journal Chat - OK folks do you like how use the brackets[ ] right after the Russian word and give what it sounds like or translates to and sometiems it goes a little long, or would you rather that I did a footnote kind of thing?  or monkeys?]