March 29, 1997 - Saturday

Well ladies & gentlemen of the journal...Hi there.  I'm back and ready to tell all for a measly few hundred bucks or your undivided attention from here...to the end of the page.  Please, please, pretty please. 

Today I was pretty hectic and I didn't even do anything again.  I feel like I ran around with my head cut off.  I went on splits with Ст. Blackwelder to service and then to a meeting with Ст. Gammon.  It was with Pres. Карнеев.  [Karneyev - He was the District President - which in a mission with no stakes is equal to a Stake President]

[Mini Russia Moscow Mission Lesson - Remember that district means two different things. 

1. A group of missionaries & the area that those missionaries work in.  In the Russia Moscow mission that was usually 6 - 10 missionaries.  Each missionary district (at least in Moscow itself) corosponded to a branch.  So right now Ст. Gammon & I  were in the Yuzhnosokolnichesky district & serving in the Yuzhnosokolnichesky branch. 
2. All of Moscow (and maybe the whole mission) was one District.  In Idaho there are so many Stakes that I cross 3 of them just on my 10 minute drive to work.  But I could travel for an hour on the metro and still be in our Mission/District.  Think of the Moscow Mission & Moscow District as different jurisdictions like FBI & State Police.  They might cover the same areas, but report and are organized under different parts of the same institution.]

At service we told a little bit about ourselves and then they asked questions about America and we talked.  Time flew, because before I knew it was almost 3pm and we had to get out of there.  We got back in time for me to go with Ст. Gammon to the meeting [with Pres. Karneyev]. 

I was just thinking.  Like a football team.  We are all on the team & the Lord is up [in a] box on top of the stadium where he can see the whole picture.  He talks to the couch who is the prophet, he also talks directly to the quarterback who is Pres. Jarvis and if we do what he says we will score many touchdowns.  Amen!

March 10, 1997 - Monday

Today we didn't do anything until about 3pm.  Then we went and dropped off some mail, bout Zuko for Семеный Вечер [Family Home Evening], and then went to FHE.  It was excellent.  We had a lesson by Ст. Blackwelder and then we went and ate some stuff.  We had a lot of белины and Zuko.  We had about 42 there and compared to last time that is about 4 or 5 times as much.  Last time it was the missionaries and 3 members.  This time it was очен [much] better.  Night

[post journal entry chat - I just love it that I'm a little confused about both English and Russian at this time in my mission.  Not close to being fluent in either.  I hi-lighted and bolded in blue the words that I misspelled in my journal.  I assume that I meant "bought" some Zuko.  I don't think I was talking "'bout" some Zuko.  The other two words in Russian are a little bit more understandable.  Блины are the Russian equivalent of crepes.  Usually they are a little bit more greasy, but they are so goooooooooooo!  Очень has the little ь - called a (soft sign).  The miyaki znahk, believe it or not, softens the ending of the word.  Both mistakes are probably pretty common.  The one that bugs me the most is the "bout."  The rewiring of my brain for Russian is causing some short circuits in my English.]