May 12, 1997 - Monday

Новый День у меня [New Day at me - I'm sure I was meaning "It's a new day for me"] 

Well I talked to my mom and dad, Nick and Grandma yesterday night.  Mother's Day had finally rolled around.  It was weird again.  I basically just talked with them.  Not about anything in particular.  Grandma Richardson was up because my cousin Kyle was up in Nampa and she hasn't seen him for a very long while.  She told me to write him.  I told her I just did.  Everything is weird.  I want to go home.  Last night after talking to them Ст. Gammon and I did comp. planning and inventory.  Oh it's still the 12th.  It's Ст. King's birthday - Woohoo. 

Well I found out that I will be in a different Приход [preehod - Branch] next Sunday.  Даже Четверг [even Thursday].  I'll be companions with a Ст. Shwartz.  I went on splits with him a couple of Fridays ago.  He's a pretty cool guy and he's only been out a month more than me.  It's great.  I finally feel like I'll have a chance to grow.  I really want to be a good missionary who works hard, is a great guy and has an awesome CD collection.  Right now I don't know if you can do that, but I'll try for goodness sakes.

Well it's time to go to bed.  I got a picture from Gilbert.  He said "That's what nine months will do to you."  He was dressed up like a pregnant girl.  He's been out 9 months.  Cool huh?

May 5, 1997 - Monday

Well I f*ing suck.  Always have, always will.  Anyways we had a D with Евгенний and Марина today.  It was alright, but not that good.  I hate myself - not really, but I feel so empty right now.  I will be comps with Ст. Gammon for another month.  Someone up there hates me.  I just feel so freaking empty.  Nothing really bothers me except the fact I feel so f*ing empty.

At least I took out my $140 from home.  Cool huh?  I told Ст. Gammon that I would be going to the CD рынок and he said that was fine, but he would be going with and we would use up hours for our P-Day.  I told him I didn't really like the idea.  We will see what happens.  I'm in a really rebellious mood and I don't f*ing care anymore.  Ya see - so bite me ya X#&%S?!!

April 28, 1997 - Monday

[Pre-Post Chat - Okay folks let's remember that feelings about people aren't static...they change, and are fluid.  So a pre-apology to Dennis if you're reading this...sorry and I don't feel the same way now.  Plus sometimes if I am talking bad about someone I may or may not hide/alter their names to protect the innocent...yadda, yadda, yadda!]

Oh do I...I don't.  I definitely won't mind next changes.  Unless I go with someone like like H****s or something, then I'm fine.  In comp-inventory Ст. Gammon said something like "If we go in and teach Евгенний & Марина [Yevgenni & Marina] by just reading, we are going to bore them to death."  Well I'm glad he's so f*ing perfect!!  So instead of saying that I just told him maybe we should go over the Ds in the morning and see how you'd teach them. 

He's been putting me on splits with Ст. King a lot.  Who's a good friend from home, but he's not that hard a worker.  When I'm with him I don't work hard either.  We were on splits Saturday night and we flipped on the tube.  It was my idea, I have to admit.  Earlier that Saturday we were on [splits] earlier for the zone blitzing [where all the missionaries in a zone would all to the same area/or a couple of areas and do contacting to help that district].  We went to someones apartment and wasted time until about 11am (from 10am) and then went and walked around for 1 1/2 hrs contacting two people.  So you can see why I would never want him for a comp.  I thought I would, but I don't.

We have Zone Conference coming up.  It should be dang good.  We are eating afterward and then having a night of laughter [Вечер Смеха].  Each district is suppose to have a skit.  I[t] should be dang good.  I've been going over next weeks lesson in the priesthood manual last night.  It takes a while for me to translate it.  It's alright though.  Bye.

April 21, 1997 - Monday

Well Sunday has come and gone and I'm still here.  I had a dream last night that I was getting off my mission and Ст. Woolverton was still stuck here for 10 days or something.  Then I woke and felt "Crap I'm still here".  Also Gilbert wasn't to be found when I got home.  It was weird. 

Yesterday we left at 8:30am, walked up to Евгений's [Yevgeniy's] house and together - the whole family, stroller & kids to Калужская [Kaluzhskaya], where we caught a trolley bus to Конково [Konkovo] and walked to the помашения [Pomasheniya - meeting house].  Well we walked in the door and the lady at the front desk started yelling at him not to bring in the stroller.  Said something about not needing kids here in the building.  So he left and went back home. 

We talked with her for a while and just asked her why she didn't want the kids here - explained to her that our church believe[s] that families are the most important part of the plan.  So we ran back to Евгений, but he went home anyway.  He said he couldn't sit there in church and enjoy the meeting because he'd be thinking of that dumb (my word) lady.  Ст. Gammon said he felt like crying.  I felt like hitting her or something.  Nothing real violent but I felt pretty mad. 

We also had a meeting last night with Слава Балтовский [Slava Baltovski ].  He's a stud.  He's the branch mission coordinator.  We went over our investigators and then we had a letter, that Ст. Gammon wrote, for Слава to proofread.  Then we took the letter and a cake to Евгений & Марина [Marina].  They seemed really delighted to see us and they - Евгений gave us this little book about...a против Книга Мормона [Anti Book of Mormon] actually.  It has a lot of American books as it's bibliography, like "Have you witnessed to a Mormon lately?"

8:30pm - just went signboarding - it was so cool.  I got three phone numbers and I didn't have any fear to talk to anybody.  Then I just called Алла [Alla] and she talked my ear off.  I also called Людмила [Ludmila] and she did the same.  [Alla & Ludmilla must have been members in the ward].

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 24, 1997 - Monday

I just said something funny.  I was reading my Russian plaque from my sister & it says "They that trust in the Lord shall mount up on wings of eagles and run & not faint."  Well I said [out loud to Ст. Gammon] "they that mount up on ings of weagles."  Then Ст. Gammon said "I wanna wide the weagle!!"  We [were] both busting out laughing and I almost peed my pants!  Yesterday we spent most of the whole day working.  That is the first Sunday I've done that.  Right now I am writing a lesson for a discussion with Eric.  I made my first phone calls today.  I called my home teachee and my home teaching companion.  They both told me to call them back.  It was cool.  Well cool when I finally got it done.

We had service today and we always have this old lady that is almost deaf.  She is so funny, and cute.  It's cool!  I can't help but love all old people.  We are going to have a butt load of work this next week.  The exciting things are that Eric and Arealy are getting ready to get baptized, they have moved into an apartment with two separate beds so they can live the law of chastity.  That is so awesome.  Well night.  My cold is almost over.  It feels better today but isn't quite over.

March 22, 1997 - Saturday

Today we went to Конкого and played Frisbee.  It was pretty cool but очень холодно [very cold].  Then we came back and warmed up, ate some stuff and then we had a D at 6pm with Марина Азуппе [Marina Azupe].  We got home from that at 8:30pm and we had a little snack.  We are going to go to bed early because we have to get up early for church and I don't want to be tired.  Well, night. 

Oh Yeah.  Ст. Gammon is a dang funny guy.  night

March 21, 1997 - Friday

[Pre Journal Post - Transfers were the the 18th and Ст. Gammon is my new companion.]

Tonight was pretty good, we went tracking [tracting].  It wasn't so bad.  First we met this pretty nice lady who said we were cute/nice to look at.  Actually two different babushki said that.  We also talked to 2 guys (Casha & Andrei).  We gave them all a preglisheniya and a Joseph Smith pamphlet. 

But the real excitement was the first door that opened for me.  A dog scares me first of all, and then this guy yelled at us in English and stuff.  He told us to go away and something about he knows us Mormons.  Then we went on to a further door he came out again.  He told us he would call the police.  It was pretty exciting because his eyes were so wide.  He said "your behavior is very strange."  He was the one that was strange, let me tell you.  Well time to get to bed.

March 16, 1997 - Sunday

Today was church and we had institute after church.  night

[Post journal chat - Not much for today's post is there?  Evidently nothing really important happened.  So let's recap where I'm at on my mission.  I've been in Russia 4 months and a couple of days (6 months on the mission).  Ст. Woolverton is my 2nd companion in the field (4th overall).  I'm serving in my 2nd apartment, and I'm still serving in my 1st branch. 

Up until now I haven't been too active in the mission field - partly because of that my Russian hasn't progressed very far either.  Well that will soon change - within a week or so are the next transfers and I'm going to get a new companion, Ст. Dennis Gammon from Vineyard, UT.  It's pretty close to the Provo area (I think).

I don't like change either now or then, so I'm not really excited to start working hard.  Well - we'll see how it goes.]