June 20, 1997 - Friday

Okay we pretty much screwed off today and yesterday.  We went signboarding today and I freaking suck.  No I did alright but I need to do it more.  Oh I almost forgot but when I called Лидия Залыгин[а - Lidia Zaligina] to talk about her birthday.  I said "Что - тебе двести лет да?" [What - you're 200 years old right?  - Instead of 20 years old.]  She got a good kick out of that.  So did Ст. Schwartz.  In fact he teased me unmercifully. 

Tomorrow we have a pretty full day already.  If everything falls into place.  And we might even have a D with Дима [Dima] the guy that speaks English.  That will be weird to see how we do that.  Service today was draining because the kids were really freaking wanting.  They don't get love or attention very often so they want all they can get.  One little girl, Катя [Katya] (the not so nice one) kept grabbing  me in the balls and they told me пипсик & баначки two words that I don't exactly know what they mean.

[mid-journal chat - pipsik & banachki - hahahaha - two words that I still don't know what they mean.  Both words are shortforms - meaning small versions of the normal words - so I assume that they were calling it little - the picture below is of service, but with the companion after Shwartz - from left to right are Elders Steve Nelson, Ken Bassett, Ben Erickson (my companion) and some really awesome dude from Idaho!  Look at how freaking cool the little kid is sitting off to the side on his own.] 

I had one good contact Васили Филипович [Vasili Filipovich - I'm probably talking about when we went signboarding earlier in the day] - he lives outside the city in Подолск [Padolsk - a city just south of Moscow - almost a suburb - an electrichki - an electric train - carries passengers in every day - about a half an hour ride to Moscow].  It would be cool if we could go out to Подолск and give this guy a D and then go over to a member's house and eat and have a little family home evening!   Well night!

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.

March 13, 1997 - Thursday

Tonight sucks for some reason.  Today I almost had my problem, but I held off at the last minute.  We went over and had a D with Малу [Malout], that was good.  Eric cancelled on us and so we came home and ate, then left to mail some stuff at the почта [pochta - post office]. 

[mid journal chat - Eric is another of the Africans that we are teaching the discussions to.  He spoke English, french and an african dialect...swahili maybe?  Virginia, Eric or another friend would help us with Malout, because he didn't speak English, or Russian very well - only the african dialect and french.]

Then we headed an hour early to English Class so we could practice a song that we are going to sing in church Sunday.  I hate singing.  I F(^^&%ing suck.  That's probably why I'm in a bad mood.  That and it was in Russian - I'm self concious about Russian and singing and Ст. Woolverton was teasing me a little.

Then I went into English Class and talked to Sharieef for an hour.  It's hard to talk to him because he is learning a lot and his life is pretty bleak right now.  No job etc.  Then Dennis said some comment that Elder Burghardt made about me being pathalogical.  And my converter [between 110 volt/America - and 220 volt/Russia] is not working.  I lent it to Ст. Larsen and now it doesn't work.  Freak am I in need of some serious prayer.  Okay, I just read an article in the Ensign - a balm to my troubled soul.  night

January 19, 1997 - Sunday

Right now I'm watching a pretty dumb movie.  It's called "A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell."  It's not even a B movie.  It's like a C or even worse.  It's an R movie - for Retarded. 

Today we went over to a 20 year old girls house to get Ст. Woolverton's CDs back.  Her name is Ira (Ира) and she lives with her mom & dad & grandma.  Her grandma and her are the only members.  Her grandmother's name is Ira Ida (Ира Ида).  They are pretty cool.  They are in the Taganski branch.  She (Ира) speaks and understands English pretty good [I love it when I see myself speaking poorly - I find it hilarious].  They live outside of Moscow though.  We had to get on a train and pay for tickets & then pay for the bus ride back, instead of using our единый [yedini].



[mid-journal chat - единый explanation - yedini means the one or all in one.  Moscow's public transportation system is huge.  With the единый you can ride all of the following except the Electrichki.  It cost about 100,000 rubles(about $18 at the time).

 
 



Aftobus



 

 
They have Автобуси (Aftoboosi - regular buses) 
 
 
 
 



Tramvai





Трамвай (Tramvai - like the trolley buses in San Fran),



Trolleibus





Тролэйбусси (Trolaybussi - NOT like the trolley buses in San Fran - but like buses but they follow a route under electric wires),

Electrichki

Электрички (Electrichki - usually on the outskirts of cities - Trains that run under electric wires),

Moscow Metro

and the Метро (Metro or the subway - trains that run with the electricity coming from under the train.). 

I loved traveling through Moscow.  A lot of times we had to take the metro over and then a bus or tram or a taxi to the destination.]

Well it's about 9:12pm.  It's after Virginia's baptism.  It's a really awesome feeling to go to a baptism.  Just being a part of it feels cool.  I didn't really went that feeling to end.  We spent a couple of hours there and now, we are home.  I got in 8 hrs of proselyting today.  I'm going to go to bed early tonight, because I am so tired tonight.