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 15, 1997 Sunday (about Fri really)

I forgot to tell about Friday [June 13, 1997]. We went signboarding after lunch in a park on Царицино [Tsaritsina]. It's really pretty and it reminds me of the pictures of Joseph Smith's First Prayer. Well as we were signboarding, these Jehovah's Witnesses came up and talked to Shwartz. I took over because I just wanted to have fun, so I talked to them for a while and I just bore testimony in the name of Jesus Christ.


The only good contact I had was a lady named Олга [Olga]. She said she might come to church but she didn't have a phone. I didn't get her address either, so if she doesn't come then...well it really sucks. Well it's time to go to Church, bye.

May 2, 1997 - Friday

Had a cool D with the Басовы (Basovwi).  Today is so awesome day [what?].  First yesterday Пьер (Pierre) had his interview with President Jarvis and everything will go forward for the 11th of May.  That is so awesome.  It was [a] pretty busy day for us yesterday.  We went signboarding in the park and I didn't like it as much.  Then we dropped off a degree of specifications by Брат Локшин [Brother Lokshin].  When we got home I called Ири Магалевский [Yuri Magalevski - I'm not too sure about the last name] because we had a book he wanted called Наше Наследия, Our Heritage.  Well he invited us over right then to give it to him.  Well we went over and talked to him until 10:30pm - then went to bed.

Well today I was on splits with Ст. Shwartz.  He's a pretty funny guy.  We went signboarding and then we had a huge lunch.  Tacos.  It was 2 hours though.  Then we went signboarding again down on the metro by Юго-запедная [Yugo-Zapednaya or South-West] and I talked to two really cool people.  One walked around after we talked and read the BOM [Book of Mormon].  Okay, then we left there and went to Алла's [Alla's].  It was so rad.  The Spirit was really strong and I thought I spoke really good.  It was because the Spirit was there so strong.  She opened with prayer and I could just immediately feel the Spirit.  We read the D's but she was really patient and she kept trying to feed us soup or to warm up our чай - which might have been real.  We committed her to baptism.  So we scheduled her to be baptized on the 9th of June.  Then we came home and I called Евгений [Yevgenii] for tomorrow.  Well it's late so we'll go to bed.

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].