January 23, 1997 - Thursday

[Pre-Journal Chat - Small things added together build up to big things sometimes.  Looking back on this journal entry, I can't believe the big things that were going on, but you can see the small things in the previous posts.  But - I hope that you'll realize that I improved on my mission starting with my next companion.]

Today was P-Day.  Ст. Woolverton went and played Gatorball.  He left at 9:30am or so, and I went back to sleep until 1pm.  Woke up and did the dishes, then wrote a lot of letters.  [Ст. Woolverton] got home at 2pm and we didn't do any[thing] tonight.  We watched a show called "Primal Fear."  It was pretty good.  Pretty suspenseful and good.  I wrote a lot of letters today.  It was pretty good.  Well I'll talk to you later - 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.

January 17, 1997 - Friday

Well I'm still having my problem.  I had my interview with the president yesterday.  It went pretty good.  He knows I have a problem.  He said not to let it terribly bother me.  I can still have the spirit with me.  I need to improve on it.  One thing that will definately help, is to stop watching t.v.  This is two nights in a row.  That  is down right wrong and I know it.  I need to stop watching t.v. so I can study at night - since I sleep away my study in the morning, that would be a good idea don't you think?

I'm also totally out of money until the end of Jan or the first of Febuary rolls around.  Oh yeah, on the 14th, Tuesday, I gave my first baptisimal commitment.  It was totally sweet.  Gotta run, bye.

I feel much better now.  We went and visited some inactives.  A sister Tatyana [Татьяна] and her daughter Yulia [Юлия].  They are really nice.  Like Elder Woolverton was telling me it was nice to see her (Yulia) as a pretty little woman who was just cute.  She's fifteen and a lot of girls start dressing really slutty around 15.  She was pretty interested about church too.  She asked at least twice if anything new was happening at church.  Any new faces etc.  Well it's time for bed.  Good night.