Ups and Downs

Sounds Like you are had a good time in Europe! So this last week was good in some ways, but in other ways not. Nothing really having to do with me, but just bummer stuff.

1st. ( I took this one out. I will be editing out other people's personal info, anyway it was a bummer for Blake)

2nd. Last week was super hard to find meetings with people. It seems like there are always Russian holidays going on, so its hard to meet with people. We ended the week with 15 meetings, which is the only time this transfer below 20 which is the weekly mission goal. We tried as hard as we could, but like i think I said in my last letter, all of our investigators got busy and absolutely have no time.
Thats about all the bad stuff that happened this week.

Good stuff; this week was I think a big step in my personal study, it was pretty good. I am way more effective than I think i have been with studying. Working hard to increase my faith, and right now, that includes better praying. I've done somethings, and they definitely are better, but its hard to remember all the things that I want to do while i'm praying, so hopefully they get even better.
Also, kind of exciting, I am getting transferred tomorrow, I don't know where, just that i am. My comp is going to be a zone leader also. there are only two zones in our mission by the way.

AND, VISA TRIP to Kiev. Its only me, elder B., and sister Br.. Which is ok i guess... She served two mini missions in Kiev, so she will give me and elder B. a nice tour. I leave the 20th super early in the morning.
Fun Russian Fact: Russians are terribly superstitious. No shaking hands under doorways, not even a joke, they will not do it. also that carries into that they always worry about how much cold weather stuff you wear, бабушкы sometimes yell at you if you don't have enough stuff on. I think they wear too much, they have to always be sweating. gross.

I'm doing good, next week I'll let you know where my new area is, and who my companion is.

I have not yet received the valentines day package. Honestly, it probably isn't going to ever come. which reminds me, on address' don't include the word that has okrug in it, that word/address, is out in novasabirsk. Maybe thats why I have been getting next to zero letters.
Please let people know about POUCH MAIL. I don't know the address or anything, but figure it out, because its safer and faster. one piece of paper folded in three, and no envelope.

Anyways ya'll, love you!

-Elder Blake Wight


-check out the Picture: mmmmmmmmm, russian toothpaste.

Food!

Well, these are somethings we eat. just coincidentally I took these pictures this last week, first two today.

1 Chooda, translation is miracle. They are SO good. its like a yogurt drink.

2 choodas on sale for about 60 cents each. so we bought a few. big pot is borsch: beet soup with carrots, onion, garlic, bay leaves, and some other stuff I know i'm forgetting, really good with smetana=sour cream.

3. pelmeni, like a noodle filled with (fake?) meat. We buy a pretty good kind.

we also have this stuff called grechka in the mornings, its like boiled buckwheat (boullion cube) with like onion and egg, also very good with smetana. also bleeni, which is just crepes. its pretty good with this sweet and condensed milk called skooshonka. tasty.

Diligently obedient

March 10th,

Hello Family and friends. This last week has been pretty good, but not anything out of the ordinary or super exciting.

We had zone conference yesterday, it was about measurements and measuring success and such. It was really good. Lately I have been feeling like I can be a lot better than I am, and while I was studying faith and the gifts of the spirit, there is a lot of things I need to be doing better. I just need to start working on a few things at a time. The bible dictionary says that where true faith is, there are visions, dreams, healings, and all the gifts of the spirit. Needless to say, I have a ways to go to obtain true faith. Also when trying to find how I can obtain gifts of the spirit, the scriptures say I need to be diligently obedient. I have been really obedient, absolutely 100 percent obedience is super hard, especially while living with four elders in one apartment. Like with getting all ready showered and everything by 8 o'clock. So, I'm bumping up my obedience game.

anyways, enough about that.

This is the last week of the transfer, next Thursday we have transfers, and by next Wednesday I should know if I'm moving or staying.

Also, This last week, a lot of our investigators got put into situations where they aren't able to meet, or can't meet that often. Its going to be a struggle this week to reach our goal of 20 meetings and get all of our study time in.

Fun Russian/Moscow fact:

There is a war memorial here that is a tower, and every 10 centimeters is a day they were in world war two. They don't call it world war two here, they call it the great war, or the patriotic war. It is common here to be asked by Russians, "Who won the great war?" They are so proud of this history. Its kinda funny because we don't really even think about it at all in America, unless we are taking a history class, but here, it is so big for them.

Miracle!

Hello Family and friends! This week I'd like to tell you about a miracle I experienced this last week.

A couple of Sundays ago, we went over to investigator's house, he is not a member, but his wife is. She is American and he is Russian. She - L., gets sick a lot, has had three miscarriages, and is extremely unlucky. He is an investigator that has a ton of questions but has a sincere desire to know, but, also has had struggles with reading and praying daily. We went over there, I gave her a blessing of comfort, and had a good lesson. In this lesson, my companion promised them that if they read, prayed personally, and together everyday, that a miracle would occur before Saturday, that they would know it was from our Heavenly Father, and they would remember forever. After the lesson, we decided we needed to fast, and fasted on Thursday/Friday. L. called Friday morning and asked us what kind of dictionaries we had, because she needed to buy one. (she is learning Russian, D., her husband, knows English) We told her, and also asked if she had seen anything that week, she said not yet, and we told her that she still has that night and tomorrow. That night she called us and told us that she was pregnant, which really is a miracle, because she has had some surgery, and the probability of her being pregnant went WAY down. like 1 in 100000. She said it usually takes 5-8 years to conceive after this surgery, and its been 8 months.

Hopefully we will have a baptismal date for D. soon. He still has a lot of questions though.

Anyways, Today for p-day we re-organized our study room, and cleaned the apt. It is definitely going to be easier to receive revelation while studying from now on. I'm excited to study tomorrow, hahaha.

ah... what else this last week? This transfer with elder R. so far has been really cool so far. We try a lot more Russian food. We also drink a TON of juice, it is so good here.

We walked with a 25-year old that has down syndrome for service this week, it will probably be a weekly thing from now on, and it is really good. It gives the parents a break for a little bit.

There is this member named L. who we are working with (teaching piano lessons with a spiritual thought) who is a little mentally handicapped. We found out that he has been writing another deaf woman member that lives in Ukraine. He is kind of deaf, and knows British sign, American sign, and Russian sign. When my companion asked if he loves her, he replied "нимоножка" which means a little bit. Then when my companion asked if she loved him, he asked my companion if he doesn't believe him. He is a fun guy to work with.

Fun Moscow/Russian fact for the day:

EVERYONE here smokes. Cigarettes here are dirt cheap. Somewhere around a quarter, a dollar for the expensive kind. Also, everyone drinks, there are no laws against public drunkenness. I'll go more into that one maybe next week.

Anyways, love you all! This transfer is already half over! Whoa, time flies.

и каждая неделя мой русский лучше! (and every week my Russian is better!)

-Elder Blake Wight

Ups and Downs

02/17/10
Sorry mom, but I just don't have enough time to read talks, like the one you posted here, we pay for internet, I'd like to read it, I just don't have the time.

Did you get the pictures I sent last week? I hope they got through. (No they didn't :( )



I have not seen a package, but the офисники (office elders) haven't dropped mail and packages off at the central building yet, so maybe?

This last week has had ups and downs, downs are just things we currently struggle with, not actually bad things.

ups

- L. and D aren't sick anymore, we gave L. a blessing, which I said. During the lesson Elder R. promised them something unforgettable as a testimony builder on the condition that they read, pray together, and individually every day. D. grows by leaps and bounds, every meeting he surprises us.

- New investigator V. we found at english club on Wednesday, and we met with him twice, and then he cam to church. 4 DAYS to get to church. Definitely one of the elect. He wants us to come to his place and meet his family, he is a really great guy.

Downs

- We're having a really hard time reaching the mission goal of 20 meetings a week. People constantly fig us. (don't show up, or cancel last minute, Russian word) With elder M. he knew everyone so well that he knew what to do if we got figged, which happened SO much less than now. I don't know why.

- M. is getting really hard to teach, when he asked if we think he understands what we talk about, we told him no. He wants physical proof of everything, and its hard. There is a great bible verse, but in Russian its mis-translated. The orthodox church version is the only legal version here.

Something funny that happened on Sunday...
We were on a маршутка (marshootka, its like a van that you pay a dollar for, and they follow bus routes, way faster and frequent than buses) and we were talking to the only other guy there. We told him we were from America, and when he hears this, he unzips his coat and starts digging around for something. Its like he had this thing that he has been waiting to give to an American. I had no idea what to guess it was. He finally finds the thing and reaches his hand out to give it to me. I take it, and it was a green pen. Just a regular old green pen, it wasn't nice, it wasn't anything but green. I have no idea why he was anxious to give this to us but whatever. I am pretty sure he wasn't drunk either.

I found out that next transfer that there is an Elder White coming next transfer. I hope I train him. hahaha.

I am now starting Fun Moscow/Russian fact, here goes:
бабушки (babooshkee, which means grandmas/old ladies) have little carts that they drag everywhere, they have bags of who knows what in them. Also, no one ever carries anything unless they are in bags. You don't mess with the бабушки here, because they are tough as nails. They either hate missionaries, or love us, its kind of a fun thing to find out.


So thats all for this week. I love you all tons!

- Старейшина блейк уайт

Transfers

02/10/10
This might have to be short, because I lost my last one to you, hopefully now though...

This last week was transfers, I got Elder R., from Boise Idaho. He is a genius and was a REALLY good wrestler. I stayed in the same area, Sokolniki and my trainer, Elder M. is now an AP. Pretty cool eh?

We started teaching another old investigator, A.(3). (there are about 15 different male russian names and like 20 female ones, weird huh?) Anyways, he seems to be some kind of drug addict, its pretty sad. His mother is a member and is SO GLAD that we are teaching him again. She was there for the meeting we set up, and A's grandma lives with him, and LOVES to talk to us, it is so funny.

Publish Post

Other than that, not much else happening. I'm going to go over to g-mail and try sending a few pictures. next week it will be possible, because myldsmail is now powered by gmail after today. woohoo!

Love you all!

-Elder Wight

Companion

Brother and Sister Wight, Samantha, Casey, Carissa,


I have has the chance to spend the last 6 weeks as your brother's and son's companion. You have a lot to be proud of! He is a lot of fun. He has a great sense of humor about everything and loves to tell me to fake it until I make it. I wanted to tell you that he is doing great. He is a great missionary, as I am sure you would have already known, but I have loved serving with him. We found out that I will be transferred so I will not be with him anymore but I wanted to let you know how great he is doing.

About me. I am 19 and from Greeley, Colorado. I love football. I played for a year before my mission at BYU but red-shirted so didn't actually play that much. Other than that I love fishing and being with my family. I have 5 brothers and sisters. 2 older sisters 1 older brother who played at BYU with me and is leaving on his mission to Bulgaria March 24!! and then 2 younger brothers, one of which just signed to go play football for Colorado State University. Today is my 8 month mark on my mission but i have loved it. the language is hard but comes with time. Like I said unfortunately I won't be with your son again but I have love it. Thanks for doing such a great job in raising him.


Love Elder M