Another new area (May 9, 2007)

Hello again everyone!

Well, I've been transferred again, and this time around I'm back in Kiev, in an area called Kharkivskyy. My new companion is Elder Walk, and many of you will be pleased to hear that he is a Mariner's fan.

So far this new area has been working out well. One of the elders in my district is from my MTC group, so we've been having a lot of fun being back together again. Our area is a lot like my other area in Voskresensky in Kiev, except that it's a little nicer looking, we're pretty close to the Dnipro river, and it's springtime, which means that instead of being bleak gray everywhere, there's actually a little bit of green everywhere. It also, however, means that the weather is getting kind of muggy and is starting to behave sort of like Washington DC weather, where it can be bright sunshine, then a thirty minute downpour, then bright sunshine again.

We've already had two interesting experiences here so far. First, on Sunday we visited a less active member named Sasha. Sasha may be the coolest guy I've ever met, as well as the strongest. He works as a political bodyguard, and he looks like the type of guy you don't want to mess with. He's incredibly large and muscly and he has a shaved-bald head. But, he's really funny and nice. He served a mission when he was younger (he's 32 now), and because of that and his other efforts when he was more active in the church, he played a large part in a lot of the baptisms in Kiev. Unfortunately, most of his friends nowadays are other bodyguards, and they don't quite live according to an LDS lifestyle, which is keeping him from doing so too. I really hope he starts coming to church again, because he sounds like he was a great teacher there and an excellent member missionary. Anyway, while we there, he showed us some self defense moves that were really cool.

My second story happened on Monday. We had just finished our district meeting at the church building here and were walking outside when we noticed a large crowd of security guards nearby. For some reason, the company occupying the space next to where the church is always has at least five or six OXOPOHA, "Okhorona," or security guards, marching around out front, but on Monday there were about ten or fifteen standing around staring at this woman who was holding a bible and busily writing something on the ground with sidewalk chalk. One of the guards approached us and asked if she was a member of our church. We told him no, we hadn't seen her before in our lives, and we talked with him for a little bit before he asked us if we could help them out. Apparently, she was writing in sidewalk chalk in front of a large loading gate that semi trucks needed to get into, and the security guards couldn't convince her to move. Knowing that we were religious people, and figuring that somehow we'd connect with her, they had us go and try to talk to her. So we did. Her name was Lyuda, and through her gestures (some of which were a little obscene) we learned that she was angry with the litter on the ground and with cars and with people in general for dirtying up the Earth. She didn't speak (she kept making frightening gestures as though her tongue had been cut out), and she kept walking over and standing barefoot in water puddles. She wrote weird, cryptic comments in Russian on the ground and also in her Bible using a pen. Finally, after about fifteen minutes, we got her to move away from the building, and then, after telling the security guards to get her some help, we were able to leave.

Well, that's my excitement so far. Have a good week, and happy mother's day!
--Brett