The Weeks Are Flying By...

Hello again everyone! As of Sunday, I've been in Ukraine for five months. Five months! It seems more like five weeks. Time keeps slipping through my fingers. It's kind of strange too, because there's so many elders here who can't wait for the end of their missions, and it seems sort of like I'm in the minority when I want time to slow down considerably.

Well, heres the news from the East:

Last Wednesday, our district and our zone leaders went to the Kiev Zoo. It was a lot of fun, except for the fact that it certainly seemed like 80% of the animals there were sickly and diseased. The monkeys had patches of fur falling off and had weird wounds, the elephant looked like it was going to die on its feet, and the hippo--aside from constantly being squirted in the eye by a hose in the wall--just kind of sat there, angry enough at everyone to roar every now and then, but not angry enough to move or do much else. They also had some animals that may be exciting for Ukrainians, but not quite for Americans, like deer, rabbits, and raccoons. It was...interesting, to say the least, but it was fun.

Later in the week, we decided to do another street sign (we've done it a few times now; it works pretty well). This time, we had been waiting for a while without talking to anyone when this middle eastern-looking guy walked up. He came up and, in English, asked if we spoke English. We said yes, and he proceeded to tell us about how the governments of western Europe--mostly the English government--were trying to hunt him down, and that he was in the middle of a massive military operation; not only that, but every police force in Europe as well were working together to hassle him, never anything too serious, but they'd pretend to be businesses that'd give him jobs, but then have the addresses to the jobs be empty warehouses. He said that everyone he's ever known, including his parents, are secret undercover police agents, and that he traveled to the Vatican to seek help from the Pope himself. He--for some reason...--wasn't actually allowed to talk to the Pope, but a Catholic bishop gave him two minutes to tell his story; unfortunately, as we learned through our own conversation with him, his was a story that takes thirty to forty five minutes to tell, especially since it involved a lot of repitition. He then told us about the wires and microchips implanted in his brain so that the English government could send him "digitally clear" dreams at night, and about how the police hasslings "were meant to drive me crazy. And it worked a bit. I still walk around talking to myself." He told us a lot more (like I said, 45 minutes worth), and I wrote down a lot of it later in my journal. Be sure to remind me to show you it when I get home!

In less schizophrenia-laden news, I've been able to go on exchanges a lot lately with Elder Kauffman, who was in my MTC group. It's a lot of fun being with someone your same "age" on the mission; it was kind of cool, because it proved to us how much better we know the language than we've thought. The two of us were able to talk to anyone we contacted almost without problem, and between the two of us we could understand almost perfectly. It's fun to see how far I've come in the language. It was also fun to see how far we've come in teaching ability. The awkward teaching practice in the MTC is far behind us, and now we're actually teaching easily and naturally, and well. I was able to answer the concerns of one of our street contacts better than I thought I would, and I was even able to be really bold when necessary; he told us that every church leads to God, so without hesitating I asked, "How many Gods are there?" He said, "One." I then said, "Why does one God work through many churches?" It was amazing; I wouldn't have thought of that on my own; I know that it was the Spirit at work, because it was exactly what he needed to hear. And not only that, but all throughout the lesson--which was about an hour long--I was able to say things that were the necessary things to say, that I wouldn't have even considered at any other time.

Well, time flies in internet clubs also, so I've got to get going. I love you all, and I hope you all have a good week!

--Elder Brett