Donkey Food

The first thing that comes to mind is that this has been a sweaty week. I believe 2 days were up to 36 and 37 degrees in the shade. Sometimes it seems like it's even hotter in the apartment. On Saturday I had 3 showers in a day for the first time since I was in Brazil. I almost feel like we didn't do anything this week, but we had one of the best weeks in a long time as far as the numbers go. We also had two potential lessons with two different men who both accepted Books of Mormon and said they'd read. One of them we met when he drove us in a taxi. As soon as we set up with them again they'll become new investigators. Last Sunday a man was visiting from Russia. He got baptized when he was 18 and then served a mission here. He actually served with the Branch President in Chernigov, Pres. Solomein. His name is Dennis Baranov. He went home and married a young woman and now he's a Branch President over in Krasnayarsk in Siberia and has a little daughter. He has his own business where he does genealogical research for people. That's why he was here. He was a great help on a couple lessons. It is so awesome to see return missionaries here who are living the gospel so fully. That's what this is all about. That's why we're here. The gospel blesses lives and it's the only formula for true and eternal joy. I love it.

I forgot to mention last week that 2 Saturdays ago now we went on a Branch trip. It was pretty cool. We went to this "zoo" where there were some bears, a couple wolves, deer, a couple ostrich, some pelicans, and some livestock. I got bit by a donkey and it was stronger than I imagined, but I'm okay. Haha. We also went to a fortress kinda place. It was kinda interesting and historic. After they cooked us up a fish beverage. I think it was mostly just boiled fish and dill. They love dill here. It wasn't bad. I'm not too picky at this point in my life. I have ingested quite a few strange things over the years.

People here are stuck in tradition. You talk to them logically about things, but even when they seem to understand it all they'll still say, "oh, I could never change, it would be an insult to my ancestors." That's an issue that we deal with everyday and I see the older missionaries get more and more sick all the way up to the end of their missions. Sometimes people even receive a witness of the truthfulness of our message, but still won't change. It is pretty annoying.

Things are going fairly well. It's sort of an internal battle here, you love the people, but hate the things they do. Just today as I inhaled some unidentifiable, yet recognizably from the former Soviet Union, smells I was thinking, "I think I'll miss this place someday." Well, whatever is going on, it keeps going on and I'm glad to be a part of it. I love the Lord and I know he wants me to be here. I want to be better and I'm working on it everyday. Please pray for us. The people waiting and searching for the truth here need it. We need the Lord's help to find each other.

I'm still loving everything that our new mission president is doing and I feel like the mission is really moving in a good direction.

Thanks for all the love and support. God bless.
- Elder J. Mahoney

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