busy busy

Last week on P Day we went shopping and i found tons of different foods so for the last week we had a lot of great things to make and that has made eating a lot easier for me. Elder Barney was very helpful at finding foods especially since i would be cooking for him to eat it. They have a lot of yogurt and juices here and it is interesting. The stores are definitely a lot smaller here. I cleaned the apartment for a while because it was really dirty as in "dirt"y and throughout the week i finished it and had deep cleaned it so our house is really clean now which is nice and i reorganized things so that we have more room. We went to Family Home Evening at the church and were surprised at the amount of people who showed up and it was great to have the members so involved in cleaning the church.

Elder Barney and I have great discussions at night sometimes about different experiences. That is how i know we are getting along so well and i am thankful for him. I have found that some days i am really good at giving thoughts and ideas that i have and then sometimes i have days where i mostly just learn and don't feel the need to say as much. Both of those kinds of days are important for learning.

We have continued to help Baba Alovteena each week when she really needs it and she really likes us to come over. I think it is more than just the service because it seems like it would get lonely in her little place by herself. She gets along with me really well because i am quiet and she likes to talk. We have had English practice (group) at the church and we have worked on how to use past, present, and future verbs. It is funny to hear their favorite verbs because they think they are easy or sound funny.

I have found a lot of interesting books, pamphlets and materials this week in our apartment. It is very useful when teaching and i love using them. We have had some great lessons this week and we had a lesson with a man named Lev who apparently hasn't taken lessons that seriously in the past. He was nice and i told him how great a man he was and we needed more men like him at church. He came to church and committed to baptism but not with a specific date yet and he found a liahona at the church and was looking at it so i told him he could have it. I really hope for some progress from him.

All of the Elders and Sisters left to a piano concert this week put on by sister Brinton and her daughter who just got off her mission. It was just Elder Ostler and I left here and we had some fun and funny experiences trying to communicate with people and answer the phone. We had a good lesson with Sergei about the difference between the light of Christ and the holy ghost and how the holy ghost can work through the light of christ and it was good to have members present to help us out. Elder Ostler was fun to be with and he even ate all of the food off of both of our plates when we were at a members house. We both had just eaten and i didn't want it so when she left the room he just ate as fast as he could. There was so much food. I don't know how he did it but then she pulled out two big bowls of ice cream. She took half of my ice cream because we were asking to share one bowl between elder ostler and i. She made elder ostler eat the huge bowl of ice cream by himself. I was trying not to laugh. He is a great elder.

We helped clean the church this week and helped lots of members who called with their problems. We went to sports night and they all thought i was really good at Frisbee. I really enjoy playing with the great members and being able to learn what they are like and connect with them. We have good experiences together. I have had a lot of other experiences but it is hard for me to share them all so i have to summarize my week. It was very spiritual with good lessons and it was fun also but i have to keep working hard. I feel we get a lot of important things done and i have had some good experiences, a lot which i haven't been able to mention because of time. We met a less active members and i invited her to a siberian tiger activity soon where we will get to go and see ten tigers. She was super excited so hopefully we can get her active again.

Love you all! Elder Elwood