Wednesday, February 23, 2011

B-ok-n K-yboa-d

Dear Mother and Others,

This keyboad is lousy so good luck trying to deciohr it. ell we have a new apartmeny and its on the gey line still. the r's and the wwwwws and the es ae sticking. um the adess is yablochkova apt. 36 kv. 69. its a smoke house and its okay but a long walk to the meto. also we ae moving all ou stuff tomorrow. The visa trip was incedible! e ent to the temple whick is all the way acoss the city fom the airport. thee was not a session at the time so did baptisms fo the dead, and it was exceptional. Also my bank account isnt woking, bu i already told dad that.
In other nes, the todays day weas a holidy- namely fo men ho serve in the aRMY or just fo men, so to celebate, m and eld ablett ent to the honey fair. i bought some honey soap and a honey stick, ill send pictures next wk. but e must have tasted evey kind of honey knon to man.
As fa as the weathe goes, 0 degees faenheight is nothing, try -20 celcius!
ell then, OH! big news up in hee, Vitaliy and his wife nadyejjda came to Sacament meeting! e ee so soked and they loved the heck out of it! i bought him som good old chocolate in ukaine and e ae hopin to met ith him at a membes house eal soon.

eell im afaid this keyboad has done nothing but destoy this lett and make mee sound like a complete fool.
my appolpogies and im sure due to all of you kind spiits this will be avey excellent bithday.
This is where its at, on the mission, hands down the gnaliest spitual and knowlgeble path.

Love elde paul

ps. the guy at the honey dalio almost convinced me into trying this alcholholic honey drink, but i withheld, you shold be vry proud of me!


Thanks for all your support of Mitchell! Friday is his birthday, he will be 20!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Still looking for a place to live, and a new career path!

Dear home,

WE meet with the razanavie (rya-za-na-vwoui) every week and those are the pictures that i sent. they are awesome and great members, and they love to feed the missionaries great things. I told her that my favorite meal is the shepherds pie.

Also we had an awesome meeting with our investigator vitaly and we went to a senior couples house, had dinner and watched the restoration video. he loved it and brought it home to his family, ill keep you updated with him, hes awesome!

in other news, i have been studing the teachings of the presidents of the church and they are so awesome! i reccommend reading some of those with the family for fhe or something.

also, im getting a hair cut today.

Im sure a million eventful events happened this week, but i cant quite remember all of them. I got yelled at over the phone, and im pretty sure russian swear words were inclusive, because i have no idea what the heck they were saying.

In other news, we still dont have an appartment to move into and we only have about 4days left, i guess you will find out next week what happens to us...

the old ladies who work at the pochta are the greatest thing in the world.

oh yesterday we met with sister galina, one of the first few members in moscow! she is excellent, and after the meeting we helped her to figure out how to work her email, shes not really old though i dont think.

If i have any advise, well, i learned personally this week how much value is involved in knowledge. and controlling the mind and the spirit. If we can contol our soul, that is our body and our spirit, then knowledge will flow onto us like the fountain from heaven and after studying the words of president brigham young, i have decided to be a heart surgeon.

Love from Moscow by the means of Elder Paul





Thank you for all the support that you give to our son and brother! We truly appreciate it!
- The Pauls

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

He's been kissed twice on the mission, and evicted once

This week has been thrilling, lots of new stuff to inform you on.
First of all, It is pretty much sealed in stone that i will be staying in this area next transfer as DL with Elder Ablett. Transfers are on the 17th and we are getting 3 new elders. tomorrow is zone conference and i need a haircut...
Because of a new Law that requires our landlord/lady to register us in our apartments, meaning they now have to pay taxes, we have been evicted. We need to clean out our entire apartment and move elsewere on the grey line within two weeks. Surpreeze! So that means that we will be leaving ourt apartment...dont know where to yet...around the 22nd. Also on the 22nd Elder Ablett and i have a visa trip, where we will have the whole day in kiev to go to the temple and buy real chocolate.
As far as new investigators go, we have a couple, which is awesome! and we are planning to meet with Vitaly and his family (investigator vitaly) at a senior couples house for a family night thing! way cool.
Also the flower lady is originally from georgia. I bought three rozes from her (only odd numbers of flowers can you buy) and then she offered to get me a visa to go to georgia, so i will have to take her up on that probably after my mission, if not earlier. just kidding.
We then brought these flowers to our relief society president who we were doing service for, and when we gave them to her she started to cry. She then said "i know it isnt allowed, but.." and she kissed me and elder ablett on our cheeks. dang shes awesome.
So thats the second time i have been kissed on my mission, and they still havent sent me home.
The cell phone has become my best friend...but i just realized that i left him in the appartment...so yeah.
Its way easy to talk on the phone now, and just conversing with people in general is way easy. unless im at the post office trying to get 5 envelopes, i swear they are speaking armenian or something!
Yeah so thats whats up over here. still working my hind tail off. budgeting is becoming easier. Elder Ablett has taught me the art of living off only the staple easy to make cheap foods. the man is a wizard when it comes to such things. and its still sustaining me.
Well i found out that the word "kite" in russian is translated into Paper Dragon...i think, i already forget. but yeah. Enjoy yourselves.
Until next time, I love you.
Elder Paul


If you can't sit on the bench, squat next to it : )

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

"Everything Will be Fine"

Dear family and friends,

So yeah me and elder Ablett are pluggin along over here. Last week was kind of a bust as far as meetings and stats go. but this week, only two days in and we are already better as far as stats go than last week. We have a lot to do and little time to do it. we are currently working with an inactive melchezedek priesthood holder and he we hope will be back to church this Sunday. and we might have a new investigator. this 21 year old kid from siberia. totally gnarly guy named sash. He has the belief that nothing exists after this life. And I pretty much thought about it and that’s perhaps the saddest thought in the world. Thank goodness we have a clear view of the plan of Salvation!

More than anything this transfer i am really learning how important the atonement is. The atonement is the very root of Christian Doctrine, and it is so vital that we try to understand it better each day. When we have a clear perspective of Christ and the Atonement..."everything will be fine" (*quote from Back to the Future Part 1) All trials and difficult burdens in our lives will be raised and our joy will be full. There is no reason for us, if we understand the atonement, to ever have a bad day. Perspective is wack to think about.

We have the excellent opportunity to help a lady get groceries today, so I’m pretty darn excited about that. solid service is incomparable. Yesterday we took bab alla out of her newspaper cluttered apartment, all bundled up- it took her a half out to get her coat on with our help. and then we made our way over to the bank, holding her arm to support her on the ice and slush. At the bank they made her go into a glass room and they sat her down for some reason. Later she told us that the reason she had to go in there was for them to question her about us. Two guys wearing suits and badges escorting her around. I guess they didn’t read the badge.


Well i need to write president, but i love you all and pray for the behalf of yours.
Love Elder Paul