Great week in Kurgan...

. In front of our apartment

lmers in Tyumen Siberian Zone Conference at the Pa


Elder Dewey and Elder Bassest

November Zone Conference held at the Palmers apartment.

Hey Everyone,

Although this past week was long and somewhat tiring, as it progressed, it became pretty amazing.

Monday (p-day) we hung out for a while then ventured off to a cool mall that reminded me of being back in the states. Everything seemed to be a bit expensive. We also ended up doing some much needed apartment cleaning.
Tuesday ended up being a slow day. We had a church member that just moved here from Africa that attended English, which was very cool. It’s crazy because he only speaks English and knows absolutely no Russian. He seems to be a real nice guy. We are going to help him learn Russian, which will be a rigorous and long process.
Wednesday was a great day. We had district meeting, and was somewhat of a challenge because we spoke all Russian and used NO English, but I felt it went pretty well. The language has darmatically improved. Denis, another member, joined us (making him that fifth person). We discussed activities and different ways we can help the branch grow and become stronger. The sisters here are the coolest. After English, we had an intense meeting with a less active man. I felt bad for him, he just seemed depressed, but by the end of the lesson he agreed that it would be a good idea to start reading the Book of Mormon again. It was amazing because it honestly felt like we were fighting a battle with him, but the spirit won like it always does. He is a really nice guy who just seemed to have lost hope. I know we can help get him feel the spirit again and get on the right track by meeting with us and reading the Book of Mormon. Hopefully he will come to realize that he needs to make reading the scriptures a daily practice.
Thursday we hopped a bus for a four ride to Tyumen to attend zone conference. On the way we watched Beauty and the Beast in Russian, the sisters started crying, which was really funny. Since it was in Russian, I had to think hard and really concentrate instead of just being able to sit back and listen. Once we arrived in Tyumen, we made our way to MACDONALD'S! It was so tasty…way better in Russia! We stayed at the Zone Leaders and I got about three hours of sleep at tops.
Zone conference was great! It was held at the Palmers apartment. The Palmers are an awesome senior couple in Tyumen. It would be awesome to serve in Tyumen because it’s only the Palmers and the ZL’s that serve in that area and so the Palmers baby the ZL’s. So yeah… Sister Palmer made Mexican food that was AMAZING! I love Mexican food! I miss the food in Arizona.
Friday night we hopped another bus for the four-hour ride back to Kurgan. Elder Otis and I sat on the back row with three other HUGE RUSSIANS guys. It was the most uncomfortable 4 hours of my life!…no big deal, I survived.
Saturday we had a few meetings that went well.
SUNDAY the best day of the week!!!! Church was great. We watched General Conference (in Russian), the quality was not the best, but it’s the effort that counts right? THEN after church, we met with a guy named Leonid who has been to church now 4 times ALL ON HIS OWN.. So we asked him to meet and he now has a baptismal date set for the 13th of Dec. It’s going to be AMAZING and a huge help to the branch. It's just so weird because he seems too easy to teach, it makes me think I’m in Mexico…haha! No offense Chase and everyone else serving there! haha.
So that’s my week!

Love Elder Dewey.

Building across from our apartment in Kurgon

Pack of wild dogs outside our apartment