Finding "Inner Peace" with in...

Hello from Chelyabinsk,

I hope all of you are enjoying the warmth of the Arizona sun. A few of you asked how I am enduring the cold here in Russia. Honestly, it has not been too bad thus far, just a smidgen in the negative! I have been told this winter has been a warm one, but who knows if it will stay this way. I wanted to take a few pictures this past week of my new area, but it was a busy week. I will try for this week and send you a few in my next email home.
It sounds like BJ is adjusting just fine to the real world since returning home! He is back in school, dating a great girl (sounds somewhat serious…hmmmm) and enjoying being the only kid at home. I hope mom will save some of her spoiling for me! Hopefully BJ will be an old married guy by the time I get home and I can go back to being “the only kid” at home. JK!
P-day has turned into one big foosball frenzy! Elder A and I are unbeatable and unstoppable! I love it! Today we are having a birthday party for Elder A at the church, it should be a good time. Last Monday we had FHE with the Zoobkobvy’s. (I think that is how to spell their name in English)
English club here is crazy; and is mostly all girls who attend. I am not sure if they really attend because they have a desire to learn English, or if they have a different agenda. It can feel a bit awkward at times, because they don’t even try to speak English... they just like to stare at us. I enjoy just acting like a goof because half the time they don't understand what I am saying in English anyway. Haha.
This past Tuesday Elder C came to work with us while his comp was in Kazakhstan on visa renewal. It was a great time! However, working in a threesome is not always easy. He was in my MTC group and came out the same time I did. He is most definitely one of my favorites! He wants me to move to Nevada after our mish. He said he will hook me up with a girl. He has one of those faithful girlfriends back at home…one of those that will stick to the two years in waiting…haha! Hey, it's already been ten months, so what is another 14.
We found a new investigator, Aleksey. I guess technically he is not new, he met with missionaries three years ago and some how lost contact with them. The lesson went awesome! I look forward to meeting with him again. He is a real nice, sincere, and clean cut guy, and seems golden...only time will tell.
I believe in my previous email, I mentioned that we established a plan of attack on Home Teaching in our area. This week we had a couple of meetings with Brother Victor (people here go by their first names except for missionaries). We discussed what we needed to do in order to get things going and planned it all out with him. He seems excited about the idea and wants to see it work. I cannot wait to see the changes it will make in the members here, they will all greatly benefit from it.
Yesterday after church we went to the bus station to pick up Elder A. He made my day by bringing my package that you sent! Wow! It was a great package, thanks so much.
I will have to admit, I am glad to see this past week come to an end. Honestly, it was one of those weeks that happened to be one of the more challenging ones that hit me full force. I guess these challenges are to humble us and bring us to our knees. At times the negative stuff can get in the way of our heart and head from being in the right place. At times I felt the frustration of the lengthy time I've been the junior companion due to the lack of missionaries. Our group was the last to come out, which was almost ten months ago, so our group is the youngest in the mission. On Friday, I noticed it was kind of getting to me and I realized I needed to get my head back in the game and seriously get focused. I guess you could say I needed that “inner peace” back in a desperate way! I have really had to pray extremely hard to stay positive the past few days. However, I did it! I stayed positive for the most part and trucked through the hard times, and I am still feeling great! Lesson well learned! Prayer works! Pray hard continually, work hard always, and reap the blessing of inner peace!

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week. Please remember the people here in Russia in your prayers.

Love,
Elder Chad M. Dewey