Great investigators...Visa Trip to Helsinki Finland...

Hey Everyone,

Hope all is well on the home front. The following is a brief outline of what my week was like here in Dyoma. It was probably the busiest and the biggest roller coaster of a ride week yet! However, it’s always an amazing journey from week to week! Okay, let’s get down to business…

We had a regular p-day on Monday with a bit of rain. We had lunch with Elders Bagmet and Thomas...which is always a great time. Later that evening, we had an awesome meeting with our investigator, Tanya. She was still feeling pretty shy during our meeting, however she is really starting to open up to us... Awesome! Afterwards we came home, grabbed some groceries, and called it a day.
We went to the hospital for the last time on Tuesday to visit Fanilya (she was released later that day). It was actually kind of a bummer to say goodbye to all our friends we made there in her hospital room. We had two additional meetings with inactive members and another meeting with our investigator Marat, a pretty cool kid about 17 or 18. He is writing his own fiction book about philosophers or something of the sort. It sounds like it will be a really cool book.
We had district meeting as usual on Wednesday, and then grabbed lunch with some other elders. I’ve decided that I am finally beginning to like Russian food. We had small thin pancakes with chicken and peppers in it and it was pretty great stuff. Later we came home and had a meeting with a really cool less active kid. He enjoyed visiting with us, and filled us in on the recent movie and other interesting happenings that my friends from home forget to mention! Thanks guys! On the way home, we stopped by Fanilya to check up on her and to make sure she was doing okay and we had another great meeting.
On Thursday, we met with quite a few members, both active and less active. The members here in Dyoma are really great people and a lot of fun to work with.
I finally got a much-needed hair cut on Friday. It was the longest time I spent in a barber chair…It took the lady about an hour to cut my hair! It was interesting, but no worries it turned out okay. Not a mullet!!!! Later, we had our weekly planning/baking session… haha! It was pretty fun…Move over grandma, there’s a new chief in the kitchen!!! Haha! I have become quite the domestic guru…yeah right! I'm going to have to start marketing my cookies! Don’t worry… I only have one cookie and give the rest away as fast as possible. We had another meeting with Marat and he gave us a little more detail about his book. He sure enjoys talking, it’s somewhat difficult to get any floor time…haha… he is still a really nice kid. We also had a meeting with Fanilya. We are trying to work with her as much as possible to keep her on the right track and happy!
We had a sport activity on Saturday, but unfortunately, not too many people showed up. It was still fun. I accidentally knocked down elder Bagmet (a huge 6'5 Ukrainian giant) and so he got up and was joking around with me and accidentally kicked me in the face… it was pretty funny, but painful. Later, we went to their apartment and he fixed us some Ukrainian food. It was pretty dang good! One of our meetings fell through so we returned home in the pouring rain. And what did we do once we got home? We BAKED! We made some great brownies, and although they were pretty tasty, I limited myself to a half of one…WHAT GREAT WILL POWER!
We had an amazing Sacrament meeting on Sunday. I was excited to see Tanya come out and she really enjoyed it. We gave the members the brownies we made, and they thought they died and went to heaven or something like that. They don’t have brownies here in Russia! It’s only when us missionaries make them. Later in the day, we met with Tanya and a member that helped out during the meeting. Later that night, we met with Fanilya. It's great to see how well she is doing.
Often times it’s difficult to see one’s own progress, but for some reason this past week, I had a glimpse into some of my own progress and hope someday I can see it more fully. I love Dyoma and I love my mission! I love just working my tail off because it makes the mission life worth every bit of it. I am grateful for all the blessings I have received thus far into my mission. I have yet so much more to accomplish and time is closing in.
Well that’s it from this end of the world. I’m off to Helsinki Finland for another visa trip. I may be a day late in my email home. I am looking forward to meeting up with my group of missionaries and the opportunity to attend the temple. I hope you all have a great week and tell grandpa and grandma Beus “happy 50th”! I wish I could be there on Saturday for their big celebration with everyone!! I hope you all have a great time.
Make it a great week!
Love,
Elder Dewey