A shepherd in Israel...meat fat in jello form...tasty...not!

Dear Family and Friends,

I apologize for the weak email last week. I came down with a bad cold and then I started to recover for a few days, but it hit me again yesterday. It is probably because of the weather change. It has rained here in Ufa for what seemed to be for days, and then warmed up for a bit and then rain again.
Anyway, last week we again went to the Vietnamese market in Dyoma with some of the other missionaries. We all got an awesome deal on a few ties…AGAIN! Ha-ha. We made our purchase from this crazy lady who couldn’t speak Russian too well, and after we finished our purchased, the crazy lady laughed and hit my arm and called me “SNEAKY”…haha!
We had a busy Tuesday with some great meetings and then an awesome visit with Fanyila who is still in the hospital. The people in her room wanted to look at our pictures (Russians love to see pictures from America). One of the older ladies made fun of how fat I used to be, but said that it’s okay because I’ve lost the weight…haha! She now calls me “KING KONG”…haha…pretty funny! We made snickerdoodle cookies for them and took them to the hospital. They don’t make cookies like that here in Russia and so they asked us for the recipe, but I told them ” it is a family secret recipe never to be reveled”…haha! Then they got mad at me…haha! It was fun to tease with them.
We had a great district meeting and then a good meeting with Tanya. We had another meeting scheduled with our other investigator, but disappointed when she didn’t show up, but pleasantly surprised when she came out to our activity on Friday…there is still hope! For some weird reason I didn’t have her number right in my phone and she didn’t have mine right so all is okay!
Both my comp and I were pretty sick on Thursday and Friday so unfortunately we didn’t get a whole lot done but try and heal. We had a great activity Friday evening where we taught the articles of faith to the members and investigators. We had the help of some other missionaries and church leaders. My companion and I had the twelve article of faith…one my favorites! Too bad, I only have it memorized in Russian …haha! It was a great activity!! I was pretty sick all evening but tried not to think about until it just got to me. I rode the bus home with Tanya and Matthew (a member missionary age kid.) The bus was jammed pack.
We had a fun service project on Saturday at a broken down building the church owns in Dyoma where they want to build a new church. It was great to see investigators come out to join us to do service. I have a great deal of respect for them because if some asked me, "Hey you should come clean up a bunch of trash at some old torn down building with us and when it’s over we will give you a cookie and a glass of juice.” I hate to admit, but I would probably would’ve said heck no. We also made some more cookies to take to the church. I’m not a real fan of cookies, but these actually turned out really good. Later that afternoon we had lunch with Elder Thomas and Bagmet. I love those guys. We had a birthday lunch after church on Sunday for Valentina, a member here in Dyoma. I tried Holadets!!!!! Its fat and meat in jello form!!!!!!! Yeah, it was so tasty… haha!! Honestly, I thought I was going to die! It was pretty fun and I guess I needed the experience. They said it wouldn’t make me fat because it will just slip right through the system unnoticed …haha! It was pretty nasty. After the party was over, I washed all the dishes. I had all the ladies amazed that I was doing the dishes. They said I’m going to make some girl very happy. I will happily do the dishes in America with a dishwasher haha! It’s all by hand here! Haha.

Well that’s about it for this week. The work here with our investigators is going well, and we remain hopeful.

Make it a great week!
Love,
Elder Dewey
P.S The answer to last week’s email is a Shepherd in Israel!!!! You win mom!!
P.S.S. This internet plays the best music! I miss my music!!!!!!