Ukrainians

March 14, 2006
Dear Family,
Thanks for writing, it's good to hear from you again. I got two letters in the mail this week!

There is only 1 mandarin missionary coming from the mtc that we know about. We'll do the best we can, though; Elder Jensen will probably come back soon. We are doing our best to find and teach Chinese investigators still - we had an appointment last night that went very well - a whole family that wants to learn about the church. They are very nice.

I hope you get to meet the new neighbors soon. Make good friends with them, then they'll be more willing to hear the message of the gospel. Also, never hesitate to invite them to come to church with you.

I do appreciate the pictures you send with letters, thank you. Please keep sending them.

Heh, a pizza delivery bag would be cool (you could get one on ebay) but probably not keeping with the professional look we're going for.

Thanks for planning to fast on my birthday. That's a good idea that your ward has, fasting 40 days. Is it supposed to be like lent?

That's great that you're doing the MS bike ride up there too. I see signs for the MS walk here in San Diego all the time.

I'm sorry to hear about Michelle's back injury. Is she doing okay? She can maybe spend her time playing video games instead of running, it's just as productive :P. I hope it goes all right, Michelle. Have you gotten a priesthood blessing for it?

We got 3 more investigators this week. We met one guy on the street named Ricky who lives in a group home. He invited us over, so we went over Saturday night. We came in and were about to share a short message when one of his roommates came over and said he had been looking for the Mormons so he could become religious again. It was clear that something was a bit amiss with the mind of the other man, Derek, because he asked us to teach a lesson about revenge, then sang us some Josh Groban, and finally we smelt liquor on his breath; he was pretty drunk. But they both said they wanted to come to church. We came the next morning, and though Derek didn't remember he wanted to come to church, he agreed to come again. Ricky couldn't get up - he was still sleeping. Derek was still a bit intoxicated at church and got up to go outside a couple times to smoke but he still enjoyed church and wanted to come next week. He's not the most perfect nearly-Mormon golden investigator I've ever met, but for sure he needs the gospel, and if it can help him, so much the good that will bring.

On exchanges, Elder Gibbons tracted into two Ukrainians who we are now teaching. One translates for the other. We got them a Book of Mormon in Russian (which they say they can read as well as Ukrainian) and they are very intent on reading it. They are very good. With them, though, we will also have to help to conquer a smoking and drinking habit too, though not quite so debilitatingly serious as with Derek. Their names are Sergei and Glib.

We finally got Henry to church this week! and he liked it. We sat with him during primary and the rest of church. Eventually his dad came to pick him up and ate dinner with us at the potluck, and they should be coming to our branch party on Friday. Henry's a good kid; I hope he can join the church.

We are teaching also a 12 year old young man named Tyeshay. He is doing very well, and we will teach him the 3rd lesson tonight. He is progressing very well.

It seemed for a little while that Darla had dropped us, but we are still working on her. She agreed to come to our church this week, as long as she can also go to the Baptist church that's working really hard on her. It's tough to have to compete with a church that has an all-black gospel choir.

We also have a few referrals that we hope will pan out this week. Things here are going reasonably well. The number of new investigators we have been getting here is far out of the ordinary, and we have been very blessed. Now if we could only baptize them.

I could probably use a better bike, honestly. Mine is purple and rusty. However, it being hard to ride gives me a better work out than I otherwise would get, so it's a bit of a tradeoff. How much would a reasonable bike cost?

Well, I'm out of time. Thanks for everything. I love you all.
Love,
Elder Myers