2 Week!

So, I'm in my second week now! Still don't understand Russian, so that's a thing. It's ok though, because if you smile and nod, or answer questions with "I don't know" and then quickly ask your companion, you generally are ok! I mean, I've made this far by doing that!

No, I speak a lot more than that. I actually am understanding a surprising amount! Sometimes it's totally guessing, but it's usually what they're looking for!

I went to a McDonald's on Thursday. That was interesting! It tastes like, a million and a half times better than any American McDonald's!

To give a sense of what the currency is like here, you can buy a Big Mac meal (Burger fries and drink, the whole deal) for about 56 Grievn (I don't know how to spell it in English, sorry). That means that it only costs about 2 dollars for the meal. It's pretty crazy. I bought a snickers the other day for about 7 Grievn.

On the plus side, this keeps me from spending too much money, because buying anything makes me feel like I've just spent too much because of how high the prices are. It's super weird the money that we have to carry with us sometimes.

Usually we just cook for ourselves. We've had Borsch, some sandwhiches, rice, pasta, french toast, mashed potatos. Interesting thing, Ukrainians eat literally everything with ketchup! Also, ketchup can refer to pretty much any sauce! So that's fun! I've gotten to eat macarroni with ketchup several times already. Elder Riddle says he's been doing that his entire mission. In response to this, I'm going to make some real pasta sauce for our apartment. We're picking the ingredients up today.

Also, Ukrainians don't understand how Americans make pizza. I had a pizza the other day that was supposed to be American. It had chicken, peppers, ham, and olives on it. It was delicious, like everything else I've had here, but it was definitely NOT Americana! Did I mention it was delicious? Because it was. Delicious. 10/9, would eat non-American American pizza again.

For anyone who wants it, I have a new mailing address. Word of warning, I don't know if it will get through to me. International shipping is sketchy. Also, packages are super expensive to send, so I don't recommend it.

Karla Marksa 27A 5th floor
Dnepropetrovsk,
49044
Ukraine

I would love to send some pictures, but I don't have an SD card reader, and we email from an internet cafe, so I don't know how I'd get those pictures onto the computer. Also, they would be primarily of food and long stretches of flat ground, because it's illegal to post pictures of Ukrainian citizens on the interwebs. So that's fun! Maybe the day will come when I can figure out how to send my pictures. Maybe. We shall see!

I am allowed to tell you about people though! We have one investigator who's a super cool 60 some-odd year-old guy! I shall name him Joe for you, because I don't know if I should mention people even by their first names. Better safe than deported/imprisoned/never-heard-from-again.

Anyway, Joe has a mustache and a really bad smoking problem. He's also hilarious! He seems to basically be an eternal investigator though, he doesn't wan't to let go of a lot of his Russian Orthodox habits and thoughts, but he also wants to continue to progress with us. It's interesting, but we're not sure how much longer we'll be able to teach him.

Other than him, we don't really have other investigators. We're searching though!

Jehovah's Witnesses are fun to talk to! Especially when they stop you in the street or try to interrupt your lessons so they Bible-bash you! It's even more fun when you don't understand what they're saying and your companions have to defuse the situation while you stand there, smiling and nodding and occassionaly bearing a testimony of the Book of Mormon.

See, that's the kicker! We don't Bible-bash, but the Jehovah's Witnesses really want to Bible-bash! They challenge you to it as if it were some kind of wizard's duel, like you're going to stand on opposing mountain tops and shout scripture at one another until someone's mountain crumbles! It's not true of all of them, most of them are just good people who are willing to let you go about your business and talk to the people who want to talk to you. But, as always, there are a few who make my day with their antics. It's fun, and confusing, and I don't know why it happens, but it does, and it amuses me!

Moral of the story: don't try to Bible-bash with Mormons. We don't like it, and it's not going to lead to anyhting positive. Actually, don't Bible-bash period. Just state what you believe in a humble and dignified manner without trying to prove one way or another. You'll turn out all right!

Peace out!