MERRY CHRISTMAS! (a little early)

I figure that last time I talked about Thanksgiving late, so this time I'll talk about Christmas early. That works, right?

Anyway, Merry Christmas!

This week I said goodbye to Elder Peterson, sent him across the river. He's Left Bank's problem now.

Also said goodbye to Elder Ditty. That was a lot more sad, we've been through a lot together, me and Elder Ditty. He's already home now, doing whatever it is that Elder Ditty does when he's not the branch president of a small city in southern Ukraine.

Elder Cannon is my new companion, like I already said last time. He's super cool, he's from Honeyville, Utah. If you don't know where that is, it's OK. I don't either. I know it exists though. He's a pretty cool guy, and I think we're going to have a sick time together. That might end up being only till Sunday, it might end up being unil the end of next transfer... No one knows, the transfer cycle has gotten way weird now, you never actually know when a mid-transfer transfer will happen. Twice. It's probably a nightmare for President to organize it all.

So, that's what's going on with me. It's really cold, but the snow is back, so that's acceptable.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

This is me and Elder Cannon. We found out that the high that day was supposed to be -7 Celsius. I think the low was -15? Not sure. It was cold though, I can tell you that. We walked all day.

Another Transfer!

So. first things first, the snow is all gone. This is sad.

On to less important things, Elder Peterson is getting transfered. It may seem harsh to call that less important, but he's still going to be in Dnepro. He's going across the river, it's not a huge change. It's like he isn't really leaving, I have the option to call him in if I need help with the language program.

Elder Cannon is going to be my new companion. He's from Utah. He's from my MTC group, but he was in a different district. Should be pretty fun.

I don't know how many of you have heard of this, but there's a movie that the Church put out called "Meet the Mormons". It's a pretty good documentary, but the problem is that the Russian tranlation is... not fantastic. It's not bad, it makes sense, and it works, it's just not very good. What's bad is the Russian subtitles! Those make no sense at all.

The reason I bring this up is that this week we wanted to show it to our English practice goers, but we wanted to have Russian subtitles, because not everybody at our English practice understands English very well. I won't lie, some don't at all.

We knew how bad the subs were, so I had to translate it again in order to use it. 

The old subs were so bad. There wasn't a single line that didn't require reworking. To give an example:

What's said in English:

-"I'm the bishop here, I can help you."

-"You're the bishop?"

What the Russian subtitlist got out of that:

-"I'm the elephant there, helping you."

-"That's you, as an elephant?"

I'm not making this up.

Other than that, I got told an interesting anectdote by a less-active member while we were helping him move a pile of logs. He was talking about Stalingrad, and he told us that the people who live there say, "If the world were a giant butt, Stalingrad is the hole."

I can't say that I've often had people compare the world with a butt in a philosohpical way before, but something about Russian just makes it possible.

Well, that's a lot, so I'll stop here.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

It was Elder Litchfield's birthday this week, and so we had cake for district meeting.

 This is what happened to the cake.

This is apparently one of Sister Savran's traditions.

SNOW!

It's snowing. I'm looking out the office window right now, and there's big ol' snowflakes falling. There's snow everywhere, it's fantastic! I love it so much! We've been covered in snow since Friday, and I don't think it's going away this time! Several snowball fights have broken out, I won't claim responsibility for any of them.

Elder Ditty is staying with us for a little bit, his companion had to go back to Kherson because of registration thing. It's been fun having him around.

I think that's pretty much all that's interesting. I've gotten to the point where people are starting to guess that I'm from somewhere in the Baltic states when I talk to them, so that's pretty cool.

Well, that's all for now. If I remember something cool, I'll send another email in a bit.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

 This is our footprints in the snow. I was impressed by how cleanly footprints came out in the snow, especially because it was such pristine snowfall, so I turned around and took a picture. Then I realized that Elder Peterson didn't leave super crisp footprints.

I drew this, and then we decided that it's Elder Peterson.

This is what Elder Peterson will look like in 20 years though...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Am I a little late on that one? Yeah? No? Oh well...

So, this week was a big Zone Conference on Wednesday. Everybody from the Southern Zone came to join us for this one, so I got to see Elder Ditty and Elder Harris and all them that I left behind when I came up to Dnepr.

What else happened this week... Thanksgiving was awesome, we had a district dinner. On Friday it snowed a lot! I was so happy, there was snow everywhere! It's all melted now, but while it was falling, I was excited.

I guess that about brings us up to now. Kind of boring I guess. I do have some pictures. I think...

Anyway, peace out!

Elder Robison

The view from our study window 

Our district thanksgiving. I sat at the head of the table, because that's where I ended up.

(From left to right: Elder Fuller, Elder Litchfield, Sister Hendricks, Sister Savran, Elder Jensen, Elder Balyas, and Elder Peterson)

Ignore the ​fact that I look horrible in this picture, it's just a bad angle! Note the guitar in the back corner. My guitar. 

Still got it.

Obtain My Word

So, we got a new name for our program! It's called Obtain My Word, also scriptural based.

"Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men." - D&C 11:21

Elder Walker made a sick piece of artwork that's now our logo, huge shout out to him for that. 

Right now we're printing out THOUSANDS of sheets of paper that contain the entirety of our program. We're going to distribute it to the whole mission this week. Everything is coming together now. It's pretty crazy.

Other than that, not much happened this week. It's really cold. It snowed earlier this week, enough for there to be snow on the ground. I was so excited. I want more.

So, that's life. Life's so weird.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

Dinner With the APs

I think that we ate at least one meal with the APs almost every day this week. No joke. It's kind of ridiculous how often we eat with them. It's free food though. And it's fun hanging out with the APs. I'm just not used to there being so many missionaries everywhere.

I finally gained weight this week! Like 3 or 4 pounds! It seems like everyone else is trying to lose weight, but I'm in the strange situation of not being able to gain it. It's kind of horrible actually, I'll be totally full and just have to keep eating. Kind of takes the pleasure out of eating when you know you have to eat too much.

We started grading all of the tests this last week. We're really pleased with some of the results, and hugely disappointed with others. I guess this is what it feels like to be a teacher. We have gotten a few good laughs out of some people's comments and answers to questions on the test, so that's been worth it. Also, being able to arrange and view the data from the tests is pretty much the coolest thing ever. It's incredibly nerdy, and incredibly satisfying. We have so much data processing power, it's insane.

Well, I think that about sums up my week. Not that much happened that's very exciting at all. Transfers came, but nobody really got moved anywhere. We're all just sort of here.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

Smite the Rocks

We did it! The language tests are going out to everyone this week. Everyone in the mission is going to hate us for this. The level 4 tests are really hard, but the tests are overall very good. It covers all the information that we could forsee as being needed. I'm sure that we'll have to change them further, but it's a good first version.

I wanted to change the actual title of the program to something awesome, so I found a cool scripture that says: "And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord; and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves; and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence." (Doctirne and Covenants 133:26)

Unfortunately, President said we couldn't change the name to "Smite the Rocks". Oh well. I'll still refer to the tests as such from now on, because that's a sick name.

It snowed quite a bit this week, but none of it stuck. It was pretty fun one night while we were walking. We were walking directly into the wind, so the snow totally covered us in front. We got home and were totally blanketed. It was awesome, I love snow so much! I got some pictures of us once we had brushed most of it off and got inside. We look pretty awesome, to be totally humble of course.

Still no weight gain, but, eating lots of food. That's good.

I gave a segment about learning the language this week at Zone Training. It was super fun. It's pretty hilarious how many mistakes I make when I speak English now, I just say things the way I would in Russian, so it comes out really funny sometimes. It's even funnier when everyone you're talking to also speaks Russian, bercause they know exactly why you're making those mistakes, and they don't even notice it half of the time because it's now become normal for them.

Well, that's my week pretty much.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

So, This Week Happened

Ok, what happened this week? I don't really remember. I should start bringing my journal so I can actually remember things that happen.

This week was kind of long, we started working in the office to get on those language tests that we have to do. It's nice work, but I don't like the whole office vibe right now, I want to be out doing stuff. At least it's interesting work, I like language stuff. I don't remember how much I told about that last time, but basically it's a set of 12 Russian language benchmarking tests and associated study materials from some mission in Russian. The first thing we did was change the name of the program from the old, boring title that they used to "How Speak Good on Russian Language". We think this is good decision

We ate really good food this week. I still haven't gained any weight, but at least the food is good. We made a whole chicken for Sunday dinner. It was so good. We made bacon-wrapped hamburgers with donuts for buns because there weren't any buns to use on Monday. They were really good. So was the mushroom soup I made. I'm always hungry now, but I'm always eating too, so that works out.

Elder Peterson and I bought fountain pens this week, because that's really classy. Mine's already out of ink though, I wrote a lot with it. It's a good incentive to improve handwriting, we're going to buy some better ones and get back up ink for them.

On Saturday it snowed! We were walking, and then all of the sudden it started snowing. It's still October, and it's already snowed! It snowed this morning too! What is this madness!?

I think that's all. Pretty much my week. Got some cool pics, I'll send those. Actually, the pics are pretty boring.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

 This is my office space

 This is the insane high-tech keyboard that Elder Fuller bought that I use because we share this computer.

 So, this is a story that happened while we played one word story in English. It's fantastic.

My chair betrayed me again yesterday morning, this time breaking entirely. I no longer have a chair to study in at home.

Here I Go Again

I'm in Dnepropetrovsk! It's pretty crazy, I thought I was going to be stuck in the South forever. Now I'm smack dab in the center of the Mission! On special assignment...

My companion is Elder Peterson, he's a pretty cool guy, really smart, likes video games, Lord of the Rings, the whole 9 yards. He and I are now in charge of issuing a language benchmarking system for the entire mission based off of a series of 12 tests that have been used in other missions. We have to review them, update them, distribute them, and grade them. And also create study guides if I'm not mistaken. So, that's a thing now.

I'm pretty glad to be out of my old area and into something new, even though I still can't really believe that I've left there, or that I'm in a big city like Dnepropetrovsk. It's pretty crazy, I don't know what to think about it.

I guess the first thing I'll say is that I have no chair to study in. Well, I have a chair, it's just broken. In fact, first morning here, I sat in it to eat some peanut butter while I studied... and then I was on the ground. That was fun. They told me I can't get a new chair for a while... so I just balance on the old one, which threatens ominously to kill me at all times.

We spend a lot of time with the APs now, because they're in our district. That's really cool because Elder Jensen is now an AP! Woo! 

In other news, I made a delicious vegetable bullion which I'm going to turn into mushroom soup today or tomorrow. Elder Peterson and I have decided that we're going to eat delicious food all the time, which I think is a good decision. He made a delicious borsch yesterday that we ate with the APs. We're gonna eat good.

Well, I think that's it.

Oh, Elder Fuller's in my district as well. Again.

Me with a peanut butter 

A rocket in the city 

My traitorous chair betrays me again...

Wait, Was I Supposed to Send One of These?

So, I realize that I haven't sent an email in about... a while. Sorry about that. I am still alive! I'm here, in Nikolaev, still alive!

Basically, nothing really happened these past 3 weeks that I felt like it should be sent out in a mass email. If you're curious, feel free to ask in a personal email, but it might be better to just wait until I get back from my mission to ask about these few weeks of silence.

Anyway, enough of the cryptic email! Time to get into the real email!

So, last week we were in Zaporozhe again. I found out there that I'm leaveing Nikolaev! Soon! Well, sometime this week, but also possibly not this week depending on when President decides to let us know about that. It's definitely a good thing that I'm leaving at this point though, so be excited!

Basically that's all. Yeah, that's pretty boring, I know. Sorry about that. Well...

That's about all I've got.

I played a sick solo on accident when we were stuck in Zaporozhe with nothing to do and visited a music store. I can send that video.

So...

Peace out?

Elder Robison

(editor's note: Sorry, I couldn't get the link to the guitar solo to work)

So, Autumn

Well, Autumn came, kicked the door down, stole all of my nice warm weather, and left a bunch of clouds and leaves. So that's a thing now.

Anyway, pretty much out of time this week, so I'll just send some cool pics and let you enjoy those. No explainations, just pics

So... Zaporozhe...

Guess who's in Zap again! This Elder! Whoo!

Basically, we're here so Elder Harris can sign like two or three sheets of paper. Whoo! Fun! Work! Effective use of time!

I'm so tired.

This week has been trains, trains, trains, and more trains. We went to Kherson on a train, then left Kherson on a train, and then, right after we got off of that train, we had to go print out the tickets for another train, and then get on that train the next day after church, and now, after a 9 hour ride through the night, we're in Zaporozhe. And tonight we're getting on a 10 hour train ride back to our area. I don't even remember other things that happened this week. It's just all trains.

And more trains.

But next week should be devoid of trains! So we will look forward to next week!

I have a bunch of pictures that could be sent, but that will have to wait until next week too.

We're gonna go eat some food pretty soon here, because we're starving.

The moral of this story is; trains are better than buses, but better doesn't mean good, and it doesn't make me any more happy about having to use them.

Well, that just about sums up my week.

Peace out!

Elder Robison