I'm Just Running Out of Titles at This Point Until Something Wierd Happens

We played some frisbee which was really fun! That was Monday, and also this morning again. We have really cool members here, and this morning after we played we all got pizza and had a nice little lunch and played guitar, and then I gave a spiritual thought and everybody participated constructively and it was cool!

Let's see what I can call back to my memory from last week... We had a good English Practice, we all played games, and that was fun. 

On Wednesday we had our District Meeting, which went well. We all ate ice cream afterwards.

On Thursday we met with 3 of Stass's friends, 1 of which actually seems genuinely interested in the church. Then we had English Practice, where we talked about setting goals, and that led to a discussion about how to get me to college, which led to a discussion of how to find a spouse. After that we all played more games.

On Friday I went back to Kherson! I had to get Elder Ditty's signature on some paperwork. We realized that there was no real chance to do anything in Nikolaev that day because we'd get back to late, so we stayed for a bit in Kherson and played games and talked with their investigators.

On Saturday we picked up some new business cards for our English Practice. After that we went to an office supply store to pick up some dry erase markers. Turns out, it was the coolest office supply store in Ukraine. I found a really nice journal that had cool maps in it, so I bought it.

On Sunday we went to visit Olya, who is one of the members that we play frisbee with. We had family home evening with her, which was super cool. Our recent convert Kolya was there because we're not allowed to be alone with women, especially not the younger sort. It was really nice, we had a good discussion.

Today, like I already said, we played frisbee and ate pizza with Olya, Dasha, 2 Germans (the name, not the nationality), the Sisters, and Serj. So it was cool. And now, to do all of the other things that need to be done today!

Peace out!

Elder Robison

Frisbee playing. Elder Mayberry's skin doesn't tan, and the sun here isn't powerful enough to tan my Texas skin, so we're both white, even though we pretty much spend all day every day outside in the sun. Problems.

A Little Loopy

Well, I just got blood taken out of me. Again. Yeah, just this time, it was in Russian. And Ukrainian.

It's so weird when people through in Ukrainian words. It's also weird when you say several sentences to someone in Russian and then they respond to you in Ukrainian as if they didn't just hear you speaking Russian. The lady taking blood started out by asking how old I was in Ukrainian. Then she explained to make a fist half in Russian and half in Ukrainian. Then she gave me the rest of the instructions in Russian. Then she finished out the conversation in Ukrainian. I'll never understand this place...

The only exciting thing that happened this last week is that we baptized and confirmed our investigator on Saturday! It was super cool, really stressful, and I forgot to fill out his paperwork, so now the office is on my back! Woohoo!

There's no real blow by blow report of this past week. I did give President a short report about learning the language though. That was fun. I'll clip that onto the bottom for those interested.

Anyway, today we're gonna go play frisbee with some members and their friends, and then haul some stuff all the way across town! Yay!

Peace out!

Elder Robison

Pictures from the big conference! The MTC district, together again at last! 

Me and Elder Fuller, looking devilishly handsome as usual

Language report!

As far as the language goes, I've noticed 2 things which stand out most clearly to me. The first is what I discussed with you in Zaparozhe, seperating the English and Russian. The way I often imagine it is that there is some core idea behind every word that we use. We have already associated the words we use in our native tongue with these cores, we did it mostly without thinking about it, and it continues to evolve throughout our lives. The problem arises when we learn a new language that we confuse the words with the ideas they represent. We start to build the new language based off of the language we're already comfortable with. Unfortunately, it just isn't efficient. You end up translating your thought, which is an abstract, first into your native tongue, and then into another language. It's possible to do that very quickly if you practice it alot, for some people that works fine.

The way that I've found is better is to cut out the middle. Find the way you have connected language in your mind and seperate the words from the cores. By placing a sort of mental distance between the two, you create space to add in new words that can describe the same core idea. The best way to create that distance is to force yourself to think in the new language. When you get stuck on a thought, you can't resort to your native tongue, you have to find a workaround.

The second thing I've noticed is specific for Russian. Russian is very modular in structure. There are certain base words, modules that carry a very basic and broad meaning. These words may not in and of themselves be useful, but when combined with a prefix or suffix they can become very specific and help convey a lot of meaning in one word. An in-depth study of prefixes can help a lot with understanding, even if you don't know the word that the prefix is attached to.

For instance, the word отправить, which means to send. A similar word is направить, to guide. If I didn't know what отправить meant, I could break it up into two parts, the prefix (от), and the base word (править). от gives a sense of moving away, while править means to govern, rule, or lead. Knowing that adding a prefix gives править a sense of guiding (направить), I can assume that this word has something to do with guiding or governing away from something.

And They Forgot To Tell Us...

Well, this week was fun, and filled with a lot of stuff and travelling!

On Tuesday, we went with our super cool member friend Stass to go teach his friend. His friend never showed up, so Stass went around all day with us to talk to people about the church and about English Practice. Then he went with us to teach a lesson to our only investigator right now (Who's gonna be baptized on Saturday). Then, his friend turned up finally, so we went and taught him a really good lesson. And then Stass continued to stick with us through English Practice, even though he doesn't really like speeaking English and isn't very good at it.

Stass is super cool, he's always doing awesome things to try and help us.

On Wednesday, we went to the last day of the Summer Camp from last week. They were all super sad to see us go, and they gave Elder Mayberry and I sweet gifts. After that, we went and taught our investigator again. Then, we went home, ate, I came down sick, and we packed our bags for a 4 day trip.

Thursday, we were on the road all day, and I was sick.

We went up to Zaparozhe again for Zone Training. That was really good, like usual. After that, we got to serve in Zaparozhe for a day. Zaparozhe is so much different from other places I've served so far. I got to serve with Elder Harris for that day, because I don't know the area. We ended up finding a family that was interested in learning about the Church. So that was awesome.

That brings us to Sunday, when we had a member of the Presidency of the Quorum of the Seventy come to Dnepropetrovsk. That was amazing, he gave such a good talk. The entire mission was there, so I got to see Elder Fuller again for the first time in forever. I spent all day with him, we even went contacting together afterwards and taught a few people with no problems.

Elder Fuller and I ended up staying up until 5 this morning talking. So that was fun, we caught up a lot.

Today, we were supposed to travel back to Nikolaev, but we've been delayed until tomorrow.

The Assisstants to the President basically decided that they weren't going to figure out the travel arangements for the mission even though it was a huge event that really required somebody with a view of the full picture to plan properly in order to have it all work properly. Missionaries who lived further than 2 hours away were basically just left out to dry when the APs sent out a text Saturday night at 10 O'Clock telling the whole mission that they had to find their own way to and from the conference. They had nowhere for us to stay the night in Dnepro, so when I asked to find out something (You know, because I've never left the South of the Mission), they literally told me to figure it out myself with Elders in the area.

Basically, they neglected a big part of their job this weekend. They're supposed to handle the travel arangements for things like this. They've known about this conference for at least a month, and they didn't plan anything. Perhaps needless to say, I'm a bit unhappy with them right now. We have lessons that need to be taught and a lot of work to be done in our area, but we're all now stuck in Dnepro until tomorrow. We probably won't get back until tomorrow at around 5, if we're lucky. So... I'm a little annoyed right now.

It's OK, though! Nobody's hurt, and I get to go back, so everything's good!

Just remember, if you ever have to arrange for a little over 50 people to travel somewhere, and you have a month to organize it, please put forth some effort to it. It's not necessarily easy, but it's also very possible, and the earlier you let people now what their arrangements are, the less upset thy'll be with you if their journey isn't exactly pleasant.

Peace out!

Elder Robison

The First Week

I'm not really 100% sure on what all happened last week, just because it feels like a lot happened and I don't believe that all of it fit into just one week.

So, all last week we were a part of an English Summer Camp at this school. It was a project that the other Elders were doing, but seeing as we now ARE the other Elders, so I had to step up and become a part of it last minute. I grabbed my guitar, learned a camp song, and then we all sang it together. I also gave another classic cover of Ghost Riders in the Sky, like usual. Everyone loves that one. We also taught them American games.

We taught them how to play capture the flag... And now we realize that this was a bad idea, because that's all they ever want to play, and they're SUPER competitive about it. They get into so many arguments about the rules, and it's apparently starting to reach the temperatures that Ukrainians begin melting in sunlight because the teachers keep forcing them to take breaks to cool down.

It's pretty funny because the kids are of all age groups, so the younger kids are all super into everything, and the older kids are really interested, but they're trying to act cool and uninterested. I've ended up having to remember every song that I know how to play and sing on an acoustic guitar, and now I've pretty much exhausted my whole playlist. There's still one more day for us to go to, so we'll see how that goes.

Other than that, English Practice went pretty well this week, and other than that we attended the graduation for the Seminary and Institute here in Nikolaev. That was fun, they made all of the missionaries sing with them.

I also learned to play that one Russian song that I really like, the one about Autumn and the sky. Turns out, if you play that song around Russian speakers, odds are, they know it, and you'll automatically recieve a ton of street credit for it.

I think that's pretty much everything in a short and condensed matter. This week we're only going to be in town for about 2 days, and then we leave for a big conference in the North until next week. That means I might not get to send any emails next Monday, so don't assume that I've died if there isn't an email from me next Monday!

Peace out!

Elder Robison

P.S. Our mailing adress has changed because of a weird political power struggle that's going on right now. The new adress is:

Elder Stirling Douglas Robison

                              Prospect Dmytra Yavornytskova 27A, 5^th Floor

                              49044 Dnipro

                              Ukraine