Learning the Russian language keeps you humble
Date
November 21, 2017
Area
Saratov
Companion
Elder Nelson
Learning the Russian language keeps you humble
Hello again
Had a pretty dank week this week. You are probably thinking "oh he knows Russian now" the answer is no, I don't. This isn't Spanish haha (sorry Nana and Pops). There was a joke in the MTC: English speakers become scriptorians and Spanish speakers become fluent and Russian speakers become humble. This is a true statement. I am still learning humility. Those lessons usually come when when I speak Russian.
Last night me and my comp are just sitting on a bench and it is 2 degrees celcius. We are supposed to talk to 5 people a day. It's 8 o'clock and we have 1 hour. We are just not feeling it. I said next guy that walks by I am going to talk to and I will need some backup (he is my translator). He says ok. So we wait. A drunk guy starts walking by and I was like I'm not going to talk to him. The next guy was walking towards us and he is huge and Russian and looks very scary. He has his hood on. My comp leaves me to do it by myself. I was nervous but I go up and say "Forgive me, please. Do you know what bus stop will take me to the Mall?" He says (very skeptically) "You from america?" I respond "да" "yes." I was about to start running since I was so scared that he was going to do something. But he says "You speak really good Russian." I said thanks so much. He goes on and tells me what bus to take and I really felt good about my Russian.
We did service at the Blind Center! It was also pretty weird. We had a ton of sand bags that we were putting in a basement. The basement was crazy sketchy. Ivan (a worker) would hand the bags from the street down to me in the basement. These bags weighed 40-50 kilos. He was handing me a bag and there was a hole the size of a quarter in it. The sand was getting all over my face and in my mouth. I was blind and couldn't grab the bag. So yah, that was fun!
We went on splits with the district leader and his comp.
Elder Heppworth (district leader) and I went to go talk with people. We were walking back to the apartment because it was 8:45pm. I see a guy in a Manchester United jacket so naturally I stop him and ask him "do you like Manchester United?" he says in English "yes" I was like what the heck you speak English and he said not really. I said in Russian "I love Manchester United" he responds in Russian "Do you want to watch the game in the bar with me?" I said no I don't drink and he says that's too bad. Dang, I would have loved to see that game.
Elder Johnson(comp of district leader): We were looking for a house and we couldnt find it. We asked a random Russian grandma because that is what you do because they are the nicest. So we ask her and she said alright let's go, follow me! So we do. She may have been high but regardless, she was crazy. She was singing Russian romance music all the way and just saying random things. Then she shows us the building and asked what the apartment number was? We said we don't actually know so she starts calling all of the apartments one at a time. She goes from 10, to 20, to 30 just calling everybody. It was hilarious.
I learned that Russian people are a lot nicer than people think.
We are teaching a 9 year old kid who has not been baptized yet. So that is what we are working on.
With Love,
Elder Kramer
pickle soup from a member's home(actually really good)
Had a pretty dank week this week. You are probably thinking "oh he knows Russian now" the answer is no, I don't. This isn't Spanish haha (sorry Nana and Pops). There was a joke in the MTC: English speakers become scriptorians and Spanish speakers become fluent and Russian speakers become humble. This is a true statement. I am still learning humility. Those lessons usually come when when I speak Russian.
Last night me and my comp are just sitting on a bench and it is 2 degrees celcius. We are supposed to talk to 5 people a day. It's 8 o'clock and we have 1 hour. We are just not feeling it. I said next guy that walks by I am going to talk to and I will need some backup (he is my translator). He says ok. So we wait. A drunk guy starts walking by and I was like I'm not going to talk to him. The next guy was walking towards us and he is huge and Russian and looks very scary. He has his hood on. My comp leaves me to do it by myself. I was nervous but I go up and say "Forgive me, please. Do you know what bus stop will take me to the Mall?" He says (very skeptically) "You from america?" I respond "да" "yes." I was about to start running since I was so scared that he was going to do something. But he says "You speak really good Russian." I said thanks so much. He goes on and tells me what bus to take and I really felt good about my Russian.
We did service at the Blind Center! It was also pretty weird. We had a ton of sand bags that we were putting in a basement. The basement was crazy sketchy. Ivan (a worker) would hand the bags from the street down to me in the basement. These bags weighed 40-50 kilos. He was handing me a bag and there was a hole the size of a quarter in it. The sand was getting all over my face and in my mouth. I was blind and couldn't grab the bag. So yah, that was fun!
We went on splits with the district leader and his comp.
Elder Heppworth (district leader) and I went to go talk with people. We were walking back to the apartment because it was 8:45pm. I see a guy in a Manchester United jacket so naturally I stop him and ask him "do you like Manchester United?" he says in English "yes" I was like what the heck you speak English and he said not really. I said in Russian "I love Manchester United" he responds in Russian "Do you want to watch the game in the bar with me?" I said no I don't drink and he says that's too bad. Dang, I would have loved to see that game.
Elder Johnson(comp of district leader): We were looking for a house and we couldnt find it. We asked a random Russian grandma because that is what you do because they are the nicest. So we ask her and she said alright let's go, follow me! So we do. She may have been high but regardless, she was crazy. She was singing Russian romance music all the way and just saying random things. Then she shows us the building and asked what the apartment number was? We said we don't actually know so she starts calling all of the apartments one at a time. She goes from 10, to 20, to 30 just calling everybody. It was hilarious.
I learned that Russian people are a lot nicer than people think.
We are teaching a 9 year old kid who has not been baptized yet. So that is what we are working on.
With Love,
Elder Kramer
pickle soup from a member's home(actually really good)
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