new comp/same city/trip to Kazakhstan
Date
January 15, 2018
Area
Saratov
Companion
Elder Kennedy
new comp/same city/trip to Kazakhstan
Hello family and friends,
Transfers:
Dauchney again! I am so excited to serve here in Dauchney for a little longer!
Elder Kennedy is my new comp! He is a baller. He is great at soccer. He is also going to Harvard!!! Which is crazy because I barely passed high school which means that this transfer I will be learning Russian AND English, haha. We are going to do work down here in Dauchney! I am super excited. He has been out for almost a year and a half and knows Russian super well. This is his first time in Saratov and I am glad to show him around. I am going to have so much fun this cycle.
Kind of a crazy week! I had to go to Samara for a visa trip (every 3 months I have to leave Russia). We woke up at 3 am and hopped in a big 10 passenger van. We just slept until we hit the Russian border. Then the driver woke everyone up and told us to get ready. We get through to Kazakhstan without any problems and we drove maybe 100 feet into it, and then turned around. I was expecting a little more than that. We get to the last part of Kazakhstan and they stop us and ask us why we are here. We told them we are volunteers. They then decided to pull us in for interviews. Haha it was pretty crazy (that is all I am allowed to say).
The language is really coming along well. I had many opportunities to speak Russian this week.
On Saturday we had another lesson with Aleksey (sorry I spell his name different every time), who was progressing nicely. He showed up for church 4 times in a row. We go in and we are going to talk about the Book of Mormon. He just started shooting down everything we were saying. He started talking about the secret combinations again. He wants to be taught about them so he can be rich (in my first email I talked about this with the same person). I honestly thought he was progressing. But that is OK because that is why I am here - to help people come unto Christ.
Sunday was awesome! Church is so great! I really am so grateful for the sacrament. We didn't really have a lesson that day so we went out and talked with people on the street! It was such a good day to talk with people. I saw a kid with some hockey gear and decided I should chat with him a little while we were on the bus. We just talked about hockey for a while because he didn't want to talk about religion at all. Elder Kennedy was putting in work with somebody else. We were talking so much that we missed our bus stop. We get off the bus and wait. Elder Kennedy immediately starts talking with someone and then someone else just walks up to me and starts talking. He asked, while smoking, something like "how long have you been waiting?" Then he asks me "do you smoke?" I thought about it (not because I was going to start smoking but because I was trying to understand what he said). I finally answered no. He told me good job. I asked him what bus do I take to get back. He answered and I didn't hear him and then said "you aren't Russian are you." I answered no, I am from America. He said haha whatever. Then he was like why are you here? I told him about our Church and he said cool. I asked him if he was interested in sports (so we could maybe invite him to an activity). He said yeah, kind of. I gave him the address for sports day. Hopefully he comes!
Was a good week.
Hope you all have a good week.
Love,
Elder Kramer
Transfers:
Dauchney again! I am so excited to serve here in Dauchney for a little longer!
Elder Kennedy is my new comp! He is a baller. He is great at soccer. He is also going to Harvard!!! Which is crazy because I barely passed high school which means that this transfer I will be learning Russian AND English, haha. We are going to do work down here in Dauchney! I am super excited. He has been out for almost a year and a half and knows Russian super well. This is his first time in Saratov and I am glad to show him around. I am going to have so much fun this cycle.
Kind of a crazy week! I had to go to Samara for a visa trip (every 3 months I have to leave Russia). We woke up at 3 am and hopped in a big 10 passenger van. We just slept until we hit the Russian border. Then the driver woke everyone up and told us to get ready. We get through to Kazakhstan without any problems and we drove maybe 100 feet into it, and then turned around. I was expecting a little more than that. We get to the last part of Kazakhstan and they stop us and ask us why we are here. We told them we are volunteers. They then decided to pull us in for interviews. Haha it was pretty crazy (that is all I am allowed to say).
The language is really coming along well. I had many opportunities to speak Russian this week.
On Saturday we had another lesson with Aleksey (sorry I spell his name different every time), who was progressing nicely. He showed up for church 4 times in a row. We go in and we are going to talk about the Book of Mormon. He just started shooting down everything we were saying. He started talking about the secret combinations again. He wants to be taught about them so he can be rich (in my first email I talked about this with the same person). I honestly thought he was progressing. But that is OK because that is why I am here - to help people come unto Christ.
Sunday was awesome! Church is so great! I really am so grateful for the sacrament. We didn't really have a lesson that day so we went out and talked with people on the street! It was such a good day to talk with people. I saw a kid with some hockey gear and decided I should chat with him a little while we were on the bus. We just talked about hockey for a while because he didn't want to talk about religion at all. Elder Kennedy was putting in work with somebody else. We were talking so much that we missed our bus stop. We get off the bus and wait. Elder Kennedy immediately starts talking with someone and then someone else just walks up to me and starts talking. He asked, while smoking, something like "how long have you been waiting?" Then he asks me "do you smoke?" I thought about it (not because I was going to start smoking but because I was trying to understand what he said). I finally answered no. He told me good job. I asked him what bus do I take to get back. He answered and I didn't hear him and then said "you aren't Russian are you." I answered no, I am from America. He said haha whatever. Then he was like why are you here? I told him about our Church and he said cool. I asked him if he was interested in sports (so we could maybe invite him to an activity). He said yeah, kind of. I gave him the address for sports day. Hopefully he comes!
Was a good week.
Hope you all have a good week.
Love,
Elder Kramer
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