12/5/10

Elder Carlson went home this week. It was hard for him. He loves these people so much. I stayed in Yerevan with the zone leaders until my trainee came in on Saturday. His name is Elder Kurth. He's tall and skinny with blond hair and glasses, looking somewhat similar to Elder King. He's a great man. He's doing so well with the language. He listens well and picks things up really fast. Elder Kurth is very humble and friendly and is a hard worker even though he learns easily. He's the youngest of nine kids! I think we'll have a great companionship and it will be very easy to train him. I bet I have a lot I can learn from him. The members seem to love him as well and realize how blessed he is with the language.

We don't have anyone who seems like they will be ready for baptism soon, but we have seen a cool miracle already. Our leaders clarified a rule that it seems like has been hard to keep or has been forgotten about. It says that there needs to be a responsible adult of the opposite sex present at our meetings, which can be hard when there are few to no priesthood holders in the branch. I realized that there will be times when that will be particular hard up here in Alaverdi and hard for the members to accept (if we tell them we can't come in). Elder Kurth and I decided to fast about finding new males to meet with and being able to meet with those already in the branch. Then, two younger men who are relatives of the members and somewhat familiar with the church came to church on Sunday. I don't know how long they'll be around, but they were both great men and I hope we can meet with them some this week.

I'm a little nervous for my first district meeting. It's a little stressful to try and decide what to talk about, especially having two smart zone leaders in the district, but I'm excited to be able to serve the missionaries and grow while doing it.

I'm glad that you had a great thanksgiving. That's funny that Matt made you cry. They do have similarities. I'm glad he's doing well.

We put up the Christmas decorations this morning. They're nice. We also made some homemade peanut butter. While I was in Yerevan I bought some snickers so I could put it into my companion's stocking for Christmas like I did for Elder Larson last year.

Give Seth a kiss for me. I love you. Hope everything's going well.

Love,
Elder Bruce Wainwright