10-3-10

Hey Mom,

Thanks for the pictures. It looks like it was a great weekend. That's too bad you didn't have the best experience with listening, but the talks sound great. It seems to make sense to me that at least one of the things they were talking about was slowing down. As technology increases, it seems like we as people are beginning to do a lot more of nothing, if that makes sense. It's like in Wall-e how the people are so busy doing nothing that they don't even know what's happening around them. I think that's so important, to slow down and think. I was actually thinking about that yesterday. I realized how important it is to stop, reflect, and think about the experiences we have each day. Writing in my journal really helps me to both think about the experiences I have as well as remember them later. I was thinking how I can do that periodically during my nightly prayers, once a week on Sundays, Once a month on fast sunday, and at least yearly as well during new years or something. If I can consistently do that, it will be easier to be more productive and to not let precious time slip by unused.
Not many people came to church this week. Hopefully it was just because of the rain, even though that's a lame excuse. Our new branch president, Pres. Tsaturyan, is doing a great job. He's about thirty, unmarried, bald, and super nice. This week he began assigning members to clean the church on Saturdays, which will be wonderful. Only two showed up, but that's a start.

Elder King and I had exchanges this week, which was fun. They were really short, but we visited Artur and his family and I thought it went really well. Artur's wife is a devout Armenian Apostalic church member, and didn't like us being there too much, but she at least relaxed by the end and didn't object to us praying with them before we left. I like Artur a lot. He's a painter and is just trying to figure out what this life is about. When I tried to plan up with him again, I felt like that might be all we can meet with them, but I'm hoping we can still teach him. We finally planned up to meet with Pres. Carter and Yasha to have an interview, so after that we should be able to continue to teach him. He's going back to America soon, but I hope we can help him get a firm foundation, as well as his wife. They're a great couple. I had a nice talk with our Relief Society President during their meeting as well. Our finding of new people has slowed down, but we plan to start focusing on the members again, especially part member families. I always say, "the fun never ends," and it really doesn't. With myself and with others, there will always be work to do and something to learn.

I talked to Adam. He's in France for work. I hope he comes back, but I don't think he will. He found a church to visit there, but it's far away so I hope it works out well.

Today we're going to an Exotarium to see exotic animals. It should be fun.

I love you all so much and miss you. talk to you later.

Love,
Elder Bruce Wainwright

9-27-10 Weekly Summary

Weekly summary:
This week went by fast, but it was nice. We met a great new investigator, named Artur. Out of curiosity, Artur decided to enter the church and talked to the District President for a little bit about some questions he had. We planned up with him and met twice with him. He's a skinny guy, gray hair, but has two boys who are 10 and 15. He made it to church, even though I only called a half an hour before-hand to remind him, which is a pretty good sign. He said his wife doesn't care for him meeting with us, since she's a devout Armenian Apastolic member, but he doesn't seem to let that disturb him from coming. He's a smart man, and I hope he can use his curiosity to sincerely pray about this. Not much has changed with our other investigators, but they have potential. Something we're focusing on this week is figuring out what has happened with all the priesthood holders in our branch: deceased, moved, ready to come back, or apostate. We've had some pretty good service opportunities this week. Last monday, our relief society president, Mariam, was doing some remodeling and we were able to help Yasha, our Iranian friend, carry up a bunch of sand bags for the wall. My companion and I haven't done any crazy workouts lately, so we were pretty dead afterwards (as in for two days). It's been a while since I've lifted cement bags. It's all good now, and I got some weights from Elder King (he leaves in a month already), so we can be better prepared for next time. We also got to move a piano down three flights of stairs which was an adventure. I love that kind of service. It was a nice week.