Apartment Hunting, Good 'ol 6:00-9:00

Hello again, 

This has seemed to be the fastest week of my mission. If it weren't for the insane amount of planning we do as missionaries, I wouldn't even be sure where all the time went. We've been on and off the phone with the realtor all week trying to find a new apartment for the other elders. Right now there are not missionaries living down town in the center here, so that's where we're looking to find one. There are just so many more people over there than in my area that it's a shame not to have proselyting missionaries in the area. You'd think it's pretty straight forward to find an apartment right? Well we haven't got much going in our favor as the vast majority of land owners reject us because we are Foreign, American, young guys, missionaries, or all of the above. We also have a pretty solid contract that we use throughout the mission and it intimidates people as well. We almost signed on an apartment and the land lady kept repeating to herself, "Good apartment, good boys, BAD contract". It fell through. So hopefully this next week we can get them a good one and be done it it all! 

We've had our fare share of proselyting time as well though. We are finding quite a few really promising people, but we are just struggling to get follow up meetings with any of them. So until we get a fresh pool of investigators, we'll continue to find more and more potential investigators through the fail-proof back up plan of street contacting. If I had a dollar for every night from 6-9 pmI've spent "finding through our own efforts"... I'd have quite a few dollars. Elder Yungfleish and I go hard though and have fun doing it. The effectiveness of street contacting depends solely on the companionship and their attitude, faith and willingness to just go out and do it. A favorite sin of some missionaries is to be good at puttering around, or finding reasons to have to do something resulting in things being done for the wrong reasons. It all goes back to faith, desire, and consecration. 

Any time not spent looking for apartments, or on the streets was spent sorting through and organizing the branch information, and meeting with members. Member meetings have proved to be some of the most rewarding lessons on my mission. Members can always "get something" out of a lesson with the missionaries. Especially here where the church is so fragile still, they really need to be strengthened and "Nourished by the good word of God" more frequently. Right now, the Barnaul branch is on a two hour block with the thrid hour being different every Sunday of the month being different. 1st-break the fast, 2nd-Elder's Quorum and Relief Society, 3rd and 4th-stopping by and visiting Less Active members. Would you believe it that the 1st sunday has a lot of participation for the 3rd hour, but when it comes to the 3rd and 4th Sundays, interest drops significantly among the members to participate in the last hour of church. President Porter has said that only when the branches are ready, will the Lord bring people in large numbers into or back into activity. One of our projects is getting the members more excited about serving and giving one to another. 

That's about all I've got for you this week. Not a ton of pictures either, but here ya go!

Take care!

Elder Moore

Pictures:

Gotta love the internet cafe.

Smelly Russian kids yelling at their computers. Video games are dumb. 

Here's a view from our kitchen window.















Hey all you Ironwoodians... Too bad we're not from Hurley WI, or I'd get one of these guys for all of you to wear when anyone plays against the Devils. :P