Commute, commute, everywhere

Good week. I will fill you in on some of the work in Center. The elders and sisters in Center get a lot of work done, but us in Trachtorny - not as much. The reason for this is we spend about 3-4 hours a day on transport (switching between the two areas). That and there is not too much in Trachtorny being done yet. It will be interesting to see what happens with this experiment. This week we had 13 people at church - 2 actives from Center, 4 missionaries, President and Sister Miner, 2 young girls, and two bobs (babushkas). (parent note: okay, one day later, just did the math. That's 12. Maybe Tanner counted someone twice.)

Center

We are working hard with an investigator named Nikita. His main source of transportation is his unicycle. He has no religious background and so reading and praying is hard for him. Next appointment we will share with him verses from Alma 34 and Ether 4. There are some pretty great verses in those chapters that explain how God feels about us and how He wants us to pray. Hopefully, the words will speak to him and not only make him want to pray, but also build a relationship with the Book of Mormon.

Next is Viktor. He is great and very sincere, but we had an interesting experience with him last time. He came in and brought out all of his research he had been doing. It was about fifty pages long, half of which he himself had written. A lot of his research had to do about genetics, agriculture, and some points in the Book of Mormon that seemed to be contradictory. So we let him share a few things with us, and we actually shed a lot of light on some doctrinal points. For the rest of his research, we told him it was not going to help him know if the book was true or not. It turned into a very good lesson in the end. He spoke about how he is fascinated with the Book of Mormon and how one of the biggest miracles in his life was when he met the missionaries. So in the end we gave him some homework to do. We are hoping that will help him. We also have a media referral we have been trying to get a hold of, but have not been able to yet.

Our other two investigators are not showing a lot of promise right now. We haven't been able to reach them, though we will keep trying. Mostly, just the same situation with Nikita where they don't have a lot of religious background.

Saw a bob racing to the train today. It was scary. I thought she was gonna die. I guess bobs are faster than I figured.

Work outs have been great ever since I got here to Center. I have a bi and tri day twice a week, a back, shoulder, and chest day twice a week, and a leg day twice a week. On all the days, except leg days, I do an ab workout at the beginning. Pretty tough. As far as diet goes, I've done pretty good! I have cut out all snacks. Lots of protein and fruit. The fruit is my snack and the protein is my breakfast. This week all I will be eating is fried brown rice with chickpeas, carrots, onions, eggs, and soy sauce. Question, how much do I have to worry about my sodium intake from that? Is that a pretty good meal? That is one thing that has been great about this apartment, it has a lot of workout equipment!

Anyways, yeah the eating healthy thing has been great for me. I haven't been having stomach problems anymore. The workouts take about 45-60 minutes, though I just take it out of breakfast and have some fruit that I have precut and some protein.

It has been so hot this week!!!! haha I have been dying, and it is only supposed to get hotter!

Love you guys!!