Hey Everyone!
It's been another great week in Armenia! Just so everyone knows, because of local laws, I'm not able to send any pictures of the people here or mention their names in my emails. I'll probably just use initials or maybe I'll refer to them by NFL quarterbacks. I haven't decided yet. Not too long ago, President Uchtdorf announced that Eastern Europe really needs to focus on the youth in the church. In my area especially, my companion and I have been spending almost all of our time organizing youth activities, YSA events, and doing what we can to strengthen the branch as a whole. When we're not doing that, we go street contacting or do service where we can find it. It's been awesome! We rake A LOT of leaves this time of year. They use homemade brooms over here so I took a picture of one for you guys... pretty funny. This week we've also been able to play a little soccer for our exercise time and it has been awesome. The only problem is I just get way too competitve with the Armenian kids. I'm starting to think that maybe it's not the best idea for me... I definitely do not have The Spirit with me when I'm playing sports. Anyways, everything really is going great! I hope you all have a nice Thanksgiving!
Some Highlights:
• Teaching English class
• Watching Russian Book of Mormon videos
• Playing soccer with the kids
• Having no running water for 2 days
SPIRITUAL THOUGHT
The hardest part of the mission for me so far has been feeling unable to help the people to the extent that I would like to. It's hard because you love them SO MUCH and you want to serve them, but the language barrier is definitely a big obstacle at first. Yesterday night I was especially frustrated after a long day of church meetings. Afterwards, I asked my companion if we could just do SOMETHING that would help me to feel a little useful. So we baked brownies for our neighbors! The only thing is that nobody wanted our brownies. It made me so mad. I don't know why, I just really took this one personal. We went up and down our apartment building, trying to get rid of this plate of brownies. FINALLY, this girl opened the door and after talking for a minute, she smiled and accepted the plate. I CANNOT EXPLAIN TO YOU GUYS the joy that I felt. It was so weird but I really just felt Christ's love in that moment. I felt it so strong. I knew he was happy with my small effort to make a difference. It's just a testimony to me that no matter how down we feel, no matter what is going on in our lives, simple acts of service will always go a long way.
Elder Brennan Larsen
Vratsakan # 5
0051 Yerevan
Armenia
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