Well my quick email yesterday kinda gave it away but i doubt anyone is actually able to keep a mental picture of where i am. anyway i've moved north! Im going from down near the iran (or is it iraq? i dont remember) border up to Gggggggyumri (theres only one G, but it sounds awesome when you build it up) its pronounced gyoomree. i was bummed to leave artashat. its a great ward with good members, but we really didnt get too much done so i wanted to stay and have another go. plus i lovedd that district. but now im north. its super different. Charentsavan was tiny, and Artashat was super simply laid out, so i had no trouble getting used to where everything was. but gyumris the biggest city after yerevan, and we live like a 45 min walk from the church. theres vans, but im always standing on them so i cant see out the windows. any the city isnt grid like or anything. so im still pretty lost. its DANG COLD. and only getting worse, snow hasnt come yet but itll come by the feet. no more white shirt days. its sweater and coat every time. im serving with elder christensen, who i was around in hrazdan during my training. we served together a bit cause our companions were the zone leaders. he was super quiet and wouldnt say anything back then. he's grown a lot since, but he's still not one to take over. so i have to make sure i dont dominate everything like i tend to. hes been here 6 months already, and he looves the place and knows it super well so i just follow him around and we do alright.
the main bummer thing about gyumri is its isolated. we're an hour away from the other 6 missionaries in our zone (we have 6 here in our district) and we dont have a senior couple close by like almost everyone else. no one comes to visit- zone meetings are in vanadzor, and thats the city on the way to georgia so anytime pres goes north thats where he goes. so its kinda like being back in Char. its funny, i wasnt happy to be isolated when i was in Char, but then i got out of my corner and realized i wanted to go back. but then i got used to it and loved it and now i dont want to go back to isolation.
so basically with that in mind and my new district, not feeling great about how i left artashat, and not wanting to move again and start over, i wasnt super excited to move. but i realized i was focused on all the wrong things, namely myself. so i decided to cut that out and go back to work. thats why i was happy in Char in the first place anyway, cause i was left to my work. so i just need to get back to working as hard as i can and ill be all smiles again. i hope i can. im confident i can.
we have a great branch here thats super close and really wants to become a ward. branch pres is awesome, he basically got back from serving a mission and then took everything over. i think hes 26, but he does a great job. he said the members are awesome, they just arent that into doing missionary work. and thats been a big focus of all our meetings as missionaries lately, so elder christensen and i are gunna get to it with the members. the church is super beautiful. and we have two investigators that are great potential.
so yeah, basically this week was a fair amount of introspection and realizing that everything else can wait and take its place, that the only thing i really want to do and will actually make me happy is missionary work. id just gotten away from that because the work wasnt going well at all. but i wasnt putting my all in anyway. so things are gunna change, and baptisms are going to follow. i can feel it in my bones.
i love you all soo soo much. my interactions with the armenians and with my other missionaries too just make me so grateful for the family i have. we'll be talking soon enough! basically ill be spending an hour instructing you all how to say armenian words without sounding like a fool. i dont want to come back and hear "so how was ararat" (with hard As, not long ones, its hard to explain, but it makes me laugh every time. ) everyone sounds like theyre doing good. good to see all the pictures, i specifically wanted the ones from alexs spirit week though. so send me those!
kisses
Elder Moore
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