hey errebody

Dear Family and Friends, 

   Not a lotta to report this week. Tuesday we had a good zone meeting. we got out, sat a marshutni van to the metro, rode the metro to the marshutni stop to sit one and ride the hour back to artashat, and then i realized i didnt have my phone. i asked elder chojnacki, who sometimes carries it instead, but i already knew he didnt have it. so there we were with no phone, knowing we couldnt go back to the Shat without it but not quite sure how to locate and get ours. a nice lady let us use her phone to "zangetsnel" meaning "to cause to call"- they call you, then hang up immeduiately not to spend their money, and have you call them back. they do it to missionaries a lot. anyway we zangetsneled the sisters cause theres was the only number we knew and they called president and found out i had left it in his car when he gave us a ride to the meeting that day. so then we had to take a taxi back up to the other side of yerevan to the mission home, then all the way back to artashat. so we got back at night and our taxi driver shafted us for a ton of money. so that was tuesday. wednesday and thursday we did some more service for our members, friday we ended up walking in the rain the whole day and saturday we ended up walking in the mud the whole day. sunday was stake conference but we didnt gather as armenia, instead our ward went to the closest branch in yerevan and we watched the meeting on skype there. skype. people. skype is good but it is not thatttt good. it was like listening to a dying radio through a tunnel. in armenian. and then we watched a video made for eastern europe where elder nelson and some 70s spoke- it was translated by old return missionaries whos accents were TERRIBLE. im not saying i couldve done better, even though im confident by my misssion's end i will be able to. but thats why i dont translate conference. anyway it made me refocus hard on speaking smoothly and trying to get the accent. 

  anyway thats about it. the transfer is thursday, hopefully we'll hear whats up by tomorrow. artashats been tough, it wouldnt be true if i said i was dying to stay here, but i know its a possibility and if i do it will be a good opportunity to recommit and work hard. we'll see what happens. there could be some significant shake ups. i have decided that if i do stay here im gunna throw myself into less active work. i watched The Work of Salvation in english the first time this week and a bishop mentioned that he felt the Lord wasnt going to give them new baptisms until they took care of the ones theyd already been blessed with. thats a huge problem here in armenia- lots of inactives, and lots of church records that dont even have their updated info. 

  thats all i got for this week, only one picture too but its a good one. i wish i had more to write. im still waiting on pics from the fammmmm- alexs halloween ones for sure, and i need to keep seeing my doggies. alex didnt write, the rest of it was good though. sounds like lanies havin fun. ill be jealous of everyone come christmastime, especially cause i wont be allowed to listen to rosie o donnell christmas special (im still working on getting that approved) but it sounds like an awesome time. 

 anyway i love and miss all of you and hope you have a great week. i love being a missionary, i cant imagine life without my mission. i hope you look for and see the blessings that Im confident the Lord is giving us as I serve. shat em sirum zez! tsavd tanem

lolve elder more (yes that was a lol on purpose)

me using a "tatik (grandma) broom" its all they ever use, and it forces you to bend over, so tatiks just end up stuck that way. anyway i had a good time. i think im going to come back to armenia and create a broom company