Week 36  Trekking Poles and Energy Drinks

First week of training done! Talk about a week! A lot of things happened so let's get into it. Monday we kicked it off by going to the bazaar (gigantic maze of shops) to get some stuff for my trainee. We ended up getting lost multiple times...yeah still trying to figure out that area. What was cool was that day we went to go get pens at this one shop and the guy asked us about our badges so we talked to him for a bit, in my very broken Georgian it seemed at times. During that conversation some guy came in and recognized our badges, turns out the guy met some missionaries in the past! Anyway at the end of shopping, the store owner gave me the pens I wanted to buy for free which was so nice! We then had a lunch with all the missionaries. Tuesday was a miracle! So after all our meetings we went to go stop by a member that Sister Arutyunova and I had been trying to meet all last transfer but they were never home due to her work schedule. Well, that day they were home! We talked to them for a bit, and let me say it was a little bit of a struggle to talk most of the lesson...with understanding only a good 50% of what was said, but they said we could return back, so we good. Wednesday was straight finding. We did a Book of Mormon stand for the first time so that was interesting. (They don't have printed Book of Mormons yet. Its just printed copies of portions or Russian Book of Mormons) We had an old guy come up to us to tell us to get some shade and to get married. Said we should get married soon or we will wake up and be his age👍. Thursday we planned and tried to hit a member that's a little far out. According to her neighbors she's either not been home for a year or won't be back in a year...couldn't quite understand. Friday we had a meeting with M for the first time in a while. She has been having a lot life problems recently and because of her situation she's been pretty scared, totally understandable. But she is doing better now. That day we actually got to Skype her manager, he didn't quite understand my English so he thinks I'm from Canada not California. Saturday we popped in on another member who was also home! Gave her some treats and told her about the branch conference that was coming up. Saturday was also the day we cleaned the church, so that was fun and exhausting. Sunday was a both good and a little bit of a downer. So we went to Relief Society and we had a Georgian teaching which is great until Mz(the churches translator) looked at me and said how about you translate, you wanted the practice. My stomach literally dropped. So I sat next to the two Americans and tried to listen...yeah I understood like 30% and literally could not translate. Mz had to take over...still my problem is that I can speak way more than I can understand...luckily the older sisters said they couldn't even understand well since she was speaking too quiet, so that helped a little. Either way the moment is over. That night we saw M and Y. They are doing great. Met her manager again who said that he's actually been to Salt Lake City and really respects the church. He also told us to come to the country he lives in. So yet another country added to the bucket list. That was basically the week. We are hiking to a tower today so that will be fun. This week is a Branch Conference. We are having the president over all Europe missions giving some seminars so that will be cool. They even rented out the Marriott Conference Center. So fun things ahead.

Spiritual thought: I have seen this week how the Lord will always provide a way to accomplish his work or tasks per say. I feel that my Georgian is still not where I want it to be bee, it's a little difficult since I just haven't had a lot of every day practice, but I've seen this week the gift of tongues working. I have had confidence when I speak, now I still don't understand what they would say sometimes, but I had the confidence to speak and go with what I did understand. So when God gives you a mountain to climb he will give you trekking poles and all the energy drinks you need to get up it.

Well that was the week...don't have a lot of pictures sorry! Til next week!

-და ჯენსენი