Bryce Moore's Blog, page 24

Tomas Update: Week 23 in Trenčín

Ahojte!

I will save you all the spiel about it being a crazy week, I think they are just all that now… So in the grand scheme of things pretty normal??

Tuesday we went and moved a bunch of stuff for our friends at the CPR , had a killer poppy seed cake, taught a lesson to two guys from Košice, and I played one of the new Doctor Who decks at magic night (and absolutely slammed everyone, it’s a great precon). 

Wednesday we taught a lesson in Ukrainian and then got to go to the cemetery and visit my grandfather’s grave with my grandmother for the Slovak holiday Všech svätý (all saints). Traditionally everyone goes out and lights candles at the graves of relatives and the whole cemetery is lit up and beautiful. It was so wild that I am here in Slovakia and able to go (I’ve never been here in the fall, we haven’t had the time every year) and of all places I was in Trenčín. Since last year I was at the MTC, this was literally my one shot and I made it to an actual family grave and got to participate fully in the holiday. I’m so thankful that I can be out here and be a part of my own culture!! It was definitely a very special day that I’ll remember and treasure. I never knew my grandfather (Svetozár Križan) so for the time being this is the best I could have done. 

Thursday we were in Žilina for the day, and about a year after I once was there with noftle, we were again together in Žilina. It was a good day and we had some really good conversations with others and with each other, and a nice reminder of how far I’ve come. It’s crazy that I’m about to hit a year in country now that it’s November. I try not to think about it too much. 

Friday’s standout moment was a full Ukrainian lesson without anyone there to help us – we managed!! I don’t know how I understood what I did but we totally did it. Our friend Roman was speaking like 75% Ukrainian, 20% Slovak, and 5% Russian so by all rights I should have had such a hard time (and don’t get me wrong I did, I couldn’t just pick a language and focus) but we did it and it went well!! He also showed us his stereo system. Two Americans, in Slovakia, in a Ukrainian man’s apartment, listening to American music on a japanese cd player and speakers. Who woulda thought?

Saturday we had a ton of lessons as usual, top one was teaching Kevin’s friend from work who is just so ready. He has already been reading since they talk about it at work together and we’ve met him once and he was on alma 6 already. Also we met out nice older friend Peter for the second time as well, he’s a really cool chill find too. 

Then Sunday we actually had someone come to church!! And it wasn’t any of the people we were teaching but instead an older person who used to come pre COVID who we had called and invited. This week we hit literally all of our goals, for the first time ever, and all of them were stretches. I’ve been so tired this week but also so happy, it’s a weird feeling! I’m excited for another week, the area has been blowing up and we are just seeing so many miracles. I’m so happy to see the growth in Trenčín specifically in the branch I’ve spent so long in! It’s been a great week. 

Photos as usual:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GHgGUxN4X6y5nvio8

Hope you’re well and getting ready to ski!

S láskou,

Starší Cundick 

Video Game Review: Baldur’s Gate 3

Sometimes I debate whether or not I should review video games. In the first place, I almost always only buy games that are very big. They’re bound to be bestsellers, and most people who are into gaming will have no doubt already heard all about those games. Secondly, by the time I’ve played enough of a game to really feel like I can give it a review, it’s months after it’s been released, and everyone who really wanted to get it, probably already got it.

So what’s the point?

Well, the point is the same as any of my other reviews, I suppose. Some of it’s just to document what I’ve been up to. Some of it is because I’m typically wrong about a lot of the things I make assumptions about. Just because a game is big on my radar doesn’t mean it’s made even a blip on everyone else’s. These days, with so many different movies and games and shows coming out all the time, it can be very (very) easy for something to just fly under the radar.

Which is why I’m still writing a review of Baldur’s Gate 3.

I played the other 2 Baldur’s Gate games, back in the day. I enjoyed them both, but I wasn’t a huge fan of how fiddly they felt to me. They’re basically tactical RPGs, where you have to tell each member of your party what to do individually. So to do anything, there was a lot of clicking involved. I never ended up finishing either of them, though I still own them. (Might have to fix that at some point, now that I’ve got a better feel for the game.) Still, I heard great things about the third installment, and then the great things just didn’t stop coming, so I broke down and bought it.

Weeks later, I’m about 35 hours into the game. (Side note: I am constantly amazed at just how much time other people seem to have. I’ll see people write online about being 200+ hours into this game already. It’s been out for 3 months. 13 weeks. That means people were playing it at least 15 hours a week straight. I suppose once I break it down like that, it doesn’t seem too outlandish, but still. It takes me forever to make much progress in a game.) I’m about 2/3rds of the way through, I think? Far enough to feel like I have a good handle on the game.

Is it as good as everyone said it is?

Pretty much yeah. The graphics are good and the gameplay is straightforward, but what really sets the game apart from others is just how many options there are in the storyline. In many games with any sort of a real story, you’re presented with only a few things you can really do. Dialogue options don’t make much of a difference. The story doesn’t change much based on your actions.

In this game, you can do just about anything. For example, you come across a druid settlement that’s under attack from goblins. In a typical game, you’d do the obvious: save the settlement. In this one, you can just ignore it altogether, or you can save it, or you can team up with the goblins. You can also save it just to plunder it yourself after the goblins are dealt with. (Or turn traitor on the goblins later on.) Main characters can die, and the story moves on without them ever coming back. You’re presented with many choices where there’s no obvious “right” answer. So you do your best, hoping you’re right and that you don’t screw everything up.

Really, it’s about as close to an interactive storytelling experience as you can get, replicating the feel of a real life RPG session remarkably well. (Except without the whole “playing with other real people” thing, though you can do that too in the game. I just haven’t, because time.)

For a person who’s really into narrative, this game is a dream. It’s a blast to see just how you can work your way through any number of predicaments, using the tools available to you. You can really outthink your opponents. You can win through stealth or brute force. I’ve tried to write some choose your own adventure-style books before. Any single branching causes a ton more work, so I realize just how astonishing the amount of effort that went into this game was. Incredible.

Is this game for you? Well, you probably already know the answer, based on the review. It’s not a shoot ’em up, heart pounding action sort of a game. It feels a lot like reading a book, just with cut scenes. If that sounds up your alley, then this is the game for you. Personally, it’s a 10/10 at the moment. I can’t officially give it that, since I haven’t finished it even once, but I’ll be surprised if it dips lower. It’s really well done. Check it out.

Maine Elections 2023: A Mishmash of Ballot Measures

Elections are coming up on Tuesday, and I took some time today to try and wrap my head around what I’ll see on the ballot. It ended up being a fair bit more complicated than I’d hoped. There are 8 different ballot measures this time around, and most of them are fairly complicated, with implications I don’t know that I’m fully capable of completely understanding.

This is not good.

I elect representatives to government so that they can take the time to understand the ins and outs of these issues and then vote accordingly. In multiple instances on this year’s ballot, that happened, but people didn’t like the outcome. In general, I’m not a fan of doing an end run around the political process if you don’t get things the way you want. However, it feels like more and more often, that’s what’s being done in this state. We have issues that just keep coming up again and again (and again), and there’s never any real closure to it. People just keep throwing up ballot initiatives to try and get a different result.

And in my book, the general populace will have a hard time understanding the ins and outs of most of these measures. They come with implications that will be far reaching, and they all seem to be complex enough to the point that the amount of effort people are making to simplify them feels disingenuous. In some instances, it feels like a splashy feel good wrapping that’s surrounding an “I have no real idea what this will actually do” interior.

I am not sure how I’m going to vote still, but at the moment, I’m inclined to vote against most of these, for the simple reason that the more these succeed, the more of them we’ll see. I do believe there have been instances when Maine’s government has willfully ignored the will of the people. Times when laws have been slow to be enforced, or just ignored altogether. The number of efforts it took to get ranked choice voting actually used is a prime example. So while I do think there are times when these ballot measures are needed, I feel like using them too much will be bad for our state overall.

What’s the point of even electing representatives if we end up deciding everything by a popular vote? Especially when those votes are around issues that are really complex and hard to understand? It feels like we’d be devolving to voting for class president, where it doesn’t matter so much what the person you vote for believes, but rather how much you like that person.

No thanks.

Usually I’d go over the different measures here on my blog and then advocate for what I think should happen with each. I don’t feel capable of doing that justice this time around, so I’ll just link to a source where you can find all that information out for yourself. Ballotpedia does a great job of compiling all the information about each.

Once More unto the Braces Breach

Tomas and Daniela both underwent years of braces work. Now it’s MC’s turn. She actually had been looking forward to getting braces for the first while, mainly because she got to see her older siblings do it, and anything your older siblings are doing must (by definition) be cooler than whatever it is you’re doing. (Note: this only lasts for a certain amount of time. There comes a time when you no longer really judge how you’re doing by how your older siblings are doing. Or is that just me?)

As we came closer to the date of actually getting the braces put on, however, that enthusiasm began to dwindle. The thought of what they were actually going to be doing to her mouth overcame any cool factor, I suppose. Monday, she finally had her first visit. The braces went on, along with this Hyrax thing that slowly expands the roof of your mouth. I actually think this started as some sort of a torture device in the middle ages, but it turned out to have (some) beneficial aspects as well. Like penicillin, right? (I mean, they install this framework on your upper teeth, with a central hub on the roof of your mouth. And then each day, you turn a key and the framework expands. That sounds terrifying to me. But I’ve got a thing about dentists and teeth.)

Monday evening went about as expected. Her teeth were hurting a lot, and she realized she had two years and change of this in store. (I think? Denisa’s the Master of Braces in the household.) But she soldiered through, and things improved a bit the next day once her friends saw she had braces. (I’m not sure why. Friends help in many strange and unexpected ways in life.) Now, the biggest problems are relearning to talk with all that metal in her mouth, pain when the Hyrax has to be turned, and the inability to eat certain foods. (Getting braces right before Halloween is, admittedly, a bummer.)

Denisa and I are just looking forward to the day when the braces saga is over. Granted, this is a much bigger lift for Denisa than for me, as she’s usually been the one to take the kids to the appointments. But braces are also expensive, and it’ll be nice at some point to not have to pay those monthly bills anymore. (Kids are expensive, people. But braces are a worthwhile expense, in my book.)

Everything Changes: Halloween Edition

Another Halloween is in the record books. Last night we went out trick or treating with some friends, though it was a much smaller group than it’s been in the past. MC had a great time. She’s all about the candy, naturally, and this year she made her costume herself. She wanted to be a vampire, so she made some wings out of cardboard and attached Lego dragon wings to a headband. Add a red top and black pants, and she was good to go.

We’ve never done a ton of houses trick or treating. We don’t really live in a part of the country that has a lot of dense housing locations. So we go out for about an hour and come back when it gets too cold. (It was 32 last night. Pretty chilly considering it was 75 just a few days ago.) But that’s always more than enough for our kids to be happy. (Well, “kid” at this point. Daniela was at an orchestra rehearsal, and Tomas is of course in Slovakia.)

After we were done, we came home and . . . did nothing. MC arranged her candy. I watched a little Nightmare on Elm Street 2. But other than that, it was like any other evening. This is a far cry from most other Halloweens we’ve had since we moved to Maine. I think that other than the year Covid ruined everything, there’s always been a Halloween party to go to after trick or treating. For the first few years, it was at friends’ houses, and then for the next long while, it was at our house. I looked forward to it each year. Trick or treating is fun, but it’s dark, and you can’t really talk to people easily, since you’re all strung out across sidewalks. Having a party afterward lets people actually see each others’ costumes, and it always made it feel like more of a celebration.

So why didn’t we do another party this year? Because . . . people get older. Kids, specifically. For years and years, we had three kids who all loved trick or treating, and we had friends with kids the same age. Now, we’re down to a single trick or treater, and so it just feels like much less of a justification to have a full blown party, as we don’t really have enough of a core group to make it click. We would totally go to someone else’s Halloween party if one were happening, but it doesn’t feel like we’ve got a good enough reason to have one at our house, if that makes sense.

It’s not all bad, of course. Not having a party meant that we didn’t have to clean up the house, so that’s a plus. And some of this just comes with the territory of a family moving from one stage to another. As I’ve blogged about before, however, this isn’t really a stage I ever pictured clearly in my head. For the first long while of my life, I was in the family I grew up in. Then I was in the family I made with Denisa. Now that family is moving onto the next stage, and I still get bummed out about it from time to time, often when I don’t expect it.

Last night was another such time. Nothing soul crushing or anything, but definitely a bit of a downer on what used to be a highlight of the year. So the contrast made it feel that much worse.

Normally I’d try to end this on a bright note, but . . . I’m drawing a blank for now. I’m just trying to focus on still enjoying the holiday through MC’s eyes. It’s fun to see everyone post pictures of costumes. I still like the holiday, but it’s going to take some rebalancing in the future to find a new normal.

Tomas Update: Week 22 in Trenčín

Ahojte! 

Yet again a wild week, it seems like it never calms down out here. 

Tuesday we raked a ton of leaves for the local family center, and for once I actually enjoyed it! When you don’t have your own yard you end up missing that stuff I guess. Then the other big thing was Magic night, pretty average although now we have like 10 people coming which is cool, it’s grown a lot. 

Wednesday we spoke a ridiculous amount of Ukranian, we had like 3 Ukrainian lessons and a class, it was crazy. I barely spoke any Slovak that day but I made a bunch of progress, I’ll get there someday. Our member Ruslan ks so good at teaching (I bet the degree helps) so we are really moving. 

Thursday we headed out to Žilina for district council, then back for a lesson with another Ukrainian man (only our 2nd in person!) with guest appearances by the Jihlava elders, who were in for police work the following day (nothing illegal, they just need to get some paperwork done for residency cards). One of them is a native Ukranian so he saved the lesson, Roman ks pretty hard to understand. We also went and got a bunch of papers notarized which was fine I guess?

Friday we got the work done (in Žilina again), then trained back to Trenčín and quickly packed, then trained to Bratislava and met up with Kevin and our branch prezident, and then drove to Prague with a quick pit stop at a Czech KFC. In Prague we swapped companions with the Mladá Boleslav elders and I sent off Theodosis for a day with yet another native Ukranian elder, and me and elder Osborne continued in the car to Frieberg, ending the night in some random German penzión not too far from the temple. That was super weird, we couldn’t understand anyone and we were just kinda in Germany, which literally isn’t even our mission anymore. It was definitely cool though. 

Saturday morning we ate a German breakfast, then headed to the temple with everyone and did some baptisms, which was the first time for many new members that were there from across the whole mission (there were like 30 of us total). I got to practice my Czech since the words haven’t been translated into Slovak yet somehow, so now I have a bit of an ř/ě. Very new experience. We then got out, took some pictures, and stopped by the Frieberg town square on our way home (went to blava, then trained to Trenčín) and my wallet is now considerably lighter after all the trains this week. Overall 10/10 experience, you appreciate it a lot more when you have to travel so far. I will definitely appreciate being closer to a temple back home. 

Then Sunday we had a very quiet day at church, most of our members were in other branches for the day, and then had a nice quiet afternoon which was good because both of us were tired. I don’t have much else to say really. 

Monday we went and visited Vrátna dolina again, although we spent the entire hike inside a cloud so there was 0 view of the fall colors. It was fun though! That’s still my favorite hike I’ve ever done out here and I will continue to return. 

Pictures:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GHgGUxN4X6y5nvio8

I’m doing so well out here, the work is moving really fast and we are just doing so much every day! I’m sure I missed out on a lot that happened this week but that’s the general gist of it. Hope you’re all well and safe. 

S láskou,

Starší Cundick 

How are We Doing?

Two days into this search for the mass shooter in Maine, and I’ve had a number of people reach out to see how my family and I are faring. Overall, it’s been fairly surreal, and this is for people who are an hour away from where this happened. You watch these events unfold in other states, and you think you understand how horrific it is, but I’ve already learned that the closer you are to where something like this happened, the more awful it becomes. I’ve got friends in Lewiston, and I see them posting social media updates. They’re now in their second day of “shelter in place.” I’ve got to think it’s got serious pandemic vibes. I feel so bad for them and for all the families and people directly affected by this.

What sort of an impact has it been having on me and mine? Yesterday’s blog post managed to get a fair bit of my frustration out, but that can only go so far. The girls’ school was canceled yesterday and today. They’ve been home trying to make the best of things. Thankfully, the university also canceled classes, so Denisa has been with them. (In an effort to keep things as normal feeling on campus as possible, offices have been open, though all buildings have been shut down to keycard access only, meaning you have to be a university student or staff person to be able to enter them. The library was quite quiet yesterday. Today, it’s practically empty. There was 1 person in here who wasn’t a staff member, last I checked. I think many/most students have gone home for the weekend, or traveled elsewhere.)

The biggest issue is that the attacker still hasn’t been found. He’s an outdoorsman, and there are many places in Maine where it would be easy for a person to disappear. (The North Pond Hermit managed to evade detection for 27 years, stealing from local cabins and remaining a mystery until technology (via motion sensor cameras) caught up with him. He did all this a half hour from my house. He wasn’t a particularly skilled outdoorsman. Just resourceful and committed.) While the search has mainly been focused toward the southern part of the state, if he really wants to stay hidden, he’d be better served going north, to less populated areas. North is where I live. So . . . yeah. Am I actively worried an armed and dangerous mass-murderer might be stalking through the woods around me? Not to the point that I’m huddling under the covers in fear, but definitely to the point that “sending someone out to walk the dog” is something that makes you think twice.

You walk around campus, and you hear many small conversations of people wondering where he might be. That’s a constant mental load that isn’t exactly conducive to a restful mind. That’s the sort of thing that doesn’t really connect with you if you’re farther away from the attack.

Yesterday, MC was in tears, worried about what might happen. Now, she’s more at the “keeps checking to see where they’re searching for the bad guy” level. “Is he coming toward us?” “Have they caught him?” “Are we safe?”

Try talking to your kids about something like that. It’s worse than you’d think.

Generally, we’re doing our best to just live normally. Several Halloween festivities have been canceled. I don’t know what it will actually be like next week. I really hope they find this guy soon, though even if they do, I imagine it’ll take a while for me to stop thinking about it. (Sort of like how you don’t think of car accidents that much until you’re in one. Then when you are, you’re constantly seeing the potential for another accident everywhere you look.)

So how are we doing? On a scale from 1-10, with 10 being super and 1 being terrible, I’d say we’re around a 4 today.

Thank Goodness for Guns

Man. Am I happy we have as many guns in this country as we do. I mean, I used to be really against them, posting time after time about how much I wished our country would enact stricter gun laws. But now that I’ve had to deal with a mass shooting less than an hour from my house, I’ve really come to see the light.

I mean, can you imagine what it would be like if we at least tried to make some stricter rules around firearms? Gun instructors might not be able to get access to the weapons they need if they have a mental breakdown! We all know how many bad guys out there have guns. If we had didn’t have a strongly defended 2nd Amendment, then bad people might start shooting innocent people at bowling alleys and bars. I think we can all agree that would be horrible. Clearly the only way to keep anything like that happening is to arm as many of our citizens as possible. In a country that has little regard for mental healthcare, it’s likely there will be a lot of people out there who can get hold of guns when they shouldn’t have them. The only solution to this is to make sure everyone’s got access to them easily.

And think of the wonderful things we get because of our long, proud history of guns in this country. Gun nuts can collect the latest and greatest weapons and display them proudly as they wait for the zombie apocalypse. Boy will those silly libs feel dumb when the living dead are knocking down their doors and all they’ve got to defend themselves is a baseball bat. I don’t know how hunters out there would cope if they didn’t have semi-automatic rifles that they can easily convert to fully automatic. I mean, have you seen deer? Those things are wicked fast. How’s a good hunter supposed to hit one and bring home some tasty venison, if they can’t fire at least a thousand rounds a second? And you need high capacity handguns as well, because you never know when you might have a chance to shoot a deer. Those things are everywhere these days!

Look. The simple fact is that over 200 years ago, citizens needed access to ball and powder muskets so they could defend themselves against the British. It’s the thing that made us the great nation we are today. Don’t people know that the British are still around? That they’re more heavily armed than ever? What would we do if John Oliver suddenly attacked America? We’d all turn to the people who own large arsenals of every kind of lethal weapon known to man, because we make it a point of pride that people can have as many guns as possible here in the good ol’ U S of A.

Besides, we need to keep the focus where it needs to be: on keeping dangerous books out of the hands of the general populace. Someone might look up from the explicit porn they’re watching on their phones for long enough to read something or see a drawing some pearl-clutching person is upset about. Or maybe someone who’s watching one of the countless TV-MA shows freely available on pretty much every streaming platform would get sullied by reading a book about a gay penguin. That’s the sort of danger we need to protect people from.

We’re a free country, people. And we need to prove that to the rest of the world by showing we believe in (the right sort of) freedom so much, we make sure our people are free to pack heat no matter what. Thank goodness the Republicans have been hard at work trying to make gun laws even looser. After I had to say goodbye to my 10 year-old daughter this morning as she was in tears, worried because I work in a public building and might get shot today, I thought to myself on the drive to work, “Thank goodness she’s got that experience. That’s not the sort of thing you get in a country with reasonable gun laws, and I personally wouldn’t want to be deprived of that memory.”

Maybe I’ll move to Florida. I hear DeSantis is doing his darnedest to make sure there are even more guns there. People can concealed carry there without a permit. I sure would feel safer if I knew every single person around me on the street might be able to whip out a gun and shoot me if I looked at them wrong.

So I’m looking forward to hearing all the messages now about how this is the “price of freedom” and about how we don’t dare do a single thing to try and make access to guns harder in this country. I know firsthand how thrilling it is to not be able to sleep because there’s an active manhunt for a mass murderer. How much fun it can be to scramble around on the internet, desperately trying to find out if he’s been caught, and if he hasn’t, which way he’s been fleeing. If he’d gone north instead of south, he’d have ended up in my hometown. Boy howdy would that have been a good time. Feeling helpless and afraid on a Wednesday night? Sign me up again! Last night, I could literally feel the thoughts and prayers making my entire corner of the country a better place.

Thank goodness for guns.

On Jack-in-the-Box Slasher Movies

I mentioned last week that I’ve been making my way through horror mainstays. At this point, I’ve now seen the first three Friday the 13th movies, and despite my initial thought that I’d watch them all . . .

There’s no way I’m going to.

Perhaps if the movies were anything other than what they are, I would give them a shot, but in practice, watching them so closely together, the formula becomes blatantly clear. These aren’t films. They’re 90 minute jack-in-the-box games. The characters have absolutely no real way to do anything about their plights, typically because they have no idea they’re in trouble in the first place. Instead, we follow them around, one by one, knowing they’re in danger even though they don’t. And then we wait (and wait) for them to be attacked in some ((hopefully) new, as yet unseen manner. Once they’re dead, Jason moves on to the next victim.

This continues until we’re down to one last victim (a girl), who also doesn’t really have anything special about her other than she’s not dead yet. This is where the bad guy’s string of good luck ends, and he meets his demise. (Or does he?)

That’s it. Or at least, that’s all I’ve seen from this franchise so far. (I’m trying Nightmare on Elm Street next). With this little in the way of plot, I don”t see any need to actually continue onward. For one thing, I don’t enjoy them at all. Watching a series of decapitations and impalings of unsuspecting dupes just isn’t a story. I get that a lot of the entertainment likely comes from the ick factor, but I don’t really need to see more of that in this format. I like movies with more . . . depth? Characters who actually can be resourceful. Whose choices matter.

On a parting note, I was also disappointed in Jason in general. I’d never seen one of the films, but somehow in my head he was much more dangerous. The Jason we see is lumbering and doesn’t appear to be all that bright. I see no evidence that he’s particularly good at killing random campers. He just happens to always be in the right place at the right time. (And he attacks people who have absolutely no idea how to defend themselves at all. If I ever get jumped by a hockey mask wearing fiend, and I manage to hit him in the head and knock him to the ground, I’m going to keep hitting until he’s not getting up ever again.)

Anyway. If anyone has any words to defend the franchise, I’m open to hearing them. Maybe it gets different later on? But for now, I’m moving on.

Tomas Update: Week 21 in Trenčín

Ahojte!

I’m alive! Just got a lot going on. Things have been veru wacky out here and I end everu day just feeling very tired, but happy and fulfilled. I’m not going to get into specifics too much this week, but here’s some cool stuff that’s happened:

-spoke some very broken Ukrainian on the street, managed to get a point across

-met and taught a Catholic priest (he was really cool)

-got stuck leading a VERY drunk Czech man to the station, told a wild story about sleeping in a construction site instead of the penzión he rented. Weird guy

-taught 3 guys at a bar because they invited us to sit with them as we walked by, and consequently got into a staring contest with a 4th as he asked me if I’ve ever killed anyone (I haven’t) since he misheard and thought we decided they needed some Jesus and didn’t agree. When he found out we were invited and also not Jehovah’s witnesses, he calmed down a lot

-taught like 5 lessons on the phone, all of them unplanned because we were just tryin to see how our friends are doin

-started taking Ukrainian lessons fr.our epic member Ruslan (he is from Mariupol) who has a DEGREE in teaching ukrainian, he literally materialized a month and a half ago when me and Goodare were at the church at a weird time, my man didn’t even know the church was here

-had authentic Ukrainian borscht and listened to Ukranian music at Ruslan’s house

-worked literally the hardest I’ve ever worked

-found 2 people in one week! First time I’ve ever done that

-cleaned out a river for zone conference

-bought a coconut (it was 1 euro)

-finished crocheting a blanket

-signed up to volunteer to make wreathes with our family center friends

-20 members at a hike that Kevin planned!

-discovered Hershey’s chocolate is actually as bad as mom says when you get used to European chocolate

-sewed 3 more ties

It has been very very tiring but also super fun! The work here is picking up so fast I can’t even believe it. It’s already been a wild transfer, and k don’t doubt it will continue to get even crazier. Sorry for not writing! I promise y’all will get a regular one with all of the other, slightly less wacky things next week. The trees here are nice, I guess, but Maine still wins. Sorry Slovakia! Although the castles make up for it. 

Photos (might take me a bit to add):

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GHgGUxN4X6y5nvio8

Čau!

S láskou,

Starší Cundick