Some Guesses and Some Gratitude

November 23, 2020

გამარჯობა მეგობრებო,

We're still here in Georgia waiting for something to change. While we've been busy for a big positive change to occur, we have had a mix of developments. The size and quality of these changes vary, so I'll let you all form your own opinions on them. Feel free to send some clarifying questions if you feel I didn't give enough information for you to form an opinion.

We are back in Stage 0 meaning we cannot meet with anyone in person. We are basically back where we were in March/April-ish, BUT with some important differences. 1) There are only three of us. 2) We only have two apartments to worry about. 3) We have a lot more structure to work with in terms of missionary work, Facebook being the biggest. We are continuing to meet with President Alex for language tutoring, but with some extreme social distancing. Other than that, our number of meetings has severely decreased because people just don't like meeting with the missionaries over video. In-person is absolutely superior I guess.

We also put up some decorations for Christmas. We have a lot more than I had last year, and it really just brightens up the apartment and brightens our spirits. Christmas music has also been in the background a lot lately. One more bit of positivity.

Elections here in Georgia caused some unrest. Just about everyone we talked to, for weeks, was really upset. Because there was talk of fraud going around in both the state of Georgia and over here, we saw some videos of people confusing the population of the country with the state and being worried about massive fraud. ABC also used footage of a voting station here in Georgia when talking about the race in the state. Lots of confusion. I think we should just call this country Sakartvelo. It would make it easier for everyone.

In speaking with the mission leadership, we have some guesses for when missionaries will be coming back to Georgia. The Area Presidency thinks between January and March (there is literally no way). President Picard thinks June. Well, there is a bit of a time discrepancy there. President Picard is also considering bringing us down to Armenia until new missionaries come back (the current possibility of this is about 1%). Now, if you hear about these possibilities for the first time from the leadership in Armenia, you might be compelled to be pretty upset and worried and sad. Unfortunately, this was the reaction of my companions. Elders Springer and Herr did not consider either of these things to be realistic possibilities. I, however, did count these to be possible. Now that someone said them out loud, it makes it more real, but having the idea in my head for months made it a lot easier to not be devastatingly upset. I've just had more time to consider the positives and negatives of the situations. I have more guesses for those possible futures. If I go the rest of my mission with no new missionaries, I'll be fine. I've been considering it for months. As time goes on it is just more and more realistic. We have contact with the Elders and Sisters that will be coming. I may not meet them on their missions, but I can still answer questions. I can still organize the resources for them to use, both language and otherwise, for when they get here. I'll do what I can with the resources we have. I can do my best to make sure that everything is in the best order it can be before I leave in June.

To end, we have gratitude. What a great thing to express. What an easy thing to express. What a hard thing to express. Sure I'm thankful for "all my many blessings", but do I recognize what these blessings are? Let's go through a few:

-my cheap Georgian trombone

-the written language

-the spoken word

-international postal services

-pens

-stairs

-elevators

-innovators

-laws

-Georgian 

-English to Georgian dictionaries

-wheels

Ya, the vast majority of this list we might take for granted. I would even say that most of these should be taken for granted, but that in no way should stop us from recognizing our gratitude for them. Anyway, let's show some more gratitude this week. Okay? Great, sounds good.

--უხუცესი ფიშერი 

 River going through Tbilisi

Georgian church near our apartment