Today's e-mail!

OKAY it's already been three weeks and that freaks me out. Last Sunday me and some of the Elders were talking about how we were "almost two weeks in!!!" And it feels like that was two or three days ago. But it's actually been a WEEK. And a HALF. Since THEN. Kinda crazy. Things have picked up.

By the way. Sam your email was HUGE. I loved every bit of it. But I can't wait until I'm actually in the field so I can spend more than a stinking lousy thirty minutes on a novel worthy of my family's reading. This last Sunday, me and three other Elders got bored at the temple walk, so we came back to the classroom early and sat around and watched err-y single one of those Mormon Messages things. I almost cried watching the drunk driver one, dangit. It was really awesome, but I feel like a big baby now. I'm way more emotional here. Maybe. I don't know.

Cool story time. Well, first, actually, in answer to Stacy Smoot/Mom's question, yes, the Russian's coming. It's so RAD. Their grammar is so awesome once you get the hang of it. I absolutely love the language with a passion. It's like solving a puzzle whenever I sit down to translate a thought into Russian. I could go on about how it all works, but I'll write more about it in my letter. Anyway. So cool story. Elder Vargin is an Elder here who is a native of Moscow. He knows hardly any English at all but he's super hilarious. Example. One day he approached me and said "Privet, vinagrette," which means "What's up, unknown-'Russian'-word." So I asked him what the second word was and he said "Is Italian green salad." Hahaha I thought it was hilarious. Mostly because of his accent. Man I love Russians so much. There's a whole district of natives. So yes, I've met a few. They're so cool. But COOL STORY TIME. For reals. I'm trying to get to it, I really am. So this same Elder Vargin came up to me yesterday and asked if I would write my testimony for him in Russian, so he could send it home to his mother and girlfriend, who don't believe in the Church. He's been collecting testimonies of lots of different elders. So yesterday I wrote a page of very simple but very sincere testimony no-rycckuu. I had him read it and it had a TON of mistakes, but he fixed them and I rewrote it and everything. Elder Vargin helped me out, and then I gave it to him and he said really really slowly (because of his limited English), "Thank you. Is very very important for me." I just thought it way super cool because I surprised myself with how much I've retained. And I got to help someone out. It's still so much work though. Sometimes I feel like I'm learning really slowly, but then I go back and try to speak and random words come to me that I didn't know I understood. That's how it is with prayer, too. I'll pray in Russian with no idea of what to say, and then the words just pop into my head. My vocabulary is still extremely limited, but I've gotten to the point where I can speak around the words I don't know in order to truly express myself instead of just repeating a memorized prayer. It's an amazing feeling to pray in Russian, especially when I'm praying for my home.

But my time is already almost up for email time. Man, this kills me. The last five minutes go by really fast. I love your letters and your stories and emails so much!! I love you all, the church is true, and hopefully Dad and the boyz will see me from afar off in the Conference Center. It's going to be an amazing experience. The music is simple, but powerful.

OH AND THANK YOU FOR THE CAMERA. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. AND EVERYTHING ELSE. THAT PACKAGE WAS FROM HEAVEN. AND NOW I REALIZE HOW AWESOME CAMERAS AND PICTURES ARE BECAUSE I'VE BEEN TAKING ABOUT A BILLION. Seriously. I have a ton of pictures for you next week. I need to publish them. But you'll get a ton.

LOVE ALEX MY TIME IS UP AGGGHHHHHH