pictures from the motherland

In Soviet Russia COAT WEARS YOU! Ha Ha I couldn't resist! Say it with the Tyson Dictter Russian accent!) Sorry the photo is turned sideways! Here is the e-mail that came with all the cool photos!
Alrighty alrighty alrighty. So I thought that emailing on time would get easier once I got out here. But even though there aren't flashing red numbers in the corner of the screen, I'm still on a time-crunch, always!! I'll never get to say everything I want to in one of these emails. So much stuff happens. Russia's crazy crazy crazy. I love it. We're super jealous of Sam. I printed up your emails last week, and my companion saw how long sam's was, and he said "How does she have that much time to write!?!?!" Anyways, here's the plan. In order to save time with emails, I'm just going to print off your emails without reading them in-depth. If they're short enough like mom's then I'll scan them for big news first. But what'll happen is I'll write to you first, and then read your letters after. So I'll be responding a week late to any news I get from home, but I figure that'll be best.

Okay, now that that big explanation is done.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know it's not for another six days but I'd rather be a week early than a day late! Bah ha! I just feel bad because there's no way I'll be able so send a package with a big furry shapka hat for you or anything like that (lol). But I'll write you a nice letter today and send a little gift that will fit in an envelope. P.S. that will get to you probably after Christmas and everything.

OI. Christmas! It feels kind of Christmasy here, too. They celebrate it almost exactly like we do, except their big holiday is New Year's. But they have Father Frost (Santa) and presents and lights and trees and everything for New Year's. And then they celebrate Christ's birth on Jan. 7th, but more as a minor holiday with a family meal and stuff. So it's fun. There's Christmas stuff going up everywhere here. And when I say Christmas I mean New Year's (which is christmas for Russians pretty much).

Man, when I think about stuff like that it makes me miss you guys! I love those days when we used to have a fire going and we'd watch tv and make junk food. Ah good times. I also got an angry letter from Patrick, and I hope he just wrote it before my letter got to him. I wrote him a huge letter from the MTC, and it should've showed up with the package of all the stuff I sent home before I left America.

I also read Sam's story about the investigator. That's really really hard stuff, I think. I always heard stories like that, but it was never a big deal until I got out here. It's hard to have people turn you down like that after you've turned over your whole life to God and His work with the sole intent to help those people. We dropped by a guy's house last week. He's from the Area book and we'd never met him. His name was Nikolai and he was super old and had a condition where he shook all the time. He let us in and we had a really really good lesson. There was one part where we were testifying and he stopped shaking completely. He told us that it was weird that he was able to sit still because he's never able to do that. Next time we came to his apartment, we asked how his prayer went and stuff, and he told us he didn't want to meet anymore because after we left, he started shaking even worse than before. He took that as a sign that he needed to stop meeting with us, but we take it as a sign that he needed to keep meeting with us. Well, everyone has their agency.

Also, this week we had 4 investigators at church, which is a huge deal. We walked Karin to church with his family. They're all members, but he's not because he smokes and drinks a lot. But we've been teaching him and he's making progress and he came to church. That's a huge deal for him. He never ever ever comes.

Other than that, I don't have a ton of news. I held a boa constrictor snake and got a picture. I'm gonna send it to you. TELL ME ALL ABOUT YOU GUYS AT HOME. The longer the email, the better. I'll just print it off and read it later if it's too long. I wanna hear about dad's work and Patrick and Caleb and Seth and Hopey with their school and lacrosse and trumpet and guitar and all that good stuff. I love you guys so much! I think about you all the time, and how awesome it'll be to just sit happy with my family at home! But I love being here, don't nobody worry about that. It's crazy nuts in Russia, but I love it. I walked past some graffiti on the way into the Library just barely that said россия умирает, which means "Russia will die," and whenever I see stuff like that, it makes me laugh a ton, which is weird. I see English graffiti everywhere too, and it's spelled wrong sometimes, which makes me laugh too. Like "What's the deel?" or "I hate emos" or "sk8r". Also, there's a ton of sickle-and-hammers here. And all the streets are named after soviet stuff. Like marx street and lenin street and victory street. Man, Russia's great. Also, there are dogs everywhere without owners. They just wander around in packs. I could write forever about first impressions of Russia, but I'm going to upload pictures now. TELL ME ALL ABOUT HOME. I LOVE YOU GUYS AND I HOPE YOU ARE HAVING AN AWESOME DECEMBER SO FAR.

Love Alex

P.S. Mom next time you see chris will you please tell him to e-mail me? I can receive emails from friends, I just can't email back, I have to write. So tell him to email me!! Thanks love you bye