Bring on the COLD!

Hey ERRbody!!

FAMBLY: I'm all worried that my poor little mother thinks I don't love her anymore because yesterday the library was closed for New Year's (which was 4 days ago or something) and I didn't get to write until today. But here it is! Also, this letter isn't going to be one of my longest ones because it took me forever to get all the mail saved so I can print it and read it. I got a ton of letters from everyone! 3 from sam, 2 from mom, 1 from Chelsee, 1 from CHRIS (finally :'D ), one from jameson, bryson, morgan yada yada yada. It was like CHRISTMAS. I got double the letters from fambly and I got letters from friends. Ahh.

Well SAM I skimmed mom's email before I skimmed yours, so I was sick for about 30 seconds until I figured out that the earthquake wasn't where you were. I was also really impressed with what mom wrote. She just said she wasn't worried and she knew everything was fine. That's crazy awesome that we have a family that relies so much on the Lord. I'm realizing day by day that my mission gives me subtle blessings like that that will be with me for the rest of my life. It's amazing! I love my mission! I love russia too. It's really windy and cold but I gots a huge coat. Man there's so much stinkin stuff to write about but I ain't got no time.

So BIZNASS. I can't think of a lot of stuff... Maybe one thing... I mentioned music... and it would be awesome awesome awesome if you could get on itunes and go to the chopin complete nocturnes cd and burn it for me and send it. Mission approved. We just found out that we can listen to other stuff than MOTAB, like classical and stuff. So that's cool. Also, I talked to a member named Alyona about a week ago, and she's leaving here to go to Utah for school in about a week or two. She's gonna live in park city and go to westminster and I said hey that's close to where my parents are. So she might stop by one day just to say hi or something. I just wanted to warn you in case a random Russian shows up to say hi...

STOREEz and then some pictures I'll upload. Well this week was pretty slow because we were locked up in our apartments from 3:30pm on, on New Year's Eve and New Year's. New Year's is crazy in Russia. So much drinking. It was dead on the streets. We were walking down the street on Sunday morning and this confused dude leaned out his window and asked what time it was. We said 8 and he asked IN THE MORNING?? which was interesting because the sun was up and it usually gets dark at around 3:15pm this time of year... We also saw an older guy outside our apartment just sitting on the ice. He wobbled a ton when he got up, and barely made it down the street without falling. I feel like I would've laughed at stuff like that, but it just made me super sad. Karin, an investigator, isn't progressing anymore. He's never showed a ton of interest, even though his wife and kids are members. He got really drunk for New Year's and his wife started packing her things and threatening divorce and it didn't go well. We don't really know what to do. Pray for them. I hate watching good good families get torn apart by that. It's sad to say but I'm getting a real glimpse of what we're really up against.

ON a lighter note... We started teaching a kid named Albert. His mom, Tatyana is a single mom and a super-inactive member who seems like an investigator when we teach her. But it's been cool because just teaching them 2 times a week has really brought them together. She's on some sort of pension, so she watches tv all day, and Albert is always always on his computer. It's kind of a miracle that he agreed to sit in on lessons with us. We said, "Hey we're here to meet with your mom, but we have a rule as missionaries that we can't meet without a male present" and he really grudgingly left his computer. And now that we've started teaching him, he's opened up a lot and he's happy when we come over. It's the BEST. He just started reading the Book of Mormon, and we're excited to work with him.

We also met up with a young guy and his wife and kid last week. His wife is sixteen, which is a little crazy (well, they're both really young), but they were super nice. They used to be taught by sisters before the area got split up, and we heard that they even had baptismal dates. We're going to them tonight to teach them, and it'll be awesome. They live with her grandpa, and her grandpa said that they've always had a good relationship with the missionaries. They were super stinkin nice to us when we stopped by. It's gonna be bomb teaching them.

Anyways, I really really wanted to send pictures of new years and this awesome cathedral I took pictures of, but I've only got one minute left, which is not enough time to upload pictures. Poo. I will for sure get you some pics next week though. Russia's amazing. Church is true. My little bros are li'l missionaries and it rocks. I love my parents and family and missionary sister, all of you. KEEP DOIN WHATCHA DOIN.

LOVE

Alex

P.S. for FHE, I want you to do something. Just read the chapter headings of Judges 14, 15, and 16. Then talk about how if someone made a movie of that, I would totally go with caleb and seth and patrick to see it on opening night. I think you will all enjoy what you find there. BYE.