okay now he's e-mailing...

Well, Sam, I'm going to send this one only to you, and then I'm going to send this again in a different email to mom. Will you forward this one to her too? I don't know what's going on with the stupid computer, but I don't want errbody at home to be worried. TANK U.

Anyways, how is life? Everything's awesome here. Actually this week kind of pounded us and it's good to have it all behind us, but we've also had some cool stuff happen this week. Cool good stuff and cool bad stuff. And when I say cool bad stuff I mean stuff that makes cool stories but was bad overall, namely when we got kicked out of a hospital by a crazy babushka. I'll get to that.

BUT FIRST I read a little snippet of the email from mom this week and she says I don't give enough detail about little things hahaha. I realized that all I do in my emails is send stories off to you guys. Part of the problem is we've been doing email wrong this whole time, that is, we've been spending time formatting and we realized that we could just copy and paste and then format our emails from you to print after we've written to you guys. But alas this letter will be a shorter one too because I had to figure out a way to get my past 2 emails to mom. I hope everything works out?! ANYWAYS I was going to give you details, mom. So, I guess about my companion, he's really cool. We got along super good these past 2 cycles. We got a call from President Sartori last night, and President told him that he's going to Saratov to be a Zone Leader! Craaaaaazy! That's the kind of trainer I had :D He's super great. But we joke about it because the past 2 nights we've both been trying to picture him as a Zone Leader and it's weird because I already know him so well. I tried to imagine what it would be like if I was just on splits with him. It's just different when you actually live with a companion. It's really funny to think about him being all serious in Saratov. We had a really good time. But he'll do awesome because we worked really hard and we've grown a lot the past 2 cycles.

As far as Old City... Well, actually, I guess it's not official because Elder Eyers (AP) hasn't called to tell us about transfers yet, and the only thing President told us was that Barton was leaving to be a zone leader--we don't know when exactly they're gonna pick him up, or who's going to come here and be my new companion, or if I'm going to even stay here (even though I'm about 99.9% sure of that). So I'm pretty sure I'll still be here, which is awesome. I feel like Elder Barton has just handed down a kingdom to me, because I know where everything is in our area, and I know all the members and who the investigators are and where the work is going. It's super crazy to compare that to where I was when I first got here. I've learned a ton. I really love this area.

We've got a lot of good things going too. Sergei and Katya were just baptized and they're already sharing the gospel with their neighbors. We've put a lot of work into other contacts, too, and we contacted Oleg this week, our newest investigator with a baptismal date. And we have tons of people we met on the street with who we're going to meet with (as soon as they're not working 24/7. Sometimes I wish people were bums and didn't work. I'm sure Sam knows exactly what I'm talking about).

So I've got a quick story before I sign off. Yesterday morning at 5 we got a call from Sergei, our newest member. He said his 2-month pregnant wife was in the hospital and he had no one to turn to and stuff and he wanted to come over, but that's illegal for missionaries. So we waited until 6:30 when we were allowed to go on the street and tried to figure out how we could get in touch with them and visit. They don't have a cell phone, and we have no idea which hospital they were in. All we knew is Katya was somewhere in a hospital. To make a long story short, we tracked her down. The old lady at the front desk was all nice to us and showed us where she was. She was there alone, because Sergei had gone somewhere else to get something for here, apparently. (By the way, that was my second time in a Russian hospital. They're pretty gnarly. It's a fun experience if you ever get the chance). So we sat down to talk to Katya, and then the lady from the front desk pulled Katya out into the hall and started talking to her. She said stuff like "If you want to live, don't talk to people like that!! If you love God, you've got to send them off!!" And of course we heard the whole thing. Then she came back in and said stuff like "What sect are you from?!" (p.s. sect is really diminuitive in Russian when you're talking about churches. It's kind of like "cult." The Russian Orthodox Church has made sure to get it in everyone's minds that Mormons are "sectanti"). And she said "What are you doing in our country?! You're living off our money!!" and stuff like that. Then she grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up out of the chair and started shoving us out, even though Katya was objecting. We said we're just here to visit our sick friend, we're not doing anything wrong. And I remember thinking Are we seriously getting this in a hospital? Stuff like that happens all the time while we're actually contacting, but we were just trying to visit our friend. So she prodded and yelled and pushed all the way down three flights of stairs, and we calmly went, and tried to explain, but she was crazy. She shoved us out and slammed the door. So Katya grabbed her stuff and came out and talked to us for a bit after that. Then after that, she went back in to rest. While we were walking away the crazy babushka came out a started screaming at us again. It was kind of funny actually cause she was acting like a kid, she said "Oh look at me I'm a little American and I don't even know which way to go!!" So I kind of laughed at that. And we said "have a nice day!" and went to church. We talked to Sergei later and he said he went to the hospital and explained us, so we're going back today to visit. Haha, we'll see how it goes.

Well that's all. I hope everything's still good, and I hope you get this!! I love you guys to pieces!!

Alex