This week was pretty busy, and went by pretty fast. First of all, we had Zone Conference in Togliatti (my HOMETOWN here in Russia), so we were traveling all day Thursday and Saturday. It's about an eight-hour trip. On top of that, Oleg got baptized on Saturday, which you already knew thanks to Mark and Facebook. (Man that's so crazy to me how fast stuff gets around.) I also got word of Japan at the beginning of the week. That was crazy. We met Marat on the street on Tuesday, and he's an awesome new investigator. And Tyson came home. Okay hold on.

First. I've got a bone to pick with the Russian mail system. When I went to Zone Conference I got all the letters that had been sent to me, and one of them was a letter that I sent to Chris about a month ago. It said "underpaid", even though I put the right stamp on it, which means it must have been too fat. That made me sad...... Then, I finally got all the updates from the family to fill in the gaps from all the emails. I remember people mentioning baby Bennett, but I didn't know what was going on; I just figured out about Ronda (NO); I finally got pictures from Seth, Chilly-Billy, over which I laughed harder than I have this whole transfer, even though we were on a crazy asian bus to Zone Conference; And what else. I don't know. But I've been sending letters off. I was REALLY really happy Caleb got the letter, I was worried after they sent Chris's back. Seth is next. I'm going to resend the one to Chris, and write something at the end of this email for him. I sent a couple off to Chelsee, too, and I really hope she gets them. I haven't heard from her in a while, but I've been praying. Getting ready for a mission can be really hard, and she's got a lot on her shoulders, seems like. She probably got the first letter but the second one was fat so it might not have been enough roubles on the stamp. We'll see. BY THE WAY I got the apostate music. HAHA I'm just glad that that's the only disobedient song because I can just skip it and listen to Chopin. Elder Bahr was in our apartment when we turned it on, and we both knew the song from the first couple chords before we changed it (his first name is Jessie so of course he knows that song). Man it was funny, mostly because I thought about Mitch-cousin. By the way, if you sent me his email address, I could write him over email because he's family. I'd love to drop him a line.

Man. Enough about mail. So a lot happened this week, it seems like. First of all, I'm so glad to hear that Mitch is okay. I've really been thinking about the whole Japan incident a lot, surprisingly, since I heard of it. It fits with everything in the scriptures, and it's kind of unnerving and motivating at the same time. At any rate, I'm glad he's okay. I'm sure Margo was really worried. I can't imagine what it would be like to get news like that while your son's in the field. Anyhow, the more I hear about Allison and Levi, the more happy I am for them. It's CRAZY NEWS because we're all just a bunch of little kids (I am, at least, heh heh) but it's a reminder that we're all growin' up. Wow it's nuts. I got an email from Allison I'm gonna read when I get home. Prod Levi, I haven't heard from him in over six months. Anyways, it's really good news, I'm excited for them. And I want to be there for the sealing SURE THING. I really miss the temple in general. It's such an amazing place. We had a meeting with an inactive who used to work in the Finland temple with his wife. Sasha. He was such a nice man. It seems like things just got really busy for him and his wife a few years ago, and they just slowly strayed away from the church. They're really great people, just too busy with work and less-important things. That's one thing that I've gained on my mission so far, a bit more of an eternal perspective. It's a huge opportunity to be devoting every waking moment to the Lord because you really see the importance of eternal things like covenants and family. Especially family. Even though you've got two kids way across the world, I still pray for you all, and always hope the best. I know the Lord's looking out for you. (I sent a big letter to you all, by the way, I hope it wasn't to fat for the Russian Post. Yeeargh.)

Well, I've got a couple more minutes, only. I spent a lot of time putting the emails together to print them. I'm going to close up and get something off the Chris and Chelsee. I LOVE YOU ALL THANK YOU ALL FOR THE SUPPORT KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK SEE YOU IN A WEEK. OVER EMAIL. LLOOOOOVVVEEE BYE

Alex

P.S. Jameson's in London now? huh?

TO CHRIS>>>>
Deary my chris. I sent you a letter but it was too fat and so the darn Russians sent it back to me. Which is a big ole bummer. I got mail for the first time in a month and a half because I'm in a city way far away from the mission office. So maybe this might be the better way to communicatessss if we just do it through my mom. Technically it's legal...? according to mission rulleeeezzz???
By the way LOVE YOU and miss you boy. Mostly because the weather's been warming up and so it reminds me of how we had an early spring last winter so we built Tetris and Tombstone. And I rode tetris to your house while it was hailling so we had to take her apart and get everything dried off. Man that was stressful. But fun.
Levi and Allison are getting married. Will you marry me? That might not be a good proposal. Here's a ring O* that's better. Oh WAIT I need to lock my heart a hem excuse me. Hey you probably heard about Mitch, of course. Or japan at least. Did he get reassigned? I need to go now please don't loose hope in me because I'll write you through mom now. LOVESSS BYE


TO CHELSEE////
Heyhowarethingsgoing? I'm sorry if you haven't gotten letters yet. My mom said to write through her because it's faster, and I'm thinking it's a better idea.
Whellll I hope things are okey. I haven't heard from you in a while and this is going to be a really short paragraph because already I've only got 2 minutes left on this computer. I just wanted to get a line off. You've always been a faithful writer, and unfortunately I haven't been the best. It doesn't help that Russian mail takes f o r e v e r to get to america (again, I say). Well now I only have one minute. What can I say useful? You're awesome. Things are probably rough right now, but it gets better. I read a really cool quote by elder maxfield about temporary cloud cover verses overall darkness I don't have time to type it ahhhhh next week sorry sorry bye!!