Hello from Russia!

Hi everybody.

This week was really good, we didn't have any exchanges going on so we had a lot of time to really pound the work in our own area. Monday right after Mothers' Day was Victory Day here, that WWII holiday that everyone gets drunk and beats up foreigners for, so we laid low... we still went out and got all our P-day shopping done and stuff, but when our P-day time ended at 6, we got the whole zone gathered together in our branch building and had a little devotional where we watched the Jo Smit movie and had a testimony meeting. That was cool. But it was kind of sad that the all the 5 trainees hadn't come down yet. That night we went to the station and waited for our overnight train to Samara at 10 to midnight. That was fun because they were playing a bunch of Russian patriotic hymns really loud for victory day. 2sday was zone leader council, then that night we took a train back so we were in our area again on Wednesday, and we got to settle down into our area again. It was a pretty dang successful week, considering we had 2 days where we couldn't do work in our area. Our mission president has come up with a new "1-a-day" idea that we're going to spread around, where you work for 1 new investigator each day. (Don't laugh, sam, I know you get like 10 some days...) Elder Barton and I tried it out, and we saw some cool little miracles when the Lord led us straight to new people who were willing to listen. Neato! This is gonna be really good for our zone, though, this 1-a-day thing. This week our whole zone--10 companionships--only got 11 new investigators. We found five, and another companionship found four. So we're going to work on that.

Dang, I sound like a robot. I'm sorry. Life is kind of crazy. I feel like we're running around constantly trying to stay on top of everything that we have to get done, but at the same time I never feel 100% completely caught up. But I also am super duper dang happy. It's so much fun getting lost in it and just giving it your all. I'm really focusing on that. Mom, I don't know if you remember, but at the beginning of my mission you sent me a quote from Elder Christofferson's talk on covenants where he says that if you have exact obedience and if your covenants are paramount, then you can ask what you need from God with perfect faith. I tried that out one day this week. In the morning, I said "Ok. I'm going to go out of my way to look for ways that I can be more obedient, because I have no idea how we're going to find the people we need to find, and help the investigators we've already got." So I sold myself to that in the morning, and throughout the day we had some pretty crazy stuff. Last week, Elder Barton and Hancock gave out a Book of Mormon to a woman who said she wasn't interested but said that her son would be. So we set up a meeting with her son through her, and she said "he'll be out on the street corner waiting for you, I'm watching a baby so I can't come out." So we get there, and it turns out this kid is 13. So we can't teach him without a permission slip, but we started talking to him a little bit, and he's read the first 5 chapters of the Book of Mormon in the past couple days and he told us every single thing that happens up to that point in the Book of Mormon. All the stuff about Nephi. And it was amazing how well he knows the Bible, too. He says he's coming to church next week, too. So cool! Miracle.

So I'm glad to hear that things are going well at home. Mam, I done prayed for you about the work thing. I'm confident that that was the right choice, and I'm so grateful for a mom who's sensitive to things like that. I feel like there are too many people that would just blow stuff like that over. Including myself, maybe. I can't believe Bryant's already heading out! I swear I got news about that just a couple weeks ago. That's amazing about Stephanie's homecoming too, that's so cool that Dad could still understand that. I do not ever ever want to lose my language after the mish. That's on a list of after-mission fears. My year mark is coming up soon. Eeeh I don't want to think about it... I was a little bummed that I didn't get to see grandpa, but I was way glad to get his email from you. I love that man. I have that picture that Aunt Carrie took in my photo album. I miss days in the temple when grandpa would come down to the baptistry, and I remember how cool it was that he was able to be a part of my first washing and anointing. I'm always going to remember that. There were a lot of connections on that day... Grandpa was there, and it was 10 years to the day of Alex's passing as well. Which reminds me. Turns out that President has gotten everything organized so that on our next visa trip in 3 months we're GOING TO THE KYIV TEMPLEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I have missed the temple almost as much as my family since I've been in Russia. Especially because we went once a week in the MTC. Also, I have HUGE news. On June 5th, there's going to be the first stake in Russia, in Moscow. YEAH. Saratov is next, it's one of the strong-points of the church, they're saying. MAN THAT IS SO COOL. History's going down here and I get to be a tiny little bitty part of it. MAN THAT IS SO COOL. again.

Wow, I'm sorry time's already up! Gah, I'll make a better email next week. I love you all!! It was amazing to see you last week, and I'm so glad you're all doing good. I love it out here! It's so worth it, boys. Do everything you can to get ready!

LUUUURRRRVVEE
alex