Hey,
Dad, Sister Sanford from Henderson is going home in December, that's about the same time as her brother. The next transfer will be on November 14 so there is still a little time. Everything will probably be finalized tomorrow. Culture nights are back too.
Danica, yes I definitely remember the urinal theory, and I believe in it 100%. Did Dad catch that frisbee? it looks like he is coming up a little short, but he could still be moving up in the jump and make it.
Mom, the trip was good, I think I will miss it at times once I have a different assignment. I am definitely very grateful that I have been able to go all those places and get to know well all of the missionaries in all the cities. Yeah, I'm pretty confident with the Russian abilities, but I was only the official translator from Russian to English, I would not have been as good the other way around.
Matthew, you look a lot taller in the pictures I got today.
Well, most of the interesting stuff that happened this week happened while we were on our trip to Omsk. But before that I have one interesting story. There is a member here who recently moved away to Moscow. She told us to visit her mom, so we did. I assumed that her mother was not a member. We get there and she was a very active older woman, very happy to see us, very nice. She wanted to make us tea, and we declined her black tea so she said she would make us herbal tea. She was making it, then started shoveling this coffee powder into the pot also. And as she is pouring our cups we keep telling her that we can't drink it, and that was a constant struggle for the whole visit. Anyway, she was really nice, she kept making us eat more and more honey. She said that all she eats is honey and coffee. She also was showing us how she plays ping pong and accidentally knocked over her cup of the coffee-tea stuff. Anyway, the talk was going really well, and it turns out she believes in the Book of Mormon and likes the church but when Elder Davis asked her to be baptized we found out that she was already baptized. And she is just a mischievous old woman who wanted us to drink the coffee just for the sake of causing trouble (she admitted that). She said she would start coming to church. I guess that story wasn't important at all, and you may have had to be there in order to realize how funny it all was.
On Wednesday the Area President, Larry Lawrence, and the General Primary 2nd Counselor and the General Relief Society First Counselor all came to Novo and put on a fireside. Then we all got on a train that night with President, and went to Omsk. During that day, the sisters wanted to visit some of the members in Omsk. Elder Davis and I went with President Lawrence and Sister Stevens of the Relief Society and visited a widowed babooshka in Omsk. It was a really cool and funny experience. They had asked us to call ahead and tell her not to make any refreshments. And we did so. But we showed up and she did anyway haha. And she was super pushy and insistent that we eat all her stuff and drink her tea. We as missionaries were used to that, but it was really new for the others. They were lucky because it was just blini and jam and a really mild tea. We translated for the visit and that was fun because the babooshka would like to go off on random stories (usually about why certain people went inactive) but she was a really sweet lady who tries to help everyone and bring them back. At the end we gave her a blessing. President Lawrence, Elder Davis and I participated. He pronounced the blessing and I translated it into Russian, as he was going, for the lady. That was also a really cool and powerful experience.
That night Sister Stevens and Sister Esplin also did their training fireside in Omsk. When I when I was helping Sister Stevens set up she reminded me of Mom how she had everything so prepared and had like 3 back up plans and was always so thankful for every little thing that we did to help, and was just all around radiating righteousness.
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| Me, Elder Hyde, and Sister Stevens. We don't look too good because it had been a long day for us already. This was taken at the end of Thursday after she gave her fireside |
The other exciting thing was that two sisters in Omsk had to go to the hospital. So Elder Hyde and I were in the hospital all morning Friday, and Elder Davis and I were in the hospital all day Saturday translating for them and for the Gibbons. It was a really nice hospital and they did a really good job there.
Well that is pretty much all of the exciting stuff that has been going on. Other than that it is just the regular stuff.
Elder Topham
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| Kazakhstan Trip |
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| This is a sweet hat I bought. It's made in the style of the Kazakh yurts but it's a flat billed baseball cap, it's sweet. |
