Hey, how's it going? It's been a little chillier here, I even wore a scarf yesterday. It's pretty rainy and yucky today.
Mom's questions:
The Angry Birds soda had some name to it, but it was basically Hawaiian punch. They have various flavors.
Let's see, my release date is June 12 if I remember correctly, I think that is when the transfer falls.
For Christmas, really I don't need anything. I definitely have plenty of hand and toe warmers, I have some from last time and usually you can find those in apartment closets from past missionaries. I've got plenty of socks, and if those go bad I can buy some here, I've got plenty of spices and cooking materials and treats, so really I can't think of anything to request. So don't worry about making it a big package or putting a lot of stuff in it, because I don't really need anything.
Sam's Questions:
So we haven't watched Conference, we should be doing that next week.
It doesn't really matter on the decal, it's no big deal too, but anything would be cool, anything Transformers or Basketball or anything, it doesn't matter.
Dani:
Great Job on your history test! I'm pretty sure I got a B on that first test.
Dad:
Thanks for the email, I like your perspective on things. It really makes me smile.
Matt:
Love you bud, be good!
This week was pretty good. We were busy during the week with transfers and new missionaries. In addition to what we normally do we also ran a training meeting for all of the district leaders on Thursday.
Things are looking pretty good right now. We have 2 solid investigators with baptismal dates. Viktor keeps making steady progress and has been continuously changing during the teaching process. I'm not sure that he will make his date that is at the end of the month, because he keep getting scheduled to work on Sundays, but he is doing very well. Our other date is Aleksander. His is a very funny story. He is the one who came with us to church that one day but then took off right before the meeting started. Anyway 2 days later we ran into him at the bus stop and he told us that he felt like he wasn't ready, and it was too early to make his decision and stuff like that, so we had to spend a while explaining what went on there. So anyway, we taught him about 3 times last week, he's read quite a bit, and he came to the baptism on Saturday and to sacrament meeting and didn't run away either of the times. (He was a little hesitant to come to the baptism, but we thoroughly explained to him that it was not HIS baptism and he could just sit in the back row and watch.) So I think he really liked the baptism. He might have been a little weirded out about sacrament meeting, after hearing testimony after testimony about the temple. I really admire the faithfulness of the members here and their love and desire to go to the temple when it is so far away, but it's tough on the investigators sometimes when they talk about it so much at sacrament meeting and bring it up when they are assisting with our lessons.
Other than that things are going well, just kind of moving on like usual. We are going to start traveling again next week and that will be very interesting. We are going to Omsk on Thursday night, then straight from there to Kazakhstan for about 5 days. So we will watch half of Conference in Omsk and half in Astana. And I'll be writing from Astana next week. We take an overnight train to Omsk, an overnight train to Astana, then fly to Almaty, then fly home. So I can assure you that it will be quite the exhausting trip.
Saturday night all the missionaries in our branch put on a Mexican night. A little fiesta that the members could invite their friends to. It went really well, much thanks to Elder Smith who did a really good job planning, delegating, and running it, and the Webbs and the sisters who did all the food and decorations. We and the Zone leaders did our parts but not as much as all of them. We had everyone just eat and talk for the first little while. There was also a photo booth where people could take pictures with a sombrero and mustache. Then we had a little show. Elder Walker played the guitar and Elder Hoggan danced, then Elder Davis and I gave a little thing about the history of the Church in Mexico that was pretty interesting. Then we taught everyone the Mexican Hat Dance, broke a pinata and sang I Am a Child of God in Spanish. Then we split up and took everyone on a tour of the church and had three stations where members told them about the church and what goes on there. It was a huge success. There were probably about 20 members and 30 non members. All of the non members went on the tour. All of the non members were people who go to English or are already our investigators or contacts. The only unfortunate part was that no members brought any friends. But it was still a huge success and a bunch of people were interested in stuff on the tour. Well, I think that's all I got. Love you.
Elder Topham
