Hey,
This week was good. We were in KZ still until Thursday. We spent most of Saturday at the mission home because there was a priesthood council meeting. We had some time on Friday and Sunday to work in our area. Wednesday night we take off to Omsk and we will come back on Saturday night. The next week we may be going to Abakan with President to look at the possibilites of opening it up for missionaries when the big wave comes in the next year, but we will find out tomorrow if that trip is going to happen or not.
I'll answer everyones questions first, I feel like I got a good number of good questions so that's nice and I'll have some stuff to write about.
DAD
Yeah it sounds like summer term would be a good option. Do you know when class registration is for summer and for fall?
SAM
Pediatrics sounds better. Labor and delivery sounds gross.
No Halloween in Russia. There are some parties I think but that's only to have an excuse to dress up skanky and party. Nobody hands out candy to kids.
MOM
54 Elders and 19 Sisters. Probably about the same amount of Elders as when I came out plus a handful more for KZ. Probably a few more sisters. All from the last couple months.
Almaty was good. Yeah, it is much different there (than Astana) because there are many Russian and Kazakh members. So the missionaries do stuff with them, either teaching or service, a lot more. And it functions more like a normal branch. It's noticeably warmer there than in Novo. The last couple days has just been a rainy snow mixture that turns everything muddy.
I bought a pair of winter boots before last winter, and a few months ago a pair of regular shoes. The ones I came with are actually still holding up really well. Just the interior padding has been worn down, especially in the front where I put a lot of pressure when I walk apparently.
Shirts are great. Suits are still fine, not amazing. I might buy a Russian one some time, but I don't need to. But they have all that stuff here anyway if I ever need it it will be easy to get.
I don't think I've gotten that package that you are talking about, unless I did a long time ago.
MATTHEW/DANI
I love you
Well some other stuff that I can mention.
The Almaty missionaries go to a university 3 times a week to study Kazakh. It was really cool and kinda weird. We were just coming in to the campus in our suits and all the students were kind of staring at us then we go into our class room. The class is only the teacher and the missionaries and it's really cool.
At the priesthood council meeting I translated into English for the English speakers. And besides that, President just wanted us to go there so that we were aware of everything that was going on. I think I learned a lot of useful stuff about being a branch president that I had never thought of before. Mostly stuff to do with tithing and the roles of the clerk and stuff like that.
We had a new investigator come to church. Half of the sacrament meeting talks and both of the lessons were about temples and eternal marriage. And they weren't presented in the most investigator friendly way, so I hope he comes back.
We visited one of the members who is in a hospital on Sunday. She is mentally challenged and broke her leg. It turned out the hospital was like a combined mental/physical hospital. I can't really describe what it was like, but I have a much deeper appreciation for how many blessings I have. And no matter what a hospital in America is like I will never be able to complain about it.
The last couple weeks during our work out time we have been doing "Air Alert 3." It's a program with various leg and jumping exercises designed to increase your vertical. My calves are getting huge. It's a 15 week program, and it's been really fun to do.
