Language is good - food is interesting

I am so happy to be here in Russia:) I must be getting better at speaking the language because I am starting to be able to make jokes with Russian people and I have even made a couple of them laugh! We tried talking to this guy, he was really not interested in talking to us and he started walking away. Elder Sayers asked if he knew anybody who would be interested in talking with us and he said “No”; but as he was walking away I said to him "Maybe you have an enemy, we can go bug them for you!" He chuckled. We didn't talk any more after that but at least he knows we aren't scary or weird people. I count it as a victory!

It looks like they have a picture of the Mesa temple here in our church! Cool

The sun rises about 8:30 or so and sets around 5:30! It’s really weird. I remember being back at home and running around till 8 or so with sunlight left.  I definitely am starting to miss the sun! I am glad to hear Megan has been working hard! If there is something I know, it’s that Hard Work is Good Work. 
 
You may have heard that the Ruble is going down pretty dramatically and we check that as often as occasion permits. So far nothing really has changed. We are expecting the new year to be when all the prices change and such. The Church does give us more money to be able to buy what we need, but thus far nothing has really happened. We are still buying all that we need, all is well on the food side of things.
 

We have had some interesting food lately.  We ate with some locals the other day and they gave us this meat kinda thing... it wasn’t not too bad.  So, I asked what it was and they told me it was pure animal fat that was frozen.   hahaha   Then he said "I would like to make you an onion" so we said alright.  He then cut up an onion and set it in front of us. Just a raw onion... oh OK ... thank you.  Yummmm :)   They also gave us this bread paste stuff.  Imagine you took a cheese grater and a chunk of bread. You then grind up the bread into powder as small as it goes and then you make that bread powder wet...it was just bread paste.  Crazy.   
This week was a pretty good weather week.  I think yesterday was about 0 degrees Fahrenheit. Good times! The cold isn’t too bad as long as there is no wind or humidity... but here in Nakhodka we are right up on the sea... so we have both wind and humidity! Yay!



People here in Russia pull their kids around on sleds! Haha yeah its a real thing

Earlier in the week we went out to a small town about an hour outside of the main Nakhodka city. We had a great lesson about the armor of God and after the lesson we went out to wait for the bus. Because we were so far away, the busses were few and far between. We got out to the bus stop at 5 oclock and of course... it was cold! All was okay though, I had a scarf and gloves and a beanie and a hood on my jacket. We threw on everything but then the wind came. The wind was really bad... like.. really bad! It was a lot of wind and it didn't ease up at all the whole time we were standing there. Then the best part! It had snowed the day before so there was a lot of loose snow just lying around. The wind picked up the snow and in every gust of wind there was a ton of snow bits! They would hit you in the face, get stuck, melt, and then you have a wet face with more wind making it colder.  Not the best experience:) But all is well! We survived! Oh yeah... I forgot to say, too, I stepped in a giant pile of snow and some snow got in my shoe. It then melted, and my socks were wet. I had frozen piggies! haha Russia is a great place! 

I got some brown shoes:) They are way nice! But they don't help with the cold so I am going to have to wait until summer to wear them

President Brinton came into town the other day and we were riding with him in his car to a lesson of ours. He got a call on the phone and his car does speaker phone so he answered... I looked over to see who had called him... Jorg Klebingat. That is a member of the 70 who spoke at General Conference. His talk was entitled “Approaching the Throne of God with Confidence.”  Ever since the first moment I heard that talk, I fell in love with it. That was probably one of my favorite talks of all Conference. It is so straight-forward and to the point and simple. There is no way to misunderstand what you’ve got to do. It is just super good! And we got to be on a call with him! So basically I was on a phone call with one of the Quorum of the 70. No big deal though. :)

I miss you all so much! I love you!

Love, 

Ryan