Always an adventure!

Hey there,

 

I am glad to hear from you! I am doing good. Please give my love to the ward, I miss them all.  I know you were teasing me about "the spirit" keeping me warm, but I heard of one missionary out here who served in -40 degree weather and only ever wore an overcoat, like something a businessman might wear... or maybe a flasher might wear that kind of coat. But that was all that he wore for his wintery stay in Russia! What a real man.

I have started to understand why you enjoy cleaning... or maybe I shouldn't say enjoy… Why you find it so necessary. If nobody cleans, stuff gets dirty. I can’t eat breakfast in the morning if I don’t wash my bowl, so that is very good incentive to wash the dishes.

Thanks for the photo of you guys on South Mountain.  I always enjoyed a good hike up South Mountain! The view is pretty great. Did you know there is a big rock house even farther up the mountain? I have never been to it, but I know if you get to the top of the trail and follow the road to the left, you can get to it that way:) I am happy to see the desert and dirt and rocks again.  I miss it.

I am very jealous of your weather! It sounds fabulous :) I hope Brent and Jodie are doing alright in upper NY.   Did they ever make up their minds if they were going to fly over here and move closer to the family? I faintly remember that being a possibility. 

Those chips I am eating are Crab flavor. The K is a K. The P is an R. The A is an A. The lower case B is a B:) Fun Russian language!

 

Those little burrito taquito thingies are bread with orange jam in the middle and sugar sprinkled on top! Super tasty:) The girl wanted my crab chips more than anything haha! I gave her some but she was insatiable. 

Russian Libraries have the covers of a lot of books flipped out like this. Weird.
 

The teaching is alright. We have been in a bit of a lull. There are very few people on the streets especially at nights. It’s okay, that just means we have to work more with less actives and planned meetings are our best bet. The weather definitely hurts our street teaching, but if they stop to talk with us it means they are very interested! It helps us weed out the weaklings and the less interested people who might waste our time. 

My companion is good. He played Magic the Gathering. It is kinda like Yugioh/Pokemon/Dungeons and Dragons. It is a card game based on monsters and magic and stuff:)  He explained it a little bit to me. Sounds fun:) He also was a part of SCA. It is basically medieval sword fighting. They give you real armor, or you can make it yourself and you go have full body contact sword fighting. If you get hit in the head then you "died" or if you get hit in the arm during the battle you can't use that arm. I saw a little video and it is pretty intense... like they go hard.. sounds pretty cool:) His name is Elder Murphy. He is from Tucson! 

We helped a babushka this week move some firewood and she gave us some bread and jam as payment.   Super tasty!  We also had some people yell at us on the streets.  This old guy yelled at us saying "You monsters! Mormons are the worst!"   I felt embarrassed for him; people were giving him weird looks. It is always fun here.   Always an adventure  Можно Сказать. (Translates to:  “you might say.” )

 

I miss you! Stay Frosty:)