February!

It is so weird to think that 6 months is gone!  Already! Time seriously flies. I only get to write home about 75 more times. Haha,  weird. I am glad you enjoyed the stories!   I am trying to be better about writing home. Some of my emails in the past have been kind of LAME.


Would it be acceptable to wear this pink tie in front of Congress? I am actually curious:)  

I am glad that Ksenya is keeping you all so informed.   She showed me the text that you sent her about my hair. ha ha  I have been meaning to get a haircut for the past 3 weeks but we seriously don't have enough time - even on preparation days.  I got a haircut today, though and the lady after she cut my hair, shampooed it.  It was so weird.   I have never had somebody shampoo my hair for me. I got one haircut at the beginning of the Russia experience but that was about 3 months ago!  It was definitely time to get one. When I shook my head around I could feel my hair flopping from side to side. Fun stuff :)

I am so happy to be here in Russia. The people here are way nice, but some of the men here just stare at us. I don't know if they are intrigued, or maybe they are angry, or maybe drunk, or maybe just zoning out.... I can never be sure with these guys :) Nevertheless there is a lot I can learn from them! 

They don't have any high speed trains here in Russia, maybe 60 mph but that’s it.   The train took us past a way pretty frozen lake. We looked out across the lake to see people sitting on buckets with Sticks in their hands. They were ice fishing!  They sit there and fish through holes in the ice. Pretty cool!  I wouldn't wanna do it, doesn't sound like fun to go sit out in the cold.

I don't understand these prices. Both of these are 80 rubles. (About $1.17 U.S.)   One is a can. One is a jug! 

I am sorry about the police driving on our lawn, that is so dumb. They need to not be so rude. They sound very RUSSIAN. The Russian police do whatever they want. ha ha

Thanks for the update on our home teaching families.  I kind of miss home teaching.  We are like full time home teachers here on a mission. I hope they are doing well:) I am a little sad I haven't heard from any of them yet!

Mom asked why we were wearing socks at church.  It’s because everyone walks to church and our shoes would get the church muddy.  I love how we always take off our shoes:) It is very comfortable. Sometimes they even have soft slippers that you can wear around the house. They are called topichkee. 

I heard a way cool quote the other day, but I had to translate it from Russian so it might not be 100 percent accurate. It is by Max Lucado. He wrote that book "You Are Special". I remember Grandma Gardner gave it to me and she wrote a little note in it. That was so sweet of her, I used to always read it. Anyways the quote is "Any person who wishes to conduct the orchestra needs to turn his back to the audience". I thought of it in the sense that if we wish to be a leader and do something worthy of applause, we might have to go against the flow. We can't be blind sheep just following whatever happens. We also should try to avoid situations where the blind lead the blind. I am not sure exactly where I was going with this thought, but I hope it makes you think a little bit more about life, and our decisions we make every day. 

I love you all! I will be back soon enough! I miss you!

Ryan Gardner