Good Week - New Year

I had a good week! We are not relaxing at all for the New Year. The work continues and the walking does too. We walk everywhere :) We haven't gotten any snow for the past couple weeks. The snow just stuck to the ground and the past couple days have been hot so the snow is starting to melt. The only problem is the snow melts during the day, and at night those puddles freeze so there is ice EVERYWHERE. I have fallen a total of 7 times already.  I don’t like ice. I am on the hunt for some nice boots but haven’t bought any yet. I don't want to buy some boots if the winter is ending soon and then the boots will be useless.

That is way sad to hear that Aubrey broke her leg! That is not good:(  She was the Cross Country Captain I think. Send her my love.

It is so frustrating sometimes with these Russians. We will meet someone on the street and they will seem way interested and so we write down their phone number. We will try to call them a few days later and their number will say "Unreachable" It means that they are either out of cell range or their phone is off or they lost their number because they didn't pay the bill. We have a list of about 15 people who have been unreachable for the past 2 months... I don't understand.

Or we will ask people to come to church, they said heck yeah! Then they don't show up, and we ask what happened. They tell us they were busy... That just means they didn't want to go. It is so frustrating. Or we will talk to someone on the street and we ask "Hey, how are you?" They say “Good,” then we ask "So what is your name?" They then say to us "Thank you! Thank you so much" and they turn around and walk away... yeah they definitely did not listen to a single word we just said.  All you can do is laugh.

So they swore in the new Governor?  Dad, what do you do during the inauguration? Just stand around the whole time? That sounds kinda boring:( well... not kinda boring... SUPER boring! Who are you taking with you to the event?

 

I am super excited to hear about the ward family history goal of 50,000 names! That sounds cool:) This past year in the Vladivostok Mission we had a goal of 100 baptisms. I only got here for the last couple months of it but it was cool to see it unfold. We had about 80 or so when November started. We were all working super hard to reach the goal and when New Year’s Eve rolled around we were at 99. On New Year’s Eve all the missionaries had to be in at 6:00 pm for safety reasons (drunk people all on the streets and what not). We got in at 6 pm having had no success and thinking we were going to end the year at 99 baptisms. About an hour later we got a call from Sister Brinton saying a different city got the final baptism and we reached our goal of 100! Way cool:) It made us stretch but I think it wouldn't have been as rewarding if we all didn't work as hard as we did to reach it.

There is a big mission conference coming up in 2 weeks.  I’m hoping to get some more mail when I am in Vladivostok for that conference. The missionaries from Siberia don't get to come because it is too far! It is okay:) We are only missing about 20 of them... well.. now that I think about it that is 1/4 of our missionaries haha! It just wouldn't be worth it to get them all flown out here for a day and then having a 5 hour plane ride back or so.  Oh and the Conference will be on Monday the 19th so my P-day will be on the 20th. Don't be worried if I don't email you on that Monday the 19th.

Right now I am eating a Kinder Surprise Chocolate Egg.   I got a toy car :)

I did some surgery last night... ingrown toenail work!! Woohoo!  I pulled out a giant thing last night. I took a picture but I probably won’t send it to you.  I will save you the trouble of getting grossed out.

We went to Vladivostok this week. We had to be at the train station at 6 am for a 5 hour train ride and a 4 hour conference thingy and then 5 hours back. It was a long day, and then I think about the missionaries in our Tempe Arizona Mission. Their whole area is 4 square miles big. It’s such a different experience. I think I got the better deal though;)

I miss you all so much!

I love you!

Ryan