Nine Months

My week was good! We had a good day yesterday! Right at dinner time all of our plans for the night fell through, we were stuck on the street for the last 3 hours of the night. It wasn't too bad because we met a lot of cool people who seem to be interested.

I again ask for forgiveness;  I haven't been all too good about writing the things that happen here in Russia. I should do better at that. You asked about the wedding we attended.  Nobody was wearing name tags because we took them off for the wedding:) Probably better without those at a Russian wedding/government building kinda thing. 

We spend part of our time in Angarsk, but also part of our time in Irkutsk.  When we go to Irkutsk we pack an overnight kinda bag, and go out on the street to the nearest bus stop. We just have to wait about 10 minutes for a big greyhound type bus to roll up. It’s got a sign stuck in the window saying "Angarsk to Irkutsk" and we hop on pay our fee and take the hour long ride over to Irkutsk. The bus just drives through the city of Irkutsk so you have to be observant. You walk to the front of the bus so the driver knows you want to get off and then he stops at the bus stop of your choosing:) Pretty easy. Normally we are only there for a day or so. 

Mom asked about cats.  We have a lot fewer stray cats here in Angarsk. There are more stray dogs though. We were talking to one of our friends here named V___.   We are trying to help him quit smoking. He is old and smoked for 40+ years. We need to help him find an activity to keep his mind busy. His eyes don’t work very well, so he can't read. Any ideas? Anyway, as we were talking outside his apartment on a park bench, a cat strolled on up. I reached down to pet the cat and it really liked me. The cat jumped up on my lap and got dirt on my pants. Dang Cat! Anyway, I kept petting it and it was cute. That’s about all the cat experience I have had here so far in Angarsk. 

 

I am sorry I wasn’t able to attend Michael Hopper’s Farewell talk in church.  I would have loved to go.  He is such a good guy, he is definitely going to make a difference in the lives of many:)  I am sad that I missed it but I will be home for his homecoming talk.  It’s cool that they had his ward and anyone who wanted to come up and sing in the choir.   Every time we have a big missionary conference in Vladivostok, we sing that Army of Helaman/Sisters in Zion song... But we sing it in Russian:) It’s really cool.  Our church is up on the 3rd and 4th floors of a big highrise in downtown Vlad. We open up the windows of the church building and sing out to the people in the center of town. Pretty awesome! 

Michael Hopper spoke in church before leaving for Panama.  Cameron and Aubrey got in on the photo op.

How are our home teaching families doing? Please send a big Privyet to all of them for me:)

I am super excited to skype with you all for Mother’s Day in a few short weeks:) I hope all is well. My companion told me that Google Plus does multi camera skyping. You can chat with different people in different locations. Maybe that could be useful! I will see you all soon, and don’t forget to 

Stay frosty!

Elder Gardner