Christmas Week

Well, it was Christmas week in the states. Another normal week here. Christmas is "celebrated" on January 7th here, so there was nothing big here going on. We were in St. Petersburg last p-day, and we went to a bunch of shops there but I didn't get anything. So pricey. On Christmas Eve, we went to the Mission home at around 11 and we had Cafe Rio beef burritos for lunch! It was so good. That was a great present. Then we went over to the stake center and watched the First Presidency's Christmas devotional, and had some musical numbers by some missionaries. It was cool. Then we got back on a bus and rode home to Pskov. Pskov feels like home now, it's really strange. I guess I'm just used to it here and I know where things are and I know people. We had a lot of lessons fall through again this week, but it's understandable with the holidays being a few days away. On Christmas we spent almost the entire day at the Branch Building because we had to set up for the christmas party that we were having. It was awesome, Russian people singing Christmas songs is really funny to me for some reason. I got a cool christmas present from one of our investigators, it's a 5 Kopeck coin from 1991 with a big ole hammer and sickle on the back. From the last year of the USSR. It's cool. On Thursday we went tracting and it was great! Found a lot of people that would talk to us, and one girl who knew the Beatles and might come to English. It was maybe the most sucessful tracting I've done so far. On Friday we just had a ton to do with the branch finances and organizing for the audit next month. Our branch president is pulling out his hairs becuase he has to do it all alone, so we helped him all day, got all of it done. Saturday we contacted and tracted. It was the first day when I said "Hey, I'm gonna talk to everyone" and it wasn't too bad. I just hate not knowing what people say. I can do well in lessons becuase I know gospel things. But it's hard to just cut to the chase like that on the streets, and I don't know what to ask about or what. It's getting better. Yesterday we called a ton of people. It was crazy. We just split up into teams and went crazy calling people setting up appointments. We got a few for tonight and next week, but everybody is really busy around new years. Oh yeah, and we can't go out tomorrow night. We have to be in by 6 and stay in until the next morning. The days are getting brighter, the sun is out for longer, the winter is halfway over and there isn't any snow. A little rain here and there, but nothing too bad. I think that the winter will either last until July now or I just lucked out my first Russian winter. I found an old calender from another missionary who kept track of the temperature every day he was here, and last year around this time it was -20 C (-4 F) or worse every day. I hope we don't jump right down to that, I'm not ready. Anyways, another good week here. You all have a great New Years!!!

Andrew