HYEEEEEEELLO

Hi everybody, it's me. How are you all doing. From what I read, you're all doing great. Thanks much for your emails. So, here's the weekly update. Tuesday was a good day. We started off with service in the Hermitage in the morning, that was fun. We're not allowed to wear our tags and people seem to be a lot nicer and more forgiving of our bad Russian... funny what  little piece of plastic does to people. Anyways, it was really fun. We met a member from Moscow, he asked us if we were from America, then if we were missionaries. It was fun. He had his little boy with him. Also, there was another volunteer there. Her name is Kristina, she was born in Russia but moved to Koln, Germany with her family. She lives there, and just came to St. Petersburg for a month to hang out. Hooray for Germany. At the Hermitage, we just stand at the entrance of the exhibits and tell people not to take in water or their coats. It's a boring few hours, but it's fun. You see lots of interesting people. We also had district meeting, with the CALI district. There's a Sister from Concord, and Elder from SF/Oakland (he claims both), and a Sister from So-cal. And me! Born in Nor-cal. Hecka fun! It was fun to talk to them, we've got an awesome district leader. Elder Fausnaught, from Alabama. He was also born in California. He's super fun, and we're good pals already. Also at district meeting there was this investigator named William (he's an American, so I can say his name). He got married to a Russian, and moved here. He doesn't know a lick of Russian. I don't know how he does anything here. Anyways, he just wanted to come and listen. So he did. But, as it turns out, he wanted to come and counsel us. So Sister Carter (senior couple here) got mad and said we only accept counsel from our leaders and that his comments weren't welcome during our meeting. He was pretty quiet after that. Wednesday... two meetings fell through. Thursday we met with this guy who knows english really well, he's known missionaries since 1998. He said that during our next meeting he'll tell us what he thinks about church and religion. He's been 'lost' from missionaries for a few years. Friday we had a lesson with another guy that knows english pretty well, it was a good lesson. We taught him the Restoration and he promised to read and pray. Also we had a lesson set up with a Muslim guy that called me on the phone earlier in the week. He told me that he needs help, and that he doesn't want to live anymore. So I said "hey, we can help with that" and we set up a meeting. He didn't show up, and I called him every night since. Last night, he answered the phone, handed it to his wife who said that he doesn't need any kind of help, thank you, goodbye. So that was the end of that. Saturday we went to the Dacha (like a summer house) of a member and helped move wood up to the second floor of the house, throught the windows. The member that I was with served in Ukraine, he's 40. He actually baptized his father a few years ago. He's a cool guy. Sunday I officially introduced myself into the ward, it was fun. That was the biggest group of people that I've talked to so far. I kinda drew a blank... but I said some things and now they all know I'm here. That was the week.

I've been reading the New Testament a lot lately, I'm in John right now. I really like John. John 8:12 and John 10 were really cool this week. It's Christ talking about what he does for us. I really love chapter ten that talks about the Shepherd. I really like the New Testament. Heck, I even learn cool things form the Old Testament. I learn things like the Lord's way is the best and only way, when Moses smacks the rock instead of speaking to it. He gets a pretty steep punishment, but he also didn't do exactly what the Lord told him to do. 

That's about it for the week. Love you all. 

Andrew