Hi

Hey y'all! I'm glad that everything sounds like it's going good there in the USA. This was quite the week. Quite the week. So, here goes: Tuesday we had district meeting. That was about it for Tuesday. Wednesday we had a lesson with an investigator who speaks perfect english and is maybe the most logical person I've met here in Russia, he's basically a perfect investigator. He's known the church since the 90's and resurfaced during this transfer. He believes nearly everything that we do about the world. That it's slowly getting away from good standards, that Christ is the Savior, that God loves all of us, even some really specific-to-our-Church things like The Book of Mormon just to name one example. But he just won't get baptized. He doesn't want to for some reason. We're trying to get it out of him, we think his wife and parents have something to do with it. He told us that they didn't like it when he met with missionaries before. That was Wednesday. Thursday we went to the Hermitage. It was cool there, we saw Sister Clark there for some reason... I don't know why. I think she just wanders around there all the time. She really likes art. We talked to her for a while. That was fun. So, this is when things get really good. On Friday, we got....

                                            -TRANSFER NEWS-

Elder Wilkins.... Will be going to the office to be an Office Elder! He's not too thrilled about that.. he really is nervous I think.

I will still be in Avtovo. I will be with Elder Saxton. His last area was Provo, Utah. I'm training. Oh boy oh boy oh boy! I'm so excited that I get to show him the ropes and be his pal but I'm also soooo nervous. I'm going to be the only one who knows Russian... Oh gosh. I'll also be with him here for at least two transfers (until July) unless something crazy happens. Hey, I'm nervous but I'm excited. It's going to be a great time. These transfer calls were on the day before we were expecting them, so that mixed with the crazy news made it a crazy week. Elder Kartchner is coming into our district. We'll be reunited. YAY! Also that day we had a lesson with the investigator whose mother died a few weeks ago. He really likes us and the senior couple here, but he's just not willing to change yet. He said his mom was Russian Orthodox and that was her will for him and he can't really go against her will right now. So that was tough to hear. That night we also had a fun ward activity. We sang kareoke (I don't know how to spell that) and it was fun. I sang some Russian songs with members that wanted me to sing with them, and Elder Wilkins and I sang "Take On Me". It was fun. We're doing it again this next Friday. Saturday and Sunday we watched general conference at the stake center with the stake. There were about 20 people that came on Saturday, about 200 for Sunday morning, and 20 again for Sunday night and Priesthood session. I watched all but Priesthood in Russian. Let's just say I'm excited to get the Liahona and read those great talks (at least I think they were great). That was the week.

Like I said, I'm kinda nervous about this training thing, but Elder Bednar's talk when he talked about the truck and the load in the back and how the load gave traction...that was a good message for me to hear. I liked that. I hope that this extra responsibility will help me to improve and to take it to the next gear, all those good phrases. I loved conference! The Priesthood session was amazing, I loved it all! I love all of you! You are the best!

Elder G