It's going to be a fun 12 weeks

Hello hello hello everybody! How are you doing? From what I heard, you're all doing great. Here was my crazy, crazy week. On Monday after we emailed we went to this sweet museum that's in our area that was about the Leningrad blockade. That big ole monument, that one with the big tower and the two soldiers standing by it, underneath that is a really cool museum. So we went there. It was super cool. Man, St. Petersburg got absolutely wrecked! Knocked to the ground! It was so sad to see all the videos of the German planes just coming and coming without stopping. Now I understand a little bit more about Russians.. funny how that works. On Tuesday we had a meeting for the trainers where President Clark told us what we were to do and explained the 12 week training program that we were to follow. Basically we're just supposed to be a good example and be optimistic and work hard. He told us that it's really simple. We also had district meeting and I taught the lesson about Chapter 4 in Preach My Gospel. You can all look that up and see what it says so you can read Preach My Gospel like they said to do in General Conference :) On Wednesday I got my new companion. We went to President Clark's apartment at 10 in the morning and had the little intro to the mission meeting and I met my new companion. He's pretty cool. He played lacrosse. He started in ninth grade when they made a team at his school. He's from Preston, ID. You best believe I quote Napoleon Dynamite all the time, probably too much. But that's what I'm doing. So I met him. He came in with one other Sister. We talked about our mission in the Clark's apartment and then it was off to the transfer meeting. After that, we just went right home and we hit the pavement. He's really tired all the time. My jet lag wore off after two or three days but I think it's still getting him pretty good. I don't know why. I made him stay awake until bed time by giving him things to do while I cooked dinner. On Thursday we went to the Hermitage to do service. It was super fun. There was a druggly lady who came and tried to get in, so they locked her in this room with see through doors and then she hit a guard and tried to run away then this huge guy came out of nowhere and clobbered her. They cuffed her up and took her out. It was amusing to watch. I also translated for these British people who were really mad because they missed their tour and were frustrated that nobody spoke english. They got mad at me for the bad message that I had to bear that there would be no refund. It was an interesting day. On Friday we picked up my new companion's registration and had a lesson with the Plan of Salvation guy. It was a really good lesson. New missionaries are chock full of the spirit, and this guy who had never really opened up to us started to open up and he said he would get baptized when he got an answer to his prayers. It was a great lesson. On Saturday we had a big stake service project in the center of the city. We mostly just raked up cigarrette butts and filled up garbage bags with them. It was fun to hang with all the other misisonaries in the city. We had lunch with the guy that has a daughter in San Franciso that Uncle Scott knows. It was fun to talk to him and get to know another awesome Russian family. On Sunday we had church and Elder S. introduced himself to the ward. They love him. Probably because he says funny things to them in Russian. Like when a member asked him if they have big potatoes in Idaho, he said "No... I'm from a small potato. My potato is really small." thinking that potato was city. He also adds random phrases that he knows into my conversations with people on the street. I was talking to this guy who said he loved America, and he rejected us as missionaries but wanted to talk America. He told be about how he likes our government with Congress and the Courts, but he thinks that England has got a better system. I said "and Germany is even better" and we were laughing then Elder S piped up with "It's my fourth day in Russia. I'm an American. Do you want to learn more about my church?" after the guy had already told us he knew about us and didn't want to come to church. Training is going to be fun. It was a really good week. We have lots of activities planned for the next week so I hope that his training experience is fun and not boring. I don't want to just walk around all the time talking! I wanna teach! So, all is well here. Please keep Elder Davis and Russian and Ukrainian missionaries and government leaders in your prayers, we all want to stay here and work! Love you all so much!

Elder G