I LOVE YOU ALL!

Hello!!! It was a fantasmic week here in the city of Petrozavodsk! I'll tell you all about it. Here goes. On Tuesday we had district meeting and did some contacting to finish off the day. I learned a phrase that will stop any Muslim, anywhere in the world. I will tell you and you can try it next time you are on a tourbus with one. "Salam Alekom" (Saul-AUM uh-LEK-um) It works every time. On Wednesday we had a meeting with the Elders Quorum President and it was interesting... he had lost his Skype password and that's all he could think about. It was hard to get him to focus, but we still had a good spiritual thought and talked some business. After that, we had some service at this grandma's house. Her one room apartment... in the heat... with no windows open... taking down wallpaper. It was soooo hot. I was sweating like a pig, it was worse than a sauna. My gosh. It was really fun and the lady was very nice. On Thursday we had English group. It was pretty good, but it could have ben better. Not too many people were there, and it wasn't very well organized this week. Bummer. I also found peanut butter in a store here... guess what brand.. Reese's. I didn't even konw that they made jars of peanut butter, but I got some. On Friday we had weekly planning and it was great. We just talked (I mostly listened) and I think I really am going to have a good rest of the transfer. We're getting along well now, and I've seen improvements already. It's great. Listening and really wanting to help works. Saturday was fun. We had our normal Russian study together, then President Childs came with the assistants and the mission driver. It was fun to be with them. They had a little meeting with our district, they talked to us about how we were doing and things like that. We then met with some members and went on splits to go meet some less actives. It was great, I was with a member and an assistant, and we had a good lesson with a less active member working on quitting smoking. He's doing better. Then we all met up again and had some pizza and pies and tasty Russian food. We just talked and had a good time. On Sunday, we taught gospel principles. It was really... interesting. Some people (including members) just like to disagree with us. I don't understand. They all agree with each other, but not us. It's frustrating sometimes. A member that had gone with us on splits brought two of his friends to church yesterday and one will become a new investigator for us. YESS! Finally.. my goodness, it's been a long time coming. President Childs taught everybody during the third hour, and everybody was very quiet and agreed with everything that he said. After church, we had small interviews with president and talked out some things. It was really good. Right after that, we went to dinner with them at the sisters' apartment. I made some mexican rice, the main dish was tacos. Really tasty. Again, just talked. I really like the Childs. They are really nice and funny. They aren't always really serious, but when they need to be they are. That night we just went contacting, one of the assistants and I ended up talking to this guy on the street for 2 hours. He was really interested in religion, just not changing his. So that was a bummer, but he was really nice and smart and full of common sense. I really liked talking to him.

Well, that's it for the week. I wanted to say something that I learned this week. The atonement is for all of us! Sinners and Saints. We should remember that we can use the atonement to strenghten ourselves even if we're living by the gospel standards. We can become even more like Christ through the power of the atonement. Love you all! Here are some pics.

Andrew

On the bank of the river

flashback to the Pskov days 

(with Elder Kennedy, who we (Andrew's family) got to meet yesterday!)