Wow

It was a week. I'll just jump right into it. It's going to be a long email this week. So after we emailed, we got on a plane and went to Kaliningrad. I like it there a lot. It's really pretty. So we got in about 8 at night and had to drive an hour to the city, so it was pretty late. The Porters and Childs decided to have us eat with them, it was awesome! We ate at this really nice little restaraunt and had a great time. We were super late that night, but it's ok. We had permission. Tuesday morning we had a meeting with the missionaries there in Kaliningrad that went well. we got to talk in a really small group which made it more fun. After that we split up into a few groups and went out and made some visits, I went to meet the branch president there and give him a blessing. It was fun, my comp served in Kaliningrad for 9 months and he was just in heaven the whole time! It was fun. After that we all met up and said our goodbyes and we drove to the airport. The Porters flew back to Moscow straight from there, and we had our flight about an hour later. I sat by this young guy on the plane, he was really cool! He works off of the coast of Norway on an oil rig, he's the only Russian and so he had to learn english while he was on the rig. He loves america, the only problem is that he lives in Murmansk, so I gave him my email and told him that I'd email him in english if he wants to practice. That was a really fun time. Wednesday was the day of meetings. we had district meeting (without our district leader, who was on a visa trip) and we all just got to know each other. Then we had staff meeting, which is a meeting with the office elders, couple and the Childs to organize and get the logistics of the mission all worked out. Then we (the assistants) had a meeting with the Childs and talked about some things. We finished the next transfer already, which will be on my birthday. Then we had a few other things we had to take care of to organize Christmas things, so we were in the office for a while and then went to get some groceries. Thursday was good, we had Hermitage service in the morning. Nothing too exciting. Went on splits with the north zone leaders and had a good time. Friday was kinda our p-day. I got another pair of pants for my suit and a new white shirt. My companion got a whole new suit. Then we found some skippy's peanut butter for $1.50!!!!! We're going back today to find more, usually it costs about ten dollars here. We were so happy. that night we had english group. We just changed our english program to have it more effective, now we basically just teach the lessons in english. It's fun and it went really well! There was a woman there who had never prayed before, but she did and she actually started to cry! Saturdayy we drove down to Pskov and it took 8 HOURS. A guy that was driving with us forgot his passport so we had to go back and get it for him. Then the weather was bad and we were an hour late for the 7 pm fireside. It was ok though, all was well in the end. The whole mission presidency came down with us and it was fun to meet them. I'd never met any of them before, but now I know them. Sunday was good, I loved being back in Pskov for church. That was great! It was fun to be in a small atmosphere again. I loved it. We had lunch at the senior couple's house and then we came back and got here at 9 pm. It was a crazy crazy week and we did so much, but this email is shorter than I thought it would be. I guess maybe it just seemed busy, but whatever. 

We learned a lot of cool things from our time with Elder Porter. He's great. One of the things that stuck out to me the most was when he taught us the gospel of Jesus Christ. Especially about agency... we knew that agency would bring all the bad into this world and that by other people's choices we would be hurt... yet we fought for agency and we shouted for joy when we leared about this life. There were a lot of other things that he taught us too, but I don't have time to type them all out. Love ya! Have a good week!

Andrew

For the Christmas card :)

Church building in Kaliningrad