Tina you fat lard

It was a good week. Really slow at the beginning, really fast at the end. On Tuesday we had a district meeting that did not go over time! Wow! It was fun to have a good meeting that was useful and didn't go for an hour and a half long. Anyways, that's my rant for this letter. We afterwards met with the visa clerk in the office. We had an investigator dog us that night. Wednesday we had two meetings. The office staff meeting, and the meeting with president. We mostly talked about the upcoming Zone Conference with Elder Bennett. It's going to be this week and that will take up the week. That night we had splits with the south zone leaders and a stake missionary coordination meeting. We've really helped the members make that a good meeting. We practice with each other different ways to help get members involved in our work. It was fun. Thursday was Hermitage service day. Nothing too crazy to announce about that. Just a good day in the Hermitage. We did some weekly planning after that. Then we had to come to the office to help the office secretary find some things. Friday we had a lunch in the office because Sunday was international women's day. We had KFC brought in which was good and greasy. Right after that lunch we drove to Petro. That drive is so long and it feels so good to sleep for 6 hours. When we got there, we went to a nice Karelian restaurant and I got some great local food. Some beef, pork, and chicken soup with a bread lid on the bowl. It was cool. Saturday was great. We worked with the missionaries all day. It was kinda sad, a lot of their plans for the day fell through but it made me feel better about our area. We did have a good lesson with a less active that I met with while I was there. He's doing a lot better now. All the people that I saw actually are doing a lot better! I'm proud of the missionaries that have been there since me, I've really seen big growth in the ward. We then ran back to the branch building and cleaned it before church the next day. Today was great! I saw lots of friends. I also translated talks from President and Sister Childs. It was tough! They are very educated people and they use a vocabulary that matches! But it was a fun practice. We spent church there, had lunch with the senior couple there, then drove home. Yesterday was President's birthday and a lot of people were calling him and singing on the drive home. We got home super late. We hit the road again early this morning for Vyborg. They had a ward talent show that President was invited to, so we got to tag along. There was a very big turnout and fun things to watch. Lots of piano, a haka, some guitar and uke. It was fun. We came back and we went shopping with President and Sister childs for the zone conferences. That's been the day so far. Not the most exciting week, but it was a good one.

I'd like to go back to the people in Petro. It was strange to see that in the dead of winter there was a better feeling there than there was in the summer when I was there. it usually is the opposite. One member had actually just returned from the temple after receiving his endowment. It was good. The gospel works and makes lives better! I've seen it and this is one of the best examples so far! Love you all!

Andrew

car ride

fun night: Elder Butters

Me

Vyborg Chapel 

Some locals