Russia=cold, crazy, and foreign...so far.

Hi Family!

Today, Monday, is Pday - my first in the field. And I don't know where to start beyond that. So much has happened! First of all, I'm in Russia.. in case you didn't know : ) After I talked to Mom in Denver, we had a 10 hour flight to Frankfurt, which you know. I had been planning on sleeping the whole flight because it was a red-eye, but I was assigned a seat between two elders, so we talked for like 6 hours straight haha. The flight was packed, so I probably couldn't had slept even if I wanted to. NOTHING romantic Mom so don't get any ideas : ) All of my elders from the MTC are long gone (super sad) so it was nice to spend time getting to know some of the elders I will be serving with here in Ekat. Plus, we all had a lot of thoughts and concerns running through our minds, so it was good to talk about things. Anyways, so I tried to sleep in the airport during our 11 hour layover in Frankfurt, but that wasn't too successful if you can imagine. For our flight into Russia, we were all really excited to be with Russian people on the flight and try and speak with them. However, I ended up sitting all by myself in my row, so I slept all but maybe five minutes of the flight (it was about 5 hours). The whole travel to Russia was weird and I for the first time really felt the responsibility to be a representative of Jesus Christ. I was sad I didn't get to sit by a Russian and talk, but I'm learning to be patient...

So, we land in Russia and go through all the tight security, and for some reason, the Customs people starting pointing and yelling at me in Russia. All I understood was "Come" "Look" and "Do you have English books?" I figured they were wanting to look at all of my books in my bags so I opened up my bag and let them search it. Of all like 14 of us missionaries, of course I was the one to be stopped. Anyways, the AP's showed up at this point and talked to them in Russia. Turns out the security guy was curious about all these American missionaries and wanted to know more. So the AP's got a refferal out of him haha. Glad I could facilitate that I guess. Anyways, that is how the mission president frst saw me. The AP's seem really really awesome, and I was so glad to see them at the time. I also met my Mission Pres at the airport. President Alcott seems like a really good guy, both he and his wife. He is very focused on the mission being obedient, and I can tell that that is his "thing." He calls our mission a White Handbook mission and although he is nice, he is not real warm fuzzy, lovey dovey. He is task-oriented and not a big motivator. That's good though. I like that. I can see how our mission would need that kind of leadership. There is a lot of work to do here.

We drive into Ekat next and it honsetly reminded me of Juarez, yikes! It is definitely a couple of steps up from that, but with all the snow, the city looked really dirty and people drive really crazy like in Juarez. All of us were just in a daze looking at all the Russian sigs, etc. I wouldn't have any idea of how to get around this place if I didn't have my trainer or someone with me. Anyways, I'm giving too much detail... SO, the mission home is REALLY nice. You wouldn't tell from the outside, but you walk in and I felt like I was in America again. That is where the pictures were taken of us. It's two floors and really nicely kept. We had an hour to ourselves, to shower or sleep, and then the AP's were making us a Russian breakfast. I was surprised they actually let us rest a lot the first day. I've heard horror stories about people not being allowed to sleep, and since our mission pres seemed strict, I was slightly surprised but really grateful. I slept before breakfast and for maybe three hours that afternoon, and then they let us go to bed at 8:30 that night instead of 10:30. I woke up feeling rested the next day. We did training and orientation those first two days. It was SO nice because all of the trainers were there with us, so we got to ease into getting to know each other a little bit. We stayed at the mission home til 3 the next afternoon and then I was sent to: Chelyabinsk! My first area. My companion is Sister Zaxarova. She is native Russian and really sweet, but very Russian at the same time : )

I've been in "Chili" (that's what they call it) for a little over three days now, and to be honest, I've had a little hard of a time adjusting to everything. I'm trying really hard to be strong, but everything is so foreign to me. On that note, my companion is an obedient missionary, for the most part, but she only has three transfers left in her mission and seems a little less focused on doing the work. That is really hard for me. I still feel like I haven't done any missionary work yet since I have been in Russia. When I got here, I wanted to talk to EVERYONE. To say hi, give a pass along card, or something, but my companion doen't like contacting or tracting. She feels like it is ineffective. In fact, we don't have any new investigators to teach right now, and that doesn't seem to bother her too much. She is really good with the members. They love her. She likes focusing on less-actives, and getting them to come to Church, so most of the appointments she makes are with people alrady in the Gospel. I have gone to two of those appointments. Basically, we go hang out for a while and share a little message. At least that is what I think, it's all in Russian so I don't get most of it. I don't feel like we bring the Spirit a whole lot or anything, but maybe I'm just oblivious. She tells me to be patient, becasue I have only been here three days and we need time to buy my things, have Pday, and go to Church on Sunday, etc. But, I hope I don't have to wait to long to feel like a missionary. I actually decided within myself that if she isn't going to talk to people, I will. That is hard, cuz I don't know how to converse with anyone, but this morning I gave someone my first pass-along card. (I'm going to send this much of my letter now in case I lose any info. The computers are unreliable. I'll send the second half right now.)