Well hello there family! Well I think I am going to start my emails out now with an interesting fact about Russia:
Interesting Fact #1 : You know those old broomsticks that witches use? Kind of like the broomsticks in Harry Potter, pre Nimbus 2000. Well yeah, those exist here. People use them all the time to dust the streets and sidewalks. They often do it in the rain too, which makes little, if any, sense. But no wonder why people have these predispositions of witches being old, hunchbacked, crazy warts, crazy teeth, and using old rustic broomsticks. Because they also exist here. Thems are called Babooshkee. Or grandmas, for short.
This week we got a baptism and confirmation! Igor came and everything. In Viborg, at the branch building, we actually have a baptismal font, so we don't have to baptize in the neighboring river or Gulf of Finland. BUT! As nice as it sounds to have a font, it took forever to fill up. We had to get to the Branch early to fill it up. The thing is about the water heaters here, they turn off after 10 minutes or so and take about another 10 minutes to warm back up. So granted, every 10 minutes we were either turning on or off the water. Another funny thing about this place is that the water isn't terribly filtered well, so by the end, after we filled up the font, it was a nice greenish yellow hue. How do you like dem apples?
It was awesome though. It really was. We had this 18 kid in the branch baptize him. He is a small little guy, and Igor is pretty big, a little bit taller than me and more dense i suppose. Anywho, after he baptized him, he couldn't exactly lift him back up. It was kind of embarrassing, but all was well. We were all happy. There were two little twins getting baptized right after too so we emptied some of the water and such. Apparently the twins mom is super inactive and she came to the baptism as well. We had talked to this lady who was also pretty inactive and invited her to come, and she did. It was a pretty good turn out to this baptism. Igor didn't want that many people to come to the baptism, but a lot of people showed up. Kind of reminded me of John Tobin's baptism. He didn't really want that many to come. The whole ward ended up coming.
Igor camed and got confirmed the next Sunday which was awesome. He is moving to a city closer to Finland because he got a good job as a chef. Apparently he is a good cook (I wouldn't know), and he likes doing that kind of stuff, which is great to see. We are just worried about his activity now. He says he is gonna be staying there for parts of the week and coming back down to Viborg. So we hope and pray that all good will come out of it.
So on Monday, we came to the realization that we only had 2 Books of Mormon left between the both of us in our companionship. We needed to get more. So we made the trip back down to St. Petersburg and picked up a whole box full at the Mission Office. It was a whole 6 hour adventure. I forgot to mention it's an hour metro ride north, and then a 2 hour bus ride. It took quite some time, but it was our little adventure I suppose.
The other day, some of the most epic seconds of my life occured. We were contacting down in downtown Viborg and we went to their Red Square where a big statue of Lenin is up posing feircefully. Naturally, I wanted to take a picture in front of it. It's not everyday I see a huge statue of Vladimir Lenin. As I was standing there and Elder Hunt taking the picture, I kid you not, the Rocky Theme cued up and it began to rain and the wind picked up. There was a big flock of pidgeons standing around, and as soon as he took the picture, the flock flew away, whilst Rocky was playing and it was raining. My head exploded. It was so grandiouse. There was this kid carrying a boombox on his shoulder playing that song. What a champ!
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. Yeah, there's a castle in Viborg. A pretty big castle, and we do service in it once a week. Again, it's not everyday you see a castle just standing there either. I have a few pictures of it as well. We mainly just help them move stuff around. This week we disposed of old twigs and leaves that were piled up. It was actually a lot of fun, to be honest. Afterwards, he always take this girl on a walk and help her run her arrends. She is a wheelchair and has some sort of impediment, but she really is a sweet spirit. She lives with her mom in the top floor of her apartment so we carry her down and take her to run her arrends. It's one of my favorite times of the week is helping her out.
That's pretty much all that's been going on here. I hope all is going well with you. I love you all. Hey dad, I got your dearelder because we went back to St. Pete. Thanks for that :) I really enjoyed it. Oh, tell Loyal Sharp I got his too. And tell him that I say "I tried, and was successful". I hope he'll understand. I hear Lake Powell is going to be pretty empty this year, in terms of people. I promise you that Lake Powell 2013 will be a time to remember! Perhaps our funnest! But right now is kind of important for me to be here.
With LOTS of love,
С любовью,
старейшина текольви
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