Jan 12th

So I am in Vladivostok now! Such a cool city, Elder Hasebi has flown back to Irkutsk with the Brintons and I am now companions with Elders Hinkson and Jaekal who are the Assistants to the President, so I have dubbed myself the Assistant to the Assistants to the President. It's been an exciting couple of days we have had so many lessons and so much to do. Elder Hinkson is who I went to Moscow with and we have had fun reminiscing. Elder Jaekel (I do not know how to spell his name in English) is super cool too. He is also very in tune with the spirit and really does a great job teaching people. It has been fun with the three of us ,we all get along well. There was a lot of mail waiting for me in Vlad, I got a package from Jamie which had tons of candy in it and the cheese powder from Kraft maccaroni and cheese. I got an invitation to Jay and Rachel's wedding, and I got a Christmas card from home. I also heard that there is another letter in the office for me right now, but I have no idea who it is from. Sorry this weeks email is so short it has been really hectic. 

Happy New Year

This week was New Years! New Years is the big holiday in Russia so there was a lot going on this week. Tuesday night we walked past the park, which we do all the time, and saw that there was a huge party going on, they had giant speakers set up and the huge (probably 4 stories tall) Christmas tree in the park was all lit up for the first time. Then New Years day we had to be inside at 6 so we did some cleaning, and planning, and made peach cobbler from the mix that Grandma and Grandpa Bushman sent, it was wonderful. Then Thursday there was no one on the streets, every business was closed and no one was doing anything. Friday and Saturday things started going a little more every day so we actually had a couple people to talk to on the streets. It seems like today most major things are open again, but according to one Russian guy the "holiday season" doesn't really end until January 12th. I have been keeping a little notebook with me all the time and writing down little interesting things that aren't big enough to make it into the journal at night, and this week I filled up the last couple pages! I know that isn't exciting for anyone else but it was kind of a big deal. In news for the Russia, Vladivostok mission there was a goal for 100 baptisms this year and it was really coming down to the wire if we were going to reach it or not. At the beginning of December I think there were 87, and at 5:07 December 31st the 100th baptism happened, whoo! We even had two baptisms here in Irkutsk in December so that was amazing. Even though the Chinese lady that got baptized moved back to China. I have been trying to take more pictures on P-day, we aren't allowed to take pictures on other days but I am doing my best to photograph my experience here. I would attach pictures in emails more, but we either email in a little Muslim place that has horribly slow email or a basement internet gaming place in which we can't get to a USB port. Hope everyone had a great New Years!