Thanksgiving in Russia? Yes, of course!

Mitch with his Thanksgiving Dinner, being well taken care of!


Mitchell's District - Thanksgiving!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy thanksgiving,

Perhaps a list of things that I am grateful for would be appropriate on such a day:

I am thankful for: parents who reared me
A Living Prophet and Holy Writings
My Mission
My friends on Missions
My Brothers and Sisters
The wonders of Email
people who smile back on the metro
a complex tounge (language)
Russian Hairstyles
Prayer and Fasting
Babushkie with died purple and blue and red hair
Sister Watterson and the Watterson Family
The Donosovie family
Star dogs and its tasty hot dog treats after a long day
Parents, Grandparent and family who love me
And Most Importantly our Shepherd, The Savior, and His Infinite Atonement

Transfers are coming up tomorrow actually, dang! And I will be staying in a companionship with Elder Rudd. This next transfer is going to be awesome; I’m so excited about the work. And Elder Rudd is an awesome companion.

The work here seems to be picking up. English cl;ub last night was awesome and I got a guys phone number who is going to be an awesome member his name is artur and he is wicked tall and looks half african, but hes from ukraine. I haven’t met with him yet, but hopefully will in a week.

We met with Babushka Alla again this week and I feel so bad for her but she is so positive about life. One of the only Sane Babs in Russia. And we sat and listened to her talk about the most random things for about an hour and I loved it, cuz she just loves to have someone to talk to because she lives all alone and she never goes out because she has really bad arthritis. She’s awesome.

There is a man names Oleg from English club who I am stoked to meet with. We invited him to church last week but he didnt make it. I hope to meet with him this week. He is about 50 years old and he is divorced and now living with a "sort of" wife and he has two daughters and he is the nicest man. There are so many great people here, I’m stoked for all of them.

My Russian is progressing and I am so grateful for that.

I love you all and such love cannot be tamed.

Elder Paul

Thank you to all of those who are supporting Mitchell on his mission! We, his family, are truly grateful! Happy Thanksgiving!

Short and Sweet

So Things are going very well. The Book of Mormon is rocking my world. Its a shame i didnt read it at least 50 times before the mission, cuz now i wish i had.
Im stoked to be here and be doing this wonderful work. Im sorry this week is going to be a little short, im running low on time and such and there is work to be done. If there is any words of wisdom that i could give you this week, it would be to ask people questions and learn from them. Just talking to a Bab on the train ride for 20 min. you can learn so much. People are more interesting than books, and they are worth a whole lot more too, so if there is anything you can to to increase brain power, it would be to make a new friend and pick their brain. thats just something ive been thinking about lately...so yeah...ladna

happy thanks giving...or is that next week? no idea i have no concept of time anymore. so if its your birthday, then congratulations, go do something with the rest of your life...like missionary work.

Well love you all,Stay classy.
Love From Elder Paul and co.

He's missing jury duty, but serving the Lord!

Dearly Beloved,

Of all the times to get called to do Jury Duty in my young youthful life it had to be when I was 10,000 miles away darn it all.

Well here I am in this internet cafe and I am thinking about what happened this past week. well perhaps too much to remember. Or too little to forget...either way I am at a loss of words.

We met with 2 new investigators this week and we are going to have to pass them because they do not live in our area...but we are getting passed someone with a baptismal date, so that will be great to be able to work with and teach someone so prepared to hear the good news.

It’s hard to believe that I have been on my mission for almost 5 months...and I still don’t know the daggum mother tounge. There are a bajillion words and they all conjugate differently and it’s blowing my brains out the back of my skull! But I love it so much and I can’t wait till I can freely gavareet c loodyamie.

oh yeah, visa trip is coming up in a few weeks. It only takes about a day and if I get to Kieve at the right time then I can do a session in the Temple!!! I can’t wait to go to the Lord's House.

I got a new tie for about a dollar at the second hand store cuz it looks like picasso sneezed all over it.
I also went on a split with the international Elders while my Comp and one of them was in a training meeting. Oh yeah, Elder Rudd is our district leader, I don’t know if I told you that...but anyways we chilled with these awesome guys from Nigeria, one of them is named Clement and we had a lesson and challenged two of them to baptism and they were totally stoked. The difference between teaching Russians and Africans is about 100 to 1. Probably something to do with the Africans humble circumstances, I don’t know. I sure do love the Russian people though, there are no other people like them.

We were in a meeting the other day with Babushka Alla...she was the very first meeting I had in Russia, and we have probably visited her about 5 or 6 times...anyways she talked for an hour straight about anything under the sun and one of the things she said is if there is one thing that you can gain from talking with Russians and one thing that Russians give for free, its advice. Russians are all about giving advice, and sometimes its right on the mark but other times its just totally awesome....like if you are ever sick they will tell you to eat honey and sniff an onion or do something crazy like sleep with garlic in you socks...anyways, bab alla is awesome and she gave me and Elder Rudd ties, and mine is an awesome soviet tie...and a soviet sweater too.

It’s hard to stay stoked and positive about missionary work all the time, sometimes you just have to step back and think about how much you love it...it’s hard to have that broad perspective when you are living second by second.

I went to a japanese restaurant and now I like sushi.

I got a haircut today and it looks way rooskie (russian) Short on the sides and a bit longer than normal on the top and a little longer in the front. dont worry, its можна.

darn jury duty.

well, until next time, have a wonderful winter.

oh its not too cold here yet, i went and got my haircut in shorts today and it wasn’t even cold...but apparently this winter is supposed to make record lows, we're talking -40C (about -40 F)_

well happy thanksgiving. I’m thankful for 10 cent loaves of bread.

Your Friend in Time,
Elder митчелл джонсон пал

Half way through second transfer, and this is what Mitch is up to:

Dear family members and aquaintances alike:

I cant really remember what happened this week, all the weeks are blending together into one.
I have a confession. I bought Back to the future in russian today. It cost 50 rubles-about a dollar 50. Now i will just have to let the sight of it haunt me until the end of my mission. haha
Please pray for me so that i can have the courage to find new investigators. im not gonna lie, its dang hard. Pray for the people here in Moscow to be receptive to our message. We are just some punk american teenagers that nobody cares about except for the fact that we speak english.
I have been on a split for the past couple of days because elder rudd had a visa trip. one of the highlight of the split is me and elder owen went to Dima's PE class thing at university and we got kicked out not because we werent students, but because we were wearing dress shoes! Dima is in another are, but he is an awesome kid with way long hair in a ponytail and an earing. He is reading and praying and he is totally gonna get baptized.
To answer your questions mother:
We do english club every other week. we trade off with Elder Rex Morgan and Elder Scott Owen...great elders. There are usually about 30-35 people in our group soit gets kinda crazy sometimes.
As far as service goes, we kinda just do it if it comes up. We havent actually planned any actual service activities because its very hard to get permission. Sometimes we go to peoples flats and help them with english or carry stuff like groceries for the old babs.
There are about 8 church building locations here in moscow all part of the moscow mission. The central building where i go is just one of the meeting places-one of the more popular ones though because of its convenient location.
I have not met Elder Lawrence yet.
I saw general conference in english a week after the one in US.
I bought the double breasted Suit on my second P-day at the renik and it was probably my bast purchase yet. 80 dollars...im not spending any more money though i assure you.
The crystal in the kinder shelves is the landlords along with a lot of other things in the apartment, like a bookshelf full of books including Pambo 1-3 in russian
Those hats we got at red square and that is me and Elder lex from austria...I hope to serve with him sometime.
I ate at Mak Dak today and i had rostix (KFC) yesterday
Russia is the best. I love my mission. and Kenny G with thirteen albums cost me about a dollar 50.
You all are great I have one min. left!!!
From Russia with Loobov
Elder Paul