No More Plastic Pictures (happy mom, sad Elder)

great pictures! skyping was pretty fun.
i forgot to get a family picture with all of you on the computer screen and me, maybe next time. I suppose you already know everything. i guess i will change the setting on my camera now, so except some uninteresting photos in the future. I started reading the infinite atonement and i am impressed to strengthen my testimony of the atonement, as it is the most important docrine of the gospel. this is one of the things that i have learned so far on my mission as well as many others. i have also learned that the miracles never cease here in moscow. this last week was probably the best week i have yet seen on my mission, full of spiritual meetings and helping new investigators to recieve truth in their lives. I have been blessed. there are so many wonderful people here and i hope to help as many as i can. I am grateful this Christmas for the atonement and for incredible parents who teach me about it. I am also grateful for a somewhat stable mind. enjoy these pictures, as they are the last "plastic looking" ones you will recieve.
I love you guys and thank you for all good things that you do. if there is anything i can send you let me know. thanks. and as for the comment about delaney being the most gifted of us, i meant it.
love elder Paul

Skype!!!

We got to skpe with Mitchell for an hour and a half this morning! Best part of Christmas for all of us!

Happy Christmas

This week a few new missionaries came in, three russian sisters and 2 elders, but the one elder is from england and he is still there for his visa. his name is elder potter, go figurte. elder ablett's birthday is today, so thats awesome. mine will be here in 2 months, thats next transfer! holy cow the time is flying. we are really getting into the Christmas spirit right now. Excited about gifting our investigators and favorite members and zone members. i love the Christmas Spirit. I will hopefully see you guys on skype in a few days, what time? 7 ? yeah and get on even an hour aqand a half early just in case we swap timers but that probably wont happen. heres some more pictures.
and HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!
love elder paul

Some Pictures! Mitchell decided that he likes the poster setting on his camera which makes him look like plastic. We hope that he still likes this feature in 50 years : )

Stoked and Trying to Pump Up the Work

This past week in our district there were a bunchh going on visa trips and it turned out that we were in a threesome with elder roberts. in order to work our area more effectively, we called up vitaly donosov and asked him to come on a split for the day. in short, i got to spend the whole day doing missionary work with Vitaly!! it was one of the greatest days of my mission. we met with a member and an investigator and also went contacting. Vitaly got way stoked when we were contacting. it was really fun and i really wish i could serve with a russian. He is going to be a great missionary.
Elder Palmer and i are really trying to pump up the work in our area and get others stoked about it too. i realize statistics are not the most important things, but they track progress and success, and right now we are really focusing on picking up the stats and when other missionaries see that it is possible, they will hopefully strive for higher statistics and work harder. the mission could really do with a good charge up right about now.
we are today having a get together at the packards cuz its their last week. and there are a few transfers in our district too.
lots of other good stuff hapening with the work but im out of time. talk to you soon. capture the Christmas spirit in your hearts and in your lives always.
Love Elder Paul

Meditation

So life couldnt be better. we are seeing great success and our zone is doing great work. Our zone is coming up on a few baptisms here on christmas eve, i hope they dont fall through, thats been a big problem lately. also, we have met with a guy from burma lately named Mo and he is a way cool guy, buddist and the nicest guy. buddism is really interesting to me. he has agreed to read the Book. also other great success. Roman who is ready to be baptised still needs to come to church. he is a great guy with incredible self defence knife moves. if you live in the republic of dagistan you have to be able to protect yourself, or you die.
We ate at TGI fridays the other night with Mo and had a grand time. on sunday i participated in 2 baby blessings. one of them vitaly gave for his sisters baby and it was the first time his sister was at church in 6 years, way cool. things are unfolding before my eyes and everything makes perfect sense, my studies have enlightened me and i am moving on to level 2-meditation. just kidding, but seriously. meditation for buddists is like prayer for us...but entirely different. there is a capsule in the middle of my brain where i store energy and in order to refill it i must perform at least stage 2 meditation, most likely stage 4.

Love,
Elder Paul

Diggin the Short Hair

As far as the pictures are concerned, i have no computer capabilities and i am afraid you might have to wait a couple more weeks before i hit up a different internet cafe. so i cut my hair really short again, like i did las year christmas time.i am starting to like it more and more and i wonder why i never cut my hair this short back home...i can almost hear your voice in my ear telling me how good my hair looks short and that i should cut it. wow is it only a few weeks until the phone call? time really does fly, and its been i while, i would still eat those fish sticks though. this week we met with Diego and his wife at the walkers and had a great meal and lesson. He has known the church for 10 years and she accepted a book of mormon in russian. they would be perfect in the church. We met with a young guy named Misha who loves his family. its awesome to see people who have such a great relationship with their family, that is getting more and more rare it seems.

as i continue to study the scriptures and share my testimony with others, my testimony is strengthened and one of the things that that helps with is prioritising. the stronger our testimony the easier it is to prioritise and schedule everything that we do in our lives. i see a direct relationship to this. I believe that the scriptures are answers to our questions, and when we read them we will not only find answers, but questions that we didnt realize we had. Never don't study the scriptures.
I love you all and i am grateful for the support that you give me. keep being great.
lOVE eLDER Paul