Potential

Congratulations to Delaney on state! I will be there to cheer her on next year when they take 1st. As far as the Visas go, that sounds like a pain in the butt, but im sure it will all be worth it! I have had a couple requests of things from the US, either in a package or just to bring when you come. Big Red gum and some of the presidents dollar coins. And some souvenirs from las vegas would be a good idea too. I cant wait to introduce you all to the wonderful friends i have made, members and non-members. This last week we didnt see any new investigators, but we have great potential for the future. we met with a few members out at the far end of our area, another 30 min from moscow a city called Pushkina. I went out there on a split with Elder Clawson, and while we were along the side of a forest, his foot fell in a black mud hole and we had to wash it out in a dirty little stream and try to mask the smell for a meeting that we had soon after that. It was a good little split and we are working closer with the members in our area now. Everyone has given me about a thousand recomendations of what to do when you guys come and there is no way thet we will be able to do everything, but Vitaly Donosov's mom offered to take us on a tour through the kremlin, as she used to be a tour guide there. so maybe that will work out. Today ina few hours we will be going to moscow to play frisbee in the park with a bunch of investigators. I have only really played frisbee once on my mission, so it should be fun. I think I will get some KFC for lunch here in a few minutes. here they call kfc "Rostiks" for whatever reason. I have been eating a lot of Mak Dak lately, so its time for a change. we live right next to this mall and theres such great food here that i would much rather eat here sometimes than making stuff. I dream of mothers home cooked dishes. chicken supreme has been popping up in my mind a lot lately. and italian sodas. America definitely beats Russia in the snack competition. Ive been craving some goldfish and cheeseits and cheetos and white cheddar popcorn and raisinets and so on. maybe its agood thing they dont have all that here so my wallet wont go empty and my health wont get any worse. We had an open house this week in our ward and we had 4 investigators there and overall there were maybe ten non-members, so that was good. This week we will meet with an investigator and her son in law and try to start working with him to help him stop drinking. I havent had too much experience with that on my mission surprisingly, as everyone here drinks, but I figure most of the people that have been prepared to recieve the gospel dont have problems drinking. But thats not always the case. We also have a great investigator named Timur and we are hoping to help him quit smoking and drinking. He is a great kid 20 years old who we met throgh english club and hes stoked about coming to church, hes been twice, and he wants to increase his faith. great sincere guy. well time is up, so good luck this week, cant wait to hear from you next week! Love, ELder Paul

7 letters left!

Thank you to all who are supporting Mitch on his mission! There will only be 7 letters left! On the 8th Monday we (mom,dad, and sisters) will all be in Russia picking Mitchell up!

Sick Elder

Thats funny you metioned elder ellis, because i just had my last Visa trip a few days ago and I was in the same endowment session as him and we talked a little bit after. I have never bumped into elders from other missions in Kiev, so it was quite the coincidence. I cant say that i remember Elder Barnes, I was in the group before Elder Ellis, so i dont know that we met. but let him know that Elder Ellis is alive and well. In other news, right after the Visa trip i got sick and i have been sick for a few days now with a fever, headache, sick stomach. not too fun but i suppose it as bound to happen at some point . I should be better by tomorrow. News on the phone home. Im not going to be able to call you due to the fact that i will have skyping capabilities at the senior couple in our district. I will skype in to dewitt.paul at 7 oclock pm on sunday MY TIME. that might make it 9am sunday mrning your time but you will have to check. If something doent work with that send me an email before sunday and i will call you on my monday, but that should work. Im excited to talk to you! have a good week, I love you guys! Love Elder Paul

Need to Learn Piano

Okay, so as far as the phone home im thinking I will only be able to over the phone unfortunately, but we will see you soon after that though, so no worries. This past week was really good. two days in a row we met on the street Russian Orthodox members who were missionaries ofone sort or another. one was younger 23 and he showed up to church on sunday and seems pretty interested. his nameis Mihayil. Also we went and helped out at an english group that the bishop's wife and kids attend and there were about 15 of the greatest kids! and the bishops kids are the greatest kids ive ever seen! they were so stoked about getting the new triple combination. Onsunday i gave a smal testimony talk as well as Elder Samuelson and another new sister in our district. This morning we went for a littlee run over to a track and i ran four laps in 4:05. too bad it wasnt a mile! We are going to go up to a little town called pushkina and buy some psycho old russian souvenirs and i got your package but i havent been down in moscow to get it yet, so we aregoing down today. The apartment is all sorted out now and im sleeping real well. running today was really fun and im excited to get back into it. We have a lot of potential in this area, and even a couple of old investigators that want to be baptised. also, President Sorenson is fantastic! he had a trip to voronesh and talked to some guy on the way, got his contact and it turns out he lives in our area! way cool! A little more about elder Samuelson, he is musically inclined and plays a few instruments, he does not have a girlfriend back home, heaven forbid, and he has a good graspon the russian language already. One thing i need to do when i get home is to learn how to play the piano. but thats a long time from now. You guys are awesome and i tell everyone about you and share pictures with everyone, so most russians already know you. hope you have a wonderful week and ill let ya know next week when i will call you guys. Much love You Know Elder Paul Here are some of the latest pictures frm Mitch : )

Lots of Potential!

Alright, so heres the deal, the new area has been up and going for about 3 days now. My new companion Elder Samuelson is a great guy from Sandy Utah who is ready to learn. He is already a great missionary. He is half Peruvian and his dad is a scientist. The new apartment is a little underfurnished. no iron yet, so ive worn the same shirt for the last 4 days. hopefully we will pick up an iron today. this area used to be a part of another area in our district, but it was underworked because of its separation from the metro. its about 20 minutes on a train from the station komsomolskaya and we live on the station perlovskaya in what is called Mitischi, and region in the moscow oblast. We have been contacting quite a bit, but havent seen a whole lot of success yet. It seems like the people here have a slightly different attitude and are seemingly less willing to talk. I am sure however, that with the help of the Lord we will find those who the Lord has prepared. This is and will be the hardest area of my mission i think, and it will be a great opportunity to rely on the Lord. We have about 10 members in our area and one of them is active, who is the bishop and his wife. We dont have any of the records yet, we are getting them from the other Elders today, but from what it sounds like, there will be some opportunity to work with inactive members. Everything is completely new. Instead of going to the central building for church, yesterday we went to Sokolniki metro station. our ward is a bit smaller than rechnoy or arbatski with about 60 or 70 at church on sunday as opposed to 100 to 110. There are very few youth, but it turns out that i already know quite a few of the members just from meeting them at the central building, but none of the ones I know are in our area. So thats pretty much whats happening here. I am focused and working hard. Today sister Lawrence is doing a devotional on the tribes of israel, which i am excited for. I love you guys and am excited to talk to you in a few weeks! when is mothers day anyway?? Well, congratulations Katrina on graduating, for a second there i didnt think you were going to make it. Молодец as they say here. Love Elder Paul

The New Area

Alright, so heres the deal, the new area has been up and going for about 3 days now. My new companion Elder Samuelson is a great guy from Sandy Utah who is ready to learn. He is already a great missionary. He is half Peruvian and his dad is a scientist. The new apartment is a little underfurnished. no iron yet, so ive worn the same shirt for the last 4 days. hopefully we will pick up an iron today. this area used to be a part of another area in our district, but it was underworked because of its separation from the metro. its about 20 minutes on a train from the station komsomolskaya and we live on the station perlovskaya in what is called Mitischi, and region in the moscow oblast. We have been contacting quite a bit, but havent seen a whole lot of success yet. It seems like the people here have a slightly different attitude and are seemingly less willing to talk. I am sure however, that with the help of the Lord we will find those who the Lord has prepared. This is and will be the hardest area of my mission i think, and it will be a great opportunity to rely on the Lord. We have about 10 members in our area and one of them is active, who is the bishop and his wife. We dont have any of the records yet, we are getting them from the other Elders today, but from what it sounds like, there will be some opportunity to work with inactive members. Everything is completely new. Instead of going to the central building for church, yesterday we went to Sokolniki metro station. our ward is a bit smaller than rechnoy or arbatski with about 60 or 70 at church on sunday as opposed to 100 to 110. There are very few youth, but it turns out that i already know quite a few of the members just from meeting them at the central building, but none of the ones I know are in our area. So thats pretty much whats happening here. I am focused and working hard. Today sister Lawrence is doing a devotional on the tribes of israel, which i am excited for. I love you guys and am excited to talk to you in a few weeks! when is mothers day anyway?? Well, congratulations Katrina on graduating, for a second there i didnt think you were going to make it. Молодец as they say here. Love Elder Paul The "proud father" of two "sons"!

The Race is on!

Alright so it looks like sister blomquist is probably going into the moscow west mission and then a couple transfers later it will morph into the new and improved Moscow Mission. cuz i didnt see her on our list of incomers. sounds like Delaney is doing pretty darn good, i would die to go to some of her meets. Holy cow phoebe is getting married!(Phoebe is Mitchell's cousin) thats nuts, but i suppose i still have a chance to beat her to it. or at least i can be the first to give Grandma and Grandpa a great grandchild. SO! this friday is transfers and everything will change for the last time. Also, i was thinking about Kyle Barnett the other day, hows that guy doin? maybe you could give me an update on him and if you get the chance, tell Stacy i love her. We met this way cool armenian kid this week and he came to conference and is lovin the book, so thats awesome! it is finally spring here and the weather is perfect today. no coats is on the menu up quick. Im thinking of running in the mornings next transfer with elder samuelson. Everything is just perfect and i will finish off these last two transfers stronger than all the others. I have told a few people that you guys are coming and they are excited to meet you. I will check on the visa thing but i dont think there is a problem with it. I love you guys and pray for you every day. Hows the Grandparents doin? welp love you all, Elder Paul Oh yeah and i saw conference and it was awesome. Probably one of the main topics was Home improvement and it got me way stoked about the family! I think you guys did a pretty good job at raising us kids, or maybe you just got lucky with really easy kids, except for me of course. well have a good day. You Know

All is Great!

This was a pretty good week, we were especially busy with meetings and other stuff this week so we werent forced to contact outside of metros too much this week, so thats a nice change. We spent some time with president this week and had Zone leader Council at his place and sister sorenson, as usual, made an incredible meal! we were actually fed pretty well the whole week, 4 days in a row we were fed dinner for one reason or another, so that was another nice change. So it looks like i can probably tell you whats happening at transfers on the 20th. i will be training my last to transfers. As of right now his name is Elder Samuelson. I will be in Mitischi where we bought an apartment not long ago, little did i know i was picking out my own apartment, i suppose i should have been a little more picky! just kidding the place is great, ill let you know more about it later. we dropped two suitcases of mine off at the appartment today and we are writing home from the mall next to my new apartment. later today we will be in moscow and this way cool kid Dima is gonna show us some of the sight of moscow that we havent yet seen. Later tonight we are going with hopefully two new investigators to the senior couples place for a family home evening event thing, so that should be awesome! I am really excited for the work right now, everything is really picking up and the mission as a whole is doing much better. so all is great! I love you guys and I love this work! Love, elder Paul

Transfers

so pretty big news, but its not even news yet, but chances are i will be transfered on the 20th so new things are afoot. Im excited for conference we will have it here in 2 weeks so on the 14th and 15th im guessing cuz of easter. I didnt even know it was easter next week. crazy. Yesterday at church i met this guy from armenia who is here for work. he knows Elder Watterson really well and when mike found out that this guy, Ara, was going to moscow he gave him my number and told him to call pretending to not be a member and want to get baptised. every missionary's worst nightmare. But its too bad for Mikey i met him at church before he had the chance. Its way cool that me and Mike know a bunch of the same people and are in the same mission area. Today we are going to the museum of modern art with the district, so that should be nice. last week we got a couple new investigators, but nothing showing a whole lot of potential for baptism right now. the mission as a whole did a lot better this week, so i hope we keep it up. I still have a good chunk of time left to make a lot of good things happen and am excited to be an effective missionary in the Lords hands now at the end of my mission where i have a good grip on the language and lots of teaching experience, not to mention the huge spiritual growth ive harvested. well my dear family and friends, keep being great! all you need is love. Love Elder Paul