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

More Apartment Work and Meeting the Suttons

Well, Im in the office right now cuz we had to get some papers to close on another apartment that we just found this week. There will be a new area next transfer in Mitishi. not that that means anything to you, but this apartment has been a lot easier than the last one. we are old pros at apartment hunting in Russia now. Anyway, I met the Suttons here and they are doing fantastic, they are great people and Sister Sutton delivered a hug from Nana, so that was nice. I sent the picture of us to Nana and Papa. This week we had a couple new investigators, but really the prooblem right now is getting people to come to church. i have never really had a huge problem with that before on my mission. Next week we'll get em for sure though! I would go into detail on our new investos, but time is constricting me with his vicious vice. As for the buddies on the Mishies, this is for them. BROSKIS!!! The mission is PSYCHO! and so are you guys!! Heres the deal Boyos, im roundin the old hump and ill be back home by july 20th so whoever is home at that time qualifies for a lunch date with yours truly at IN-N-OUT!!! YEAH! live it up while you still got the chance boys, the mission is for me very very incredible and the blessings be a flowin'! Crack down and keep on crackin' up! Love Elder Mitchell Paul!!!So thats for the boys around the old world.Also i forgot to inform you last week that i got all your packages and they were fantastic and i actually think im gainin the old weight! holy smokes i might even be fat!! so no worries, my metabolism aint what it used to be i guess.I love you guys but i love the Lord more, so dont go gettin a big head, especially you Papa.

LOve Elder Paul