June 27, 2016

Dear Family and Friends, 

First off, my prayers are with Grandpa.  Grandpa, I love and miss you, thank you for the little note.  You're a wonderful example to me of 1 Peter 2:20-25.  I invite everyone who gets this email to read those verses of scripture that have really helped me a lot in coming to know that these seemingly unfair times and trials we experience in our lives truly have eternal purpose in helping us understand the live of Jesus Christ better.  

This week has been a bit of a fun adjustment!  I went from Kolpino where things were starting to pick up after having to start from scratch for the most part, to Sestroretsk where things are pretty slow right now and we get to start picking things up.  All my mission I've really wanted to teach people, and I can count on one hand people that have progressed and accepted our invitation to learn the Gospel.  It's been humbling, and I think that's the whole point.  I'm excited that we do have one couple who are working their way towards baptism right now!  They've yet to agree on a specific date, but they are well on their way.  Other than that though, we have the whole city to ourselves, as well as several little cities around us.  We have a lot of area to cover, and we're right out in a really nice part of the suburbs.  It's very green here, from our apartment we see the Finnish Gulf, and it's a beautiful area.  I'll need to send pictures of our apartment at some point, it's wayyyyyy to nice.  I thought coming on a mission that things would be gross all the times in our apartments, but I've only had one apartment that wasn't super nice, and it only wasn't super nice in comparison to the other apartments I had been in.  The rest of them are too nice for missionaries.  This one has 14 or so foot ceilings, and it's fantastic.  

Anyway, I've yet to meet the people who are working towards baptism, but we're meeting with them tomorrow, and I'm excited to tell you next week about everything that is going on!  The branch here is really tiny, but it's full of five wonderful families with kids.  There are about 15 members, and 10 kids, so sacrament meeting was a lot of fun.  There's a good feeling of love in this little place amongst the members, and we're helping a recent convert of 2 years prepare to go to the temple.

Lastly, Elder Ward is awesome!  He's from Oregon, and is just the sweetest person I've met.  He's got this big old smile on his face all the time, always just doing his best, and that's all I can ask for.  His Russian is also coming along really well, he's a little молодец!

Anyway, that's really all I have on this front.  Anyone who gets this email, feel free to write me, I can't promise that I'll always respond right away, but I'll definitely read your email and I'll be very glad to hear from you.

This week I celebrate my year mark!  WEIRD.  That's crazy to hear that Ryan is home, give him a big hug from me next time you get.  Did he lose a lot of weight or is he still pretty big?  I just remember Aunt Tricia being concerned that he was going to shrink up like a raisan.  Anyway, I love you all have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Belnap