October 26, 2015

Dear Family/Friends,

First off I just want to thank you all for your letters this week!  It's so much fun for me just to hear about all the fun little things that are going on in peoples lives, I think that's why I like talking to the бабушки so much because they just talk about the little things and it's tons of fun!  Also, I might not be able to write any letters next week because we have an awesome opportunity to go to Novgorod for P-Day and actually look around!  We have to do Zone Training the next day, so we just got permission for it and we'll go down a day early, start our splits that night and go home the next day!  Anyway, just wanted to let you know that first so that you're not too concerned if I don't write a letter next week!  Thanks for all the stories too mom, I love the one about the cat, just too cute!  You all are always in my prayers and I hope you know that (that goes for all my friends on this email list too)!  Anyway, I have to make this quick, but what DIDN'T happen this week, I'll try and make sense.

So we've had a lot better of a contacting week than usual.  It's funny, Elder Simonsen and I are just two entirely different people, but as we've communicated more, it's just made a world of difference.  We've been going around to meet with Less Active members in our area and we've had a lot of success and also a lot of curses thrown our way.  Nothing out of the ordinary though.  We have a new investigator named Viktor that we met with on the street and he's awesome.  We had a great conversation and we'll have our first meeting tomorrow.  We're also meeting with a less active family tonight with the sisters (in their area) and we have a message planned out that we really feel like they need to hear and we're just so excited!  We also had an experience the other day in the middle of ward council after church when these two rough looking guys came in asking about what we believe.  There were some lingerers who were talking with them and the Elders Quorum President and I went out and joined.  Anyway, it was just such a powerful experience about the importance of members.  It was a 4 member present lesson and it was just so awesome.  At one point one of the two guys was asking one of the members about what I was even doing here as an American who doesn't even understand what he was saying right then, and I just responded "Actually, I completely understood what was just said, and if you want to know why I'm here, it's because of this book."  And it was the strongest testimony of the Book of Mormon I've given on my mission.  It was just so awesome, and it really helped strengthen some relationships with some members of the ward.  One of the tiny little old бабушка's in our ward gave me all the days she was free to help with lessons right after.  We also called the two guys that night, and as soon as we find out if either tomorrow or Thursday works better for them, we'll have 3 new investigators!  And we got a referral the other day, and we're still trying to set up an appointment with him, but if that works out then 4!  AHHH, I'm just too excited right now, it feels good that we've been trying hard and things are finally starting to come together.  Also, I did get to see the Powell's which was a lot of fun (with permission from President Childs of course).  We get breakfast for a little bit and then Janae was like "Christopher you know I love you, but I'll see you again in 20 months.  This is my one chance to see the Hermitage."  I was laughing too hard.  Thanks for remembering everything mom!  We're pretty stoked for some pumpkin pie.  Anyway, we also did Hermitage service this week which was tons of fun, and I also just have a couple funny pictures of notebooks we found at a little store here!  That's pretty much all!  Love you tons, thanks again for all that you do, hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Belnap

Hermitage

Tapestry in Hermitage

CAB outside Hermitage

Gate opposite Hermitage

October 19, 2015

So drumroll please....Still in Nevsky for another 8 weeks!  This is a weird transfer, just because of the schedule of missionaries coming in, we need to have an extra long one this time.  I'm really excited because Elder Simonsen and I really seem to be hitting our stride.  We're still not nearly as good at contacting as we would like to be, but we've been improving a lot which has been nice.  It's really awkward sometimes because, as missionaries, our purpose is to invite others-as Elder Bednar so simply put it-to "Come and See."  Come and see if our message adds to what you already have in your life, come and see if it enriches what you already hold dear, just very simply, come and see if this is the truth for yourself.  That's why we don't walk around waving pamphlets in people's faces on their way out of the metro, but that we invite them politely, but firmly to see if this is something that they think would bless their lives.  BUT when we walk up to someone and introduce ourselves as missionaries, it immediately turns them off.  Then on the other hand, when we start a normal conversation (which are always so cool and interesting, even not as a missionary I want to do that because there are just so many cool and interesting people), it can be so awkward to try and introduce our message into the conversation.  I just need to remember what Elder Holland said that if we're trying to talk with them that at some point in the conversation, there will be a gospel truth that we can bear testimony of.  Anyway, that's sortof how the contacting goes for us, we're trying to be a lot better, and just not feeling so awkward.  Because if they don't listen, or they're not interested, then ok that's awesome, we're not trying to coerce anything out of you.  But if they are interested and do want to know more, then I don't want to think that I missed out on talking to that person just because I was too afraid to open my mouth.  And me being afraid to open my mouth?  It's never happened before, why should it happen now!

Anyway, I wasn't hurt too bad by the tree, it hurt to walk for a couple of days, Elder Williams got his suit all dry cleaned and he's all good, and other than the bruise on my leg I escaped with just a few bumps on my head.  To answer all your questions, we get up at 6:30, exercise, and then an hour for breakfast and showers, 8:00-11:00 we do personal study and 2 hours of companionship, then 11:00-12:00lunch, then 12:00-1:00 language, and then whatever comes up after until 5.  Then 5:00-6:00 we have dinner, 6:00-9:00 contact and then do our daily planning and get ready for bed.  Yeah I've kept losing weight, going to poke another whole in the belt soon, but Elder Simonsen and I have been eating REALLY well.  He's a good cook and we pooled our money together so it's all worked out really nicely, and I just help with all the little things while he also teaches me.  On P-Day we just do whatever needs to get done/miscellaneous things we've had on our to-do lists.  We've recently been contacting while going to less actives homes, so that we can ring their apartment and offer them a Liahona.  It hasn't worked out yet, but we've only been doing it for a couple days, we just feel strongly that we need to reach out to a lot of the Less-Active members of the ward here.  Anyway, this week Sister Wixom came along with Elder Porter and their respective spouses.  It was cool to find out that the Porter's knew you!  It was so much fun, and we just had a wonderful meeting where they all talked and a couple from the audience were asked to give their testimonies.  Also, I had a really good conversation with our Eternal Investigator, Alexander the other day.  I've felt that we still need to do the little things for that man, call him and invite him to things, ask him why he wasn't able to make it to church if he didn't, things like that.  Anyway, last night I called him just to see, and at the end of our conversation he said (in English) thank you for remembering me.  Thank you for caring about me.  It really touched me, and it just made me feel so happy.  People just need a little bit of love sometimes, just a little extra bit on your part can change people's hearts and make them feel so very grateful!  I just want to encourage all of you to be a little more aware of the little things in life you can do to help people around you!

I'm glad you've been able to do so many fun things while you've been in Utah this time around, you'll have to send me pictures from Halloween when that comes up.  Anyway, I love you so much Mom and Dad (and everyone else who gets this email).  Thanks for all your prayers/well wishes/good vibes in my direction!  Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Belnap

Got to see both Elder Mehr and Sonderegger!  Elder Mehr was shocked when he saw me and at how different I looked!  Also, I'm going to Novgorod this week again for a baptismal interview that Elder Simonsen needs to do!  I'll be aware of the trees!

October 12, 2015

Дерева упала на меня!

I couldn't think of what the subject for my email should be, so I just decided to tell you the craziest thing that happened this week, and then if you speak Russian you don't need to read the rest of this email, and if you don't then you'll find out soon.  Before I forget, the music you can put on an SD card or a CD (CD's work in every apartment, SD's might send better and should work in every apartment but apparently don't sometimes, it's really up to you and what's easiest for Spencer to do).  I also forgot that Piano Guys is можно as well.  Also, if you haven't already assembled the package, a small, spiral bound, laminated PMG would be great (I'm only 3 months in and mine is dying), a vacuum seal bag would be great too, along with some small and big ziploc bags (those can just be fillers if there is space), some scripture-underlining pencils, a small Merriam-Webster Dictionary (you'd be surprised how valued/needed and English dictionary is during personal study), and some American goodies if at all possible (preferably starbursts would be included).  Other than that if there's room, makings for pumpkin pie, and for stuffing (Elder Simonsen and want to eat nice for Thanksgiving).  Phew, now that I finally got all that taken care of I can tell you about this crazy week!

First off, this week has just felt like night and day.  Also, I was really lucky and I got to watch the Sunday Sessions, and Priesthood all in English one of the themes that I got from conference is that things take time, which was such a comfort to me.  Now, that's not to say that we can't work hard in the here and now, Elder Bennett (who we got to meet a few times in Moscow!) talked about how we need to counter the desire to procrastinate, put off, or give up.  We shouldn't say that it takes time in order to procrastinate, but just realize that God has a plan for us and that as we do our part that he will magnify our efforts (President Eyring).  I just love that message!  Don't put off and procrastinate, but also realize that we're moving in the right direction and that to reach our goals, time, patience, and enduring to the end are required.  I hope you all enjoyed General Conference as much as I did (although I didn't get too much out of the Saturday Sessions).  For those of you who don't know what that means, essentially it's a time for us to get council from the leaders of our church about how we can improve and change our lives to bring us greater and lasting happiness.  If that's something that would be interesting to any of you, it's easily accessible onhttps://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2015/10?lang=eng!

Anyway, from this week.  Oh how this week was just ridiculous.  So last week we had another Missionary Leadership Council which means that we get to do another Zone Training.  We got to go to Novgorod, and this time I wasn't sick for it!  It was so much fun, we just took the train down first thing in the morning and then at night we came back up.  After Zone Training we had a little bit of time, and I got to go on a mini split with Elder Williams who is just an absolute riot.  He reminds me a lot of Jeffrey McDonald actually.  Anyway, so we were contacting, and he asked me if there was anyplace in particular I wanted to go, and I said "It would be cool if we could go by the Kremlin" so we went that way.  Anyway, when we were there, we were walking through this grove of really tall trees around the Kremlin, when a big gust of wind blows in.  We were jokingly acting scared when all of a sudden, we heard a crack like thunder and we look back and the tree behind us was falling down right on us!  And it was big!  I wish my camera wouldn't have died otherwise I would've gotten a picture.  Anyway, I turned around and booked it, but then I realized I didn't know what direction it was falling, and I look back and it's about to fall on me!  Fortunately I was booking it, and it was a lot of smaller branches that hit me, but I still got knocked to the ground and got pretty scratched up along with a couple big old bruises on my leg.  Elder Williams was smarter than me and dove out of the way, but his suit was just covered in mud.  When he saw that it had knocked me to the ground, he ran over, but I got out just fine, we were just so shaken up by it, but the best part is we had a really nice contact right after with a lady who came and said "Дерева упала на тебя" and I replied, "Да дерева упала на меня!"  Which means, "yes, a tree fell on me!"  It was crazy, and Elder Williams and I were pretty shaken up so we started going back home after that, but they've started working with this lady and hopefully things will work out!

Anyway, I don't have a lot of time, but it's just been such a fun week.  Elder Williams and I were talking right after that experience how miracles really do exist.  We were talking about how what would have happened if we were just a little slower, or a little too slow to realize that it wasn't actually a crack of thunder.  We truly felt blessed and humbled by that experience, and I prayed really hard after that just thanking our Heavenly Father for the blessings that are in my life and the miracles that happen around the world daily.  I love you all so much and I hope you have a fantastic week! 

Love,

Elder Belnap

None with me in them, but one from when I first arrived in novgorod and one from my split with one of the AP's (we got to spend the whole time contacting on Nevsky Prospect!)  Anyway, love you, bye!

October 5, 2015

 I decided that I totally lost track of all the weeks, so that I'll just take after your example mom and just say what week it is.  When I can actually think of a creative title I'll try and be witty, but no time on P-days to waste!  It's so nice that we have a washer in our home and we just leave things out to dry (every apartment in the mission has one) because I have no idea how we would have enough time to do it all on P-days.  Today we're planning on just getting a couple things that are needed for the apartment (we'll get reimbursed, but it's a super nice, and fairly new apartment and a lot is missing) and then go back and just get some study of last General Conference because unfortunately I need to listen to it in Russian.  What my companion and I are doing right now is just listening to some of the talks while we are writing home.  It's not the most effective way to listen to conference, but I hope it'll help when I try to understand it in Russian.  Before I forget, I'll go ahead and let you know a couple of things I've thought of for the package (also would you mind telling the Powell's to try and get in contact with the mission office to get my phone number, I've still yet to talk to President Childs about getting permission to have lunch with them, but I've heard there's a precedent for that already so fingers crossed).  Anyway, I was thinking about what I would want, and as I said earlier, President is very lenient with music, and just says as long as it invites the Spirit, so I've talked with a couple Elders, and decided on stuff that will be appropriate.  As I said, Glorious by David Archuleta (for some reason everyone has that one) Vocal Point (BYU Accapella Group), MoTab, and the LOTR Soundtrack.  That was one that I asked a lot of people about, but I feel like it's можно (allowed).  

I'm so glad you've had such a great week, it seems that things are just going well at the home, and that you're actually able to leave it every once in a while, unlike our first year.  I'll go ahead and get started on this week.  Frankly, this week has been a little harder for me.  Elder Simonsen had his turn to spend most of the day on the toilet, so we stayed inside for a couple days this week.  Whatever it was, it wasn't what I had, because he still had an appetite, and he got better after a couple days.  It's just been a little harder, because we haven't felt very effective while contacting, our one investigator stopped contacting/responding to us on a dime, and I've frankly just felt weighed down by the wasted opportunities I had to prepare for a mission, and now I feel like I'm stuck playing catch up instead of trying to help people to come unto Christ with all the focus I can muster.  I'll just share a couple of things that have helped me.  Last night was especially hard for some reason, and I was reading through some talks from last conference and I read "Latter-day Saints Keep On Trying!" by Elder Dale G. Renlund.  He just talks a lot about how the Lord cares a lot more about where we are going and what we are becoming than where we were.  It's hard to know that instead of just having lived in Russia for a month, I've lived here for a year and a month, and instead of reading the scriptures, I watched Netflix and spent my whole day socializing.  I've just felt that weight a lot lately, but I hope that my word can be an example to others when I say, IT'S NOT WORTH IT.  Even though I've had a hard time, I'm happiest when I get to build relationships with people on the street, serve the bishop and make his burden easier, and establishing relationships with members of the ward.  I've just been trying really hard to focus that the Lord cares more about where I'm going than where I was. 

Anyway, I'm going to get going, I love you so much mom, I got to listen to Elder Holland's talk just a few minutes ago, and I have to agree with him about the love of a mother!  I love you so much, let everyone in the family know I love them so much, and I hope you all just have the best week! 

Love,

Elder Belnap

So there is a building being built next to ours, and we saw this guy rappelling down the building on literally just a little plank of wood, and he was just chilling there smoking a cigarette.  I'm not even going to try and understand.

our break the fast feast from yesterday.  Also, I forgot to mention in the email, I won't be at the Hermitage this week, because I get to go to Novgorod tomorrow!  Woot!  Anyway love you bye!

September 28, 2015

I'm alive, I promise!

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=377919958047613949#editor/target=post;postID=1474870047801422574

Well,  I don't have too much time today, so I'll try to keep it short and relatively to the point.  We won't get to watch any of the talks from Women's Conference, but when the Liahona with all the talks comes out I'll be sure to read that talk from President Uchtdorf.  I'm honestly so excited for General Conference, I think that now more than at any other point in my life, I've been praying just to receive answers and increased understanding on how to approach a problem, and I know that the Lord answers questions by the means of his prophet and General Authorities.  It's just so exciting, and I wish that I had cared this much and had been this excited back home.  I love the Nursery story, the blood moon story, and just the fact that you're able to enjoy things more this time around then we were able to during our first stint in Utah.  That's so cool how the surgeon was in our stake in NYC, I love hearing stories like that.  I'm also glad that things are going well with Grandpa, he and Grandma sent me an email last week, and I just miss them (and you all) tons!  I hope things are going well with them and at the home.  Have you finally decided on what you're going to do in terms of changes to the house?  Anyway, since I don't have too much time I'll get started.  Oh, until I forget, Sheri Dew spoke at the MTC, and she's just so awesome!  I'm glad that Rebecca was able to have such a cool moment with such a wonderful person.  Anyway, this week:

First off, a little PSA.  Yes I've lost about 30 pounds already, but I also put on quite a bit of weight before coming out, so now I'm just a little bit ahead of the curve in terms of thinning out on my mission.  So things are all good.  Second, now that I'm finally getting back into the swing of things, my pants are already too small.  I've poked an extra hole in my belt, but это не достаточно (it's not enough).  It's kinda sad that my brand new suits probably have an expiration date of around 6 months into my mission, but missionaries already have a suit guy here where they can get there suits for $200 and less, so it'll all work out just fine.  This week I got to go on my first split because I was finally alive enough to do so.  His name is Elder Saxton and he's been out for about a year and 9 months, and he's awesome.  He seems to have found the balance of working hard, but enjoying it and having more fun than you've had at any other point in your life.  He's a great Elder and we had some really good conversations.  We didn't get an opportunity to contact, and that's because we had a lesson with Albert on the day of the split!  Albert is awesome, and is really knowledgeable about the Bible, but has also taken a lot of very biased internet sources about Jospeh Smith for doctrine.  It's ok though, because he has a really strong desire to come to know truth, and whether or not the Book of Mormon really is the word of God.  We're meeting with him again today at a member's house (plus our first lesson was with a member present at the Church building) so things are going really well and I'll keep you posted!  That's another thing that has been awesome, so the ward members here were a little upset because they feel like the Elders aren't working as hard as the Sisters, and so in Ward Council we asked what we can better do to involve members of the ward and better help the ward fulfill their missionary responsibilities.  They gave us a couple of things to do, and Elder Simonsen and I took care of them that night.  It's already made a difference with how we work with the ward members and I hope it will help change their opinions of the Elders.  We're just excited to help make that relationship better as well!  Also, since we're Zone Leaders, we got to lead a discussion at ZOne Conference last week just about expectations and how to find out that, what the Lord expects of us.  We had a really good and productive conversation, and I wish I had time to leave you all some thoughts from that, what we discussed there.  Oh also, at ward council I understood the смысль (sense) of almost everything that was said!  It was so awesome!  Anyway, I'm just having so much fun here, and I love you all so much.  Like I've said before, thanks for your prayers/well wishes/thoughts/whatever you send my way because it is felt and appreciated!  Love you all and I'll talk to you soon!

с любовью (with love),

Elder Belnap

1.  This is a picture of the Lada that I want.  I love them so much, they're just like an old little car that you see everywhere here, but that don't exist in the states.  I think it would be so fun to ride around in one of these.  I've already decided that since there's a dealership in Mexico (something funny we found out from contacting) that I need to get my hands on one.  

2.  Some sweet Star Wars poster that someone left buried deep in the apartment.  Liam Neeson is my hero in life.  

September 29, 2015

Hey mom, I know it's not P-day but I realized I forgot to let you know the information that you asked me about so I need to watch some videos for my training and my companion said it's ok if I just let you know.  I think my iTunes Username is belnap.christopher@gmail.com and the password is one of three:  bisley1996 , olympus1996 or, 12281932chralanb.  Hope that helps/works, and let me know next week!  Also I took a lot of money off the card because I needed to purchase a lot of things, an inbetween coat, a bible and a couple others.  Anyway anything else can wait until next week!  Love you have a great day!

Elder Belnap

September 21, 2015

Well mom, as disappointed as I am that you have no stories for me this week, I can't exactly say that I did any better.  Actually I can say with confidence that I'll share less stories with you than you did with me, because I literally have zero stories.  If I had to give a break down of my week I would break each day down as follows:

Sleep:  12-14 hours

Time on the toilet:  10-12 hours

That's about it!  If you haven't figured it out by now, I had the worst week long bout with a stomach bug that I have ever had.  I'm still trying to get over it, and I haven't had a desire to eat since two Sundays ago, which has lead to massive and probably unhealthy amounts of weight loss (I think I might have started my wedding diet just a little too early...oops).  Remember how I said that I was feeling a little ill last week and that I was hoping that I would be past it soon?  Well I was wrong, literally the most I've eaten in the last 8 days in a single day was a few crackers and a drinkable yogurt, and as previously stated, I've still been spending 10-12 hours on the toilet.  I actually managed to get up and go to church yesterday, but my stomach was in pain from that single easy action alone.  We're still trying to find out what is wrong, because I still really have no desire to eat, but I'm still perpetually tired because of it so we sorta have a chicken and an egg problem on our hands.  Hopefully at some point soon I will just be hit with a massive desire to eat, and then we can get up and get back to work, because honestly there has been nothing more unsatisfying, than wanting to work, and just having to sit on your behind until you're able to get back up on your feet.  It's actually given me a lot of time for reflection in between waves of toxic sludge trying to escape my feeble and crippled version of my former self, of just why would I get this sick at such an untimely moment?  The work was FINALLY starting to gain some steam in the area, we had found some great potential investigators and one awesome investigator with whom we'd been working with, and all I could think is why would the Lord want so that we have to just stop in our tracks?  I don't know why, I didn't receive an answer for that, but I did think a little bit about why did Joseph Smith have to endure so much pain in life?  Now I'm not comparing my week long bout with a stomach bug to the life of Joseph Smith, but I did think about how trials are what refine us and help the Lord make us into the types of instruments that he needs us to be.  I know that as we try and find out more completely that what the Lord wants from us, and as we try to more fully become that what the Lord needs us to be, our lives will be blessed and we will be able to be made better than we were.  Anyways family and friends, I'm taking off now.  Thanks for the prayers/good thoughts/vibes/well wishes you all send my way, they're felt and appreciated greatly :)!  Oh also, the tally so far is I've lost 28 pounds, 20 of which I have lost this week alone, so also pray that I'll also start eating food again sometime soon, I'm already a far too small 235 pounds haha, plus I'm not ready to buy a whole new wardrobe 3 months into my mission.  Anyway, I love you all have a great week!  Love you mom, dad, and siblings!  Talk to you soon!

Love,

Elder Christopher Belnap

CAB & Elder Hinkel in elevator being Nacho Libre.

I was very concerned about Christopher's health so I wrote to the mission office:

Dear Sister Colton:

I just received our son's, Elder Christopher Belnap, letter and it sounds like he has been very sick for more than a week with diarrhea and some sort of bug.  He said that he has lost 20 pounds in a week (he's a big boy).  Anyway, i just want to make the office aware of his and his companions situation in case Christopher should be seeking medical attention and hasn't. 

Thank you in advance for anything you are able to do.

Sincerely,

Lorinda Belnap

646.320.7702

Sister Belnap

We are aware.  Sunday when we saw him we suggested he contact Dr. Taylor, the Area Medical Advisor in Moscow.  Whether he has contacted him, I don’t know.  There’s a nasty flu bug going around and many of the missionaries, including my husband and I have had it.  My husband had it worse than I did.  I’ll follow-up and see if he contacted the doctor. 

Sister Colton

Dear Sister Colton;

Thank you so much for your quick response.  So sorry to hear that such a bad flu bug is going around the mission!  In a way, however, it is comforting to know that it may just be a flu bug and nothing worse.

Thanks again!

Sincerely,

Lorinda Belnap

September 14, 2015

Oh how I loved your letter mom!  Thanks for filling me in on a couple of those things, those are important to know.  Yeah, if you wouldn't mind sending me an update on my account every week that would be perfect, and far less expensive.  Also, I would absolutely love some music.  Basically the rules are that it invites the Spirit, so we can have an array of music.  Think Glorious by David Archuleta or something like that (it's the song that plays at the very end of Meet the Mormons).  Along with church songs and things like that.  Speaking of music by the way, so we shop at Lenta here, which is only a 10 minute walk from our apartment, and usually when we go in, they're playing American music.  Today they played Blank Space by Taylor Swift, and Roar by Katy Perry, and last week they played Maps by Maroon 5 and Only One by Sam Smith, and I was just shamelessly singing along to it all, just having a blast.  I think I look forward to our weekly trip to Lenta almost as much as I do to being able to write home haha.  Oh also, just a random little sidenote, Elder Gottfredson and I saw each other all the time at the MTC which was awesome, and Elder Callister was in my same zone at the MTC!  Pretty cool, and I have a lot of friends on their way to Rostov, I'll have to find out if any of them see him!  I'm glad you're loving nursery, you're very well suited for it with all experiences haha.  That's so awesome that you got another car, and you're absolutely right, the Hoekstras are awesome.  That's so cool that you're all trying to resurrect that association, and you're absolutely right, Dad is so good at following through, doesn't surprise me at all that you all seem to already be making headway.  Also hold up for a second, why would Rebecca be homeschooled?  I totally missed that one.  Those are also some wonderful thoughts from the fireside.  Yeah, all my friends from BYU emailed me about the game, and I was so sad, I would have loved to have been there, but oh well, hopefully in 2 years I'll still want to go watch football games. 

Anyway, I'll get started on all that's happened here thus far.  So I'll start with a couple of funny stories.  So of course, our area of the city is a little more ghetto, and we have our fair share of rats, strays and drunks here.  There was one guy here who was wearing a thong the other day, and he was definitely a little tipsy, so that was pretty interesting to see.  Reminded me of that guy who would go running in a thong in NYC and I'd always see him on my way to the 86th street subway to head on up to Bronx Science.  There are some interesting people in this world haha.  We were also waiting for our tramvi the other day and some guy came up to us wanting our picture because we looked very successful and his blog is all about success.  We told him that we couldn't and he was really disappointed, but he then went on a tangent about how he is successful because he's his own God at only the age of 28, it was so weird, but so funny.  We had to try really hard to keep it in.  Also, we did Hermitage service last Tuesday which was awesome!  We just got to direct people to the coatroom if they were looking for it and to empty their water bottles out before going through security.  It was so awesome though because we got to be there for it opening so there were just droves of people that came through and from all over the world.  They were all so surprised when we asked the obvious English speakers questions in Englsih, and they were all just curious as to what we were doing here, and it was just so much fun.  Plus we got to go inside the Hermitage after for 30 minutes and just look around a little bit.  Plus there was this one couple, the man was Swedish and the woman was Argentinian, and the woman was just telling me that I was a very handsome young man, which is always nice to hear haha :). 

Just a couple of other things that I can think of, so my companion had a visa trip this week, and that meant that I got to sleep over at some other Elder's apartment which was fun, I crashed way before anyone else, and they were all messing with me in my sleep, nothing out of the ordinary.  Elder Sonderegger's companion also had a visa trip so we got to talk a little bit and just catch up which was cool.  Oh, we also have this one really interesting guy who comes to our English group, and so we decided to just look up really big and complex words to teach him, so now there's a Russian walking around with a very limited English vocabulary, but just so happens to know the meanings of the words ubiquitous and munificent, among others.  It was a lot of fun to do that.  Also, seeing Brother Jeppson was just so much fun, and so normal.  He's awesome, and thanks again for all the goodies!

Before I send some pictures really quick, I just want to share an awesome story that we had the other day.  So we were street contacting and we had just had a really hard time.  It was our 6th hour of just walking around, rejection after rejection, and I was just starting to feel kindof down, when out of nowhere someone stops us and just yelled, "Mormons?"  Anyway, this guy is named Albert, he's investigated the church before, but stopped for some reason.  He's awesome and we had the most amazing conversation with him, and it was just such a tender mercy.  We're meeting with him tongiht and I know that it'll go well.  He just had such a great desire to know more.  Oh, and also, the bishop has just been going to another ward, because the people here expected him to do everything, that he just kindpf burnt out.  Just wanted to let you know before I forgot. 

Anyway, I love you so much family!  Thanks for writing, and I love hearing from all of you!  Until next week!

Love,

Elder Christopher Belnap