Yeah, another week is over. I really can't believe how much time has already flown by. My companion has only 3 months left on her mission and she keeps saying that's so much time, but every time she says that I think, that's so little! (Right - Sister Саргсян (Sargsyan) in Old City on our way to the bus stop) She will be going home a little after I hit my year mark. Weird to think that soon after, that will be me. Yesterday we had a zone conference. It was good, except that they like to talk about statistics and that always makes me feel bad
because then I feel like that is all that is important. For example, the sisters in Kazan got 10-10-10 (that means 10 lessons with an investigator with a member present, 10 lessons with new members and less-actives, and 10 other lessons with investigators) plus they had 7
investigators at church (I think), 4 progressing investigators and 1 with a baptismal date. They say that numbers don't matter but then they make such a big deal about the numbers and use those numbers to judge us. What does that tell me? That tells me that numbers are really all that matter and I don't like that at all. When they emphasize things like that I start to wonder if I am even helping anyone here because we have no progressing investigators. But, despite that, it isn't like we aren't looking for new investigators and trying to work with the ones we have. But it is their decision.
Anyway, after the conference we had interviews with President. That was interesting because he basically told me that I will be getting a transfer the next cycle. When I sat down, the first thing he did was ask me how long I have been in Тольятти (Togliatti). I just said, a very long
time, more than 6 months. When I told him that he said, yeah, that's a long time, especially for sisters who have little time on their missions. (Left - Sister Саргсян and I bought this basket of flowers for a birthday of one of the members, this is on our way to see her and give her her present) Then he went on to say, I'm sure we can find another place for you to serve. Well, when Sister Саргсян interviewed with him, he told her that they are probably closing Тольятти for sisters. That means that we will both be leaving and no sisters will be coming to replace us.
That's so weird to think about, but we weren't exactly surprised. Many of the members here don't really value the sisters and there are other cities that are basically begging to have sisters. All the members here rely to heavily on the missionaries, thinking they are here to do
everything (a few even told the blind inactive lady that we had so many problems with that missionaries are here to do everything, that it is our responsibility!) when we are here to preach the gospel and basically that is all. Everything that we do should be geared toward finding new people, even service. So, now they will not be able to rely on the sisters to do everything. Maybe someday they will have sisters again, but maybe then they will really appreciate them..
So, mom, thanks for buying that puzzle. That will be really good. When we used the one that our DL let us borrow, it was really good. Our investigator has a little daughter and after talking about the plan of salvation, we let the little girl play with it and that helped keep her occupied while we finished our lesson. (Right - The mother of one of the members died. We were asked to participate in the funeral service. One of the interesting customs that I noticed is that they covered all the mirrors or reflecting surfaces. I'm not exactly sure why they do this) Also, I'm glad you got everything figured out about taxes. I forgot to answer your question last week. As we were walking to the bus stop, I remembered and thought, oh well, too late now, I'll just have to remember to answer later. I'm glad you found my immunization record, though. You should put that somewhere where you will be able to find it for me when I come home.
So, yeah, it looks like I have only 3 weeks left in good old Тольятти. I can honestly say that I am very happy to leave. Don't get me wrong, I love the members here and the investigators, but I am just not used to being in one place for so long with the exact same schedule, nothing changing. Even at school I only have a little more than 3 months with the same schedule and then everything changes, and even then, it isn't everyday where I even have a schedule. Here I
can't take a road trip or do anything else to relax me or give me a break from routine. Even the conferences that we have don't help because we have to listen to Russian for several hours and if they speak in English I have to translate for my companion. So, anyway it will be nice to finally see something else though I have no idea where I will be going. (Left - Иван (Ivan), Баба Мария (Baba Mariya), me, and Sister Саргсян) It is possible that I will be going to Самара (Samara). That would be alright but somewhere I haven't been would be even better,
maybe even somewhere on the south side of the mission. Yeah, that would be really good.
Anyway, I guess that's it for now. I love you all and am glad that I don't have to worry about anything at home because I know you are taking care of it. Oh yeah, I have to admit that I'm a little relieved that you won't be coming to pick me up. It will be a lot better for me to be able to be released from my calling before showing you Russia, so if you would want to see it, I want to come back to visit Sister Саргсян in Ростов (Rostov), so maybe then will be better. But,
that means I need to know where you would want me to fly into, Salt Lake City, or just to Bismarck. Basically it makes no difference to me, but it would be kind of nice since it is so close to Christmas if I could see Becky, so I guess it's more up to her, if she even still exists (yeah, I still haven't heard from her).
Weird, it also seems that Heather hasn't gotten any of the letters I have sent her through pouch, so I'm glad that you got the one I sent. I am planning on sending a little package home, soon, so we will see and I will let you know when I get that done.

Love,
Сестра Атвуд