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Dear family,

Just to keep you from worrying, I should probably mention that everything went great with our registration. We had to sit there for a long time, but it turned out that the lady accepted it. That means that we won't have any more trouble with that because if they did it one time, they will keep on doing it. That's a relief because they only registered me until the end of October. That's a little weird because I should be staying here until I go home. Of course, maybe not, but it is very likely that I will because I only have two cycles after my companion goes home, and that means I have to show someone the area and it would be weird to transfer me 6 weeks before I go home.

Anyway, I guess I'll find out all about that. It's a little annoying because now they do our registration right in our passport. I have a question that maybe no one knows, but I would be really interested in finding out. What happens when there is no more space in your passport but you still have several years? Maybe I won't even have that problem, but visas take up a lot of space, and the registration takes up a page everytime, too. That means that by the time I leave Russia, they will at least have used up nearly half of the space given . . . and I'm planning on doing some traveling in the next 10 years besides this.

That's not really important, though. I have a couple of other requests/questions, though. First, I'm thinking of buying some Russian тапочки (tapochki) for everyone. Those are shoes that are to be worn indoors. They use them here so that people don't tract dirt everywhere from outside. The question is (and I need an answer for everyone at home about this) would you wear them if I brought them home? (That's including you, too, dad). They're kind of like sandals or slippers, but I'm hoping to find some very Russian ones and that would be cool for everyone to have.

Also, could you look into ordering the Liaxona in Russian for me? I wouldn't mind you starting as soon as you can so that I won't have to bring some home with me. If you can order it, just let me know when you get the first issue and which month it is starting from. Last, but not least, I want to get some Russian letter stickers for my keyboard and everyone here tells me that you can get them in America. Could someone look into that for me, too so I don't have to worry about finding them here?

This last week has been insane . . . as in I am insanely tired. My companion and I both are, it doesn't seem to make any sense. We can't figure it out except that a lot more of our appointments fell through and that means that we have been doing a LOT more walking. I basically spend every second of every day tired. We can't ever feel rested. I wake up in the morning and feel like I just laid down. I think that there are a lot of things contributing to it, maybe even the weather, but it is still really annoying.

We had a discouraging meeting with one of our investigators. She is really great and it seems to me that she has a pure heart and really wants to find the truth. The Elders gave her a Book of Mormon and the first night she read until 3:00 in the morning. But, she got a bad feeling about it. Maybe I already told you about her; just in case I didn't, I will continue on. She even heard a voice say, "лучше не надо" (kind of like, better not to). We thought that was a little weird and really couldn't explain it. That was the first time ANY of us had heard of something like that. We didn't know how to answer, but we kept coming back trying to help her understand and feel the spirit. I honestly think she did . . . while we were there. We just couldn't figure out why she didn't feel it when she was reading the Book of Mormon. This last time, we took a member with us. I think it was the right choice to make because it turned out that the member already knew this lady. Марина (Marina), the investigator, is a teacher at a private school (literally pay-school in Russian so there are probably differences with our private schools) and the daughter of the member who went with us was one of her students. So that was cool, and an interesting "coincidence" (I don't really think it was accident that I immediately thought of taking her after our first meeting with Марина). I'm really glad we took her because she understands how things work here and even though Марина didn't say anything to us to give us a clue why she would continue to have a bad feeling about everything, because Ольга (Olga), the member, knew her and understands the situation, and she was able to explain afterwards. But, basically Марина told us that she wasn't going to come and that she didn't want us to waste our time when she wasn't going to change her mind. This whole time she couldn't explain why she felt the way she did, but she never said that the Book isn't true, she just said it wasn't for her. She also said that she wanted us to not waste our time on her when we could be out helping other people who would accept it.

So, anyway, that was discouraging that she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. She didn't even want us to share our spiritual thought. But, Ольга explained the situation that is most likely affecting her feelings and thoughts, whether Марина recognizes it or not. I guess the administration of these schools is very strict. There was a member a long time ago who lost his job because some people decided that "Mormons" shouldn't be allowed to teach children. So, the member got a second job. This second job he also almost lost because of his membership until he basically rejected the church to keep his job. So, even if she were to accept the church and get baptized, there is always the possibility that she would have to choose between her job and the church. I would like to say that she would choose God and the church, but that rarely happens here. That's why we have "active" members who don't come half of the time because they work two Sundays in a month, they don't understand that they should make a priority that puts God first. I understand why they think that way, but it's a little discouraging because it will be slow growth here until the members begin to understand.

So, continuing on, she might have to make that choice later on, but I think that deep down, she understands what it would mean to accept the gospel, she could lose her job and she isn't ready yet to give it up. She is searching for the truth, she's read a lot of other books on religion, looked into other doctrine, but she never felt anything with them. Then she picked up the Book of Mormon and couldn't put it down. But the more she read, the worse she began to feel. The only explanation that I have is that as she read, she began to feel that it was true, but whether consciously or not, she also began to realize what it would mean if this church is true and she isn't yet ready to make that step. That is really sad and I hope that she will change her mind. I hope that she will be given another chance to accept the gospel and I hope that she won't have to pay for her job by losing salvation.

Well, that's all I have to say. Please answer/respond to my requests as soon as possible.

Love,

Сестра Атвуд

(The picture in this email were taken at the local children's hospital. Elder and Sister Frampton, the humanitarian aid missionaries in my mission, completed a couple of projects at this hospital. This was after the second project was completed. They invited us for a tour to see what they did, and afterwards, they fed us. The interesting thing is, right there at the table, they asked for more help. I don't think that is something that would happen in America. They would probably wait until afterwards. This was one of the nicer hospitals that I saw in Russia. The first picture is in front of the hospital - Космынин Евгений, District President, doctor at the hospital, Космынина Татьяна, me, Sister Silva, Elder Cummings, and in front, Elder Ray. The Framptons weren't able to come because of some mix up with train tickets. The second picture was taken at the lunch table. They had quite a lunch spread to show their gratitude. - An interesting note, we often did volunteer work at this hospital, cleaning up the grounds and things like that, but we didn't know that the Church was helping out in another way until this luncheon.)