11-12-12

November 11-12-12 "Stop all the fighting! Look, I think I know what we need...a little bit of MAMBO!" -cue the music- "NO!" "Aww..." Hey there family and friends! Well, I spent a lot of time trying to get the camera to work with the computer and, what do ya know, it didn't really work, so it'll be a bit shorter of an e-mail this week. Cool news! Our investigator got baptized on Saturday! Yay! That makes a whoppin two baptisms in one cycle, not to mention it's Elder Treter's first cyle. Pretty cool, huh? When I've got more time I'll upload the pictures onto the computer and send them off. Something that could be useful too (though it may be a bit late to ask for) would be a straight up SD card USB drive (just a usb drive with a slot for the SD care). Though, honestly, how often do I really send pictures back home, so it's not too important. You may just have to have patience and wait a bit to see some cool baptism pictures :) Either way, I'll work it out. As for the questions, I'm doing just fine on contacts (every other cycle I just end up wearing glasses the whole time, so it works out pretty well, I should have a least a few more by the time I get back home). MP3 is just fine for the music, I don't recommend a flash player. Thanks a bunch! :) We got to see West Side Story...in Russian! In Russia! Woah snap! It wasn't actually the most well done production, but I liked it a lot anyways (I'm always a sucker for musicals). I felt a bit awkward when they sang the song "Everythings better in America", but hey! America doesn't have bag jam or quite as tasty mayo, so the Sharks were a bit off there at least. Also, the enws came around that Obama won the election. I totally forgot that elections and whatnot were happening, but it certainly made contacting interesting: "hey there!" "Hey! Did you know that Obama won the election?" "Oh. Uh, nope. But you know what I do know? The gospel!" Ok, so we never did quite have a conversation that went down exactly that way, but a couple were pretty close. That's always a funny thing to explain to Russians. Whenever things like elections or hurricanes or the weather come up in conversation, almost undoubtedly I don't know much of anything, which also undoubtedly brings up the questions why we don't know such big news things, which preceeds and explanation by us discussing why we don't watch the news (or any TV/internet for that matter) while wer're here in Russia. It actually makes especially up the weather a great conversation starters especially in talking to people on buses. Want to know what the weather will be tomorrow but have no access to the newspaper or internet? Never fear! Ask the Russian with an ipad next to you on the bus! Always a good conversation starter :) Speaking of weather, it's been hitting the below freezing mark lately here at night times in Orenburg. When we headed out to Church yesterday morning the cars were covered with a dusting of snow and the ground was super moist. Rumor has it that this week there'll be the first real snow, which fits pretty well with how it worked out last year, so that's cool! I'll keep you in touch as to what happens in that respect. I liked how you mentioned the new teaching curriculum they've got for the youth. When Dad mentioned about how they're teaching the youth and not lessons, that reminded me of the little "Preach My Gospel '2'" for missionaries wherein one of the sections is called "Teach people, not lessons". I'll have to check it out after the mission, but from what you said it sounds like they're taking the basic teaching principles of Preach My Gospel and applying it to all the teachers. Cool stuff! Gosh, this is such a short letter, sorry about that. More next week then. Oh, and by the way, me and Elder Treter will be here for another cycle, so that's cool! :) I love you all a whole bunch! I say it a lot, I think, but I really do thank you for your prayers, letters and support in general. My family's pretty much the best :) Alright, I'm gonna go now. Thanks so much! Have a great week! Love -- Elder Peterson