Hampsters at Play: Barrett - Week 5

Here is his letter, pictures follow:

Holy Cow! What a week! I hope you had a great Mothers Day! Ours was Crazy!

All the older districts are gone. So there were 6 disctricts in our zone. 3 were already here, and 3 arrived april 6. And now there are only the 3 districts, until next week when the nooblets arrive. I guess we're getting twice as many as just left! Where are they all going to fit?! I don't know, but it's going to be great. I can't wait. We've been talking 100% по-рускии (in Russian) at breakfast and lunch, and we're planning to up the dosage by next wednesday.

So with all the oldies leaving, all the organization changed. All those who were senior companions are now junior and viceversa (I am now senior companion). We got new District leaders and Zone leaders. It's all very exciting. And the most exciting thing about them leaving is def

initely "the Free Box". All the Elders leaving that needed to get rid of stuff so there suitcases would be the right weight, dump everything in the Free box. It is a glorious system. I am now the proud owner of that book of all the church visual aids (every one is pretty jealous of that one), a German bible (less are jealous of that one), a german PMG, a bunch of language learning stuff (including the advanced russian grammar book that they didn't give us at the beginning), and enough envelopes and dryer sheets to choke a horse... a whole team of horses. It's great

So, Devotional report: Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke to us last night. It was very exciting and most unexpected. I thought

it was going to be Elder Schoenfeld's (Brandon) last fireside, so Elder Black and I found him and sat with him. But it turns out he's not leaving until Wednesday of next week, so he'll see one more. We'll sit with him at that one too! Brandon is doing very well. He's learned how to pronounce "Elder" in Russian, and one of the prelude songs was "love one another" which I sang in Russian and he sang in Spanish. It was very cool

THE FIRST STAKE IN RUSSIA!!! Can you believe it?! We found out the official day (June 5) on Mothers Day, the same day you did I think. So cool! The older districts are getting there jus

t in time! I can't believe it. I cannot wait to be there. When we get there the stake will only be 2 weeks old! When Sis. Sorenson said, in her blog, "But today is the Lord's Victory Day" - Holy cow! It gave me chills. Epic! Oh - and at the fireside, we sang "Army of Helaman" but they changed the words from "...we will be..." to "We are now the Lord's missionaries" I just about cried. It is getting more real, with each day that magically disappears (that's what they do). The more we learn about Russia and it's culture, the more I know that I was meant to go there! Like a hammer is meant to hit nails and a shovel is meant to dig - I was made for Russia!

Well, the timer is flashing - gotta go quick, I love all of you! thank you to all who have written. I really do appreciate the letters - and insipirational thoughts. have a great week

Love

Elder Hamp

Translated 'The District" - newest boy band

Barrett wrote a few weeks ago about setting a meeting with the four of them at The Map. Elder Schoenfeld to Iowa; Elder Mackey to Honduras; Elder Smith to New York; and Elder Hamp to Russia