Barrett Cracks Me Up! Another Crazy Week in Russia :)

Another exciting week in Russia! My boy cracks me up!

Ok, wow. What a week! I don't even know where to begin! Ok, so the mail: I went on a split with the office Elders, and we went on a mail-run, so I got all the inside information on how the mail works. Dear Elders are the way to go. Everything will take about 2 weeks to get here from there, even dearelders, but dearelders are free. I have received two from you (mom), both sounding like they were sent before I arrived. So go ahead and tell everybody: Dear Elder is the way to go!This week was crazy!! Let's see, we got stopped by the police while chalk drawing - well actually, we hadn't even started, and they had us do the whole deal, show our documents, our registration, our real passports, and they took down all of our names. Elder L(the most senior missionary among us, going home in 2 weeks) took care of every thing, told us what to do, what not to do, when to do it, when to do nothing. It was insane. He said that that has never happened to him on his whole mission. He's been stopped by police once before, but they didn't ask to see everything. Wow.Another First with Elder L that he said will probably never happen again on my mission: we had a lesson with an investigator - at the home of the second counselor in the Area Presidency, Elder M of the 70! It was incredible. We talked for two hours. It was awesome. I learned a lot!And today for p-day, we (our district) went to Sergey Pasad, which is the biggest, oldest, and most sacred Orthodox Cathedral in the world. The Orthodox Vatican, essentially. It was amazing!!! I took a ton of pictures. Wow, it was cool.Ok, let's see what else... Every wednesday night they have English club at the branch - now Ward building (the first bishop in this area was called on sunday!). I love it so much!! So we show up, I have no idea what's going on, but it's ok, I never know exactly what's going on. They introduce me to the class of probably 30-40 people. Then we break up into groups. It ended up being two groups, and they put me incharge of one of them. I asked "so what do I do?". The elder replied, "I don't know, just talk to them." So I did. And it was awesome! We all got talking about all sorts of stuff - I don't even know. They found out I am from California. One of the guys there is from austria and plans to follow in Arnold's bodybuilding footsteps. It was funny. Apparently Arnold the "Goobinator" is pretty popular hear. And yes, they call him the Goobinator. They can't pronounce Govinator. hahaLet's see, other things that happened this week. I ate at the biggest McDonalds in the world!! I got in trouble with a security guard for taking too many pictures. Haha. I got the Beef a-la Rus. I guess it is the burger that McDonalds made for Russia when it came here, and it is Incredible!!! Bacon, crispy little onions, wheat bun, etc. It is good.I had "kvac" for the first time. It is not good. I guess it is very russian. But don't worry, you can try it at home, if you want. Just take some carbonated water, add soy sauce, and then just enough beer to make it smell. There you go. Well, that's not actually what it is, but that's the best way I can describe it. It's not my favorite.On sunday after church, we were going down the escalator to the metro, and a couple of girls going up the escalator on the other side waved to us in that member-waving-to-a-missionary, way-to-happy-for-the-metro sort of way. So I waved back. Moments later, I realized that I recognized her. But that's obviously impossible, because I don't know anyone here. But then I realized - she was in the Kiev Temple celebration video!! Go ahead, pull it up right now on youtube. She's the dark haired one, in the green costume. She says "это мой костюм" "This is my costume". Yep, I saw her in the metro. She goes to church in the same building I do, but the meeting right after. So there you goDid I mention that I met the first Stake President in all of Russia? President B! Well, I did. I met him. And he's great.My time is running out, there is still so much I want to say. I ment to send you some email adresses of people who wanted to be added to the mailing list, but I have been on an impromptu split for two days and haven't been home yet.Miracles are real. I see them every day. It is unbelievable that I am here. To speak to these people. They have faith, and it is strong. They just don't realize it yet.I love you all so much! Tell everyone Iove themElder H