Barrett's email - October 30th

Just some random pictures

Here's me infront of some crazy graffiti. There's a lot of graffiti here, and a lot of it is really cool

Here I am outside the door of a basement inside of which we had a lesson with a very nice man named Oleg. It's worth google translating
Note: Greg used on OCR to recognize it then translate it

HE ВЛЕЗАЙ УБЬЕТ! = HE GET IN IT WILL KILL!

So this past week, Elder R decided he wanted to learn how to make borsch

And here's the final product. It was really good. Turns out he's a master soup maker

Here is Elder P wearing the hat he just bought. This was the type of hat little boys wore back in soviet times, according to the man who sold it to him

And here's a guy playing the saw on the side of the road

Wow! The cruise sounds like it was amazing! Holy cow. Thanks for the pictures.
Happy Holloween, by the way. Tonight I'm dressing up like a missionary and going to knock on all the doors in the neighborhood. Well, actually, they don't have neighborhoods, and knocking on doors is borderline illegal, so we don't do it too often. But I am going to dress up like a missionary.
Big news: I got one of the packages! I think it's the second one. It had razors and candy. So I still don't know where the other one is. But this one is great! You know me so well :) Thank you.
Ok, so for Christmas, I don't know if I'll be able to get that many shapki this time. I already have a bunch of stuff to send (probably too much). But don't worry, I will definitely get everyone a shapka by the end of my mission. I'm getting better at bargaining. So the sizes are a little different here, but I don't really know how. all I know is that I am about a size 56. And another important thing to consider is what type of shapka you want. There is a fairly wide variety of animals you can make a shapka out of (wolf, fox, rabbit, otter, goat, etc). Maybe the next time I go to that rynok, I will take pictures of me trying on a number of the different styles.
What do I want for christmas? Well, I have probably bought enough stuff to fullfill both Christmas and Birthday requirements for both years already. There is a lot of cool stuff here. But if I were to ask for something that I can't get here, it would be pictures. Pictures of anything, everything, everyone.
Well, I love you very much. Have a great week. Tell everyone Hi from me. I love them all too, even though I can't write them all
Love you
Love
Elder Hamp

Mexican Rivera Cruise with Sharon and Eric - October 2011

Sharon and I met in seventh grade. We have been friends now for a long time....she invited me to come on a cruise with her as a gift for my 50th birthday.  She loves cruising and knew I do/would too.  She also knows that it is not anything I would give myself for a very long time or ever.  I love to travel but so far there are really very few of those moments in my life because most of my monents are securely cemented in the 'have to' category.  Cruising is 100% percent relaxation.  It was such an incredible gift.  Nine days of fun and relaxation.  Sharon prepped me on the relaxation and when Eric was added to the mix, I knew the adventure side would be adequately addressed.  Love these two and am grateful for such generous and thoughtful friends.

Eight bags, three people, we went well prepared. Seasoned cruisers, they knew just what to take.  

Ensenada

My favorite pic of the trip...Eric posing in the gift for Greg...he is so funny!

First elegant night

Snorkeling in Cabo but this was taken above water

Eric rented a boat to take us up the coast...it was wonderful, soaking up the sun and scenery

Puerto Vallarta - Eric arranged a zipline tour

14 lines - fun but I screamed on the high, long lines

Sharon zipping

Eric and the great crew at Los Veranos Canopy Tour

On the shore this man was balancing rocks

Manzanillo - elementary school children greeted us as we exited the ship.  Eric got them all giggling

Eric arranged for an ATV tour

Sharon

We went through a little town - cows on the road

Lunch in the dining room

Reece, our pilates instructor from Austrailia

Another favorite - Chocolate Molten Cake

Barrett's email - October 24th

So last week we bought hats, a must-have we've been told (by every babushka we talk to) in the coming months.

So here I am fully russi-fied. The scarf is not mine, but soon I will have one and once I do I will have fully assimilated myself into the russian culture (All part of my diabolical plan).

 We also got souvenir shapki. And yes, it is made of wolf fur. We ended up bargaining the guy down, way down. It's a funny story, I'll have to tell you some time.

  the shapka, inside out

Elder R and I have been going on a lot of "Member Quests", trying to track down inactive members. They're a lot of fun. So on the last one we found some cool stuff. For example, this giant cube made of sticks

And this way cool park, right in the middle of the city that just sort of went down into this little pocket of forest. Here are the stairs down into it. If I had taken a picture 180 degrees from this spot you would see a busy city street and giant buildings. Very cool

Here's a door. Most of the doors look like this

Thank you so much for the answers to those questions. That will help a lot

Questions were: 

1. What is the population of Placerville? 10,000
2. How many people are in our ward?
3. How big was my highschool? approx 1300 (note kids come from a lot of towns not just Placerville, otherwise based on these number over 10% of the population would be HS students ha ha)
4. How many people were in my (would be) graduating class? 274

Well, as you have seen in the pictures, I have got a hat, 2 hats in fact. The jacket in the shapka picture is mine too. I didn't actually buy it, I "inherited" it from a previous missionary. But it is a good coat. Better than any I could have bought. And it's very Russian. I do still need to get a scarf, but that won't be too hard. In fact today, we are going to do some shopping. As you may have seen I have pulled out some more money. ... Concerning christmas: This week is the time to make requests! Well, actually last week would have been better (sorry), because I'm going to the souvenir rynok (rynok=market) today. I plan to buy everybody some cool little things, but if any one has any requests, we are going shopping again next week, and then we are sending our packages the next week. Ideas include (but are not limited to): scarves, ties, trinkets (Lenin pins, etc.), bootlegged mp3 cd's with over 100 songs on them, russian candy, etc.

So yeah, just let me know.

Sometimes it's hard to see miracles, especially when they happen through completely natural mean (this is in response to a comment I made about appreciating the miracles in life everyday). But if God is real, and He did create all, then He created the natural means as well. Maybe it was luck, or maybe God was using the very tools He created, to benefit us and keep us safe.

Have a great week. Have fun on the cruise, holy cow

Love

Elder hamp

Cruising to Mexico!

Sharon, wonderful friend since 7th grade, is taking me on a cruise to Mexico for my birthday for nine days!  We are just a few hours from boarding the ship...taking care of last minute things.  Funny today I realized I always have so much to do that I don't do fun.  I have fun moments but I don't know how to just let go, relax, and have fun.  So hopefully this trip will help me learn to do that.

Sharon and Eric are incredibly generous and fun.  Eric has bags and bags of toys that we are taking to make sure we have all the equipment to have fun.  I will let you know how it goes...so far what I know about....snorkeling gear, surf boards, a remote helicopter, and reservations for a zipline...let the fun begin!

Barrett's email - October 18th

 Here's me on a bench with our favorite babushka. She sits almost every day on this bench just outside our dom. She waves every time we walk by, and we talk to her often. She calls us her children. She's great

There was a baptism on Saturday in another ward, but we were able to go. Here's the faunt. It was good

Here's me at the annual honey festival. Oh, man, it was great. Free samples as far as the eye could see! We ended up eating so much, we felt sick and ended up not buying any. haha

Here is a picture of the room we on the third floor of the church building where we watched General Conference.

 Here is Elder W, Elder B, and Elder G (from left to right) at the meeting we had at the mission home to plan our goals for next year

And here is a picture of the first little flurry of snow!! I know my camera was not quite strong enough to pick up the little snow flakes, but I'm telling you, it was snowing in Moscow Russia! It hasn't snowed any more, but we're going today to by hats and scarfs. haha, wish us luck

ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
P-DAY will be moving to MONDAY next week! I repeat P-DAY will be moving to MONDAY!

Yep, we had a specialized training for the whole mission (~60 people, including the Senior Couples) and they made all sorts of announcements, including that one. I am excited. Oh, and we had to get flu shots. I almost didn't make it, but luckily President S was there to talk me through it. haha. He's great.
Oh, Dad- guess what? There's a guy here, one of the Senior Elders, who plays the saw! And he played it while we were getting our shots. Yep, he just sat in the corner with this saw over his knee and a violin bow in hand, playing the eeriest versions of hymns I've ever heard. I wish you had been there. Don't worry, I talked to him afterwards and learned all about it, how to tune it, how to 'strike' it with the bow, everything. It was cool. The man was an expert, a real efficianado (sp?)
Ok, I have a few questions that a surprising number of people have asked me, and I haven't been able to answer
   1. What is the population of Placerville?
   2. How many people are in our ward?
   3. How big was my highschool?
   4. How many people were in my (would be) graduating class?
Oh, and just an unrelated question that I have: did you ever get that envelope with all the case charts in it? If not, one of the teachers in the MTC owes me 15 bucks. haha
   So, mom, I wanted to tell you about District meeting this past week. The mission is putting a big emphasis on working more with members. Especially now the there's a stake and Rechnoy is a ward, we need to help shift the responsibility, and help them achieve there goals, instead of them helping to achieve ours. So one of the things we are going to do is help the ward with all of their home teaching, and try to contact every one on the ward list by the end of the year. So, at district meeting this past week, that's what we talked about. We talked about visiting members, and getting referrals, and helping the members do missionary work. SO, for a little role-play, guess what we did? Well, I told them your story (I hope you don't mind), and then we practiced helping a member feel more comfortable sharing the Book of Mormon with there friends, coworkers, and acquaintances, by going through the pictures at the front of the book. And it went really well! So, thank you.
Last week you asked about English club. English club is great. Ours is the biggest in moscow, which I would assume means the biggest in Russia. So it's organized into three groups, the beginners group, the middle group, and the conversational group. I am in the middle group, and have been since my first wednesday when they sat me down in a circle of 10-12 russians by myself and told me to talk. It is a lot of fun. We end up doing introductions every week. It's not set up like a course, it's all just conversation, come as you please. I try and pick a theme (favorite book, favorite movie, etc.) and then see where it goes from there. There are quite a few characters in my group that I'll have to tell you all about someday. Then after the hour of english club there is a 10-15 minute spiritual thought that people are not obligated to stay for, but more and more people have been staying in the past few weeks. It is really good. Then we end up talking to people after for a while. It's really good and really fun
Well I really gotta go
I love you all
Have a great week
Love
Elder Hamp

Brandon' email - October 10th

Dear Hamps,

I love you all! I am happy that you are doing well. Time is too short, my companion is axious to play basket ball today (and so am I =). Based on E. Hamps pics, I think I need to take more day-to day pics. They seem just as exciting as unusual ones.

This past week has been interesting. One person said we were having an "Indian Summer." The temperature has been nice and warm, sometimes hot, with a strong breeze often. Definitely not what wnybody expected! Elder A and I were also just getting over a cold, when I got sick again, but very mildly. I think it was the catfish I ate (see photo). All is well now though; I feel all better. =) A member caught the fish in the Des Moines River. We ate it in a soup along with tortillas and jalpenos. It was very tasty!

Here is some information from President J:

1. P-day is always on Wednesday during transfer week (coming up the week of Oct 30-Nov 4 and then the week of Dec 12-Dec 16). We have had worried parents call when they don’t hear from you on a Monday!

If i dont email you on monday, it is probably because we are emailing on wednesday, which happens every 6 weeks. I will be better about letting you know.

2. Another reminder this week is to be sure to let your parents know when you are emailing them next to send their Christmas items for you to the mission office address early so that they can get forwarded to you before the holiday. Remember transfers are on December 15th, and it would be best if your boxes arrived here before that date! Sister Talbert will keep track of every box that comes into the office, so rest assured that everything will be delivered to you.

For 150 missionaries all receiving extra mail at the same time, the senior missionaries in the office must have some extra work on their hands forwarding mail!

We have been able to meet with more people this week! They are usually very receptive to the message we share and are always friendly. All they have to do is actually read the Book of Mormon, pray sincerely about it, and go to church. When they do those things, we will come to feel by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true and that the Church of Jesus Christ has been brought back to the earth. This is a true promise; it works! It is available for everyone we teach and everyone in general. I know that the Book of Mormon is a true book. There are so many good stories and principles that can be applied to our lives to help us be happier and to return to live with God!

I love you and pray for you always!

Love,

Elder Schoenfeld

Banner Week (10/4/11) - Pictures from ALL the boys!

From Brandon:

Dear Hamps,

The video was awesome! It was great to see Ana and Eli for a couple seconds. =)https://lds.org/youth/family-history/discover?lang=eng&cid=facebook-shared#elder-bednar-addresses-youth The talk in conference about the youth getting involved in FH work was perfect. There are so many who know how to use all the technology we have so well. Emphasizing the use of that skill for family history work is genious! There were so many great talks. I enjoyed the Prophet's talks the most i think. It was interesting to watch Priesthood in Spanish. It is a lot more difficult to understand, but I still got a lot out of it. It requires all of my capacity to understand what they are saying. I don't think i have every done anything as mentally demanding in life before as trying to understand someone else speak a different language. The more I have the Spirit, the easier it is-- the gift of the interpretation of toungues is real!

Yesterday the Internet was down in the Library so we are emailing today. We got a car last week! However, we don't know what to do with it because we have been focusing so much time in Hampton! We have only one investigator outside of Hampton. He was born in Mississippi and had a tough

upbringing in Illinois and Iowa. He says he doesn't want to get converted, but we shall see what happens when he feels the Spirit! =) He can change our lives, we just have to let Him. Prayer, scripture study, attending church, and holding FHE are the keys to having the Holy Ghost. If everyone could do this in private and as a family also, we would all be more converted to the Gospel and we would have His constant companionship in our lives. i know these things are true. I love you all!

Love,

Elder S

Photos!



On exchanges, while we were planning, a bat started flying in the apartment! We got it out with a bucket and a blanket.

The author of the music man is from Mason City, the area right next to mine. on district meeting, i saw all these marching trombone players on everything, including the water towers!

My district from last transfer

It is everywhere! me and elder a

Pictures of Elder M!

Seth's 'Honduras' picture

Thumbs up!

Birthday celebration!

Glad he spent it with the members!

From Barrett:

Holy Cow!! Not much time to talk! Spent too much time looking at pictures and trying to find people I know in that video. Holy Cow that's awesome. I don't have audio here in the post office, but it was still way cool. We have district meeting every friday at the senior couple's house, so I'm gonna ask if we can watch it. We've been focusing a lot on Family History lately (как раз), so it might be part of the training. hehe.
I pulled off 2000 more rubles this morning, don't worry, I haven't spent all of the last batch, I just wanted to be safe. We're going shopping today. Need to get a hat, thin gloves, boots, and a coat. There is a coat in the closet of our apartment that noone has claimed, so I might just use that one. We'll see.
The days are getting shorter. I came out of the metro at around 6:00pm the other day and it was starting to get dark. And when I wake up it is still dark. This is quite a contrast from the first month of my mission when I never saw the night sky. The sun went down after 10:30 and rose before 6:30.
I am in Rechnoy ward. I am so glad the map thing worked. How cool is that. Maybe next week I can tell you some other addresses you can look up to see some of the places I've been. No time this week.
Well, I love you. Tell Greg thanks for the email. Have a great week
Love elder hamp
Pictures: This week's theme - FOOD!

Lunch every day my first transfer: meat, cheese, bread, pickles, and spicy ketchup

Here is one of my favorites: shashliki. We have it a lot at dachas

Here is me eating a small whole fish. I did not go back for seconds, haha. In the background, Vlad is serving up some shashlik (this is a different day, at a different dacha from #2)

Chicken sausages, pelmeni cabbage onion soup, and we tried frying some pelmeni like potstickers. It worked out pretty well. And they have kikkoman in russia, so we had them with a little shoyu

Here is me cooking some lunch in our apartment. Our menu has expanded since my first transfer

The brownies