Barrett's email - November 21st

This is not a trick. I actually got this pen to balance on the tip of the cap. Haha, don't worry, I didn't spend too much personal study time trying. (just kidding, it was during lunch)

 Cleaning up after the ward talent show

The most packed I've ever seen it on the metro. It was insane

Snow!

 Dinner at a member's house. She surprised us with real american pancakes. Oh, they were good

And here's a really random picture (as in I closed my eyes and picked one), of Elder Black and Elder White way back in the MTC. The funny thing is, this Elder White didn't come to Moscow, but when we got here there were two other Elder Whites in the mission

Holy cow. Ok, so first of all, sorry about the pictures, I tried sending a 30 second clip of the snow out my window, but it exceeded the very small mb allowance. So I had to scramble for some pictures. haha
I have two coats, well three. One is the black rain coat that I brought with me, the big grey one I inherited from the apartment, and yes it is a bit too big, but it is way warm, and the third is this really cool leather one that doesn't fit over my suit coat, so I don't wear it often. That one I also inherited, but from a missionary who went home my first transfer.
The ecco's are holding up nicely. I have not yet bought boots, but I am waiting til I need them, and have a better idea of what exactly I need.
Thanks for the weather and the pictures. Oh man, it looks like it was so much fun. Tell Steven he needs a haircut, ya' bum. Where did those flowers come from? They're beautiful. And who's artwork is on the wall behind dad?
Tell Breezy thank you so much for the letters. I have a story to tell about a little miracle. So this past week our ward had a ward talent show. It was so much fun. They asked us, the missionaries, to do something. So we decided to do a little skit. So last week, I went to the central building to practice the Maple Leaf rag, which I was going to play as background for the skit. Well, I took a break after a while and went and checked the mail. I got a letter from Uncle Randall (whose updates I appreciate immensely) and Breezy.  In her letter, she talked a little about music, and the power it has. It struck me how silly the maple leaf rag is, and not powerful. We should be doing a real talent. But what to do? We've already decided, the show is in a couple days. Well, that night as the district called in, each expressed the same feeling, we should do more than just a little skit. And before you knew it, everything just fell together. Elder B had the sheet music to Come Thou Fount, Sister T knew of a hymn in the current hymn book we could sing to the tune of Come Thou Fount (which we needed because CTF is not in the Russian hymn book and we needed russian words), and I had an arrangement packed away somewhere. It all came together just in time. And we sang J S's First prayer in russian to the tune with some embellishments, and everyone loved it and it was powerful. oh, and we got to do the skit too. haha
Well, I love you all
Love
Elder Hamp