Barrett's email, June 24th

 Lunch with Elder and Sister Loveridge

A picture of a kayak-er 

View from the 22nd floor  

The first dodge caravan I've seen in over a year

Mountain goat ness ness

You probably can't tell from this picture, but this little dog's tongue was so long it was literally dragging on the ground

Email time already?!? This may have been the fastest week of my entire life. It feels like I was just here at this computer. Well, let's see, what has happened. Well, definitely the highlight of the week was Saturday when Elder and Sister L took me and my companion out to lunch. So it turns out they are serving in Armenia, but their assignment covers a few other countries including the Moscow West area. I guess they found out I was an Assistant in the Moscow mission so they asked the West Office Elders they knew me and, well, I just happened to be in the office at the time, so we talked for a bit and they offered to take us out to lunch the next time they were in Moscow. They are fantastic. I'm sure Alicia can tell you a lot more than I can about all they've done. I guess this is their second mission together. They were so nice. And when I showed them my pictures they recognized most of the people, especially the picture of Tanner at my farewell. We don't know if they'll still have the Moscow West area when the missions combine, so we might not see each other again for a while, but it was good to see them. Definitely a pleasant surprise.
Concerning Elder Christoffersen: I didn't get much of a chance to talk with him. I just shook his hand and told him my name and where I was from. He remembered El Dorado stake. He even told his wife, this Elder's from El Dorado Stake. haha
Concerning Old Arbat: Yes, we will definitely go to Old Arbat.
Concerning the mission merge: The official merge will happen on July 1st. Well, actually President Wooley is going home today, so he's passing the keys to President Sorenson today. But the Official merge is the 1st. On the 3rd we will have a big combined meeting with everybody there. And then transfers will be on the 12th, and it's gonna be a crazy one. Concerning what I will be doing: Well, as early as July 4th, or as late as July 12th, I will be companions with Elder T, who is from what is now the West mission. Right now in the West mission, the assistants do not have a homebase, they spend the whole transfer traveling from city to city going on splits with every companionship of Elders in the mission. They do have an apartment near the mission office, but I guess they don't use it often. So for at least this first transfer after the merge, President I think has decided to stick to the model the West mission is using for the assistants.
Concerning the Transcript request forms: Yep, I got 'em.
Concerning a hypothetical package: say for example, if someone were already planning to send a package, and there was a little bit extra room and they were wondering if there was some random item they could put in this theoretical package, maybe they could put some mints or black socks there. but if they weren't already planning to send a package, the need would not be so great that a special package for this purpose would be necessary. Hypothetically
Concerning the year in Russia mark: It happened last friday
Concerning Kirill: He's awesome. We couldn't meet with him this past week... because he was planning a youngmen's activity! Magnifying your calling, a reasonable excuse.
Well, love you. Have a great week. Congratulations to dad. I love how these emails just keep getting better and better every week. Tell everyone hi from me
Love
Elder Hamp