Barrett's email, July 23rd

District p-day activity with the Voronezh district last week

 My companion served 7 months in Kazakhstan, so he showed me some of his souvenirs. Here I am with a flag and a horse whip made of a goat's hoof

and here's the 2-string lute-type thing  

District contacting activity in Moscow: singing outside a metro stop

Zone Conference in Voronezh with President and Sister Sorenson

a staring contest with Lenin in the basement of the voronezh building

Another exciting week. Last monday and tuesday were spent finishing up splits in Voronezh. I think I mentioned how much I like voronezh. It really is a beautiful place. 

Then on wednesday we had our office day in Moscow. Those are always fun.

Thursday was the South Zone Conference. It was really good. President talked about sacrifice and obedience, Sister Sorenson talked about sharpening our tools and being ready at all times, the Zone Leaders talked about unity and even brought a home made Title of Liberty for everyone to sign, and we (my companion and I) talked about goals and stuff like that. It was a really good conference. And afterwards we went on splits with a couple Elders in Moscow in one of my old areas. We went and visited Sister Elena, the babushka that I love so much from a few transfers back, the gypsy enthusiast who makes really fantastic blini. I love that lady

Friday we went to Podolsk, a little town outside of moscow but still in the moscow region. It's always been a part of our mission, so it's not that exciting. Just kidding. It was awesome. Me and the Elder I was with went on a member quest to find one of the 10 less actives on the ward list (Podolsk easily has the highest activity rate in the mission). The guy lived way out in the countryside. It started raining super hard so we ran to this little bus stop. There was only one guy there and he was a little drunk, but super nice. We asked him for directions and he was way nice about it. It wasn't until we walked in a gigantic circle, found the house, then walked to the end of the block and saw the bus stop that we were at that we realized the guy had totally dooped us and gave us wacky directions. He got us way good. But I'm kinda glad he did. We saw some incredible scenery and we even found this little street that looked almost exactly like Bee Street in Placerville. We stood and admired it for a few seconds.

Saturday we were with the South Zone Leaders, also in one of my old areas. It was so cool to see people we had been working with, see how they're progressing, or ask them what's the deal, why aren't they progressing. We even got to go to Family Home Evening at the senior couple's house. Those are always fun. We had taco soup for dinner and I wanted to ask you (mom), Have you given your recipe to a Sister P currently serving in Moscow Russia? because this soup tasted exactly like yours. It was so fantastic.

Sunday was probably one of the craziest days of my mission. We went on splits with the Elders who serve in the International ward. We had church in English!!! It was crazy! I had forgotten that that was possible! How do you do that every week? That's crazy. All the talks, all the prayers, even the songs, everything was in English. I couldn't believe it. And after church we met with a couple of guys from Africa, and after that we went contacting. I found out that contacting for the International Elders usually consists of popping up on any metro stop and looking for people who don't look russian and hopefully speak English. Haha. It was fun. 

It was on Sunday that I received the call from President about Uncle Lloyd. Thank you for having him call. It was good to hear it from him. President of course was very respectful. I thanked him for calling. How grateful I am for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. With the understanding that I now have of God's plan for us, it is almost more difficult to feel sad, although I do feel sad for the immediate loss, but the happiness of knowing that he is still smiling and making other people happy far outways the sadness. And what an incredible story, the unshared details of which I look forward to hearing someday. 

So that night we got on the night train to go back down to Voronezh for their Zone Conference. Which brings us to today. We got into voronezh this morning, had enough time to run to one of the apartments, wash my hair in the kitchen sink while my companion washed his in the tub, and run down to the building. It was a great conference. Most of the details are the same as the last conference except for the Zone Leaders' practical training on what to do between getting a contact and getting a meeting. It was good. 

We played a little basketball in the indoor basketball court in the building, which may sound normal to you, but here in Russia, that's something that not many people can say. And now here I am, emailing while we wait for our train in an hour and a half. 

I'm glad to hear that everybody got their letters. Sorry again they're so old, haha. It's great to hear that dad is doing well. I'm sure he's gonna have a ton of stories to tell of his travels, too. Tell everybody Hi and I love them. Have a great week. Oh, and tell Sister R that I got her DearElder. It works, feel free to teach everyone how to use it. 

Ok, gotta go

Love you

Elder Hamp