Barrett's email, July 29th

...

So since we last spoke, we had another office day on tuesday. That is the day we spend in the office. Usually we meet with president and talk about all sorts of important things (or at least we think they're important :), we help the visa and travel people sort out and plan how and when everyone will go where ever they need to go whenever they need to go there, we drink lots of water cooler water, and pretty much anything else that needs to get done right away. And we do it all in comfortable swivel chairs. 

Then wednesday was the North Zone Conference. Again most of the details were the same. The Zone leaders spoke about Determination. It was great. 

And after that we went up to Tver with my former companion and his greenie. We stayed in Tver for two days. It's a nice little town. It's one of the two towns with a young missionary serving as Branch President (the other city is Smolensk). They're doing great

So then we came to Zelenograd. We had to get a train from tver to zelenograd. When we bought the ticket, the lady almost didn't sell it to us because the train was going to leave in 2 minutes. We bought them anyway and ran like maniacs to the platform and as we turned the last corner, the train had already started to go. It was right there, we were running so hard to try and catch it. I asked my companion "what are we going to do if we catch it?" he said "I don't know" Okay, so we just ran until we couldn't run anymore. Needless to say, we had to let that one go. We were a little bummed for missing our train, and just by like one minute. So we had to wait a bit for the next one to come. And this is where the miracle comes in. So the train is empty, we're among the first to get on. We sit down on the first bench, and this guy sits down right next to us. Keep in mind there is an entire wagon full of empty seats, and he sits down right next to us. Furthermore he pulls out a book and starts reading. It's the Bible... in English! So my companion and I are all over that. I don't even remember how we started the conversation, I just remember how he reacted. He looked up with the biggest look of surprise, saw our tags, and in perfect english said "you confess Christ, too". And with that one of the most golden conversations I've ever had began. We talked for more than an hour about where we're from, why we're here, about the restoration. And when we had pretty much given him the whole first lesson, there was a pause, and then he says "Can you preach to me out of that book?" So we talked about the atonement and faith and all sorts of stuff. And he's just soaking it up. He would say amen after the things he agreed with and for the things he wasn't sure about he would say it's hard to believe, but it the Holy Spirit testifies to me that it's true... короче this guy was awesome and it was a miracle that we missed that train. It just goes to show that after the trial well-endured, there is always a blessing equal to or greater than the trial. 

Well, gotta go. Love you all. I really do

Love 

Elder Hamp