Barrett's email, October 8th

Transfers! Out with the old...

 ...and in with the new

 12 new missionaries!!

For the third time in a row they were doing something on Red Square when we took the greenies

 Random Olympic monument by a mcdonalds in podolsk

cool soviet train

 

It was a miracle! We decided to email a little earlier than usual. I signed onto my email and saw that there were 3 new messages, but none from home. I turned to my companion to tell him that my family hasn't emailed yet, we're too early. But when I looked back at the screen... there was one new message! It was a miracle.

Okay, what a week. Transfers! Those are always exciting. I'm living now out on mitino, near the mission office. My old companion, Elder T stayed in the apartment we used to live in. He is training a new missionary there. My new companion is Elder J. He's from St. George. Thursday was transfers. Elder T and I went to the airport to pick up the greenies on Tuesday and there were even more there than last time. We got 12. That is the biggest group we've gotten yet. And there were probably another 20-30 missionaries headed to other missions throughout Russia. It was impressive. Then on Wednesday we did a little training with them at the office. A couple of the sisters asked me if I know Sister C. I guess they served in the same zone in the MTC. That was very cool. They said her Russian is awesome. That's awesome. On thursday we took them to Red Square. That's one of my favorite parts. And on the way back to the transfer meeting we contacted. There were so many missionaries and only so many ways to get back to the Central Building that I did a little exploring with my group. I found the park that the APs took me and Elder B through when we first arrived. That was very cool.

Over the weekend, Elder J and I went on splits out in Podolsk. We went to church in the branch. They have the highest percentage of activity in the whole mission, maybe the whole world. It's like 90-something percent. Granted they only have 40 people on the branch list.

Okay, so concerning your questions:

• Date has not been confirmed. I will talk to him tomorrow
• Victory day will be on thursday. I was thinking we would leave saturday, but maybe we should leave friday. Would I be giving my homecoming talk on that Sunday? Would we make it to church if we left saturday? I'd rather not wait a week to give that talk
• The apartment looks awesome and the location is perfect, literally perfect. If that is one of the cheaper options, definitely take it. The pictures are great. That's a super nice apartment. And the parade will literally go right by the window. That's awesome
• And they'll pick you up for free? That's fantastic. Don't worry about finding us. It will be probably a 20 minute walk to the central building or just hop on the metro and go 2 stops. I could come get you myself before the transfer meeting that morning.

I printed off the application paper and will fill it out and send it back.

Holy cow! We heard about the missionary age thing. That's insane!! we won't see conference til next week, but people are already talking about it. This is going to be great for the native Russians. And we're gonna see a lot more sisters. Are Amy and Ana getting ready? There are a ton of members already asking about how to get started on the application. This is huge.

Well, it's about time. Thank you for every thing. Oh man, meatloaf sounds so good. Dad's so lucky. Have a great week. Sorry to keep you up last night (or tonight if you stayed up to read this). I love you

Love

Elder Hamp