Barrett's email, January 21st

Winter wonderland in Podolsk

(sorry, it would only let me send 5 pictures this time)

We woke up and everything was covered in thick frost

For some reason it doesn't look as pretty in the picture



This little street reminded me of Placerville. Streets aren't usually lined with trees here in Russia



A Strange Phenomenon (?)

 It was aparently built by an italian architect

Holy Cow! (I sent him pictures of some Russian Hats) Those hats are awesome! As far as I can tell, the black one is size 57, sort 3, and cost 18 roubles?!?!? And the white one is also size 57, sort 1, and cost 67 roubles. Wow. Let me tell you, those hats would cost at least 1000 roubles each nowadays, and that's after quite a bit of haggling. They look really good. Wow. Tell Sis. W that I appreciate them.

The weather is getting colder again. I sent a bunch of pictures of the snow. It was beautiful. The Assistants came on splits. That was fun. I got to serve with Elder J one last time. He goes home at the end of this transfer. We did a district contacting activity a bit outside of Podolsk. We talked to some interesting people, as usual. And afterwards we stopped in at Globus, this gigantic hypermarket (yes, in russia they have hypermarkets bigger than supermarkets) and got some 10 rbl icecream. You can't beat that.

On sunday a high councilman spoke from the stake. He talked about how much he loves podolsk. The air is fresher down here, and the branch has a special spirit about it. I felt it too when I first came. I still feel it, but there was a definite contrast when I first came.

Well, the electricity went out here while I was emailing, so I lost a bit of time waiting for it to come back on, but it's back, but I gotta go. Have a great week. Love you

Love Elder Hamp