Finally Arrived

24 July 2004
"Well, I'm here and still living - barely. We arrived at about 6 this morning, and waited for like an hour to get our passports signed. After that, we filled out some papers because our luggage didn't make it to the airport here!

Anyways, after that we made it to see President Davydik. It was nice to see his smiling face. We went to the his house, and we had some breakfast cereal, bread and yogurt. We then went through orientation...basically one word can sum it up: Obedience!

We then found out who are new companions are, and wher we are serving. My companion is Elder Jensen and I am in the Iвzheck area. I was unable to go today because of the long train ride to get there.

Right now I am writing with the zone leaders until Monday when I will arrive.

After that, we had a nice big lunch that Sister Davydik prepared for us. It was chicken, rice vegetables followed by ice cream. I absolutely loved it, and ate tons.

I slept for about an hour with my wait for the zone leaders to come pick me up. We came, dropped my few things off at the apartment, and then just kept trying to do missionary work, so I hope I get more experience tomorrow.

I am excited to get to the work, and learn the language. I have a lot of work to do. I must turn to the Lord! It's an exciting time in life!"

--Yes, I really wrote Ижевск(Izhevsk) like that in my journal with the Russian letter in with all the English letters and out of place. Also all those other mistakes are really there. I didn't write about how in shock I was when we were driving in to Samara and I got my first glimpse of the Russian buildings. I thought they looked like huge bricks in rows, all the same. I was in shock just looking at them.