Hello from Russa!

Wow ...what a past couple of days! My head is till reeling but it will be ok. All of our flights went relatively smoothly, though to Germany we had some turbulence that made me lose my appetite.

We spent the first night in the mission home. I'm not too tired yet but I'm kinda goin on adrenaline right now. Though I did wake up at three a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep so me and Cectra King stayed up and chatted. Today we had some talks on the mission, expectations, and how we do missionary work here. A lot of it is done through contacting because there are so few members that they get hit up for contacts a lot and it can be tiring for them. I also found out where I am going to be serving: Krasnadar (sp?) which is S of Rostov.

My companion is Cectpa "meeleeleena" I think I that's how you pronounce it. She's from Siberia and turns 24 in the next couple of months. She seems real energetic and sure of herself which is good, she speaks English I think, but everyone is trying to speak Russian so it's hard to tell-though I think we'll be just fine. I'm sitting in an Internet cafe-it was def interesting getting here, the little twists and turns and sometimes going under the street where there's lots of lil shops and the smell of smoke everywhere-hopefully less in Krasnadar but we'll see I guess. Ten feet to the left is an opening into a bar with music playing. Definitely different after the MTC.

I'm sure it will take a little time for me to get used to everything and over the culture shock but I'm excited to be here and get to work. Luckily my ears held up good for all of the flights and seem to be ok and will hopefully stay that way-pray for me (which I know you are 8)

The traffic is absolutely insane here-not that it's that busy but lets just say the lines in the middle of the road are a waste of paint 8) interesting.....

I can tell I'm going to learn a lot from this experience, I don't know if anything will quite scare me again-not that this is scary but if I can adapt and live here in this different environment then anything else will seem easy to do, at least easy to do with confidence.

Well I'm trying to remember the lil info that you wanted to know but my head is kinda crammed full of stuff at the moment...um...me and my companion are the only ones going to Krasnadar this transfer. Cectpa King is going to Volgragad up north and Cectpa Taylor is staying in Rostov-south part of it I think. Everyone else is spread to the winds.

Well I love you all and hope this week is going well for you, and I hope it goes well for me too 8) I love you all and am grateful for your support.

Luv,
Cectpa Richards