Hello everyone!

Thank you all for your GREAT letters-it's amazing what a boost they bring to read something and feel something so familiar again. This week has been...good. I dunno, it's been kind of a crazy week cause my companion has been needing to go to the dentist and finally got referred to one. (It's actually a pretty nice office and seems as good as American dental care). So Monday we went there and were waiting in the office FOREVER though afterwards it was pretty funny because he had given her the shot that numbs your mouth/face etc and she had never had that before. (Don't ask me what she has had-no idea) But anywho...so all night long she was poking at her face and saying, "He killed my face!", etc. Watching her eat dinner was pretty funny too cause she didn't hear him say: wait two hours, and so it was like watching a baby eat, haha. I kept telling her it was normal and it will wear off but we needed to go knocking cause our whole day had been wasted by this appointment and she couldn't really talk good. That's right, I stepped up to the plate. It was pretty comical cause it always registers on people's faces pretty quickly that you're not Russian and sometimes (especially with old people) they ask: "shto-shto?" which means: "what, what-didn't understand you" etc.

It was good though because I can't learn how to speak comfortably without speaking as much as possible. This one door though, Cectpa Malinina pointed out a big spider web in the corner and I was happy to see that it was unoccupied. Then I rang the bell and just as I did this, a huge spider came flying down onto the web from who knows where-I guess one of his strings was attached to the bell as a trigger. It took everything in me not to scream though I backed up three big steps really quickly and Cectpa M tried to mess with it/ play with it laughing at me. (shudder)

Not much came from knocking that night, though one man after saying something that sounded like "you speak real bad" I said I know, I'm from Texas which peaked his interest and we got a number to give to the elders to contact him so hopefully something will come from that. There was another woman who said we could come back but I think she might have thought we were Jehovah's witnesses-we get that a lot here. "Oh, we already talked to your people and got your literature" and we keep trying to say: "No! That's not us, we're different etc" sigh...it's like they're following us and getting to our areas first, oh well.

Yesterday Cectpa M's tooth still hurt and the dentist called us and had us come back so there went another day-though we taught the lesson at English club last night which went ok I guess. We taught about making verbs past tense and had them play a game and give candy and then they asked questions about America, what I like about my city etc. And afterwards one girl who we had taught the first lesson to and she has avoided us came up to us and asked if we could meet tomorrow.....um....YES! It's rare when they ask you to meet, haha. We'll show her Testaments and talk about the Book of Mormon some more-I'll have seen this movie 3 times this week (ugh) but it's a powerful tool and really invites the spirit.

For P-day today we're going to go visit an orthodox church-it's really big and beautiful, I'll be sure to take some pictures-from a distance of course. I'm excited to see the architecture etc. and something that is so old and rich in culture-it really caters to my love of humanities etc.

I sent to Dad the instructions we received about Christmas calls and will email my number and exactly what time (have to coordinate with my comp) to call etc. We'll have zone conference on the 14th so hopefully I'll get at least one of my packages 8) I have Steve for Christmas but I think I can send something from here for not that much-the only expensive thing will be the actual sending of it and if I think it's a lot maybe mom can put 20 odd bucks into my account or something, but it shouldn't be bad. He may have to wait til after Christmas but it's ok-Christmas is Jan 7 here anyway.

As to Mom's questions: We have lots of interactions with the branch members here-at least the younger ones and like I said there's quite a few RM sisters in our branch who are really cool. Every week there's prolly 30-40 in attendance. We don't eat meals with members-mission rule, tho every time we visit with this one LA lady she tries to feed us (was a chef) and let's just say her restaurant wouldn't be my fav, we'll prolly do a Christmas party with the missionaries in our area and I'm sure our branch will have some sort of Christmas/New Years party. I speak mostly English with my companion-she's pretty good at it but not perfect so we still have funny lost-in-translation moments. (Though I'm gonna ask her to only speak to me in Russian outside of our apartment from now on to help me learn faster). I gave a talk in sacrament a couple weeks ago-was short but everyone afterwards complimented me and was amazed at how much I could say (yea right 8) , um...I think they have a McDonald's in Rostov but I haven't seen one here in Krasnodar and we haven't been to any restaurants-just vendors on the streets for bakery type items- pear-O-shkee- my fav thing here right now: basically bread and inside is mashed potatoes, or meat or cabbage or cheese etc-kind of like a glorified hotpocket only that description doesn't do it justice...like a celestial hotpocket more like it! Don't' worry, you will taste them some day 8)

As far as in my next package- could use some Q-tips, mascara, um...fluoride rinse? haha that's about it...exciting huh?! Would it be possible to send skorper and some type of hot chocolate mix that only takes hot water like Stephens? That reminds me- it's not too bad weather wise here, though we've had a couple of crazy days that had warm weather, wind, cold rain and snow all in the same day-pretty wild.

Well I better go-still need to write the mission president, but know that I love all of you soooo much and love hearing from you and how every one's lives are going. I'm grateful for your prayers and support-I know it makes a difference and that God is preserving me out here every day.

Love,
Cectpa Richards