Extreme cold is gone

The really bad weather, the below zero for 4 weeks, seems to have passed us by. It is now lows in the teens and highs in the twenties and that has made an impact on life in general. Suddenly the heaters in the apartment and the institute are putting out enough heat to make the rooms warm. So we are doing great.

We watched them chip the ice off the building roofs with my thoughts being on how much damage they are doing to the roofs. Seems like all that walking around and then slamming down the hard metal spikes to break the ice must be doing something to them. These guys hang on with ropes tied around them and are all over the roofs of the city. The road below is roped off so no one gets hit by flying ice and it makes for precarious walking at times, out in the road. But the traffic seems to be aware and careful too. Been snowing again though and we have these enourmous piles of snow that I am sure my grandkids would know what to do with, although I haven't seen any slides or activity from the Russian kids. Maybe they are just not used to knowing what to do.

We have two investigators that we are really enjoying right now. Nicoli comes to home evening and to the English Book of Mormon class. He is really studying the gospel, is being taught by the office elders, and it is a delight to see him come in the door. Has this big smile and will be at the top of the list of eligibles for the girls when he joins. But he is also talking about a mission so that may be on hold for a while. The girl is Ann or Anna (pronounced On-ya). She walks in and sees us and has this wonderful smile. She is tall and likes to talk with us in English. She teaches English. The sisters are teaching her and she seems to be progressing quite well. She doesn't play foosball very well, but likes to play it. We are glad to be able to be a part of their lives and feel we are contributing to their success in accepting the gospel.

This Sunday the mission president will be setting apart 6 missionaries to serve in the Ukraine and in other parts of Russia. That will really deplete our institute numbers when added to the seven marriages that are also being planned for this spring. But we are getting the other students to recruit so that our numbers attending the classes and the institute will stay up. That is one of the best parts of this mission. We had 36 people in attendance at our Family Home Evening this week. That is about twice what we would prefer but it was fun. They were very enthusiastic playing the games, maybe a little too much as it got a little wild. (When elders play "Do You Love Your Neighbor" they get a little too enthusiastic.) We also had 15 to our Book of Mormon class in English. That was a record number and it is so fun to talk with them about the scriptures, as most of them know so very little.

So things are moving along great. We are healthy and enjoying our mission very much. We do miss you all but know the Lord is blessing us and our family with our being here. And maybe winter is almost over, wooooohooooo.