Hey everyone so I finally made it safe and sound to Russia (for those of you that were wondering). Well I'm here just trying to get the hang of things! But I have had a really eventful week so here it goes. It all started on Monday July 9th (which was tues in Russia, ah this is weird) anyway so left the MTC on Monday of course I got done with the water works on Sunday :( it was sad leaving our district, being with them for so long has made us like a mini family and I miss them like crazy! Well, so we left and we had about 15 missionaries traveling to Russia together, we had a flight from salt lake to new York and then one from new York to Moscow. So I got to call my family on Monday morning and we had a nice long chat, then I boarded for new York. It was way fun cause I sat next to a man on the plane who wasn't a member so obviously I talked to him about the church. He seemed interested and I gave him a pass along card. Then when we got to new York we ran to catch our Moscow plane, this time I had a seat by missionaries so I didn't get to talk to people, but thanks to my cough medicine (yes I was sick) I slept the whole 8 hour plane ride so that was a huge blessing cause I knew I would die without anything to do. You all know me and how I'm kinda ADD so I need things to do and all I was able to do was read...so... Anyway made it Moscow and oh boy first time off the plane I could feel that humidity! It was soooo humid! Well we went through passport control and the lady started speaking russian to me all I said was "sorry I don't understand much, I can speak a little" she looked at me and chuckled! Oh boy I wasn't at the MTC anymore. We got our bags and headed out to meet our mission president and his wife and the assistants! They greeted us and now the time had come for us to leave our other Russian friends who were serving in samara. I cried again, and it made me think of how in the book of Mormon Ammon leaves his brothers but he knows that it's for the best and he trusts in god that he will see them at the end of his mission. Im going to miss Elder Wittmore and Christensen, they were really great. I have come to realize i am such a cry baby! Well we then went to the mission home and rested, let me tell everyone jet lag is a real thing. We then went to bed and I woke up at 4am the next day cause I couldn't sleep anymore (oh btw it's wed now) yes we lost a few hours so I travelled into the future! Next day we went to the office for training and then back to the mission home cause on thurs we were going to go contacting at read square. Thurs we rode the metro to the church and went contacting, it was fun but tough cause of my broken Russian. I did meet a man from Argentina and I talked to him in spanish! How cool was that! Well after that we met our trainer, mine is Sister Jolley she is really nice and jolly heheh :) so we had a train ride to go to Nishny so we left with elder Olsen and Wittmore, not the one from the MTC but his brother it was so weird but so cool cause they are so alike! We were on the train for 4 hours and I felt like the part on Anastasia when she is on the train! Well so we got to Nishny and well it reminds me of Mexico City. We got to our apartment and slept! Next day was Friday and we went to some lessons we had and it's incredible how much I can understand, my trainer says I'm doing really good. Well so we then had a lesson with this lady who is inactive but her son is serving a mission so we had a lesson with her. And she cried! That's always a good sign that they felt the spirit. Well sat we did an English lesson with a girl named Eva and after the English lesson we did a spiritual thought, we committed her to pray like we do. After that meeting we were walking home and met Alexander. we were trying to save a baby bird and he came over and helped us, imagine a big Russian man with a big deep voice holding this tiny baby bird and then he is stroking his head. It was cute so he asked about English club and we took down his info and gave him our flyer. We didn't think much would come out of it but I told sister Jolley I can see him as a member of our church. Sunday we went to church and I forgot my name tag, great way to start but anyway so I met the members and everyone asked where I was from, when I told them they were so surprised they had never met a Mexican before! People are really surprised by that. One lady asked me if I was from Kasaghstan I said no, and said Mexico, she got so excited when I told her it was my 4th day she went around showing me off and said oh you are an angel you are so beautiful this little angel. It was funny (she was our eternal investigator) well so after church we went trackting and while on the bus we got a call from Alexander who said when was church we explain it was earlier in the morning and so it was over and he asked when it was next Sunday cause he wanted to go with us. We were so excited we told him and he said bye! Sooo cool we were soo happy. And that's a fast summary of our week pretty good and lots to do we have a goal of 4 contacts a day which means 100 in a month which means approx 1 baptism a month! Miss everyone at home!

Love,
Cectpa Tedford