creams of the crops

Dear Dear Family Family,

Mother Nature's son here: We had a lower than average turn out this week on sacrament meeting. It’s odd because it’s the active members not coming for various reasons that’s affecting the branch so much. This financial crisis has made a fair amount of the regulars have to work on Sundays, off and on, so while all the actives are still active, they just don’t all come on the same days like they used to. I know it’s not my fault but I can’t help but feel responsible for the dip in attendance lately. The new meeting house will really help most of Revda come and I’m sure miracles will happen once it’s here but in this last stretch of our time in Pervouralsk, the members are getting really tired. I even spoke about this in my talk yesterday and they know it’s true, but they just can’t expect the branch to be perfect once it’s here. We almost wrapped up tithing settlement yesterday. Sometimes when it seems like the branch has more problems than solutions, it’s hard to be optimistic about its future, but I savor the times when I get to interview the faithful creams of the crops here in Russia. The hope of their steadfastness far outbalances any despair in the setbacks in this work. It’s a truly miraculous reminder that this church is true and it does change lives. It makes us want to go outside and find their future friends. I’m so impressed with these wonderful people.
Christmas was great at President's. I stole some imported hot chocolate during the white elephant gift exchange (with marshmallows!). I use about an 8th of the tub every cup I drink. It won’t last a week. The best part of Christmas was showing up and being offered fancy foreign (i.e. American) cold cereal. We could buy it in the stores; it’s just beyond our budgets. Instead of the normal zone conference presentations we just did an extra long testimony meeting about the Savior. I really enjoyed the sincerity of the meeting, and it reminded me of many past Christmas blessings I’ve received.
I got my package just in time for... Saturday night. It was at the office, we just didn’t have time to get it before then. Those are way nice shirts thank you so much. I’ll really enjoy them, just what I wanted. The dictionary is great too, so many words. It’s wonderful. And last, thank you for the fact that you finally stopped messing around and sent a missionary portion of taco seasoning. It may last a whole transfer!

Love,

Elder Roberto