Missionary Service of Elder Benjamin Moore: Meltdown

Hello Everyone!

The meltdown seems to have started. Yesterday the streets turned into rivers. They don't have the drainage systems necessary to keep up with the water. It was only a couple of degrees above freezing, but it felt nice.

Omsk is a great place! There are two branches and we're in the larger of the two. There are some really strong youth here. Missionary dependence here in Omsk is a lot higher than in other places in the mission. That's because here in Omsk is one of the only places in this side of the world where Home Teaching is actually set up and successful! We often go on splits right after church to go home teaching with the priesthood holders. Church here is a lot more demanding than in Tomsk. We have meetings starting at 8:30 until church at 11:00-2:00. After Church this week we had Branch Council. Elder Prince & I left Elder Zhitkov there and went to hit up the last addresses for our Branch List work. Before we started this project there were 370 members on the list, and now that we've updated it all and moved out records for missing or moved people we have a manageable branch list of 200 members. Just what we need to be prepared for the creation of a Stake!

There are some really legit families here. Since it was Elder Prince's last week, we went and visited quite a few people. There are two little girls Цвента and Лена. (Tsveta and Lyena). 5 and 3 years old. They just remind me of Katie and Jane, but in a blond Russian version. They are bundles of energy!

On Saturday, we accompanied the Walkers to the central street market. They wanted us to come with them to help barter and translate. Omsk has a huge outdoor street market with lots of stuff. Like big Russian fur hats!! If anyone would like one just let me know! They've got all kinds of furs. Mink or muskrat are usually good ones for hats.

This week we finished up our March Madness work. Checking and updating the Branch list. We have a Zone conference this week, and I'm guessing that President Gibbons will talk a lot about that and the creation of the Stake here. We're right there!

This last week we had a Youth Night at the Walkers. They have been doing them for a while now and the first time they had 3 people there and the Walkers taught with a translator. This week we had a record 28 people there. Only 9 of which were actually members! The youth had the lesson prepared as well. It was incredible! The youth here are so strong.

I'll just send a bunch of pictures now and that will fill in the gaps from the week. :)

NEXT WEEK'S EMAIL!... Next week's email is going to be a Q&A...so everyone has to supply me with questions. Just send a quick email with a question as you think of them. I'll try to include them all in my email next week! We'll see if it works.

Hope you all have a great week! Miss and Love you all,

Elder Moore

Pictures:

Out in the Boonies.

This is my Companion... Elder Zhitkov (Жидков) from Moscow. Professional Shot putter. Hopes to be on the Olympic team some day. He likes to beat me up.