Omsk!

Happy P-Day everyone!

Me with Elder Kudaybergen

Different languages of the Book of Mormon stacked in the office

A lot has happened this last week so I hope I can do it all justice! I left Tomsk last Monday right after emailing you so I'll go from there. Tuesday and Wednesday, I was with Elder Passy being an Office Elder while our companions were in Finland on a visa trip. There was a New Elder from Kazakhstan staying at the Office Elders' apartment with us who was headed to the MTC to start his mission. Elder Kudaybergen. I got to be companions with him for a few hours on Tuesday. The office is a crazy place, and on transfer week it just goes nuts. We had a lot of running around as we got all the departing missionaries ready to leave and the normal load of work as well. I got to go to a staff meeting which includes the Office Elders, Assistants to the President, the office couple, and President and Sister Gibbons. They talked about a lot of the goings on in the mission. But mostly about the schedule for welcoming the new missionaries the next day. On Wednesday night at 10 pm, Elder Prince, Riordan, and myself were driven to the train station and got on our eight-hour train ride to OMSK! 

Elder Prince, myself and Elder Riordan on the Omsk train

The train has compartments called koopeys. A normal one has four beds in it as in the pictures I'm sending. They give you fresh sheets and a blanket. We had some tea with us so we got these fancy cups and filled them with hot water which was miraculously free. We changed into comfortable clothes and slept for about six of the eight hours. About a half an hour before we got there, the cabin lights turned on and the radio started playing. 

After a pit stop at our visa registrar's house, we got to my new apartment. It's...nice. Not really, but it'll do. I was blessed in Tomsk to have such a legit apartment. This one is kinda ghetto. I'll send you pictures some day. There are two districts in Omsk. There are also two branches. We are in the 2nd branch which for some reason is the main bigger branch. Each district here has two sets of elders and one set of sisters so there are 13 missionaries in Omsk. (as I'm in a 3-some). Elder Prince is the District leader and this is his 6th transfer in Omsk. He came here when I got to Russia. There is a mini-transfer coming up in the next couple weeks right around Zone Conference and he is being transfered to the office. The last 4 weeks of this transfer will be just Elder Zhitkov and myself. 

We've been plenty busy here. Omsk is a huge city, and I never know where I am. We're finishing up our "March Madness" Branch list work here. We have visited probably about 15 apartments to confirm information about people on our list. When they started this project there were 370 members on the Omsk list. Many have died or moved away so now we're down to about 250! That's a lot fewer people which means fewer Melchizedek Priesthood holders needed to create the Stake here. 

Our compartment on the train.

The best thing about Omsk has got to be the Senior Couple, the Walkers. They are amazing. Have a nice big apartment where they have a lot of events. We have our district meetings there every week. They make us food all the time! They've fed us so many times just in the last few days. 

Babushka (Варвара) Varvara

The branch here is lively! They're certainly more exciting than in Tomsk. I think just because there are a lot of youth and kids here. I guess we go home teaching often with the members here which is really good! The 8th of March is women's day in Russia. So after church yesterday, we went out and, with the Elder's Quorum, visited all the less active Babushkas or the sick ones who can't really leave home. I was just with Elder Prince, and we went to visit two. We gave them both the sacrament and one of them a blessing. They were just so filled with joy when we came. One of them is 90 years old, and one of the happiest Babs in Russia. Elder Prince and I got a nice picture with her. She wanted to hold the picture of Jesus in the picture. :) 

After visiting them, we went back to the Walker's apartment for a YSA fireside where we had an investigator. Sister walker was speaking about "women are from venus and men are from mars" I guess it's a popular book on relationships. It was pretty entertaining. Elder Жидков (Zhitkov) and I left that to visit a member who needed a blessing. She talked for a while about the Russia-Ukraine situation and then we finally got to give her the blessing and share a spiritual thought. We shared some verses from Mosiah 2 and D&C 4 about service, and how all can serve and are called to serve. Then we went back to the Walker's to pick up Elder Prince and head home for the night. On the way home we got a text from the Sisters saying that they saw two people get hit by a car. They flipped over the car and the car sped away. A few minutes later we got off the bus and that accident was right down the street. We walked by as they were putting them into stretchers and into the ambulance. We finally got home and planned in time to get to bed. Days are long here. 

The branch building is not as nice as in Tomsk. Here we have the third floor of a complex, a stairwell, also the connecting bottom floor where there is a sports hall. It's nice on the inside, but there is no elevator which makes it hard for all the old ladies to climb the stairs and make it to sacrament meeting. There is a font on the first floor as well. It's sure going to be weird going to church back in the States where evertything is so nice and well built and structured! With lots of people. 

So if you didn't care to read all that, I'm doing well, Omsk is big, and the branch is good.

Now here are your pictures. :P Oh, and I changed how I spell my name in Russian! I am now Мур and not Мюр. (Moore and not Myoure).

Lots of love,

Elder Moore