Today was a great Sunday - our last one in this building. The building was recently inspected - not sure who did the inspection - and we can no longer meet there,  Since next week conference is rebroadcast in Russian here we will not meet there again.  So, no more walks to church.  The new branch will require a bus ride. We're going to make a couple of trial bus runs there and to a few other branches so we can find our way around.  In the winter when it gets cold the windows in the buses ice over and you can't see out.  That means we need to figure out how to get around now while we can see. I think we'll be spending lots of time traveling to and from places. Everything takes a lot more time in Saratov.

After church we met with our institute council president and set a date for our dinner and meeting.  He said he would get as manyYSA there as he can and we would plan the next year or so. We then met with the Zone Leaders and a new set of sisters in our district - Sisters Upshaw and Moffett,  Sister Moffett just got here from the MTC.  The ZLs assigned them a number of YSA girls to visit and invite to FHE.  The sisters are awesome - I asked the new one to teach the lesson - she was kind of surprised but readily accepted.  We left those meetings feeling very positive - we're starting to be blessed with ideas.

The ZLs asked us to visit a family this evening.  We went with them to a humble apartment - a single sister and four sons - ages 3 to 14,  They gave us refreshments - a deep fried bread dough filled with mashed potatoes.  The kids made them for us. Sherry said she wanted to learn how to make them so the kids asked her to come over again and they would teach her.  Sort of out of our comfort zone but I am so impressed with my companion.  She will connect well with this family. The kitchen in this apartment is very tiny with no counter - everything is done on a table.  The apartment is much tinier than the little beach house I grew up in Crescent City!

We are trying very hard to not be so American and become more Russian in our outlook on things. We're here for a while and we need to respect and love Russia and it's people and culture. 

Tomorrow the ZLs are taking us to Victory Park - it overlooks the city and has a lot of military displays - including military hardware like tanks and planes and stuff.  Cool.