January 4, 1997 - Saturday

Today we went and played football in the snow.  Americansky [Американскый] football.  It was a blast.  This is the third time we've played a team (get together) sport and my team one [won] this time too.  It was cool. 

Then we came home and I'm starting to get his [Ст. Barnes'] cold.  My nose is running like a phosphorescent tractor in a muldoon circus tent.  Try them panties on for size.  It's final.  I am going with Ст. Woolverton this next week.  It should be pretty cool. 

Well I wrote my president's letter today and we only had 8 1/2 hours of proselyting.  That pretty much sucked.  Oh well.  I hope I'm not really slowed down this week.  Fingers crossed. 

I wrote my president's letter in English.  I'm so much better in English.  I actually like to write so I'm going to keep writing in English until I can write in Russian as well and then I might begin to write to the President in Russian.  Well night.

[Missionary Weekly Report - Like I talked about above - each week we write our Mission President and we list hours proselyting (actually being out and finding or teaching discussions), service, activation (work with members), hours missed for illness, days reading BOM, and study language etc.  It's a way that we can see hard #s and not just have a feeling about what we did that week.  We also add a little bit in a letter to the president.  Here was mine for that week.

"Dear President,
Sorry for the bad hours this week, my companion was sick during the middle of the week and I think I just caught it from him.  Hopefully it won't hit me as strong.  We had a good Discussion with a less active member Friday night.  I was very impressed - I almost understood everything they talked about.  I've seen an improvement in comprehension and it excites me.  New Years felt more like normal than Christmas did.  It's all weird.  thankx"

I had 8.5 hours proselyting, 4.5 hours of service, 3 hours in activation.  Personal preparation.  I read BOM 7 days, studied other scriptures 3 days, used the Missionary Gospel Study Program booklet - 0 days, studied the language 5 days. 

So that's a typical missionary weekly report - mine at least, from 12/29/96 to 1/4/97.  I was in the Южносокольнический Приход (Yuzhnosokolnichesky Branch - or southern circle branch) от метро Ясенова (off the metro station Yasenova).

Here is a very cool metro map of Moscow.  Yasenova is on the orange line - its the second to last metro stop from the very bottom.  That's where I lived for the first 2 months in Moscow.  The walk from the metro station to our apartment was about 5 minutes, and there was a steep downhill part right before our apartment building.  Until I bought boots I fell almost every single time I went down that sucker.  I could almost slide most of the way, but my Doc Martens were too slippery.  The boots did much better.  ok, bye]