Fires in Russia

Hey everyone,

The fires are the big topic here as well. Everyone says it is just scary to watch the news. Here in Kaluga we have had a couple days where it has gotten smokey but nothing way serious. Enough that we didn't want to keep our windows open but it wasn't bad enough that we couldn't go outside. It's kind of crazy, it comes and goes pretty fast, like rain clouds the smoke will just roll in. When I was in Moscow for my visa trip, it was pretty bad. I'm glad you got to see it on the news because I couldn't really take a picture of it. It is peat that is the problem. They say it is deep under the ground or under the something in the forest, so they can't just dump water on it. Also that is why it is so smokey. Kaluga is doing fine, there are fires around but none way close. I hope it stops soon, I know it is doing a lot of damage and causing a lot of trouble.

Anyway, my visa trip was a nightmare as usual. Elder Johanson and I were the only ones going. We had to stay up until midnight the night before in order to get the tickets. We went to the airport the next day and waited until it was our turn to check in. After we got through security, Elder Johanson realized that our visas didn't start until the next day, meaning if we were to fly to Kiev, we would not be able to fly back into Russia until the next day. We had a choice of backing out and going to kiev the next day with the rest of our group or just chancing things and going to Kiev. We decided it would be a big waste of money if we just wasted our tickets so we decided to fly to Kiev. Our good idea was to change the tickets for some that were late enough that we would arrive back in Russia after midnight. If we could do that, then we would have time to go find the temple and take a look. So we got to Kiev and tried to change the tickets. We went through the whole process to get them changed because we thought the lady said it would cost 500 rubles to change the tickets. When we tried to pay her 500 rubles, she just laughed and said "I need 500 Euros" That's over 4000 rubles so we said, uh, we don't have that kind of money so we had her change them back. That meant that once again, I got my hopes up to see the temple and it didn't work out. Anyway, we still had a few hours until our plane left so we took a bus to a small town outside of Kiev. We just walked around and bought some fruit and bread and stuff at a store. We headed back to the airport and tried to check in to our flight. The lady couldn't find us in the system. She kept looking and found out that we somehow were on the late flight, the one we had tried to change to. Meaning that lady had not switched us back somehow. So we had another almost 2 hours in the airport. The worst part is that if we had known about that, we would have gone to find the temple!! It was pretty frustrating, but oh well. So we waited and got on the plane and were pleasantly surprised to see we had also been upgraded to business class! Finally, a perk. We got into Moscow at about 12:15. I went through passport control with no problems. Johanson on the other hand, was in the passport control for quite a while because he had some sort of problem with his visa. The person who made his visa put his birthday in wrong and the people at the airport didn't like that. They told him he would have to have a completly new visa made. They said they could do it in the airport but it would take a while. The bad part was that I was on the other side of passport control already so I just had to wait while he went and got a new visa made. Finally at 2:00 A.M. Johanson comes back with the airport people. We had the mission driver there waiting for us, I'm sure he was just really happy about the whole thing. He took us back and we ended up getting back to the a.p.'s apartment at about 3 o'clock. The next morning Elder Frehner and I got on a bus and headed back to Kaluga. I was pretty tired. Next visa trip will be better, I am almost sure we will get to go to the temple. I can't wait.

Church was a little disappointing on Sunday. Only 7 members showed up. One of which was a guy from Finland who was just visiting. After Sacrament meeting, a couple people went home even. So we had about 5 people in all for sunday school and combined priesthood and relief society. The speakers were the branch president and his councilor. I still haven't been made the 2nd councilor. I'm not sure if I will or what. Our branch president is doing as good as you could expect from a 21 year old kid, but that being said, he's still a 21 year old kid. He's a bit lazy and hard to deal with sometimes.

Monday night we had the chance to go to Tula! It was cool to see that city again. We had a zone meeting, which I didn't understand what the point was, but honestly, I just wanted a chance to go to Tula. We stayed the night Monday night, had our meeting Tuesday and then came back. It's only about 2 hours on a bus from here, so not too bad. It was really interesting to think that almost exactly a year ago, I saw Tula for the first time. Can you believe it? Next week, I will have been in Russia for an entire year! That's crazy.

Elder Frehner and I have been doing a lot of finding. We are talking to as many people as we can in between meetings. We get promising contacts but I just don't know what happens to them, they just most of the time don't pan out. We got a few more yesterday that I'm pretty excited about. Hopefully we can start meeting with some of them.

Last night Elder Harrison called me to ask about some stuff. It sounds like things are going great in Veronezh. I still miss that city. He told me that every time they meet with Ludmilla she always talks about me and is always asking how I'm doing and remembering things that remind her of me. She misses me, which is a good feeling.

There is a picnic in Tula on Saturday. When they have activities, they like to have us come and when we have activities, we invite the people from Tula. We are trying to get some of our investigators to come to it. It would be a lot of fun. If we can't get anyone to come of course we wouldn't go, but I would sure like to go. We'll see what happens.
Why didn't they have a carnival this year? Did you see some people from my class there? Caleb is getting married huh? That's interesting. How old is this girl? And Mary is starting college soon huh? Wow, everyone is just growing up. Oh and Torey is getting married? Tell her congratulations. Has anyone gotten back from their missions lately? Keep me updated. Anyway, that's about all I have for this week. Thanks for everything! Oh ya, I haven't gotten my debit card yet, but hopefully it will be there next time I'm in Moscow. Also, I know what you can send in the future if you send another package. If you can find a pair of size 42 inserts for my eccos that would be great. Elder Traasdahl's mom sent him some. My shoes are pretty much like new still exept for the insert in one of them is starting to fall apart. It's not even bad yet but I figure by the time you are ready to send another package I will be ready for some new inserts. I love my shoes! Anyway, I'll talk to you guys next week. Love you.

Elder Geddes