For Christtmas, it will be very difficult to know for sure what time I can call. People in Russia don't celebrate Christmas like we do. Their Christmas is the New Year, not the 25th. We will be having a full Church services on that day. I am pretty sure that we will be doing that about 8:00 at night, YOUR time. I don't know if we will be doing skype or what. I promise you that I will find out this week. It has just been a really crazy week, with going to Finland for a while. I haven't been in the area for a while.
Dear Family, I am sorry you didn't get my first e-mail, so I sent it. I just have to say that this week was really crazy. I did in fact go to Finland, and I got to perform baptisms and endowments, which was very spiritually uplifting. I am vowing that when I get home, I will make an effort to go to the temple as much as I can. I can testify that any question or problem that you have, you can find the answer in the temple. I had questions about how to be a better missionary, and a better trainer, and I received my answers in the temple.
We actually met missionaries for the Yekaterinburg mission as well there. It was their visa trip, and it was really cool to talk to them. Mom, if you remember someone by the last name of Copp, or Kopp, just sounds like "Cop", he went to E.G King elementary. He remembers your name. This just shows how small a world this planet is. What are the odds that I would meet someone going to a different mission, and meet in another country, and we have connections?...amazing...
So we spent a while in Finland, just the same things. I sent a package, too. It has the soda can nativity, and Britton's present. The hardback book is a (Ежедневник) "Yeh-zhuh-nyev-nik" or a daily planner. People use these books as journals, and to write stories down. It is very popular in Russia. The two books are two fairytale books. I didn't have time to translate them, But one of them is about a pirate in Africa who eats little children..."Barmalei". I will have to translate them when I get home. Then there is a CTR ring in Russia. I wanted to get one for all the grandkids, but they didn't have that many at the Distribution center in Finland.
So, we went to the zoo during a P-Day, and it was very fun! That was the first time I have ever seen a liger, and a siberian tiger. It was awesome! I hope the grandkids like the pictures. (That sign is about the Liger, or Лигр "Lee-gur") We were so close to the animals, and we were even playing with them. No, we were not doing anything dangerous, just moving about outside the cage, and they would follow us. It was very funny and fun.
My favorite Christmas memory, you can pick out of the two in case one of them takes mine. The first is the ice rings. We would fill bundt pans with colored water, and then freeze them to rings of colored ice. Then we would place them aroud our ancestors' graves, place candles in the centers, and then sing Christmas carols around the grave. I just remember it being a very peaceful and sacred moment to me, to know that we will see them again, and that death is not the end.
I love how we collect nativities (with a new addition from "me") and then we decide to secretly give a Nativity scene piece by piece to someone who might be in need. It was fun to drive up to a person's house, sneak to the doorstep, place the Nativity piece in front of the door, ring the doorbell, and then run into the car, and drive away. It was even fun when I would hide and hear the kids as they came to the door. It made me really think about what I was giving. What greater gift was given, than the Savior to atone for our sins, and make it possible for all of us to return to live with our Heavenly Father? That is by far the greatest gift.
I love you all.
I pray for you, and I hope you pray for us.
This gospel is true.
Heavenly Father is always watching over us.
Elder Hoggan (The Siberian Messenger)
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