Marshmallows and Russians

Hello again!

so this e-mail might be a little shorter because it took it over 10 minutes to log in today... very frustrating.

I'll start off by saying thank you for the cat posters! I LOVE THEM. They are hanging on my wall in our room, much to the disapproval of Elder Rigby. haha. Elder Rigby and I actually get along just fine now. We work well together and I actually enjoy his company. He's still not one of my FAVORITE people, but hey it'll do. So I've been here for over a month now. sooooo long. and yet it really doesnt seem that long. its the weird mission time warp thing going on. this week the older district is starting to trickle out. a few of them are still here, but they will all be gone by friday. Elder Mills and Hagee were made zone leaders and Elder Rhodes district leader. I was very happy on sunday when i realized i had not been interviewed. Also to clear up another couple of concerns, my leg is doing just fine. nothing wrong with it anymore aside from some pretty sweet scars.

We get our mail everyday before lunch and after dinner. we're not allowed to read our mail until after we are back in our rooms at 9:30 each night, and then we are only allowed to write home on tuesdays. so... a lot of times i will forget some of the things that you all write by the time i write back. so if something is important that needs to be answered, just keep writing it! Mom, you've done a really good job of that... haha.

Funny story. The other night i was sitting there eating my huge marshmellows that kendra sent me, and one of the native russians walked in. he didn't really know what it was so i let him have one. HE LOVED IT. so i went around and gave all the native russians some of my marshmallows. they were all amazed and loved them. apparently they dont have marshmallows in russia. I've had a lot of fun getting to know some of these russians and struggling to communicate with them. Speaking of communicating in russian, tomorrow we have to teach the message of the restoration all in russian! eeeekk! so i've been working and praying really hard for some help in that... i'm not too nervous, but i'm not too confident either.

so far we have had to spend 2 full days speaking only in russian. did.... alright... it was a pretty quiet day. one of those days i was playing volleyball and was lined up against elder james. i call him elder lebron james because he is about quite tall, quite big, and quite black. someone set it to him and he went to spike it on me... and i blocked the crap out of it. so i continued to yell "He B Moem gome" which means "NOT IN MY HOUSE!!!!" oh the good things i can learn russian for.

real quick spiritual thought since i am quickly running out of time. (though i should have 10 more minutes.. urg)

last tuesday Elder Jeffery R. Holland came and talked to us. it was the first time since i've been here they've had us all together in the gym for devotional, and it was quite a good one. he talked about not wasting time on our mission because it really is the Lord's work and His mission. The coolest thing was just being in the same room as an Apostle of Jesus Christ. A strong testimony builder for sure.

well 30 secs left. thanks to everyone who keeps mailing me! mail is the BEST thing.. keep it coming

love you all

love elder ellis