Speaking Russian!

Well hello!
No problems with the computers this week, so this will hopefully be a longer e-mail. Well, actually i had to reply to my mission president about if i had recieved a letter or something, so that took a little time.
Well lets see... this last week started off with TRC on wednesday. This is where we practice teaching lessons to volunteers. Well last week again was all in russian, and well.... I don't know that much russian. To make things worse, one of the volunteers we were teaching was a girl that's a native russian.... so she spoke SUPER fast. Many times she would say something and we would look to the return missionary to translate from FAST NATIVE russian into SLOW MISSIONARY russian. lol. She also asked some pretty difficult questions. I remember sitting there thinking, "i'm not even sure I know how to answer that question effectively in english... but in RUSSIAN?!?!" so I said a little silent prayer to be able to answer the question, and then starting speaking. And well, I was definitely helped! That stood as a testimony to me that this is the Lord's work and He is willing to help us out. A point I am very happy about!
Also on wednesday the new districts came in. 3 of them are going to Samara as well, but I havent met any of those 3 yet (they are in another zone that we dont see very much) The first day or two with the new district was pretty nice, It was nice to feel like I knew a lot more than others... but then after a couple days we figured out that most of them have some sort of background speaking the language... whether they lived in russia, taught english classes to russians, or just took several semesters of russian at college. So I was again humbled.
I also finally saw Garon! I've seen him a couple times since as well, mainly on sundays when we watch movies (such as Finding Faith In Christ, Mountain of the Lord, The Testiment, Joseph Smith Prophet of the Restoration) I'm still hoping one sunday we can watch some disney movies... lol.
Lets see... its hard to think of things to say... pretty much everday is the same now... so you've pretty much heard it all before. Oh... its starting to get cold in the mornings (outside, not just in our rooms) So when we have gym in the mornings the sand is SOOOOOO cold on my bare feet. I'm dreading the day they close the field due to coldness... we're cooped up inside WAY too much! I live for the outside world! Speaking of Cold... our room. The first week we got here the temperature in our room was 67 degrees. each week its slowly been making its way down... and we finally hit a record low or 62.3 degrees. we both have two blankets, and i ofter sleep in my fleece footie pajamas... and still wake up cold. Finally we got a good idea on saturday night and put a blanket over the vents in our room. Well, it's working and the room was back up to 66 degrees last night! So i've actually been sleeping quite well! Bad news tho.... we're getting roomates. which means the blanket will come off of the vent, and we will also have to give up our extra blankets. They come today. we also had to consolidate all our stuff in to one closet each. we got really used to our lifes of "luxury" with a closet ofr our clean clothes and one for our dirty clothes... but that all comes to an end today. also instead of having a whole desk to myself, i know only have half.
The neat thing is that our roomates are native russians! which means, i'm going to be forced to talk in russian more often, so i see it as a great opportunity for me to learn and improve. My russian is... tak u tak. or so - so. I can communicate about 85% of everything that i want to say at this point. that doesnt mean i'm using proper grammar, or even the words i would like to say... just getting 85% of my points across. So i am getting better :)
This wednesday we teach again in the TRC, but this time we are teaching the Plan of Salvation in all russian. This message is a lot harder to teach in russian as many of the key words are quite lengthy. Just gotta practice a lot and pray a lot and i'll be ok! Also my study habits are getting a LOT better so russian is starting to come a little easier. still not easy, just not as hard.
OH! Yesterday i got 2 postcards and 2 letters! hopefully my mail drought is over? that was a record for me... but elder hagee got 12 yesterday... soo i'm losing this game. lend me some help? write?
well that's about all the time i have this week! I love you all and miss ya!

Love,
Elder Ellis