NaKAZANiye...

That's the Russian word for 'punishment'. I feel like I must have done something wrong, because I’m being banished back to the northernmost city of our mission; Kazan.
I'm very excited about the transfer I just received. I love the city of Kazan and I’m excited to return. (even if all my formal investigators there got baptized while i was gone). I'm not going to miss the streets of Novo-K much, but i do wish i was able to take a few of our investigators and members from here with me. I'll be heading out Wednesday and making the 10 hour bus ride north. I'll be training once again, so i don't yet know who my companion will be. I do know that the Kazan district will consist of me and my trainee, and Elder Doughtery and his trainee. It's only Elder Doughtery's second cycle in Russia... so it looks like I’ll be training 3. Hopefully that's not actually the case (I don't expect it to be), but I will probably mention that a few times to stir the pot a little.
I've actually enjoyed serving with elder Christensen this last cycle. I'm finally figuring out how to learn Russian once again. All my native companions all spoke Russian great... but none of them knew how to LEARN it. So basically what i gained from them is better comprehension, and some neat little phrases. "kashmar! oozhush! Mama Darahaya! Eedee ot suda! ya tozhye ne sahar." (Horrible! Terrible! Dear Mother! Get out of here! I’m also not sugar)
I do miss serving with some of those natives though.

"When you're walking through a field of crap, you can almost always look back and see grass starting to grow" - Elder Ellis

which is to say, most of our not so favorite experiences often can become some of our favorite memories.
My current companion has asked me why i speak so fondly about serving with my last companion if we had so many fights and arguments. I just told him about my sisters and how much i love them. He understood. I'm not sure i can explain that phenomenon though.

Other news from this week

Elder Zwick (from the first quorum of the 70) and president Sweightzer (area president from the 2nd quorum of the 70) came to our zone conference this last week. It was wonderful to sit and listen to the things that they had to say. Elder Zwick was a mission president in Chile a while back and had some good things to say about Elder Hughes (Jason) who served there and now sings in Branson.

Well, I'm outta time, So I’ll be e-mailing you next week (from Kazan!) and I’ll let you know about my new greenie.
love you all,
love Elder Ellis

p.s. I'm gonna try to send a cd home with some pictures on it. Let me know if it makes it, and if it works. I sent a cheap SD card a while back... but apparently it never made it. I was told Cd's have a better chance.