Long time, no see!

Well hello everyone! Long time, no see.... literally!

Updates from the life of Sister Brown:

• serving in my "namesake" city of Yekaterinburg and LOVING it. Even though there are two branches here, it still takes an hour and a half (one subway and one bus) to get to church every week!
  
• training my #4--- the first from Utah! She's a music therapy major from Utah State, so we have lots of things to chat about! I love her to death.
• there are mosquitos everywhere here, and I'm literally scratching myself to death
• the work is really picking up in this mission and we're up 38% on member-present lessons since last year and lots of other statistics that probably won't interest you :) but the work is progressing in Russia! 
• there are now three 3 stakes in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Novosibirsk)-- we're doing our best to get the priesthood to establish a stake here
• yesterday I spoke in church for a good 15 minutes! The subject was "Our Heavenly Family"-- I was really proud of myself since I can't even speak that long in English!
• I get my travel plans HOME in just a couple of weeks-----what?!?!
• The summer solstice was this last week-- made me think of the Death Cab for Cutie song. Sometimes I just really miss popping in some tunes!
• Sister Christensen told me that I'm the best Russian-English translator in the mission! Wahoo!!!
• We had a really beautiful picnic as a branch at a scenic lake just outside of Yekaterinburg. Beautiful! But I got crazy attacked by stinging nettle while playing frisbee--- got some good tips from a Russian elder and slathered sour cream all over my legs.
• One of the Seventies in charge of our mission came and spoke during the third hour on Sunday and was really frank with the members. He said, "The Lord doesn't require statistics to have a temple... he requires your hearts. Evaluate yourselves... are you doing everything to show the Lord that you want to establish Zion here and build a temple in Russia?" It was a wonderful and riveting talk. 
• I bought a beautiful shirt at..... GAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They just built one here in Ekat and we went there last PDay. I got a Gap card in Russian! Cool, huh? Anyway, I love the shirt. So beautiful. I also love Gap....so :)
• We cleaned the walls at a potential investigator's apartment on Wednesday. I wish I had taken pictures, but I didn't even think about it. Just know, that Sister Hellowell and I are really good at cleaning walls.

That's about it-- just know that I love and care about all of you so much! You're the best. The church is true! Being a missionary is the best! I love being in Russia and serving all the people here. Sacrifice truly does bring forth the blessings of heaven.

Have a wonderful week!!!!

Sister Brown