I'm Back

Yep. I'm back. And I'm trying my hand at this blogging thing again. We'll see where this goes.

First, I'll try and catch you up on what's been happenin.

I went on one of these:

a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

To this place:

 Moscow, Russia

I met my mission family:

who became some lifelong friends

(These other missionaries flew with me to Moscow. President and Sister Sorenson were like adoptive parents for the 16 months I was there. I got pretty sick from the flight which is why I look like death.)

I lived in one of these:
(3, actually)

an apartment in the city

I saw a lot of these:

Russian Orthodox temples and churches

 So I gave out a lot of these:
:]

Books of Mormon...or Knigi Mormona

(*Please note the hot tan lines on my foot from spending hours in the sun handing out said books. :] )

 So people wanted to do this:

get baptized 

(The all black was a coincidence. I promise.)

I drew a lot of these:

Plan of Salvation

So people wanted to do this:

 follow God's commandments 

aka get baptized :]

(Sister Savchuk, Anya, and me. Sister Savchuk and I started teaching her.)

I endured one of these:

a Russian winter

(and I loved it!)

While still doing a lot of this:

(just pretend it's winter time :] )

taught people about Jesus Christ and His Gospel

So that they were ready for this:

 making covenants 

aka getting baptized

I had some fun:

 riding bikes at Vdnkh
(Yeah, pronounce that!)

 going to a hockey game

ice skating on Red Square, etc

But sometimes accidents happened:

playing soccer with some Africans

(They're really good...and I'm not.)

So sometimes we did stuff like this:

 go to an art museum

 go to Sergiyev Pasad, etc.

(sort of the "headquarters" of the Russian Orthodox Church)

I helped fix some of this:

 by helping people practice their English at our weekly English Group

 Every 3 months, I got a one-day "travel adventure":

 when I renewed my Visa

(in Kiev, Ukraine 4 times and Riga, Latvia once--this picture is in Kiev)

I trained some missionaries:

who also became lifelong friends

But the best part was this:

 the people :]

 It was hard to leave:

  but there are many surprises yet to come in my life.

Just like this one:

My brother, Robbie and his wife, Anna, surprised me in the JFK Airport in NYC on my way home!

(*Please note the evidence of another accident aka the bruise on my arm...from frisbee this time. Ha. Also, an 11-hour flight from Moscow to NYC makes your hair a hot mess...like mine.)

I got home in August. About 5 1/2 months ago. I can't believe it's already been that long!

Since then...

I went to a wedding:

for 2 of the missionaries I served with

I went back to school:

in Rexburg

I learned some stuff:

like how to make Pumpkin Pi!

I made some new friends:

and we dressed up for Halloween as Tinker Bell, Rufio (from Hook), Tiger Lily, Peter Pan, and the Lost Boys-who-are-actually-Girls :]

I made a debut performance at I-Cover:

by playing the piano for a guy and a girl in my ward who sang "Poison and Wine" by The Civil Wars

(Obviously, that's not us in this picture. I don't have a picture of us. This is a group of my friends (some pictured above) who also performed.)

I went to another wedding:

for The Best Friend, Sarah

:]

And now I'm home for the winter looking for a job until I head back to school in the spring.

In the meantime, I'm trying to find productive ways to pass the time.

Like keeping up on my Russian,

teaching myself American Sign Language,

maybe teaching myself to play the guitar a little

and, of course, watching this:

There. Now you're caught up!