Once again, I am reporting another week of the office, this time a week filled with the excitement of Kafkaesque Visa requirements and road trips to Tula. What else is new?
This week was a bit of a heavy logistics week because President Woolley has started his mission tour for the transfer. This means that we need to get him all over western Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan over the next three weeks and make sure he has adequate transportation and hotel accomidations. Also, we had to get him a Visa to both Kazakhstan and Belarus which was a pretty big task. The Kazakhstan Visa went through quite swimmingly, even though the people in the Kazakhstan Visa office looked absolutely miserable in their jobs. I don't really understand why (and that sentence would have been spoken with a heavy dosage of sarcasm.) The Belarus Visa was quite a bit more challenging, since it relied on a circle of people getting doing paperwork, and if one person dropped the ball, the whole logistical circle collapsed under the super critical weight of its own paperwork. And that is exactly what happened, so Elder Lantukh and I spent three mornings waiting in the Belarusian Visa office trying to get President's Visa. It was quite Kafkaesque if I must say so myself. On a positive note, I met some Americans (it is always fun to meet Americans who aren't missionaries or even church members) and got to try some Belarusian chocolate, which was incredibly delicious. After much waiting and calling Belarus officials and such, we eventually received the Visa's and everything went well. Other than that little adventure our week went by pretty uneventfully in the office, and it has been shockingly quiet since both the Assistants to the President and President have been gone. It is however, quite fun when the Assistants are in the office because Elder Bressler (I'm sure you'll remember him from my Nizhny adventures) is one of my best friends on the mission and so is Elder Turner.
As always, the most exciting part of our week is travelling on the road to a different city. These week we decided to go to Tula, which is a small city about three hours by bus outside of Moscow. Tula is famous for being near the birthplace of writer Leo Tolstoy (he was born in a suburb of the city), having the first Russian armament factory (built by Peter the Great) and having a pretty sizable airbase nearby for bomber planes. Also, they make a very famous Russian gingerbread in Tula which I like quite a bit, even though it is super thick and heavy so I feel like I'm eating a brick when I eat it. On Saturday morning Elder Lantukh and I jumped on a bus and after getting stuck in traffic for two hours we finally made it to Tula, which was ridiculously hot and dusty! Tula was an interesting little city, I couldn't really get a good feel for it, so I can't really tell you my opinion. It seemed to exist, and have no extremely defining characteristics or personality, which was weird. We did have a good time though in the city, contacting a little, seeing some of the sights and sampling the Tula brand of kvas (Russian bread soda). Unfortunately I keep forgetting my camera on these inter-city adventures.
My favorite part of the weekend though was going on a road trip on the Russian highway. I really have grown quite fond of travelling, since we travel so often in our mission. I love riding buses, trains and airplanes to locations all over Eastern Europe. I especially enjoyed riding on the bus to Tula, watching the rolling hills of the countryside oscillate, seeing the traditional Dacha houses and picking up hitchhikers inexplicably stuck on the highway. The Russian countryside is very pretty. It has gently sweeping hills filled with various pine and spruce trees and the white trunked Russian trees whose name I always forget. There isn't a whole lot of animals in the Russian countryside, but there are huge fields of potatoes and other crops that are being cultivated in the spring and summer. Of course one of my favorite parts of our road trips are the gas stations in the middle of nowhere (just like in America) staffed with one or two persons faithfully making Russian bread and pastries, and stocking the under cooled refrigerators to provide relief for the weary road travelers on the poorly paved Russian highways. I just love seeing all of the different places in Russia that I never would see in any other situation and meeting people who run in absolutely no common social circles. Travelling is just a blast for me, and I always enjoy being on buses or trains (unless I'm sick, then I don't enjoy it but even then I drag myself along: "Come on, hands! Come on, feet! Let's go somewhere new, let's go work!"). Next week I think we'll be heading off on a train to Yaroslavl (supposedly one of the prettiest cities in our mission) but we don't know our plans just quite yet. I am continually hoping for a trip to Nizhny since I told the members there that I would return one day before my mission ends, and I plan to make good on that promise!
I must apologize for the shortness of this letter! Like I said, this has been a pretty routine week, and being in the office I don't have too many exciting stories that I am willing to share. Maybe next week I'll have some more exciting things to tell you, but until then, take luck wherever you might go!
As Always,
Старейшина Закари Брэйжер
PS. There was a lightning storm again last night, this time it was very close to us so we could hear the thunder and get the rain. I guess Sunday night lightning storms will be something commonly reoccurring!
Moscow Time