Hey family!

We're right back at ya this morning, Elder Taylor came down and called home early this morning from the office, so we just stayed here to get the emails done as well. Man that was such a treat to have a little bit of time to chat with all of you yesterday. Can't believe that we're already back to that, and that it was the last time! Yikes! Time seems to just be slipping through my fingers...

But I guess I'll write a little bit of what went on this past week, we had a good one and it was capped off well of course by calling home. We had a pretty open week and good opportunities to get a lot of stuff done...we kicked off stuff on Monday night with some cool contacting, I forgot to tell you about this last night. On Thursday (May 9th) is their big "victory day" that is the day that they won world war II, it is basically their fourth of July. So, on Monday they had a practice for the big parade/presentation thing that they do here. I explained a little bit about the big square here in our area that is just this huge asphalt square with a big theatre, it's actually really cool. And people rollerblade really good there, it's cool to watch as we're passing by. Anyways, they had these stands all set up on the asphalt and we came around the corner and saw the streets just lined with cops. They all came out of their holes, I have no idea where they came from. Anyways, so we kinda just froze, and see over on the square just masses of soldiers for their parade thing. They were all in their big trenchcoats and helmets and things- we both kind of just stopped there on the corner. I'm not gonna lie, to see that sight our stomachs kind of dropped, it felt like I was sitting up in Anne Franks closet and we were gonna have to start sprinting down the street. We kept walking a little bit and came to the road that leads up to the square that had tanks and trucks and all those kind of vehicles and things- it was pretty crazy looking, pretty submersed in Russia that's for sure.

Tuesday was a good day, we met with president and had a good meeting to do the transfer and things, we do those about 2-3 weeks early every transfer so that we can get people registered in their cities and things, so we did that this week. It's a cool process, it's fun to see how inspired president really is with the things he does. It's taught me a lot.

As far as investigators go though, Svyetlana is just chuggin’ right along and doing well. She loves church and loves just learning which is cool. Our other investigators are also doing well, but because of the big holidays and things, we didn't have a chance to meet with any of our other "big hitters" this past week, but we'll definitely have some good meetings squared away for this coming week. We did have a cool experience though on Tuesday, we met with a guy named Reshat who is a total Muslim guy. We had met him a week ago on the street and gave him a Book of Mormon, usually Muslims are so ridiculously against hearing anything from us, but he was super open and took the book. Anyways, we got a meeting with him and he came and has already read 1 Nephi and was wondering about baptism and things! We were so excited, it's quite the miracle to have somebody like that because most of the Muslims are just taught that they are Muslim and that's just the way it is. He even has a wife that is Russian and is an Athiest, but also started reading the Book and is interested! Woo! Anyways, we are excited to continue to work with them and help them learn more about Christ. That is what's sad, all the Muslims are such good and nice people, they live their religion and everything- but they don't know about the Atonement in their lives and Jesus Christ.  I want to share my testimony of the Savior in our lives.  We cannot become clean or do anything without Christ. I am grateful that we have that kind of knowledge.

Anyways, those are just some highlights of the week, things are just good. We are excited for a good upcoming week and some good exchange action coming up. Sure love you all and hope you have a good week.

Love

Elder Nielson