Happy New Year!! 31 December 2010

Hello everyone!!

I love you! It was great to talk to you all on Christmas and it was so weird to see you and hear your voices, but it was awesome! I loved it. I forgot to wish mom and dad a happy anniversary when i called, so now it's late, but I'm glad that you had a wonderful day. Christmas day we just made our phone calls, and then we had lunch at a members home and then there was a baptism, and then there was the branch christmas party. So it was pretty fun and we got no "missionary work" done, so it was weird. Today is our pday, and then tonight we have to be indoors at 6pm because there will be crazy drunk people wandering the streets. So, at six we will all meet at the Moore's apt, and we will have some fun there. President is allowing us to watch 2 movies he approved, and we will have dinner and snacks and games. And then we need to be at our apts at 12:30am. So for safety reasons, the moore's will take us home. And tomorrow, the president says that we are not even allowed to leave our apt. The 31st and the 1st just are huge party days here I guess. So tomorrow we sit inside ALL day and do deep deep cleaning. So it will be nice to get things cleaned, but it will be weird just sitting around. My companion leaves on Sunday for home, so she will be packing up all day. It is sad to see her leave a place that she has grown to love so much. Just so you know, today we went to the most massive of outdoor markets here, and I bought some fun "souvenirs" for you all. I am excited!!! And, I left my jeans in moscow, and so I bought some awesome designer jeans there for super super cheap! I was very very excited. It was crazy there though!! People were running around like chickens with their heads basically cut off. And it was so cold I thought i was going to die. I was so relieved to finally get on our semi warm bus to go home, and then the bus hit a person, and so we all had to leave the bus. and then our second bus broke down, and so we had to get on a third bus. It was a fun little adventure in freezing cold weather, but we survived!!

This week has been pretty much the usual. Well kinda, it has been kinda crazy with the holidays, but it has been good. Yesterday the twins got baptized. We are very excited for them. We set some goals and really wanted to see them baptized, so we are very happy that they were able to enter the waters of baptism.

President called me yesterday and told me about transfers. Since my companion is leaving for home, I will get a new russian mini missionary with me. I will not be training this transfer. But my mini missionary is from the city of Nizhney Novgorod in our mission, and she is 20 years old I think. I am excited and nervous all at the same time. This will be my first time as senior companion, and now everything is up to me :) I have learned some good things from all my companions, and now I hope i can put those all into practice during this next transfer. I know it will not be easy, but I will have the help of the Lord.

Dad there are probably about 70 active members in the branch here in almaty. And president is sending 4 elders to the city of astana to open it up in february I think. Pretty exciting.

Welp, I think that's about it. I love you all. Have a great week and a wonderful new years. Stay safe and healthy and warm!!! All my love! Until next week!

Sister Brown