Monday... ish.

You may have noticed that I didn't write yesterday. But it's okay! I have both a valid excuse and permission today! Hooray! Yesterday we climbed a mountain... and then I spent some more time in a Russian hospital. Don't worry. It still wasn't for me. This time it was for my companion.

Incidentally, speaking of companions, I got transferred on Saturday. They put me back on Sakhalin with my MTC companion, Sister Lewis. And since I'm back on Sakhalin, the number to call me is the exact same as it was, but I'll resend the email anyway, just in case. Mother's Day for you is PDay for me, so basically what I'm saying here is call me some time after church... I dunno... 6:30? 7? What time did you call last time? I can't even remember. Basically what I'm saying here is pick a time that works for you, and just call the cell phone. Sister Lewis's family lives in China, so they'll be calling her on Sunday.

Back to the exciting news that is my life: this transfer was, to say the least, rather unexpected, given that I'd only been in Vladivostok a whole transfer, but apparently there's something more I need to do here. Tomorrow they're dedicating the church building here on Sakhalin, so at the very least I'll get to be here for it.

When I flew in on Saturday (airplanes with propellers are, for the record, the bane of my life. Three hours on a flight that should've taken one, and a nasty throbbing in my eardrums for three hours after that. No thank you.) I was informed that there would be a branch activity on Monday (yet another Russian holiday), which would be spent climbing the local mountain behind our apartment. The whole thing was expected to take about 5 hours, and so we figured that we'd have enough time afterwards to do all the usual PDay things. What we didn't count on was the horribly steep and gruelling climb up the mountain in 3 feet of snow, and the dangerous presence of tree roots on the way back down. There were several places that made for great sledding (even without a sled) on the way back down, and of course, given that the entire group consisted of 6 missionaries and a whole bunch of young and physically active members here, we couldn't pass up that kind of opportunity. As we were sliding down one slope though, Sister Lewis fell into a hole and twisted her knee around a tree root. Then, without saying anything, she continued to walk on her knee after that for about another 2 miles. And then she fell again, and the men in the group took turns carrying her out. After a while somebody got the bright idea to call Emergency Response, and they came and took her the rest of the way out. Hooray! Another ambulance ride for me! They took us to the local hospital, did an X-Ray, looked at it very intently, went "hmm..." a whole lot, and then told us she was fine, just a minor sprain. Then they gave her a brace and a pair of crutches and sent us on our way. For the record, hospital walls here are just like those in Vlad, only maybe even possibly more stressful. You know that mental image you had, dad? Yeah. That about describes it. Yuck. Once again I am making a public declaration that I have no intention of ever going back into another Russian hospital. So let it be written, so let it be done.

That's about all you get for today. Feel free to call me this weekend and find out more about my life, or something.

I love you!
Sister Read