Legend has it there's another city in my mission

Turns out legend is right. Huh. Who knew? (Legend also says that there are actually FIVE cities in my mission, but I'm not sure I believe that.) Incidentally, I got transferred this week. Hooray! I'm now in the city of Khabarovsk (which I heard somewhere is a city well known for its extremes. It gets disgustingly hot in the summer and disgustingly cold (even the Russians think so) in the winter) for what looks like the duration of my mission. I think I may need to buy myself a new hat. I'm currently serving with Sister Volkova ("Volk" means "wolf" in Russian, just in case you wondered), which is still kind of strange to me because I'm so used to being in a threesome. Every time we go out on the street I keep looking behind myself to see where the third companion has gotten to, but I can't ever seem to find her. I guess this too will pass in time, though.

Speaking of the cold, today I thought I'd tell you about an interesting phenomena that I've become acquainted with here in Russia. It's called the spring/fall scarf. You wouldn't think that a scarf would be necessary in the late spring or early fall, but it is. Oh, it is. And only in a silly place like Russia would something like that actually be a necessity. Oh Russia. You're so silly. In any case, I'm glad Grandma Hyde sent me that one in the MTC, because it works quite well in this kind of weather. I expect to wear it another week before winter sets in.

This weekend we finally got to watch Conference. Hooray! Because we only had one copy of each session though, and because each session was recorded simultaneously in Russian and in English, and because the only non-missionary members who showed up for the Saturday morning session were men, I ended up watching the first session twice because we decided that it was more important for the members to see things in order than it was for us as English-speaking missionaries (I'm actually okay with that though, because I got more out of it the second time anyway) and because Sister Volkova didn't have anybody who could act as her companion until the afternoon session started. I'm not going to lie, I find it extremely amusing when the General Authorities (especially President Monson) start going off-script, but I feel a little bad for those who don't speak English because the translators generally have a hard time keeping up when that happens. It is nice to know that everybody is human though. Even the Prophet.

In any case, I can't tell you how happy I am to be in a new city. The sisters here (at least in comparison with what we had going in Vlad) have amassed themselves a TON of investigators, and there are plenty of others to meet with as well. We teach Institute/Seminary on Tuesdays (which should be interesting), and we have District Meeting over at the Rays' (who are the awesome senior couple here) each week, after which Sister Ray apparently does amazing things food-wise. Basically what I'm saying here is that things are going very very very well and can only keep on getting better.

So. Have a wonderful wonderful week, enjoy the cooler weather (try pulling out a fall scarf. You may enjoy it. HA) also known as FALL, and remember that I love you.

-Sister Read. Fashionable AND warm... ish. Mostly.