And thus a new year begins

It was Strep Throat, for the record. When I had my throat checked on Wednesday, the first thing they said was, "your tonsils are NOT pretty. Not pretty. I don't even know how I'd describe that. Yech. Amoxicillin, immediately. And don't go out on the street much. And don't do any talking for the next few days." HA. You'd think I was on a mission, or something. So, being the obedient little missionary that I am, I hauled myself over to the nearest pharmacy and (free of perscription and without the pharmacist really looking at me when I told her what I needed) purchased myself a week's worth of 500 mg Amoxicillin tablets, taken three times daily, with meals. And then we stayed home for a week. Hooray!

We did actually get out on New Year's Day when we had our approved District Activity though. We were going to watch something animated and Russian at the theaters (with permission from President Pratt, obviously), but the tickets had sold out by the time we got there and we didn't really feel like trying other locations. So we went back to the church and watched the Joseph Smith movie that they had playing in the Legacy theater a while back. Probably a better choice, all things considered. I enjoyed myself, anyway. Because we aren't allowed to be proselyting on New Year's Day, we all headed home afterwards and spent our time getting some good study in. Did you know, incidentally, that reading the Book of Mormon backwards (by book, not by words) adds a whole new perspective to things? I recommend trying it sometime.

In any case, I decided that you can all have some pictures today. I realized, looking at all the pictures in my camera, that there is probably not a single picture of me and Sister Volkova that doesn't have somebody else doing something ridiculous in the background. So. You get one of me, her, and a random investigator. There's also one of me and Sister Jarman in the snow (if you look closely (and if you can read Russian), you'll notice that her tag actually says "Sister Raid". Yes, she is using one of mine. Hers have all disappeared), and one of me and Sister Jarman... not in the snow, one of the many ice sculptures that they do (this one happens to be the Russian... what do you call that? Coat of arms? Symbol? Something of that nature, anyway) in the winter, and a couple of me in my ridiculous amount of fur... which keeps me very very warm.

I guess that's all you get for now. Tonight we've got lots of street contacting lined up, and that should be interesting... especially after New Year's. I'm trying to get my marriage proposals up to an even 500 before I go home in February. I think I'm only about 45 away. Tonight should add at least another 5.

Anyway, I love you all, I'm very glad it's a new year, I expect this week to be an interesting one (here and there), and I expect you all to enjoy yourselves too.

Much love,
Sister Read. Pretty tonsils or not.