We LOVE Russia!

Some of our fine missionaries at District meeting!

Hello family and friends! We have been in Russia for 2 1/2 weeks now. We have no doubt we have many of the finest missionaries anywhere assembled in the world. They are all "Preach My Gospel" missionaries: obedient, hard-working, and amazing. We are inspired by their desire to serve the Lord with all the energy of their souls. We have already travelled to Ussuriysk and Sakhalin to visit the missionaries and branches. Tonight we fly to Irkutsk (Siberia) and Ulan-Ude (5 1/2 hour flight, then 8 hour train ride to Ulan-Ude) to meet and visit the branches there. It is an interesting thought that Russian mission presidents are probably the only MPs in the church who have not as yet met all of their missionaries. It will be another two weeks before we have met all of ours. The immensity of the geography of our mission is starting to "set in". That said, there isn't another place on this earth where we would rather serve right now. WE ARE LOVING IT HERE!

Vladivostok is the Russian "San Francisco". It is built on hills and every morning/evening the fog rolls in. The people we have met on the streets and airplanes are wonderful people. Our goal is to find those who are earnestly seeking for the truth in their lives. Although we have a long ways to go, our Russian-speaking ability has increased since being here. I fully expect President Brinton will be fluent in a matter of months. He speaks mostly Russian throughout the day. Our days begin at 6:30 a.m. as do all our missionaries. We eat, exercise, read scriptures, have companion study, and language study before going to the mission office and, most importantly, out with our missionaries to find, find, find and teach, teach, teach. We are really thrilled that there will be two baptisms in Vlad this Saturday: a woman and a man. We had a baptism in Sakhalin last week. Our elders are focused on finding males to build the priesthood leadership here in this part of the world. The sister missionaries are focusing on females. We have set some lofty goals and are pleased that the missionaries are "on board" with those goals. In fact, they were part of setting the goals for baptisms through the end of the year. IT IS A NEW DAY IN RUSSIA and it is a privilege for us to be a part of it. We know that someday there will be a stake and temple here. Pres. Hinckley prophesied that would be so. Thank you for your support and prayers. We know that miracles are occurring in Russia. The Lord's work is going forward with much enthusiasm!

Мы любим вас!

Greg and Sally Brinton
Russia Vladivostok mission