Hello Hello!!!!!

Well its that time again to email you!!! The weeks come and go soooooo fast. Well things here in Russia are great! Today was Pday and we spent the day at Lake Baikal, which his so beautiful!! The last time i went there the lake was all frozen and we could walk on it, but this time ice was gone which means i was able to drink the water!!! Lake Baikal is the worlds largest fresh water lake so you can drink right out from it and its as if you are drinking filtered water. Yeah its cool. It was a fun day! I will attack some pictures.
So yes it was my bday yesterday, thank you for all the bday wishes!! I cant believe i am 22, thats a little weird for me to think about and it just means the rest of you are even older then that haha. I still think of Hollie as abut 22 or 23 haha i guess i need to start thinking different. Mom i havent gotten that package yet because no one has come to irkutsk from Novosibirsk for a long time, but there will be some people coming soon. So i will just get to celebrate my birthday twice!!!! I had a great birthday though. In the morning right before my we started companionship study my companion said we need to take the garbage out, so i went and open the door to go out and as i walked out all the elders jumped up and suprised me with balloons and a poster and a gift! It was really cute of them. And then later in the day all us missionaries and the senior couple here had a little party with cake. It is Elder Southam's birthday today, so we celebrated together. Then that night some people from the branch and english club suprised me too with some flowers and a gifts and then when we went home I was suprised again. Diana the branch presidents daughter, who has become my very good friend surpised me with cake and some gifts and flowers. It was really cute what she did, she is just awesome. So it was a good day filled with alot of surprises. The people here are just great and have become like family.
So this week we will have Marina's baptism. It will be on Friday and she is soooooo ready for baptism. We met with her yesterday and she is so excited about getting baptised. Her uncle who she is living with right now is going to baptize her, so that will be special for both of them. So next week I will email you all the details about her baptism. Anya is also supposed to be getting baptised on saturday, but we are not sure that will happen. She is really busy with school right now and has alot of exams, so we will see what happens. We also have 2 new investigator who we found from english club. There names are Katya and Era. We have only taught them a little but they both are interested in learning more. Era has a lot of good questions about God and the gospel. I am really excited about these girls. Oh also i told you about that girl named Alex, well i think i dont you about her. Well she has been very inactive the last year or so. We we have had a couple meeting with her and she came to church on sunday and to some other activities. So I have been very excited to see here start to come back and i hope we can continue to help her strengthen her testimony.
So in a couple weeks Elder Scott is coming to our mission. He is having a confernece in Novosibirsk and all the missionaries that are serving near Novo will be able to go to it..... but Irkutsk is so far away that we cant go. Elder Scott have a rule that has long as the missionaries can get to the confernce and back and only miss one day of missionary work then they can come. Well since we travel on train from irkutsk to novo it takes almost 3 days... so we cant go :( but its right on transfer so if im tranfsred i might be able to go, but if not that is ok. I think they will broadcast it or something so we can see it, but it would be cool to see him. I did meet him while i was in the MTC though, so its ok if i dont make it to it. Its cool to know that he is coming to our mission though. He will give us some great advice and I know our mission will be strengthed by his visit.
Well onve again I love you all soooooooooooo much and miss you all to. Just know everything is great here in russia !!!!! I attached some pictures one with Diana, some of my bday, and some at Baikal. Enjoy!!!!!!

Love always,
Sister Mindy Gneiting