Winter Doldrums

Dear friends and primary voters,

Thank you all very much for your cards, emails, and packages that have arrived during the past month. As you can guess, it’s a little lonely being one of three American’s over here and knowing very few people who speak English, and the packages are a good sign of all of your love back home. However I anticipate that soon loneliness will cease to be such an issue. The reason is that since I returned from Syapsya in early January, I have been blessed with very little to do. I have had no presentations on my schedule and few responsibilities besides keeping office hours, participating in Saturday and Sunday activities, and helping Eric and Liza move to their new apartment. I have used the last two weeks wisely, in my estimation, in that I have used my extra time to put in a significant amount of Russian study every single day. The result is that I understand at least twice as much Russian as I did before and I am far more able to express myself than I was before. I believe that God has given me a light schedule for this reason exactly – I even carried a conversation with a student on Thursday that lasted at least fifteen minutes! A week or two more of this and I might be nearing fully conversational in the Russian language. Please pray that I continue to make regular progress.

You might be wondering how I all of a sudden have so little to do. Well, with Lyceum and School 42 just starting back up this week, I do not have any engagements on the docket. Furthermore, we have yet to hear back from the University folks about possible open doors there, so really, I am just studying Russian and praying hard about what to do next. God has me here for a reason and it will become clear when the time comes what my next course of action will be. My thought at the moment is that something will open up at the University, but if it’s at Lyceum or School 42, that’s ok too.

I will admit, though I like the time off, I would prefer to be working towards something new in the ministry – I am the anxious sort that has trouble being patient when I am not worn out, and since I am full of energy about now, I am like a teenager looking for trouble. Pray that my next task will become clear in the next few weeks for I am ready to go (or maybe I am just getting a waiting lesson, which is ok too, I guess). In any case, I have plenty of personal projects besides Russian to keep me busy, so until the Lord calls, I will be plenty busy with things that I hope He’ll be able to use in the future.

Have a great week and I will write again soon.

Sincerely,

Peter.

P.S. I need to announce a moratorium on package sending for the time being. If you want to send a package, let me know and I will tell you personally when the coast is clear. See, Eric and Liza are moving and so if you send anything to them now, Liza's Aunt will get it and not Eric and Liza and it might be more difficult to get if Liza's address does not match the address on the package. So, until further notice, see if you can send it as something that is thin and might fit in a mailbox. Pictured below is what my mailbox looks like. Mine is number 12.