Thankful for the Scriptures.

Yeah! You got my letter! Has Cody sent you any letters with pictures? I want to see pictures of Cody on his mission!!!!!! CODY!! I don't believe that I am almost 20... I'm old. Ha ha. Everyone here thinks that i am older than 20 though. Multiple people have said that I look 25, and one person thought I was 30! This mission is aging me I guess. Ha ha. They don't believe that the pictures that I have of me are the same person. Ha ha. They all think Mom is Russian, and when they ask what her name is and I say her name they laugh because it's a Russian name. Most people also think that Liz is my sister-sorry Liz! Cody is my younger brother, Cole is my uncle, and Dad is my..... grandpa... Ha ha!!!!! (Sorry dad :) ) So I don't know why but a lot of people we talk to on the street think that I am from Finland.... I got your other package!!! President Govarilov (our branch president here) was in St. Petersburg and brought it back to Vyborg for me. Thank you for the food and sweater and hygeine supplies. I won't have to buy some them for a while or go to the optician to get solution for a while either. Thanks also for Cody's shirt!!! It made me smile to see it!! Already ate the Big Hunk of course! Had a nice guy stop and talk to us the other day and when he heard that I was from America, he said, "you have a pure American face" and hugged me... I think he might have been a little drunk, but I didn't smell any alcohol... It made us laugh! Question. Can you figure out Chris Haacke's address for me? I don't know how to write him... He's in Mexico on a mission... I need to ask Elder Nick Andersen about the baptismal font..... So this last week we had lots of meetings inside with members and at the branch with investigators, but we also had lots of people ditch us. We had a really good meeting with Roma about the Book of Mormon and prayer. He is the kind of guy that needs 80% proof before he will try anything, but we answered all his questions and he said he will try. He also said that he finds our church VERY interesting. Which reminds me. We street contacted a lady yesterday and she said she didn't want anything to do with churches because of .... and started listing off a bunch of things churches do or have. Each time we said, "we don't do that" or "we don't believe in that". She said. REALLY? This must be a real church then, and took our pamphlet. It makes me wonder how many people won't listen to us because they have the wrong idea about church and what we do. I too am thankful for the scriptures! I read them before my mission, but never appreciated them like I do now! They have all the answers. I've been reading the Bible and have realized just how much the Book of Mormon supports it and how important the Book of Mormon is in bringing to light and helping establishing the truth. Love you all very much, and hope you all are of good cheer!! Love, Blake