Moscow is amazing

Hello friends!

Moscow is amazing! I absolutely love it.  I got here Friday night (Friday around noon Michigan time, about an 8 hour time change) and it has been nothing but great.  We were supposed to get here a few days earlier but we had issues with getting our visas in time (thanks UPS...) but, it was a good time in Portland to prepare for the next month we will be spending here in Moscow.  It has been somewhat overwhelming trying to take everything in, trying to understand people's Russian, trying to speak Russian (It's a lot easier talking to American's who know Russian rather than people who only speak Russian), trying to read all the signs, and figure out what the heck is going on half the time.  I feel like I've started picking up on several new words though and can hear it pretty well, although still not very well.  I really hope my language skills develop more over the next few weeks!

We spent yesterday learning how to use the Metro in Moscow, seeing some cool places, and even bartering in a market! It was really fun to talk to Russians and experience the town a little bit.  The food is absolutely delicious and bonding with our full team was great too.  I bought this really cool hat! I ended up getting this awesome fur hat for a little over half the price he was initially asking. Another hat salesman later on asked me how much I got it for and told me I got a really good deal! Yay awesome bartering skills!

Today we went to church at International Christian Fellowship.  It was in English but with many Russians and people from other countries there as well. It's interesting to see how church is ran in other countries.  I really liked a few aspects of their service and I'm excited to see a few more Russian church services before I leave.  After that I grabbed some pelmeni from a small Russian restaurant (so so so delicious) and then we met up with some Russians and explored Moscow some more.  It was a great day of seeing some awesome places, learning about Russian culture, and just being friends with people from another culture.  It was a great day.

Tomorrow we begin our work on college campuses and I'm so excited! I know God is going to bless our time and it's going to be great.  Sorry this is so short and choppy, I'm super tired and it's bed time! Hopefully I'll be able to write some more soon and upload a few pictures.

Thank you for your support and prayer!

Nich