Dear Family,We just received these photos from Tom and I am hoping that I have attached them correctly so that you can view them. I am still learning how to navigate around the computer. The One photo up on an industrial hillside and the tiger pictures were taken in Vladivostok. He has since within the last two weeks been transferred to "The Foggy Island" of Sakhalin - the 'gateway' between Japan and Russia. It is North and east off the coast of Russia. It is supposed to be a beautiful island with pristine rivers with great fishing and hunting. But oil barons have since 'landed' on the island, so we'll see how long that lasts. Tom says that he actually likes it better. He has a companion that he feels he can relate to (one of his peeps)and the branch there is active and thriving with 60 members. He likes the branch president and the Russians on the island are easier to approach than in Vlad. The 'dark' picture was taken on the island as an 'activity night I am assuming with members of the branch. The only 3 sister missionaries in the whole mission are also on the island (you can see in the picture). Tom gives about as many details as Micah, but the little I can gather he is happy and doing well. He still struggles with the language, but I am sure that will go on for another 3 - 6 months. He says it is like being 'punched in the throat' when he wakes up every morning - like it is just stuck there. We'll keep our fingers crossed for a 'mild' winter (right).
The photo with the tiger...he said he paid $2.00 to play with the tiger and that it was just like a big dog (uh-huh)Mindy is helping me establish a blog for Tom with photos and journaling, etc. I will keep you updated as to when it is up and running and how to get to it. I am sorry that I have been slow to get this going, but all my family contacts somehow got merged with everyone else so I need to organize that again and I also am missing some emails that I would like to update in my family contacts. Would you (as in each family) please send me those I do not have for your family and/or confirm that what I have is correct. Thanks Tom sends his Hello's every week to all the fam!
Love, Ann
