Snow in the middle of summer?  Our Internet service has been down for the past week and a half so we have been slow getting new pics on the blog.   Wrong, cottonwood trees.  Not just one but the whole city is full of cottonwood trees.  For about three weeks you could hardly breath because of the cotton in the air.  

Our visa in Russia is only good for three months.  The missionaries before us are only required to leave the country, get a stamp on the passport and then can come back in.  Beginning with our group in April we have to fill out new papers and reapply for a new visa every three months.  On 21 July we will fly to Helsinki Finland to obtain that new visa.  The paper work proceeded us so we will just stay for two nights and then back to Russia.  We are hoping to attend the Helsinki temple while there.  We will take lots of pictures in Finland to update our blog when we return.

You guessed it, Merrilyn walking in tall cotton.  Notice the cotton still in the trees.