Hi from Lipetsk!

Just letting you know that i've made it to lipetsk, the city where I spent six months as a junior companion before going to Finland and becoming a senior companion in Moscow. This is also where I saw my first baptism--a church member's daughter who had turned 8--and got much of the training I would need later as a branch president.

To be honest, lipetsk never really appealed to me as a town. There were good people and good missionaries (one companion here later named his son after me), but nothing you couldn't see in any other Russian town: a large square with a statue of lenin, a Soviet-era administration building, an orthodox church and not much else. I almost didn't come.

I could hardly believe my eyes as I strolled thru the town tonight with friends. Everything looks cleaner, newer. Where there were none before, fountains now grace almost every major park and boulevard in the city, including one musical water show, like the bellagio casino in las Vegas. It rests in the shadow of a monument to peter the great that I remember well. A new ten or 15-tier cascade follows the old giant staircase from the main square down to the park below. For a Kansas city boy, it made the trip to lipetsk well worth it.

As it turns out, lipetsk is an economic boom town. There have always been factories, three metal refineries to be exact, but now there are even more. Fridges, washing machines, and glass are now produced here as well as metal that is exported to ford plants across the pond. That has brought a lot of young people looking for work, and they were all out strolling the town tonight. There are plenty of new clubs, parks, and shops to satisfy them--even a new BMW dealership on the outskirts of town. Funny enough, Lipetsk was named City of the Year by the Russian government in 2007, the same year it was voted as having the worst air in the country.

The church has a new building, thank heavens. The old place was a dump, part of a ten-story business complex that had some of the worst public toilets I ever saw in Russia. Now it occupies the first floor of an upscale residential complex with high ceilings and beautiful molding, modern chandeliers, and a spotless restroom with marbe tile. The branch president happens to be a young man who was baptized eight years ago when I was serving here. I am looking forward to that reunion.
Unfortunately, i'm told that attendance is down to about 15 members per week, about half of what it was in the glory days. There are only two missionaries here (we had 8), which explains how my friend Julia was able to get me into a vacant missionary apartment for the few days that I will be staying here. It belongs to a senior couple that splits their time between lipetsk and the nearby, stronger branch in voronezh. We have a branch picnic planned for Saturday.

To say little of the post-mission experience, it has been wonderful to roam the streets alone or with friends. My Russian is slowly coming back. And I can wear T-shirts and Chucks instead of suits. I think I could be a tourist for the rest of my life.

Please pass along the good word to anyone who's interested.

Love,
Bremen