MAIL RUN

Let's talk about mail here in Russia for a few minutes. In the office, I volunteered to take over the distribution of mail and leave our office elders to other responsibilities.

The mail for the whole mission comes through the mission office. We are talking about cities  = Nizhney, Zelonograd, Smolensk, Podolsk, International (Moscow) the only English speaking ward, Perova, Ryazan, Voronezh, Kaluga, Arbatski, Tver, Tula, Lotoshino, and a few others. It is my responsibility to take each letter or package, and put it in the compartment set aside for each city. Then, when missionaries come in to the office from one of those cities, they can take the mail for their district. Keep in mind that Voronezh is 9 hours away so we have to wait for a zone conference or visa trip to send the package on its way as it cannot be forwarded in any other way.

That is one of the advantages of being in the office. We don't have to wait to receive our mail. :0)
For the cities in Moscow, our office elders deliver these to a "schoff", located at the Central Building, which is, as the name would indicate, centrally located to the Moscow missionaries. Or, with the zone conferences that are held every three months, mail can be passed out to missionaries then. It is a time consuming process.