Letter #30 from Russia

Hello Family! I quite enjoyed hearing about that big dinner you all had! It made me look forward when I would get to join you all for it! Everyone in Penza says I've lost weight... That's not really what I want, but at least I'm not getting fat. I've been eating healthy, increasingly healthy every cycle, and my food has been getting better tasting each cycle as well. haha! My companion loves to cook and he's good at it too. His name is Elder Strebee (spellcheck?) and he is from Arizona. He is really quiet, really respectable and really kind. He is in his third cycle and he speaks better than I do. haha! Not really, but his grammar is better than mine... haha! But he's motivated me to work even harder on my grammar. He reminds me of a mix between Jeff Lebaron and Mikey and Johnny Ruesch (spell check) all put together except he's like 200 pounds of muscle. It's awesome to back in penza! I'm loving it. There are still a few members I have yet to see, so I'm getting after them for not coming to church! It's interesting to be back because I had gotten aaccustomed to the culture of Saratov, so now being back here feels weird because I used to feel natural here, but now I have to get used to it again. It's better than going to some random city that I've never known before though. It's also frustrating because I remember having so much to do and so many people to meet with when I was here, and now I feel like there is no one to meet with in our area. We are doing a lot of finding. Which is great, I love talking to people and knocking and stuff, but I would so much rather be in teaching situations more often. I heard Peter Fox in a grocery store! I found out that one of my favortire members started drinking again. He's always had a hard time keeping himself sober, but he was doing so well last time I was here. I'm hoping to be able to meet with him soon and that we'll be able to get him rolling again and help him clean up his act. This week I met a bank robber, and two former Mafia members. (I'm pretty sure one, if not both of them are still involved in it) The bank robber said he wasn't interested, but the two "former" bandits came to an activity and want to meet with us more. I met another guy who was twenty five and SUPER rich. I asked him where he got all his money and he said from Money Laundering, is that what it's called? Essentially, he said from tax evasion and some other terrible stuff and now he's super rich. He doesn't do it any more, but that was where he got his start. Most people here say that that's just how life works here. If you want to have a good life, you need money. And if you want money, you need to pull some strings. Even government people and cops and stuff say that's just how things work here. It's probably really tempting for people here because they live in such desperate situations. Also, I totally saw Putin when I was in Saratov. I forgot to tell you all like two weeks ago when it happened. There (New president of Russia) were cops lining the streets everywhere and we asked a member why and he said that Putin was in Saratov. We got all excited and thought how cool it would be to see him, but knew obviously that our chances were like... nothing. Saratov is one of the bigger cities in Russia. But then, suddenly all the policemen's walky talkies went crazy and they cleared off all the cars on the road and then this huge chain of police cars drove by and in the middle were all these black vans and Putin totally waved to us!! Just kidding. he didn't wave. We couldn't even see in his car. But he was totally in the car. You could just feel it. Hey, I love you all! I'm having an awesome time and I am loving the Mission! I really feel like I have changed a ton, and my sense of humor has probably died, but I'm loving what Christ has made me into! Loves, Elder Skvortz!

Letter #29 from Russia

So Privyet everyone! So this week has been such a whirlwind! First I want to say... I'm going back to Penza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SOSOOSOSOOOSOSOOOOO Excited!!! I love Penza so much!!! I'm going to be with an elder Named Elder Streebee (spell check?) I haven't met him yet... all I know is that he' quiet or something... haha! Anyway! I am so excited to go back to the Golden City! As much as I loved Saratov cough I am excited for the clean streets and the less threatening environment! This past week, Elder Dougherty and I were knocking and this guy answers the door with this super serious/annoyed look on his face and also... he had no pants. That was distracting. haha! His shirt was long enough, so who knows but it was still weird. But I just started talking to him like normal and he just seemed like he wanted to kill me... then I noticed that he was holding a gun pointed at my leg. That was odd... but I wan't nervous for some reason. Guns here are illegal, but I didn't really know what to do... haha! He looked with pretty cold eyes and said "Are you Mormon?" "Yep." "Are you American?" "Sure am." "...Good luck." He then put down the gun and shook my hand and took an invitation and shut the door. Elder dougherty said he was freaking out and had his hand on speed dial for the Zone leaders and was ready to run, but for whatever reason I just didn't care. haha! Then the next day, we were talking to this guy and this mentally unstable guy walks up to us and tells us to get out of here. We ignored him and kept talking to the other guy, but then the crazy guy pulls a switch blade on us and tells us if we want to live we'll leave. Again, elder Dougherty jumps back, ready to run. But for some reason I just thought it was funny. I just ignored him and kept talking to the guy, and the crazy guy walked away. haha! Pretty interesting. I don't know if it was the spirit of the Lord keeping me calm or I'm just stupid, but everything worked out for the best. So I'm really going to miss Elder Dougherty! He is seriously my favorite companion I've had so far! There was never even a moment of tension between us! Never a hint of frustration, even though at times we disagreed with how to teach an investigator or how to handle a situation, we simply humbled ourselves and solved it by listening to the spirit and worked out a plan that we both felt good about. I hope that I am able to work that well with most of my companionships. Normally you at least have a time or two where you are frustrated with each other or your pride gets in the way, but not once with Elder Dougherty! So great! I would love to serve with him again! I hope you all enjoyed the pictures! I'll hopefully send new ones again soon! Also, it's about that time that we need to organize our phone call again! So weird that it's already time again! Mother's day is May 13th I think? We can do it excactly how we did it before! I want to do it through Chris's computer again, because that one worked way better! So make sure Chris and rachel are there! Also David and Amber too! I want to see them this year at least! let me know some times that would be best for you. I can do it the day before, the day of or the day after. Just let me know! It's getting pretty hot here. We're all in short sleeve shirts now. It's incredible how fast the weather changed! I love you all so much! I'm having a blast and I am so worn out! I love you all!! Elder Skvortz!

Letter #28 from Russia

Hello Everyone!!! So this week has been SUCH a trial for us! It's been awesome, but we have really had a hard time with the work. It's just been really slow this week. The Lord certainly knows how to try his children, that's for sure. I still feel like the language is just a big brick wall. My vocabulary is just fine, So no problem there. Grammar though... that's a different story. I've noticed that I'm falling behind other missionaries with my grammar. It's just not clicking for me! So weird! I've never had problems with grammar in any language that I've been learning, so this is really frustrating! In opening up the verb conjugation book, every verb has has (at least) two translations into Russian. The average verb has 46 different ways it can translate depending on... well... everything. So that's difficult. Every noun has 40 different ways to conjugate it as well... including names. Plus there are a billion different exceptions to the rules on conjugation nouns. And on top of that there are at least 20 different ways to conjugate adjectives. My companion is like, perfect at it... which is dumb... xa xa! It's just frustrating because I'm at the point where if you gave me a test, I could write it all out and get most of it correct. But when I'm speaking, the speed of it all just doesn't give me enough time to compute it all in my mind. I know it all theoretically, but it doesn't come out of my mouth when in an actual speaking situation. With time, it will all come... but it is just annoying. xa xa! So hearing about everyone's weeks made me quite jealous. Mary waking up and seeing the sunrise over the Peruvian Jungle and like, thirty more baptisms. That is awesome. Rachel and Chris in Hawaii right on the beach... Mom and Dad at a resort with the family... You guys will be so jealous to hear my side! xa xa! We woke up this morning at 5:00 to drunk people shouting and stuff. So beautiful. The weather turned from Snow up to our heads, to lakes up to our knees, to 25 C (70-80 F) within about three days. So crazy. It's summer here suddenly! Unfortunately the amount of drunk people went from a lot to like... 80% Last night, there was not a place you could go with out being surrounded by drunk people. The warm weather hit, and suddenly it was like a zombie apocalypse of drunkards. Pretty interesting... but I can see why the city I'm in has the highest incident rates in All of Russia. I haven't been yelled "go home yankee" as much as I had yesterday for my entire mission. One guy told us that he was going to call the cops on us and they were going to take us to jail and... do bad things to us... This mission is not making me any more innocent of a person... that's for sure. I LOVE IT! Xa xa! Honestly. I would not trade my life for anything else! Our Cold water got shut off this week for a day... that was weird. Showers were super painful and we had to flush the toilets with buckets of hot water... xaxa! Also, our Electricity in the kitchen stopped working for a week, which is also where our washing machine is... so that's been interesting. We got everything fixed, but it was definitely an adventure. Seriously, I cannot think of any other place that I would be having more fun! I'm in Russia and the weather is PERFECT outside and our members are angels and our investigators are studs! We have the best mission president and the best leaders! Russia is such an amazing place with such a curious people. But in the end of it all, we all just want the same things. We all want to be loved. We all want to be safe. We all want to be accepted. We all want to be wanted. We all want to be happy. That's why I'm here! To help people figure out how they can make that all happen. So many people here think they will be happy if they just move to America or if they make a lot of money. There is so much more than that in Life. I'm so glad that I've found it. And there's nothing that hurts more when someone tells you to your face that it is not true. That our doctrines are false and deceiving. That Christ was nothing more than a skazska (fairytale) I have to go. I love you all! I know this gospel is true! I know that God wants me here for a reason! I know that our way isn't just "a" way. It's "the" way. I'm excited for what the Lord has in store for me next! Loves! Elder Skvortz (that's what everyone calls me here... so that's kind of what I go by now... haha! Svortz is just too hard to say for Russians... xa xa!)

Letter #27 from Russia

Hello Family!! So this week has been a good one I would say... but not super successful. The flu was going around and I caught it, so that hindered the work all week. This week, we got to go to a Russian Opera called Yevgennii Onnegin. It was really good, but all I understood was pretty much the bare bones of the story line. It was very difficult to understand. haha! Also, we were in a Marshootka the other day, (minivan taxi) and I heard tengo la camisa negro on the radio and I kind of freaked out to myself. So we have been working with this guy named Makcim and he is really cool... but he randomly stopped answering our calls and stuff and we couldn't get a hold of him for a month! We thought that he probably just heard dumb things about us and was avoiding us, but we kept calling anyway every once in a while. Well, we finally got a hold of him. Turns out he got shot in the back twice and had to get a kidney transplant and other operations and will probably be in the hospital for a month or two longer. We were so happy to learn he still wanted to meet, but it's kind of a bummer our investigator got shot... He had a sketchy job, but we didn't think it was that sketchy. Mary! That is Crazy that you are training and opening a new area in your third cycle! I want to know are you whitewashing (re-opening a formerly closed area), or completely opening it fresh? That would be crazy if you were doing it fresh! Man, you are so lucky slash unlucky! of course you would though! I think that's weird that you're only in your third cycle... I'm already in my 5th, almost 6th cycle. And I'm coming up on my year mark in two months! I've been out for 10 months already... Wow, time really is short here. I was thrilled to learn about Matt going to Russia! I think that is insane that missionaries used to get so many baptisms! The people were just so thirsty for religion back then... So lucky! At this point it's pretty established that Pravaslavnie religion is what's cool. The church is still growing, but 50 baptisms? Our leaders have said that we can get 1 a month. And I believe them, but it doesn't mean that it wouldn't be a miracle if it happened. It is so difficult to get people to make commitments. Other than actual baptism, it's easy to get them to be a member. Too many people would rather just join it as a club rather than a religion. So I was thinking about Jesus Christ this morning and read in Mark 10: 33-34. they mocked him, scourged him, spat upon him, and killed him, but on the third day he did rise again. It really hit me today when I was thinking about that. Jesus Christ didn't let anything stop him from completing his mission. Not the entire forces of Satan. Not death. Not anything! When ever I am tired, I just need to remember what Jesus Christ probably felt like after three days of being DEAD... yet he got up and got to work. Yeah... I can definitely keep working. Sticks and stones may break his bones, but death will never stop him. I have to go! I love you all! Elder Svortz!