Letter #47 from Russia

Hey fam!

So this week has been really good. My companion is great. Really hard
working, but he's starting to catch the trunky bug... uh oh. haha!
Hopefully it doesn't get worse and I'll get transferred from him before it
gets too bad... haha! I love him though! I love my area. Ulianovsk is an
awesome city! I'm really enjoying the teaching pool that we have. We are
teaching a little baptist family who are wonderful, but I'm not sure if
they'll accept the Book of Mormon. Obviously I'm hoping they do, but they
have to read it first, and I think that will be tough. haha! We are
teaching a lady named Anya and she loves us and thinks we are angels, but
she has a hard time getting to church because of work. She has a pretty
terrible job at a meat stand, a dilapidated old shack... she works all day
to feed her kids, which she doesn't get along with anyway. She had a huge
business that did really well but it collapsed and her life fell apart. Her
husband died around that time as well... man. I feel like everyone who
lives here in Russia could be the main character for a Dostoevski novel.
However! We found a girl named Abigail and she is from Gahna (ghana?),
southern Africa! She is sooo cool and she holds a bible study group every
friday night in her dorm room. She's lived here for four years and she
feels like she is the only one around her who actually lives what they
believe. She always goes and knocks on peoples doors in her building
inviting them to the bible study group and always calling people to wake
them up for church because she knows it's important. She is probably the
the funniest person I've met in Russia. She reminds me of kevin sooo much
too! We taught her the first lesson and the spirit was way strong! It was
so refreshing because she just accepted everything and was even quoting
scriptures from the bible that supported about how God calls prophets and
how she has always felt like there should be prophets today. She said she
knew who we were right when she saw us because she has a "Mowmon" friend
back at home (she has an exotic African accent when she speaks Russian).
When we gave her the book of Mormon to read she was way exited that there
was more of the words of christ that she could read and was totally going
to pray if it was true. She also said she was going to invite her friends
to come and talk with us too. Man, she's too cool! She's super sarcastic
and always laughing and smiling. I wonder if this is what America is like...
This week, we were setting up sacrament, a little later than usual, and we
realized we had no bread because Ramil was sick and he was always the one
who brings it, and so we ran around the prehod... uh... church building...
branch! that's the word I was looking for! We ran around the branch looking
for bread or even really anything to use for the sacrament. Finally we
found some cookies covered with melted chocolate and sprinkles on them...
so we used those. My companion and I were really nervous about that because
we had an investigator at church who used to be a missionary for his other
church and we were worried that he would be offended that we used that kind
of a thing for the sacrament, but in the end there was no problem... haha!
Right now I'm in a city called Toliatti because my companion is going to
Lithuania to get his Visa renewed. So fun to always leave your area... not.

K, well. I got to go! I love you all!

Bye!!

Elder Skvortz!

PS: You still didn't send me Tiffany's address.

Letter #46 from Russia

Hello family!! So I really had a fun time this past week! We just had zone conference and exchanges so that was fun. Also, apparently a new girl in the mission is way good friends with Matt Porter. Her name is Heather Young and she's pretty much a boss missionary. So weird that He is pretty much home already! Soon it's all down hill and we'll be home before we know it! terrible!! I have so much I need to learn and achieve! Two years is not enough!! I got several letters from my old FHE sisters this past week, so I want to say thanks for those!! You guys are awesome! I don't really have any interesting news for this week or anything... I got a tazer pulled on me by this guy. He didn't touch me or anything, He said he uses it to drop cultists... I wanted to punch him in the throat, but I held back.... I don't like it when people threaten me with tazers. So pretty much... I'm done for today. I love you! Elder Skvortz!

Letter #45 from Russia

Hey, I don't have a ton of time, but I wanted to say that this week has been a good one. I feel like as soon as I moved areas, the Lord just blessed me a ton. Seriosuly, I've only been called a cultist once the enitre week. It's been really nice! I don't really understand what happened though, because I'm not doing anything different, but people here just want to meet with us. My companion says that this has happened to him his whole mission, even less than usual lately, so he was confused why I was so excited about it all. People will jst call us and say they want to meet, or I can just call someone and set up a meeting, and for one, they answer... which was rare in Penza. Second, they are down to meet AT A SPECIFIC TIME, which like... never happened in Penza. People were so capricious there. I'm super excited about this new area, it will be a good change. I loved Penza, it will always hold a place in my heart, but I was getting stale there and I'm really happy to be in a fresh situation. We had a lot of good meetings with really good people who sincerely want to know about the gospel, not because we're Americans either, they are just interested in changing their lives. How cool is that! My companion is a great elder with lots of success on his mission, really nice guy, but a lot of negative comments... so I'll have to talk to him about that... I'm in a city where we are the only missionaries, so we're completely alone. We have district meeting over the phone... yeah... all the other missionaries gather at a senior couples apartment and get fed awesome food while we sit at home and listen to them all have a blast... oh well, I'm fine with it... haha!

 

I really love you all! I have to go though!

 

Elder Skvortz!