Elder Swartz

Elder Swartz

Monday, March 4, 2013

Jan. 7th, 2013

Hey everyone!

So this week was fun! The Lock down for two days was awesome because we made SO MUCH FOOD!!! We tested out cooking all the russian dishes we knew how to make, and we made some spankin good desserts, one of which is a new favorite. It's called cinnamon roll cake! Sister Sartori gave us the recipe and my companion and I have been dreaming about it at night. If you want the recipe, you can find it on the-girl-who-ate-everything.com haha. When we saw the address for the site my companion and I decided that it could only be a website with good food on it. (we didn't go online, the website name was just on the page, on which we got the recipe)

Father:I'm still with Elder Christensen, and we get along just great! There's finally snow, but it is not nearly as cold as before. It's been hovering around freezing lately, but it will get back cold again. Man, that's dumb about your neck problems. There's a proverb in Russian that you should know "Berezhonova Bog berezhot". It means God cares for the careful. Listen to mom and stay in bed. Maybe she'll make you cinnamon roll cake! Speaking of cinnamon rolls, Rachel, your story about Boston was so funny! I was cracking up so bad. And since when has Maddie been talking!? I swear it took Boston forever to say anything and it seems like Maddie picked it up way to fast. I was hoping I'd get to see that stage when I got back. oh well! 

Mary, That stinks that you sliced your hand, that same proverb goes for you! I'm proud to say that of all the times I've gone to a Russian hopsital, it has not been because I was the patient! haha! knock on wood.  Grandma, congratulations on laying a good whooping on those boys. I'm proud to call you grandma. I don't hesitate to tell anyone that my grandma is a champion athlete when she's holding a racquet.

Olga is coming along well, but she is having a really tough time getting rid of her coffee. She completely threw out smoking, but she can't seem to let go of her darn coffee beans! I think it will work out in the end though. 

So last night we had a lesson I was really worried about. We were going back to some potentials we had dropped by before. Typically when this happens, the second time around they aren't really interested because they've either looked us up on the internet, or they've talked to someone about us and had a bad opinion of us thrown at them, or they realize that we aren't just here to talk about America and they don't want us to come back. I was a bit apprehensive, and I just kept praying in my heart that the lesson would go well. I didn't get a definite answer that it would be alright, so the apprehension continued all night, and when we dropped by, it seemed to be what I had expected. They only wanted to talk to us about America. However, The Lord answered my prayers and He was able to use my companion and me as instruments in speaking with His children that night. We lightly and easily were able to shift the conversation over to a religious discussion, back to America, and then back to another religious themed conversation. It was so amazing at how natural it felt to talk with them about all the principles of the gospel that I cherish, and directly relate to the stuff that they wanted to talk about. The questions they asked were so easy to answer with a simply statement that led right into a gospel discussion. The people even said that previous missionaries who had knocked on their door or stopped them on the street just felt like salesmen, just trying to get their product sold, but they said that we were really cool and felt like friends that they could just talk with and tell us anything.  I really felt like last night, the Lord was guiding and directing a conversation that led a few more hearts here in Russia to be opened to the gospel. It was a cool experience. 

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