Letter #8 From Russia

Baiu Baiu Baiu Bai (beginning of a Russian lullaby.)

That's terrily tohear about Sister Montrose! I'm so glad that She's doing a bit better! I'll pray for her! I wonder if Tessa was there when it happened and had to use any of her First Responder training. It would certainly be a good thing she had taken that class if she was there. They have had so many trials as a family. And still they are always so strong and so happy! When I imagine any of them, they are always smiling!! It's so sad to hear about so many sad things happening to such an incredible family! I'll talk to Heavenly Father about that tonight to see if I can pull a few strings for them. We're kind of on good terms right now. Haha!
So This week has been my favorite so far on the mission. My companions are incredible! I really could go on forever about them! Both of them are SO obedient! I love it! They are incredible planners, very spiritual, very nice, and really fun! Elder Anderson is a great cook too! We all wake up at 6:00 in the morning everyday! I love it! I tried doing that with Elder Benham and all it did was get him mad at me for even mentioning it... haha! I'm seriously the worst missionary of the three of us. I have so much to learn from both of them! I love them both so much! I'm not going to blame my trainer for how I have turned out as a missionary so far... but... I feel like I'm going to make leaps and bounds now that I have some good examples of what I always knew a missionary could be... haha!
So Russia is doing well, she is getting colder lately, but not too bad. Only about 10 degrees or so. It still hasn't snowed yet... sad. I'm excited for it... ish... but that also means I'll have to whip out my winter boots. Hastle. oh well. Stylin. (Stalin?) haha! ... Sorry, my mind just kind of went on a strange tangent... I've been wearing my beautiful fur coat and I got my hands on a good scarf too! I'm loving it! This is what russia should feel like!
So on friday, my companions and I were going around knocking on doors and this babooshka invited us into her backyard. She took us into this shed and surprised us with a birthday party! haha! It was the funniest thing! She then told us that it was actually for her 1 year old grandson, but it certainly threw us off for a second... They were practically trying to shove the vodka down our throats. They just couldn't fathom us not drinking vodka at a party. Finally they forced us to drink this really good juice. They made us eat all this food and then shoved us out the door before we could really talk to them about our message. Before we left, the lady said "I'm going to tell everyone that God sent three American boys to this party!" It was probably the funniest thing since [something really funny]! For reals. It was good because just before that, we got dominated by this guy who used to be a way active member, even got his mom baptised, but is now wrapped up in so much anti mormon stuff it was disgusting. At first, everything seemed fine, but as we continued talking, it became apparent that the spirit was absent more and more. In fact, there was a very different spirit in his home as well. We couldn't do anything to prove him wrong. What was worse was that he is a lawyer and he knows more about the gospel than I do. It was definitely not my favorite thing... He knew fluent English, so it made it even harder in the fact that we just wanted to argue with him. We didn't of course, but the temptation was strong.
I'm so grateful for this gospel! I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve! I love you all so much! I pray for you all!!

Love, Elder Swartz.

PS: I finally found out how I can send letters home and stuff, so I'll try to do that soon!