Letter #14 from Russia

Zdrasvstvuite! 

So this week has been really interesting! My coompanion is out of the hospital and doing fine, but he has all these crazy rules he has to follow so that nothing bad happens to him and he can heal properly, and as missionaries, we have to be exactly obedient... so we have to follow all the dumb rules... haha! He can only eat vegetables, non acidic fruits, and pasta. He can eat bread if it is soggier than water and that's pretty much it. No salt, pepper, spices, sugar, dairy... pretty much nothing. He's lost weight. haha! He's not allowed to bend over, and he isn't allowed to walk very much. We probably are disobedient on that one, we don't know how to help that one... We've pretty much eliminated our contacting, maybe an hour a day if he hasn't walked very much... it's pretty much been a lot of area book work and making phone calls. If we could just get meetings, it would be a lot easier! But because our meetings keep falling through, we can't really do anything else... haha! SSOOO Frustrating! I feel like we're being disobedient because I don't feel like we're working as hard as we should be! But really, we're probably already working MORE than what we should be doing...
New years was great! We went to sleep at like nine! It was the best new years ever! We weren't allowed to go outside after 3:00 in the afternoon for like three days because everyone and their baby was filled to their necks with Vodka! Our mission president essentially gave us a three day long P-day. it was pretty relaxing I guess, I would have rather worked... I've been sitting too much anyway this past week! 
Fun Fact: So on the windows of buses, they are designed so that when they get frosty, the frost freezes into patterns and designs! Typically flowers or stuff! So cool! 
Family! Could you get me Matt and Chris's Mission addresses? I want to be able to write them! 
So Anya finally quit her job! Once she starts coming to church, she's totally baptized! I really hope that it works out that I'm here when it happens! I found her my (essentially) first day in Russia! I would be so happy if I could be the one to have guided her through the whole process! 
Also, we found this half African girl named Jane. She's really friendly and she came to church and loved it! After the first meeting, she came up to me and asked if she could get a standard works. A member said that we don't have those yet, but will be getting them soon, but even then, she'd have to become a member to get one because they've waited so long for them! haha! I gave her a book of mormon and said that would work just fine. She said "So how do I become a member?" and we told her through baptism. "Well how can I get baptized?" The perfect question. haha! We explained to her the process of faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost and enduring to the end. She was very intrigued and said she felt like God really prepared her for this and said she wanted to get baptised this month. When she found out that she could get baptized and become clean and happy and recieve the gift of the holy ghost and stuff, she threw her arms around me and kissed me on the cheek... I was obviously in a state of shock and the members burst out laughing after she skipped away. She's kind of eccentric, but way sincere and honestly... I'm just not used to that kind of person any more... People in Russia aren't like that... 


I love you! I have to go! Happy new Year!

Elder Swartz!