Letter #18 from Russia.

Hello Cemya!

So this week has been sooooo long! It's been fun, but being in such a new atmosphere makes it seem like forever ago when I last wrote home. So much has happened!! I can't even start to describe everything!

So I feel like I'm in Russia now. Before, in Penza, I felt as if I were in America with only some very bizarre changes, like everyone speaking Russian... But now, my apartment is a piece of junk, the buildings are much more Russian looking... okay, so maybe that's all that's really different... I love my apartment though! The sink fell off the wall in the bathroom the other day and the kitchen is about the size of our bathroom at home. There is no room! It's really old looking and smelling and it has carpets on the walls for decoration! I really do enjoy it! My new companion is elder Doherty and he is wonderful so far! A lot of energy and willingness. Really nice and a good sociable person. Really has a love for the people here. He is from Alexandria, Virginia. "Really close to DC and all that Jazz" - Elder Doherty.
We have two investigators right now who are pretty good. Kevin and Tidzine. They are from Ethiopia (SP?) and they are very much Black African. So great! They both don't know Russian really at all and they have been here the same amount of time as I have... so that is cool that I can see the difference between someone with the gift of tounges and someone without it... haha! Just kidding... but seriously. We have another investigator Andrei, who is really cool. He is Armenian and is was nice... He kind of thinks the Book of Mormon is blasphemy... but we'll fix that. haha! He keeps reading Wikipedia articles about the church and finding all this stupid stuff about it. He doesn't believe any of it, but he finds it interesting. Go on to wikipedia for me and fix the Russian version because people are messing with it to make people not like our church!
I decided I don't like the word "Sect" anymore...
Holy Pelmeni... It is almost February!!! I can't believe that!!! That's impossible! It didn't hit me until just now! I've been on my mission for so long already, but it seems like I'm still one fo the newest in the field! I feel like such a greenie still! Our meeting house is nice here as well. Lucked out again. It is surrounded by bars and pubs and billiards though... yeah! The branch is big. We are so close to getting a stake here in Saratov!! The goal is to get one here before the end of my mission. I leave at the same time the Mission President and his wife do, so we are working hard to get a stake here before we leave! My Russian isn't a big hinderance anymore. Yes, it is still sooooo far from being fluent. I make SOO many grammar mistakes and have no idea how to say so many words. I don't understand about fifty percent of what people are saying, but I can usually piece it together. Russians are chatter boxes, so I usually get about five explanations of the same thing, which really helps me not miss what they are talking about. The other day, I translated our district meeting from Russian into English for our senior couple living here in Saratov. I really surprised myself. Then later, I translated an entire lesson from english to Russian in real time... which further surprised me. I didn't think I would be able to do it that fluidly, but it just came. It really wasn't that hard to listen and translate and speak all at the same time. I know my grammar was worse than normal while doing it though and I made the most simple of mistakes, but I was rather impressed. I also have no problems speaking in Russian twenty four seven now. Before you get all impressed, I'm telling you that I don't do that with my companion right now. It's better to fluidly understand your companion and have open communication between the two of you so that there aren't any problems, but I have spent days with Native Russians and got along just fine without any problems communicating with them.
So I was reading in Matthew 25 andI really liked where it says the people didn't understand what Jesus meant when he said thy had fed him and clothed him and stuff and he says inasmuch as you have done it unto the least of these my bretheren, you have done it unto me. I've always thought of that like "You're not REALLY doing it unto me, I'm just telling you that to emphasize that you need to serve your bretheren." But today it hit me that that scripture gives us a lot more information about the atonement than we realize. He walked with Every person through life and knows EVERYTHING. Maybe even experienced it just like we did. When we do something to someone, we are literally doing it to Jesus as He is walking along life with them. Anyway! I have no time! I love you all so much and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be here! I love you all and I hope you are all doing well!

Love Elder Swartz!