Letter #21 from Russia

Hello Family!

So first off KEVIN GIOT BAPTIZED! So great! He's already such a great member and he wants to share the gospel with everyone! He just needs to learn Russian now... haha! I think it is so cool that he has felt the spirit in our church meetings, because he doesn't understand any of it, and I know that none of us are the best of translators, (there are five missionaries who have been out for over a year, other than that, we all came in within a few months of each other. because of the Russian Visas, we all jump into Russia at the same time...) because we're all relatively young in the mission. Regardless of our terrible translating, he still feels the spirit and knows this church is true! So great! I know a lot of that is because of everyone's prayers, (Especially Matt! I baptized him for you after all! [Cousin, not uncle. {Your prayers don't work Uncle Matt. haha! Just kidding!}])
So yesterday my companion and I were knocking and this guy answered the door. He said he was Pravaslavnie (Russian Orthodox) and that he wasn't interested. But I wasn't going to take that excuse. I noticed children running around and in an attempt to keep the door open I said "It seems to me you're a family man?" I thought I could provoke a conversation about family and get him interested, but he rose his eyebrows as if I had said something rude and said "I have no doubts, thank you." and shut the door in my face. So apparently because of the cold, my lips weren't as nimble and also apparently the word for "Family" when used as an adjective sounds unfortunately similar to the word "Doubting". I essentially told him I didn't think he felt his religion was true. My companion and I had a good laugh about that one and I learned a better word to use for "Family Man".
I went on splits with a member of the seventy the other day. He's in our branch and apparently he really liked the spiritual thought I came up with when we were visiting an inactive because he couldn't stop talking about it and he based his whole talk on church about it... haha! But whatever, it's not like I'm gloating.
Dad, I appreciated your email! I'm always happy about getting them! The baptism was so great! I love Kevin so much! He is soo great! I liked your analogy of spring to the resurrection, it was nice. It really is already starting to warm up here. It's enough that I don't die. haha! The people are always in a better mood to talk to you as well right now because the sun is out for the first time in a long time!
My companionship is going well. I really haven't had a bad companionship since my first cycle! I love you all! I have no time! bye!

Love Elder Swartz!