Letter #26 from Russia

Hello family!! I loved the picture! Haha! That's so funny! I'm really longing for spring right now. I mean, yeah it's coming... but so slow! It keeps wobbling back and forth between below freezing and... not below freezing. There are giant lakes everywhere because, well... there was so much snow... Speaking of which!!!! I was walking with my companion last week, coming home from writing emails and this giant icicle fell from a building and landed literally 3 feet in front of me!! The icicle was about as big as a car, people die from icicles everyday here in Russia, kstaty (by the way) and it was almost me!!! It even took out the roof guard that's supposed to protect from those things. Seriously it was huge! There was just debris everywhere after it fell! I thought about it and there was this guy in a car that I stopped by to give him a little brochure about twenty seconds before it happened, and I thought about not doing it because it was P-day and I wanted to get home, but if I hadn't done it, I would have died. haha! Awesome! I'm glad I was doing the Lord's work! We had a little Beatles concert here ourselves, actually! Okay, well, it was just a branch talent night, and they wanted us as missionaries to sing Michelle my belle, but then we didn't because it was inappropriate for us to sing as missionaries... so some other guys sang it, and they did a great job! I had a dream about Cade going on his mission spanish speaking just a few weeks ago! Cool! So I got this letter from Sister Arnold that I really enjoyed (She sends the best letters!) And it had a thought that I've really been thinking about lately. It was a quote from a girl who is serving people in Africa and it says "We aren't really called to save the world, not even to save one person; Jesus does that. We are just called to love with abandon. We are called to enter into our neighbor's sufferings and love them right there." I thought that was incredible and then I realized that I was doing the exact same thing... it was a strange realization to think that I gave up everything that I had to do that very thing, the thing that every kind of humanitarian person would want to do, but I get to do it a step further! I get to not only improve their lives for the better here on Earth, but change the outcome of the eternities personally for that person... wow... I bet the Girl would be jealous if she could hear my story. haha! I love you all so much! I have to go now though! I had a dream Christy was here and she got drunk! I was so disappointed in her! Then I woke up and was not disappointed in her. haha! i love you all! Bye! Elder Svortz!