Letter #30 from Russia

Hello Family! I quite enjoyed hearing about that big dinner you all had! It made me look forward when I would get to join you all for it! Everyone in Penza says I've lost weight... That's not really what I want, but at least I'm not getting fat. I've been eating healthy, increasingly healthy every cycle, and my food has been getting better tasting each cycle as well. haha! My companion loves to cook and he's good at it too. His name is Elder Strebee (spellcheck?) and he is from Arizona. He is really quiet, really respectable and really kind. He is in his third cycle and he speaks better than I do. haha! Not really, but his grammar is better than mine... haha! But he's motivated me to work even harder on my grammar. He reminds me of a mix between Jeff Lebaron and Mikey and Johnny Ruesch (spell check) all put together except he's like 200 pounds of muscle. It's awesome to back in penza! I'm loving it. There are still a few members I have yet to see, so I'm getting after them for not coming to church! It's interesting to be back because I had gotten aaccustomed to the culture of Saratov, so now being back here feels weird because I used to feel natural here, but now I have to get used to it again. It's better than going to some random city that I've never known before though. It's also frustrating because I remember having so much to do and so many people to meet with when I was here, and now I feel like there is no one to meet with in our area. We are doing a lot of finding. Which is great, I love talking to people and knocking and stuff, but I would so much rather be in teaching situations more often. I heard Peter Fox in a grocery store! I found out that one of my favortire members started drinking again. He's always had a hard time keeping himself sober, but he was doing so well last time I was here. I'm hoping to be able to meet with him soon and that we'll be able to get him rolling again and help him clean up his act. This week I met a bank robber, and two former Mafia members. (I'm pretty sure one, if not both of them are still involved in it) The bank robber said he wasn't interested, but the two "former" bandits came to an activity and want to meet with us more. I met another guy who was twenty five and SUPER rich. I asked him where he got all his money and he said from Money Laundering, is that what it's called? Essentially, he said from tax evasion and some other terrible stuff and now he's super rich. He doesn't do it any more, but that was where he got his start. Most people here say that that's just how life works here. If you want to have a good life, you need money. And if you want money, you need to pull some strings. Even government people and cops and stuff say that's just how things work here. It's probably really tempting for people here because they live in such desperate situations. Also, I totally saw Putin when I was in Saratov. I forgot to tell you all like two weeks ago when it happened. There (New president of Russia) were cops lining the streets everywhere and we asked a member why and he said that Putin was in Saratov. We got all excited and thought how cool it would be to see him, but knew obviously that our chances were like... nothing. Saratov is one of the bigger cities in Russia. But then, suddenly all the policemen's walky talkies went crazy and they cleared off all the cars on the road and then this huge chain of police cars drove by and in the middle were all these black vans and Putin totally waved to us!! Just kidding. he didn't wave. We couldn't even see in his car. But he was totally in the car. You could just feel it. Hey, I love you all! I'm having an awesome time and I am loving the Mission! I really feel like I have changed a ton, and my sense of humor has probably died, but I'm loving what Christ has made me into! Loves, Elder Skvortz!