Hey family!
So... I was happy to read the copious amounts of emails I got this week! So exciting... seriously...
Mary! Congratulations on David's baptism! That's really cool that you got out of your rut! Question for you? How many new missionaries are you getting because of the influx? Chris sent me a letter and said he's getting 60 new missionaries! Crazy!
So this week, we had a lady named Anya come to church. She's a mongolian woman with a korean husband and she is so great! Her mother just got baptized... somewhere far away, somewhere in Asia and her brother lives in Provo, he's been a member for a long while now. She's so prepared, hopefully her husband will be on board as well... we'll see.
Also, Mom and dad, I wanted to apologize! I realized that I may have come across as ungrateful for your package over skype. That is not the case! I am sooooo happy for the candy and macaroni and cheese and stuff! I've already eaten it all of course, so that's sad. I just wanted to say thanks so much for the package, I just feel like I came off the wrong way when I said that I would rather have you send money than packages. I wasn't even thinking about how it was obviously an expression of love, not just money from your wallets. So please don't think I was ungrateful for your wonderful christmas present! It was awesome!
Well... I don't really have anything else I want to say... hmmm... We're on Lock down right now, so as soon as we get our groceries, we're back to the apartment for 2 days. Too many drunks...
I think this is the first time I've finished my email home early... like... a half an hour early... maybe next week if you don't send me SO many emails, I'll be able to write more. *cough*... Oh maybe I'll write a note in Russian! Dlya tex, kto ponimayut: Russiya - ochen horoshaya strana. esli vui seichas ponimaete to, shto napiseno, to pochemy ya eshyo ne poluchil picmo ot vas? Maya sestra vsegda gavarit na espanskom kagda ana pishet, tak shto ya tozhe hotel gavarit, no ne na espanskom konyeshna, a po Russki. No... Vcyo. Lyublyu.
Welp, C Novim Godom.
Elder Swartz
Elder Swartz
Monday, March 4, 2013
Dec. 16th, 2012
Hey family!!
So first!! I gave a member Chris's, Mom's, and Dad's Skype info. He said he already sent you the invitations, so you just have to respond! He wants to test it with one of you sometime so... just call him, or expect a call from him to see how it works. Also, he speaks English, really brokenly, but totally understandable! He's a champ!
This week has seriously been full of the Lord's guidance! I really feel like He is not leaving me on my own at this point in my mission! There have been times I've really felt that way, as if He withdrew Himself from me for a time in order to see how I would react, or for me to learn something important, and I'm not saying that is not an important part (because it is) of what I have experienced on my mission, but it is also really awesome to feel as though He Himself is walking with me, talking with me, and all around working with me in order to accomplish more fully His holy purposes! Last night, we had a lesson with a guy we found the other day knocking, and at the beginning, he wanted us to just play cards with him, and he and his friend would laugh and really treat lightly what we were saying, but as we really prayed in our hearts about what we could do to help them, the spirit began to work within them. The laughing stopped. The interruptions stopped. The looking around stopped. Everything seemed to just... stop. And that's when everything started! They listened, asked questions, we responded with the spirit and discerned. in the end, the friend was way interested, and they both wanted copies of the conference ensign! It was a waaay cool experience. It's an experience that you wish you could have everyday, but you understand that it's a gift to be treasured because it doesn't happen everyday. But what's cool is that we had the EXACT same thing happen the day after with an inactive and his friend! The Lord is really working with us!
I'm loving my mission! and I'm so happy I can work with Elder Christensen again! We found out that we're staying together again! I'm really hoping though that a third cycle with him doesn't make him realize that I'm completely uncool. I probably get on his nerves so much! He's such a champ! He's way patient with me, even when I myself know that I was wrong! He's turning out to be a fantastic missionary! Plus, he sticks to his goals. A really realistic elder.
It looks like we're going to get the baptism, Olga, as long as she can quit smoking. She only smokes one cigarette a day, but to some, that still may be a challenge.
Dad, your pictures are so great!! You always send the coolest photos! Your photography skills have gotten much better I would say! That's so cool! Also, the only intereseting thing here is that there is still no snow. This week the temperature dropped... a ton! On tuesday or wednesday or something, they said it got down to negative 26 celcius... I totally believe them. We were not expecting it... haha! But we were fine, don't worry! We dress warm enough! It warmed back up again abit, but it's still below freezing, which is good... still no snow yet... suuuper weird for Russia! All the Russian's are SOO confused.
So, with this new visa schedule that we're on, missionaries only get to go to kiev once every six months, which is saving the church millions!!! However, so apparently there were some Дурак missionaries who were on their Visa trip, and they fly into Moscow... wait... They flew in to Kiev. Yeah. They flew in to Kiev and they were supposed to go to the temple, all the temple workers were expecting them and everything, and the missionaries, no, the heathens I should say, decide that they don't need the blessings of the temple, and neither do the people they would have done the work for vicariously, and instead decide that it would be way cooler to check out the city.
...
...
...
We have a word here in Russia for people like them... but I'm not going to say it, because I'm a missionary... unlike them.
So the Europe East Area presidency finds out and says. "So missionaries don't want to go to the temple anymore do they? Whatever, cheaper for us." So now missionaries don't get to go to the temple anymore when we go to Ukraine. Yep. It's times like these that I remember why I'm all for Captial Punishment.
In other news, Knocking has been a complete miracle for us lately. We'll be knocking, and the LAST door of the LAST building at the last few minutes of knocking, we've found someone who was waiting for the gospel! It's been so cool!! Man, I don't have any more time! This letter was long this week... haha!
K, well, Loves!! I hope you all send me letters!
Elder Swartz!
Dec. 10th, 2012
Hey everyone at home!
Mom! Right now, before you forget, add Brett Witaker to the people you email this email to!
Okay so there's a lot I want to spit out in this letter... First:
YEAH! Congratulations on your calls Tacey and Ashley!! Ashley, You have to put yourself opening up your call on facebook so that when I get back, I can pretend I was there a part of the experience! If you didn't record it, then do it again and pretend it's the first time! I won't know the difference!
Also, Mary I know how you feel! So the big shifting in the MTC changed my return date to. It bumped it back to May 27th... Ewww... BUT THEN!!! I found out that the Russian laws for Visa's JUST changed and we are all switching to 3 year Visa's! And starting with my group we get a cycle extension on our missions because of the way the visa's worked out, so I'm actually coming home now on July 8th! Yeah baby!! That gave me a month longer than expected! awesome! haha! Sorry Mary, but I need the extra time to catch up to you on baptisms... haha!
So here in Russia, it still is above zero... no snow anywhere... well, where I am at least... Supah dumb... All the Russians are freaking out because they think it's because Dooms day is on the 21st. But don't worry, it'll turn out just like that one movie, White Christmas!
I was way happy to find out FINALLY who Heather Married. Now I can look for his name on teaching records and stuff! haha! I don't mean to ask any personal questions, but if he doesn't mind, I would love to know if he baptized anyone in Ulyanovsk or 116. I loved Ulyanovsk. 116 got closed and now all the members go to Novokuibishevck branch, which is where I'm serving right now. The only people who are active from that area are Donora and Margo, the armanian family. They are wonderful. Vova Orlov moved to America, he's going to BYU Idaho right now, Now Solnechney get's no members with a member present... haha! The Zaharians are awesome, the dad is the branch president right now, and Anait's prices have probably only gone up since you left. Hopefully I'll be able to get something from her, but we'll see if I have enough money.
So this week, we met this girl who is wonderful, but she has a terrible life. She is 36 six years old, stutters bad, and has physical health problems that qualify her to be on pension from the government. She doesn't work, and doesn't study and has almost no confidence in herself. five years ago her father died, a year and a half ago, her mother died, and a year ago her brother died. She is now completely alone other than her cat....
...
...
...
...
Job?
She's accepting EVERYTHING though!
So, the story:
One day Elder Christensen and I are walking. Contacting, I should say... and we try to talk to this lady. "Hey, we're missionaries! We want to share a message with you!!" With her eyes looking everywhere, other than at us, she mumbles something so quiet and stuttered, I barely could tell she spoke. "Take this card with our information on it! Come to church!!" I say. She just nods, takes it and walks off. My companion and I think nothing of this at all.
THEN!!!
...
...
...
SHE CAME!!!!
We're sitting there, and this lady walks in. I don't recognize her, but E. Christensen remembers! (What a champ!) and immidiately goes and sits next to her. We get to know her and she stays for ALL 3 HOURS!! then afterwards, she takes Everything! Liahonas, FHE guides, Book of Mormon! She has such a thirst for knowledge!!!
We've met with her thrice. Each time, she becomes more open and happy.
...
...
...
Then we're like "Get baptized." and she's all "Tots." (for old people who don't understand that, that means "yes")
So on Dec 29th, she's getting baptized!!!
Well.... That's the end for today! I love you allllllll!!! You should all write me letters! especially if any of you are getting your calls!!
Loves, Elder Skvortz!
Dec. 3rd, 2012
Hey Family!
So this week has been a really fast one. I felt at the beginning like it would be way slow, but for some reason, it flew by! That seems to be the theme of my mission nowadays. My companion always tells me I'm some old missionary... its freaky when missionaries tell you that.
So dad, you asked about my companion, His name is Elder Christensen, he's from texas and we get along great. We have a really fun time in Novokuibishevsk, even though people here are WAY rude. We've gotten used to it, but we went to another city this week and EVERYONE was SO NICE!! It will be cake doing missionary work in other cities after this one. haha! Which is wierd, because I totally got a baptism here. The Lord prepares people everywhere.
We have this one lady we're teaching right now, her name is MArya, she is so wonderful! She always makes us homemade treats or juice. She has read almost the entire BoM already and eats up any pamphlets we give her! She loves the gospel so much, but she refuses to get baptised! haha! She just isn't ready for that change in her life yet. I'm positive she'll come around soon though.
Last night we were on a lesson with an old lady named Nadezhda. She's been a member for a year now. So she says the closing prayer for the lesson and my comp and I bow our heads. Suddenly, we look at each other and try hard not to burst out laughing. She is reciting the Lord's Prayer from Matthew 6. We just let it happen though and we walked away from the lesson laughing.
Is this one of those "Meanwhile in Russia" moments? I felt like it was.
Well, got to go!
Love you!
Elder Skvortz!
Nov. 26th, 2012
So this week's been wonderful!
Elena, our new convert, is doing awesome! She is going to be one of the best members in the Branch! So this friday, our district here got to go over to the Sartori's and have a huge thanksgiving dinner with them and some senior couples. My companion and I were in charge of potatoes and we threw in a peach cobler that was pretty much the best. haha! The garlic potatoes were also way good. The Sartori's made a turkey and a TON of rolls, which you never get here! They were soo good. I had about 20 rolls. The turkey was way good, I have no idea where they found it... haha! We were so lucky, because in a lot of cities in the mission, you don't get anything for thanksgiving. Last year that's what happened, other than an activity at the branch. But this year we ate all we wanted. It was such a wonderful feeling! haha! Eating all the tukey and potatoes you want! I haven't had that in TWO YEARS! how crazy! haha! Hey, next year, I don't want Rachel and Chris and David and Amber to go to the other parents! I want them to come to ours! It's a special occassion! Mary and I will both want that I'm sure. obviously that's just us being selfish, but still! With all the holidays going on, it's hard not to think about home. Obviously I'm not getting distracted, but it's harder this time than it was the first time. haha!
Happy Birthday Chelsi and Chris! I haven't forgot about you just yet! And sorry to anyone else that I forget to shout out your birthdays, It doesn't mean I don't love you, it just means you need to write more! haha!
Hmmm... So things are going well in our area, Novokuibishevsk is a fun place, but there are a lot of people here who are... different. Many of the members are legitimately insane and have or are going to psych wards. So It's hard to get people to think our church is "cool" when they come to activities. haha! The members are such blessings though, but my companion and I (and all the normal members) are super happy that we baptised someone who isn't going to a psychiatrist. This last branch activity we had, it was us, 6 mentally insane members, and 2 mentally insane people who just showed up randomly. It was weird. That is how I spent my thanksgiving... in a room of crazy people trying to get them to play pictionary... I love this branch. Well, that's about it. I'm out of time! I love you all!
Love, Elder Swartz.
Nov. 19th, 2012
Elena Got Baptized!!!
It feels sooo good!! What feels even better? It's the first normal person to be baptised in YEARS here. Yep. All the people who have been baptized here in this city for the past while are all kind of... wierd... we love them of course, but the branch president was soooo happy because he finally has someone normal he can trust with calling. haha! The branch has really been struggling here, (mainly because it seems like a mental ward), so it's cool to think that we were able to do something to help actually further the ward. I'm not trying to say anything negative about these people, don't take it that way. If you were here, you'd understand what I mean.
Mary... I am officially and completely jealous that you got to go to Machu Pichu. That's always been the one place I've always wanted to go to if I could go one place in the World... Crazy! What's dumb is that they are shutting it down soon because all the tourists are corroding it. So I'll probably never get to go to it... sigh. oh well, you better have taken lots of pictures for me! Also, I got your letter! What's cool is that I also wrote a letter to Kevin that was super similar, and then suddenly, that week, I got your letter for Kev. It's cool how the spirit totally knows and will influense all these different people at all these different times because he knows how slow snail mail can be! haha! We need to have faith that the spirit will influence Kevin right as I send the letters to him to! Please pray for that!
That's pretty crazy that Twinkies are a thing of the past... Dad, what are you going to eat now? haha! ...But seriously...
So I got a package in the mail and It didn't say who it was from. It just said it was from home. I thought it was Rachel's package, but it was actually my Christmas package. hahah! You got it here quite early this time. I gues it's better than last years when I got it in like, March. haha! You just can't trust Russian Mail systems, can you. I opened it up and I saw the white shirts in there. haha! Thanks mom, I know you were trying to be thoughful, but I'm just about to give a whole bunch of my shirts away becasue I don't need them anymore. I'm glad that I have some more to give away though! It will make some members happy. I didn't open any of the others though, cuz I realized it was the Christmas package, so don't worry. I don't know what the rest of it is yet.
My comp's mom sent him a Christmas tree that you can pin on the wall, but he's new and all anti Christmas before thanksgiving (new missionaries don't realize that Christmas is a big deal here for the older missionaries because we all know that if you don't force Christmas to come here... it doesn't. That's Russia for you.) so I set it all up! Then I put lights all over it! It's so great! There was snow all over outside and we had Christmas music playing. Man I'm SOOO excited for Christmas!! haha! The snow only lasted a day, now there's just mud everywhere again. but the weathe should turn soon, and I won't see the sun for about 7 months! So exciting!
Well, that's about it. I love you all! I'm so happy to be here on my mission! I love this work soo much! It's so hard but it is so worth it!!
Love you all!
Elder Swartz!
November 11th, 2012
Hello all creatures of our God and King!
So everything is on track for Elena to get baptized! Pretty Exciting. Man I get so nervous about this last week because Satan really can throw like... anything at them. I know she is going to have so many random things that will happen this week that will tempt her... Oh boy! I really just have to trust her and the Lord adn hope that wehave done all we can to prepare her. She is way excited to be baptized though! We almost had to move her date back a week and when I suggested it, it seemed like she was ready to leap at me like some predator animal. She denied that option and we searched every possible option until we found one. So she's getting baptized this saturday! Please pray for her so that she'll be able overcome any challenges or concerns that may arise.
Mom, we deep cleaned our apartment this past p-day as well. It was horrifying. I'll end it at that. haha! Also, we had our first snow here too! But it was barely anything and it didn't even stick. The snow prolly won't stick here until a week or two. Then we'll fall into the yearly depression... haha! I'm nervous for it, but I know it won't be as bad. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be last year, so I'm sure it will be fine this year too. I'm just going to miss the sun for 7 months...
So this week, my companion and I were coming back from a long day and there was a hobo right next to our door. He was planning on sleeping in our stairwell to escape the cold. I asked him if he had a home, and he got defensive and said he did. He was probably worried we'd get mad and kick him out, like all the oher people do. When we asked him if he wanted anything to eat, he seemed confused. He said he'd take some tea, so we went inside and got him a cup of herbal fruit tea that we had. We sat and talked with him for a good half an hour. His name was Sasha. He was thirty years old and his father died a month before. He had lived with his father his entire life, and after his father died, he lost rights to the apartment and got kicked out. After living on the streets for a while, he had pneumonia and his kidneys had failed. He said he would die soon unless he could find out how to change his circumstances. He told us how grateful he was that we weren't mad at him for sleeping in our stairwell. He said most people get mad at him, and the nicest don't say anything. He said we were the first ones ever to offer anything. It was very interesting to speak with him. I sensed no mental handicap whatsoever, but it was obvious that the past month had been rough on him and started to slow his wit. What a terrible situation he was in, and there was nothing we could do to help him. All he had was a cup of tea, failing health, and a conversation with two foreigners he did not know. We gave him a bit more food and we tried to offer him a blanket, but he said he was fine and refused it. He said he was used to falling asleep sitting with his head in between his knees. I didn't sleep that night. He was coughing most of the night and I couldn't do anything to block it from my hearing. I used to think that these situations were so rare. That they were really just things that people talked about to tug on heart strings in movies or books. The fact that I'm surrounded in it everyday here. It's so... I can't describe it.
Well... that's probably it I guess. Russia is still Russia. I can't change that. But I can at least make a difference for the people who meet me hopefully.
"We can't save anyone, Jesus does that. All we are called to do is step into their lives and love them right where they are."
Love you all.
Elder Swartz.
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