Hello dear family,I want to begin with answering your letters. Thanks to all who wrote me на этой наделе (this week – I decided to write how I think and that is exactly what came to mind).
(This weird picture above is of me sweeping the floor in our bedroom. For some reason, my companion wanted a picture of that).
Sara – that is the first time that I have heard that people think we drink blood, but I think your teacher is right, she got us mixed up with vampires. Maybe she got confused because she heard that the church is in Romania, too (we actually even have a missionary in Russia from Romania and a member from Саратов (Saratov) went there on his mission not too long ago). By the way, I’m glad to hear that you are alive and well. When do you hear from Burger King?
Mom – I’m glad that Stake conference was good and all. There are probably a lot of new people in the ward there that I’ve never met. Grandpa’s 80th birthday? I think maybe you made a mistake there, I don’t think he is that old, is he? Tell him Happy Birthday for me, anyway.
Lizzy – I’m glad to hear that your will be introducing the personal history paper that I sent. Let me know how that goes. It seems like you are keeping yourself pretty busy. I hope you get the job at Target. How’s the application to BSC going? I think it is a really good idea that you have to keep a journal everyday and to use that to write me because I really enjoy reading your letters now. Its kind of like what mom does except you could say that her “journal” is just what she writes to me everyday.
Dad – That’s good that the computers are up and running again. Also, I’m glad that the genealogy work is going well (or so it seems to me). What is the difference between Vista and the old Windows?
Ok, now for my email. This last week has been full. On Thursday we came to Саратов to meet with President Neuenschwander. It was really good. He wanted to meet every one of us individually. He speaks a little Russian, enough to talk to members (he makes a lot of grammar mistakes but he still isn’t afraid to speak.
It’s a good testimony to me that we don’t have to speak perfectly because all the members still love him). He spoke to us in Russian for most of the time but towards the end he resorted to English.(Picture above: Sister Дэлгэрцэцэг (Delgertsetseg) and I after the meeting with President Neunshwander)
After our meeting with him, there was a meeting with everyone. He spoke and told how his wife has cancer and that is why he is being released of his calling and going back to America. He really loves Саратов and that is why he chose to come here (this is the only city that he decided to go to before heading home). It was a really spiritual fireside and I enjoyed listening, but than it had to be ruined. There is this member who is part of the district presidency who also owns the apartment where the Elders live right now. Those Elders are moving to an area a little outside of Engels to start a group there. (They are currently a part of our приход (branch) but soon will be meeting there instead of traveling to Engels). Well, because of that, this man wants us to move to his apartment because our apartment is the only one not owned by members. First of all, most of our work is centered around our apartment. That means, if we move, we will have to do a lot more traveling. That means there will be less time to meet with people. If we move, we won’t be able to walk to the приход anymore (that’s more of a convenience than a necessity). Also, almost all of our neighbors know us (especially now) and that means we have a connection with them. That also means that if we move, there will be no connection with them. So, for the work, I think it is better for us not to move. BUT, he, of course, doesn’t care about that at all. All he cares about is the m
oney that he will not be receiving and he has tried to manipulate me by telling me that the money from the apartment goes to pay for his grandson’s schooling. He also told me that they won’t force me if I don’t want to. So, after the fireside he came up to talk to me. I didn’t want to talk to him so I said that we were already running late and needed to get home (that was true). (Picture above is just for fun. It is at our district meeting. It was Elder Cummings's birthday, so the Elders attacked him). He cornered me anyway and started talking. He asked me if I had decided to move yet. By the way, he also brought the lady who helps with registration and she helped corner me. She had already said a different day that I need to agree but I told her how I feel about the work. I said no and he asked me what was keeping me from deciding, so I told him. Basically, he got angry and started talking about registration and how there are problems. The lady who deals with that started agreeing even though she already told me that there shouldn’t be anymore problems because they did it once. So, that made me start feeling like he was threatening me. Well, there was a little argument and he said that he would talk to President to have him interview me. I responded with something and in the end he said rather rudely (I’m not exactly sure why), yes, you speak Russian very well. It was awful but what made it worse was that it seemed later that the Elders were on HIS side! But, now I think everything is going to work out because my companion is already registered until Christmas, soon I will be, and we are paying for the next two months rent. Than he won’t be able to do anything to me. That is one reason why I hate having members as landlords.Well, my time is up, so I better get going. I’m sorry that I didn’t get time to tell about all the good things that happened so I’ll sum it up shortly. After that awful experience with him, everything seemed to get better. We now have two new
investigators (see picture below - this is in the church in Энгельс with Elders Wade and Page, Игор (Igor) a member, Лена (Lena) one of our new investigators, Sister Дэлгэрцэцэг, and me) I’ve seen a lot of success with the people we have been working with! I think it just goes to show that the Lord blesses us after difficult times!Ok, love you all,
Сестра Атвуд
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