It Felt Like I Was in Baghdad Ha ha 01/03/11

Dear family,

Happy holidays and I hope everything went well bringing in the new big year. I was asleep at the time so maybe next year, but anyway the big news is that transfers were today and I have a new comp. His name is Elder Price and he's been on his mission as long as Elder Bolt. He was serving in Samara already, but in a different branch so I'm still here in my same area and he came. Elder Ellis will now be in Novo-k which is still in our district so I'll still see him. It was crazy cuz it happened all so fast, but things are going very well here. I guess I'll answer the questions now:

1) The week was good this past week. It felt like I was in Baghdad though ha ha. There were so many huge fireworks, some of them are really cool, but seriously they were nonstop and they still are going off a lot. It was fun though. The normal internet place is closed so we are in a different place right now which is weird, but next week I can send pictures. :)

4) Yesterday there were like 18 people in our meeting for sacrament including us missionaries ha ha, which was strange, but everyone is out of town for the holidays. The members are helping us more and I feel that we are gaining more trust with them and loving them continually.

5) No I'm not in contact with anyone from Penza, but Elder Bolt tells me stuff when he goes there.

6) We went inside really early and just kinda organized stuff. I did make the shaken-bake that you gave me and Rice a Roni the Fishers gave me so thanks for that, it was amazing! Also, made some pork chops on New Year's day when we went in early again. We had good study time though and I read a lot of Jesus the Christ which was really good.

Thanks for the engagement updates as usual. They are pretty nuts as I hear them, but that's cool ha ha happy for them of course. I am soooo happy that you got home safely mom (I was in Canada for just over a month). I was worried about the road conditions and all, but I knew you would be safe. I was praying for you all a lot. Anyway, I'm still praying for Auntie Lauren of course, she's always in my prayers. Thanks for the updates on that :) keep me posted (his Auntie Lauren has brain cancer).

Things are going well here in Samara and we are having progress. We have big goals for this year in the Russia Samara mission and it will be a lot of hard work. I also made a lot of New Years resolutions which will help me stay focused more this year.

Thank you so much for everything and for all your prayers. Be sure to tell everyone that I love them and care for them. If you can make it, next week is Logan's homecoming, you should totally go to that. Please tell him hi from me :) thanks!

Things are going smooth and thanks for the sports updates dad. It was good having all those things, sounds like the Redskins are out of luck this year. It's all about the draft now ha ha!!

Well keep up the hard work and I'm praying for you all as usual. Now for my questions:
So what's the news with school? It would be nice to know soon so we can get going on it. Time is flying by. Yes that would be great about the cools stories. Please have Trent send all that stuff, that would be awesome. Glad to hear Mckay got out into the mission field safely. Now if only I had his mailing address so I can send his letter to him that I wrote last week :)

I love you mom and dad and Sophie and Kynlie. Thank you so much and I can't wait to hear from you next week. Please answer my questions, it would be great if you could :) Love you bigger than the universe! xoxo

Love Elder Swainston

PS. That sounds good about the watch. The Elder that had the watch is from England, so that's why ha ha. It's a sweet watch so I totally wouldn't mind having it. Facebook Elder Z's parents about it. Black would be good too if you can't find that one. I know it's there though, thanks :)