It's like laughing in your sleep when nobody understands the scenes....

I almost died of shock, she actually sent a couple of pictures to us!  Yippee!  This week's letter is great to hear how they celebrate Easter in Russia.  Have a great week and enjoy the pictures! ~ Mamma K

This looks like they are in the mission office. 

Sister Leavitt and her companions.

Happy Easter Everyone! So I want to tell you a little bit about how the people in Russia celebrate Easter. First of all they all wake up at like three in the morning to go light their candles from the eternal flame at the Proveslovnic churches. This flame is lit in Jerusalem on Friday, or Saturday, I can't remember which, and then taken to all the different parts of Russia. So they light their flames and then they visit friends and family all day. They make these muffin bread like things that have frosting and sprinkles on the top and they give them to all of their friends, and while you eat them you are supposed to remember the body of christ and his ressurection. Also, instead of saying hello people say, "Christ is risen" and then in return you say, "in Truth his is risen." So that's pretty much it. They have a really deep religious backround here of being proveslovnic, so holidays like Christmas and Easter have a lot of spiritual significance to these people and they all celebrate. I really admire them for the way they celebrate because the holidays that are about chirst are really about Christ and they just celebrate him. I really love it!

So work this week was interesting. Sister Kuhn got food poisoning, so on Wednesday we stayed home. I excersised twice that day because I was so bored. I think in missionary work, there is nothing worse than having to stay home all day. Anyways, so also on Friday I had to get registered again so we spent a lot of time at the police station. But besides these times we got to work hard this week. We met some pretty amazing people this week and I pray that they will open their hearts and accept the message of the restored gospel because this message truly does change our lives.

Our investigators have been hard to reach lately, I don't remember if I told you about Karina being in the hospital, but she has been for two weeks, but she's now home, so hopefully we'll get to teach her again this week. Also our other investigator Elena has been out of town because her daughter is about to have her first baby and she has been helping with that. And then our other investigators either haven't been answering their phones or haven't been home when we've tried to visit them. It's been kind of weird these past couple of weeks, but I hope and pray that our finding will lead to new people to teach and we will be able to find some new priesthood holders that will help strengthen and build our branch here. Well that's pretty much it. I am loving my life as usual and I am so happy all the time when I am doing this work! Really, there is nothing better. I love you all and I'll talk to you later.

Love,

Sister Leavitt