4-11-11

Dear Mom,
Thank you for the nice letter. I love hearing your thoughts. I can also always feel your love in your letters. Thank you for the pictures of all the kids, too. It looks like it probably is a little chaotic. I'm sure they will love those memories of times they were together, though. I'm grateful I was able to have close contact with all of our cousins. They are some of my best friends. I agree with you in that I have at least four good examples of good parents in our immediate family, besides both grandparents and everyone else in our family.
Conference was amazing, as always. I feel like there is so much more to the talks than I was actually understanding, but I learned a lot and feel like I have found some things to work on. I actually like Elder Christofferson's talk on chastisement (if I am remembering correctly). He said that we should be looking for correction. I like that way of thinking. I think repentance should be like that, us asking for help to overcome something we don't understand or are having a hard time with. I don't know what my favorite talk would be. I also loved Elder Scott's like dad did. I think dad is a good example of a lot of the things he was talking about. Elder Scott sure loved his wife. I like how he said he will be even more in love after this time they have been seperated. Some of the focuses I saw in conference were the closeness of the second coming and need to prepare and share, the family of course, and caring for the poor. In my mind, I see caring for the poor as similar to sharing the gospel. In sharing the gospel, we teach people how to improve their relationship with heavenly father so that they can follow him for themselves and then take care of other people, but they rely on the faith of others in the beginning. In caring for the poor, we share with them something that we have (time, talents, physical labor, money) and help them learn to take care of themselves so that they can take care of their family and others as well. It's like "one eternal round." Things seem so clear while listening to the prophets.
We're moving into a smaller, but nicer apartment this week. It's closer to our area but still in the city part, so that should be nice. Elder Peterson is amazing. He's doing very well with the language. I'm trying to continue to focus on improving my language as well. It's easy to get laxed with an alright ability. I would describe Elder Peterson in one word with "bubbly." He has a kind lighthearted personality and is a hard worker. Good man. We're working on getting on time and having shorter meetings. It's hard, but I think it will make a big difference. We're also working on opening our mouths more and testifying to people more. I realized a big part of that is just being friendly so that people have an opportunity to talk to us.
We haven't seen Gevorg all week. I'm worried about him. He had grown so much. I hope we don't lose him like this. Ohan isn't doing well either. Davit came to church and seems to be doing well, but he needs to get more into the Book of Mormon. We're working with our other investigators this week as well and we started teaching a family of old investigators. It's hard to tell how things are really going this week, it was a busy week.
I'll try to get a Khorovatz recipe. It's like smoked barbeque over some coals (the best smoke comes from dried grape vines), and it's very tasty. They marinate it not in juice like we do, but in chopped onion, garlic, greens (like parsley and sillantro), thyme, and other things. Maybe just a little vinegar. That's just what I observed, but I'll ask. My favorite Armenian food is the shaurma. I think it's actually a turkish or persian food originally, but they're very good. They cook usually pork and cut it into small pieces and then wrap greens, onion, tomatoe, cucumber, or pickled things with just some mayonaise and ketchup into lavash, which is like a tortilla. I love them. The best I've had are at a place here in Vanadzor and a place in Gyumri. It's like the only fast food here. I'll have to learn how to make them before I go.
Well I must be going. Love you all so much. Take care.
Love,
Elder Bruce Wainwright