Chandler, you’re not the only one getting engaged. This 5 year old girl here proposed to me and gave me a picture she drew of the two of us getting married. . . . of course I said Yes. I figured if everyone else is doing it. And Jared is getting his license?! What is going on with the world? At least he'll be able to teach me how to drive again when I get home. I will be terrified to drive after watching Ukrainian drivers for two years.
Pavel wanted to come to church on Sunday but never showed up, it was so disappointing. We stopped by his house but he wasn't there, meaning he probably had to work. He called us during Sacrament, but we couldn't get a hold of him afterwards when we called back. The lessons have been going great with him though, and he's becoming good friends with the coolest member in the world, the kid who just served in Chicago. He wanted to come, and I know he didn't just not come. We'll keep working with him though, but we seriously need to find more people to teach.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
April 20, 2009
This last week as I was drifting around with different missionaries, I’m realizing how awesome Elder Sutherland was. He was probably one of the best missionaries in the mission. My new comp is Elder Erisman from North Carolina. I was supposed to have this other comp but they switched them the last second because transfer secrets were getting out. I played sports for the first time Saturday night! I was so happy. We played indoor soccer with all these Ukrainians. I haven't played soccer in 10 years but it was still way fun. I had the luckiest/best shot of my life. I was on a fast break and lobbed the ball barely enough over the goalie and into the goal. All the Ukrainians were like "What?!" and the other missionaries were like "What?!" and I was like "What?!" Ha, it was fun though.
Some crazy stuff happened this week. On Monday, I was on a split with this member who got back from his mission in Chicago to go teach Pavel, and we saw Vova on the way back. Vova had been baptized that Saturday, and confirmed that Sunday. This was the next day, and he was drinking a beer!?! It was so awkward, and he just didn't understand how big of a deal it was. We made him throw it away and we're working with him. But then on Sunday, we had the District Presidency visiting our Sacrament meeting, which is a fairly big deal here. But in the middle of the sacrament prayer, we heard this yelling groan and a person collapse. That same Vova had a seizure and almost died. His face was dark purple by the time they pried his mouth open and got him breathing again. It was way scary and it took a while to get everything settled down again.
Oh, and from now on I’m the fetchin ward pianist?! Mom, WHY did you make me stop taking piano lessons?!! I told you that I would regret it one day and that I wanted to keep playing but NO! You HAD to make me stop. Thanks a million.
Some crazy stuff happened this week. On Monday, I was on a split with this member who got back from his mission in Chicago to go teach Pavel, and we saw Vova on the way back. Vova had been baptized that Saturday, and confirmed that Sunday. This was the next day, and he was drinking a beer!?! It was so awkward, and he just didn't understand how big of a deal it was. We made him throw it away and we're working with him. But then on Sunday, we had the District Presidency visiting our Sacrament meeting, which is a fairly big deal here. But in the middle of the sacrament prayer, we heard this yelling groan and a person collapse. That same Vova had a seizure and almost died. His face was dark purple by the time they pried his mouth open and got him breathing again. It was way scary and it took a while to get everything settled down again.
Oh, and from now on I’m the fetchin ward pianist?! Mom, WHY did you make me stop taking piano lessons?!! I told you that I would regret it one day and that I wanted to keep playing but NO! You HAD to make me stop. Thanks a million.
April 13, 2009
I can't believe Elder Sutherland is gone, this transfer went by way too fast. We said bye to him last night and he flew out this morning, it's crazy. We had a lot of fun together though and did a lot of good work, it's already weird not being with him all the time and just tagging along with the other elders. This will be a great week of sleeping in very undesirable circumstances. Saturday night we were all in Donetsk for conference, and my bed was Elder Sutherland's old, big winter jacket that he had left there (it was the apartment he lived in last transfer), a pillow, and two towels, on a concrete floor. But now we're back in Gorlovka, so my bed was better, aA crappy, broken couch and I used these old curtains that fell down as blankets. Ha, I've waited my whole life for mission experiences like this. Laughing at it is so much more fun than complaining, and it makes the whole experience and lack of sleep a lot better. But conference was awesome. There were so many good talks. It seemed like it went by so much faster than normal, and the speakers didn’t speak for as long as they normally do, I don’t know why. The members watched it in the chapel in Russian, and all the missionaries from Donetsk and Gorlovka watched it in only English in a room upstairs, so that was great.
One of the biggest problems here in Ukraine is that people think there are many different paths to God, and what church you belong to doesn’t make a difference. We had a lesson with this really smart lady who knew her Bible and would be a great member, but she, just like everyone else here, couldn’t understand that. It’s frustrating, How do they think it doesn’t make a difference?!” Last night we went to this old lady’s house as soon as we got back into Gorlovka and blessed it to cast out the evil spirits that were there. We talked with her for a bit and are going back to do service tomorrow, so hopefully something comes from that. And this week, we had more students at our English class than we ever have before. I think it’s because last time me and Elder Sutherland taught, and to finish we played all these games that Elder Sutherland knew, and it was a lot of fun. A few people stayed afterwards and these 2 girls started to talk to me and asked me why I was here. So of course I tried to turn that into a lesson but it didn’t get far until they led into the question if I had a significant other waiting for me at home. They might have just been wondering because some other missionaries do, but I learned from my mistake last time a girl talked to me after English class so I pretty much ended the conversation soon after that. It wasn’t rude or anything like that, but I simply wasn’t in the mood for more extremely awkward handshake/hugs.
We also had a baptism on Saturday. It was this really strange guy who just says random English words and phrases to me then laughs, but they say he’s more normal and serious in lessons when he’s speaking Russian. He always comes to church and English, so he’ll still be a good member and the baptismal service was nice. At the baptism were the missionaries, two return missionaries in our ward (one of which we asked to speak), one member of the branch presidency and his wife because he also spoke, and this inactive lady me and Sutherland ran into on the street and helped carried her bags halfway across the town. It was actually funny, we were walking the complete opposite way and she asked us to help her ‘real quick.’ Ha! A real quick 30 minute walk across town and to the top floor of her apartment building. But it was worth it because it got her to come to the baptism. We wish more members came, but none of them know this guy. He only talks to the missionaries and I think the missionaries should’ve tried to get him to mingle with the members more. It’s hard because he really smells and doesn’t shower, he’s close to homeless – he’s living in a small home with no water. We were joking that it was a good thing he had to be dunked twice. He’s a really nice guy though.
Our lesson with Pavel fell through because he had to work late, but we rescheduled it for tonight, so hopefully it goes well. We’re also setting up with Andre again this week because he was sick. So everything is still good here.
Oh yeah, Easter is this coming Sunday here, and it’s a huge deal. Everyone celebrates it, and as you walk in the street, everyone says this phrase like “Christ was resurrected!” to you, and the reply is like “Truly was resurrected” or something like that. The older missionaries said they get sick of it, but I’m excited, I think it will be cool.
One of the biggest problems here in Ukraine is that people think there are many different paths to God, and what church you belong to doesn’t make a difference. We had a lesson with this really smart lady who knew her Bible and would be a great member, but she, just like everyone else here, couldn’t understand that. It’s frustrating, How do they think it doesn’t make a difference?!” Last night we went to this old lady’s house as soon as we got back into Gorlovka and blessed it to cast out the evil spirits that were there. We talked with her for a bit and are going back to do service tomorrow, so hopefully something comes from that. And this week, we had more students at our English class than we ever have before. I think it’s because last time me and Elder Sutherland taught, and to finish we played all these games that Elder Sutherland knew, and it was a lot of fun. A few people stayed afterwards and these 2 girls started to talk to me and asked me why I was here. So of course I tried to turn that into a lesson but it didn’t get far until they led into the question if I had a significant other waiting for me at home. They might have just been wondering because some other missionaries do, but I learned from my mistake last time a girl talked to me after English class so I pretty much ended the conversation soon after that. It wasn’t rude or anything like that, but I simply wasn’t in the mood for more extremely awkward handshake/hugs.
We also had a baptism on Saturday. It was this really strange guy who just says random English words and phrases to me then laughs, but they say he’s more normal and serious in lessons when he’s speaking Russian. He always comes to church and English, so he’ll still be a good member and the baptismal service was nice. At the baptism were the missionaries, two return missionaries in our ward (one of which we asked to speak), one member of the branch presidency and his wife because he also spoke, and this inactive lady me and Sutherland ran into on the street and helped carried her bags halfway across the town. It was actually funny, we were walking the complete opposite way and she asked us to help her ‘real quick.’ Ha! A real quick 30 minute walk across town and to the top floor of her apartment building. But it was worth it because it got her to come to the baptism. We wish more members came, but none of them know this guy. He only talks to the missionaries and I think the missionaries should’ve tried to get him to mingle with the members more. It’s hard because he really smells and doesn’t shower, he’s close to homeless – he’s living in a small home with no water. We were joking that it was a good thing he had to be dunked twice. He’s a really nice guy though.
Our lesson with Pavel fell through because he had to work late, but we rescheduled it for tonight, so hopefully it goes well. We’re also setting up with Andre again this week because he was sick. So everything is still good here.
Oh yeah, Easter is this coming Sunday here, and it’s a huge deal. Everyone celebrates it, and as you walk in the street, everyone says this phrase like “Christ was resurrected!” to you, and the reply is like “Truly was resurrected” or something like that. The older missionaries said they get sick of it, but I’m excited, I think it will be cool.
April 6, 2009
This week was pretty good. On Tuesday we went on splits with the AP’s, so that was fun. We’ve been trying to meet up with this contact from the elders before us for a month, and we finally did. It was a very interesting conversation, to say the least. He converted to Muslim, and he doesn’t believe in faith. He needs evidence to believe, but when I told him that the Book of Mormon is evidence, he told me it wasn’t and that the letters were small. . . . . hhmmm. . . . can’t argue that, just good logic. How can it be evidence with small letters? Man, I don’t know what I was thinking. Whatever, he just wanted to talk about religion, but wouldn’t really listen to anything we said, so we’re not meeting with him again. I also don’t know what we’re going to do with Nikolai, the kid who supposedly read the Book of Mormon. We talk to him every time we go to his store, but we can’t teach him there. He works all day, every day, and we can never set up an appointment, so we’ll see. We’re still going to teach English at the college here once or twice a week, the teachers love to have natives come (and it’s basically like a free sub because they just leave) and the students seem to enjoy it to. I’ve pretty much been teaching all the lessons because they’ve been about sports and the Olympics, which isn’t really difficult to talk about. Sasha, the guy with no legs who we meet with every week that Elder Sutherland and his trainer baptized, is finally quitting smoking again. After a meeting with the Branch President, we took all his cigarettes, so that was really exciting. And we also had another good lesson with the girl Sasha, who’s the eternal investigator. We had a really good lesson with the couple we tracted into late at night, but the wife wasn't there for most of it. The husband is really interested though, he even researched about our church on the internet before our appointment. So he had some interesting questions about a few things, and of course Mountain Meadows Massacre had to be one of them. Luckily, we didn't dwell on that too long and he was very receptive throughout the lesson. His wife came in and was kind of annoying, but he was like defending us at times and was also getting irritated at some of the questions she asked, but it went well and we're excited to meet with them again.
And now for my man Pavel, which in English is Paul. It’s the apostle Pavel in Russian, not Paul. We met with him twice this week. We were planning on watching the Restoration movie with him, but unfortunately we had to meet with him outside his door both times. But here’s a funny story you might like. So this Sunday was normal Fast Sunday, because we didn’t have conference. As a companionship, we were fasting for Sasha to have the desire to be baptized, and for Pavel’s wife and monster-in-law’s hearts to be softened towards us and our message. Remember that 2nd part. So we had a lesson with Pavel last night, which we went to at 6:30, right after we broke our fast. As soon as we knock, we hear his bobyshka (grandma) start yelling and he just yells back at her to get off his back. He came outside, kinda laughing, but we just started to talk to him. Then his bobyshka locked the door, so he punched it and told her to open it up. She did, and started to yell at us. Pavel was shoving her back inside and tried to shut the door, but Elder Sutherland said that we could talk if she wanted. Yea, ha ha, bad idea. SHE WENT OFF! And she did not stop, she didn’t even give us a chance to say anything. We even had this member who just got back from his mission in Chicago with us, but she was just yelling and accusing us of tearing her family apart. I was trying as hard as I could to hold in my laugh the entire time, but I couldn’t hold in my smile too; it was too funny seeing a bobyshka go off like this. Then, the golden moment of the conversation, was when Elder Sutherland asked what her name was, and in response, she dropped the WORST Russian swear word on him. A BOBYSHKA! Ha, I didn’t know what the word was, well, now I do, but just seeing my comp’s face when she said it to him was priceless. The whole experience was unforgettable, straight out of a movie about America’s perception of old Russian people. And afterwards, we somehow managed to teach a good 2nd lesson and answered all of Pavel’s questions about Alma 40-42. He’s a stud, but it would be so much better if his bobyshka and wife weren’t so anti.
And now for my man Pavel, which in English is Paul. It’s the apostle Pavel in Russian, not Paul. We met with him twice this week. We were planning on watching the Restoration movie with him, but unfortunately we had to meet with him outside his door both times. But here’s a funny story you might like. So this Sunday was normal Fast Sunday, because we didn’t have conference. As a companionship, we were fasting for Sasha to have the desire to be baptized, and for Pavel’s wife and monster-in-law’s hearts to be softened towards us and our message. Remember that 2nd part. So we had a lesson with Pavel last night, which we went to at 6:30, right after we broke our fast. As soon as we knock, we hear his bobyshka (grandma) start yelling and he just yells back at her to get off his back. He came outside, kinda laughing, but we just started to talk to him. Then his bobyshka locked the door, so he punched it and told her to open it up. She did, and started to yell at us. Pavel was shoving her back inside and tried to shut the door, but Elder Sutherland said that we could talk if she wanted. Yea, ha ha, bad idea. SHE WENT OFF! And she did not stop, she didn’t even give us a chance to say anything. We even had this member who just got back from his mission in Chicago with us, but she was just yelling and accusing us of tearing her family apart. I was trying as hard as I could to hold in my laugh the entire time, but I couldn’t hold in my smile too; it was too funny seeing a bobyshka go off like this. Then, the golden moment of the conversation, was when Elder Sutherland asked what her name was, and in response, she dropped the WORST Russian swear word on him. A BOBYSHKA! Ha, I didn’t know what the word was, well, now I do, but just seeing my comp’s face when she said it to him was priceless. The whole experience was unforgettable, straight out of a movie about America’s perception of old Russian people. And afterwards, we somehow managed to teach a good 2nd lesson and answered all of Pavel’s questions about Alma 40-42. He’s a stud, but it would be so much better if his bobyshka and wife weren’t so anti.
March 29, 2009
My address, I don't know how it would be in English, but something like Nestereva 125, apartment 21 or 27, I can't remember. It looks just like every other apartment building though. The weather has been crazy. Just when the sun starts to dry everything up, it snows/sleets/rains for 2 days and makes everything muddy again. Then it'll be really foggy and cloud one minute, then sunny the next, and rainy or snowy after that.
My favorite pants, the gray ones, already ripped by the pocket. So this morning, I performed my first ghetto, missionary sewing job and found out that I greatly dislike sewing! But this week has been great, and it went by so fast. My hopes for Pavel just keep going up. I want to say that he's one of the elite, but I'm afraid that when I do, he'll drop us and break our hearts. We had another great lesson with him, and he read all the Joseph Smith pamphlet like we asked him to. He listens intently, and asks good, sincere questions about what he reads and what we teach him. The problem is his mother-in-law. She's this old, hard-core Provaslavnian grandma and she hates us. He doesn't care though, because he's awesome, but I think she is the only reason his wife isn't listening to us also. He just has such a great spirit and I love teaching him. Provoslavnian is the Roman/Ukranian Catholic church that everyone belongs to here. We've gone into a few churches, they're interesting. You buy candles and light them for your sins, and when you confess to the priest, he tells you how many candles you need to buy.
We have this other investigator, Svetlana, who I want to drop so fast. She's not interested in the gospel at all. I think she just wants friends. She's the one whose arm doesn't work because the doctor made a mistake on her spine surgery. She is about 40, very, very not attractive, lives with her mom, and is the perfect lady for Elder Sutherland. Ha, I haven't stopped making fun of him for it, because she has a huge crush on him. She kept getting closer and closer to him on the couch. I was on his other side. Then she like kinda tried to put her arm around him, it was weird. She would stare at his lips when he read scriptures and just smile at him, it felt so uncomfortable. . . . for him. I thought it was hilarious! Then, she asked him to dance for her. But not just to dance, to dance REALLY FAST for him. I'm still laughing just telling you about it, it was so funny. So yea, we got out of there fast. But we have a lesson set up tonight with the couple we tracted into late at night, so hopefully that goes well. And we finally have our first lesson with Nikolai on Wednesday, so that should be great. We have a few more promising contacts, one lady especially, that we're excited to meet with. But that's about it for now.
My favorite pants, the gray ones, already ripped by the pocket. So this morning, I performed my first ghetto, missionary sewing job and found out that I greatly dislike sewing! But this week has been great, and it went by so fast. My hopes for Pavel just keep going up. I want to say that he's one of the elite, but I'm afraid that when I do, he'll drop us and break our hearts. We had another great lesson with him, and he read all the Joseph Smith pamphlet like we asked him to. He listens intently, and asks good, sincere questions about what he reads and what we teach him. The problem is his mother-in-law. She's this old, hard-core Provaslavnian grandma and she hates us. He doesn't care though, because he's awesome, but I think she is the only reason his wife isn't listening to us also. He just has such a great spirit and I love teaching him. Provoslavnian is the Roman/Ukranian Catholic church that everyone belongs to here. We've gone into a few churches, they're interesting. You buy candles and light them for your sins, and when you confess to the priest, he tells you how many candles you need to buy.
We have this other investigator, Svetlana, who I want to drop so fast. She's not interested in the gospel at all. I think she just wants friends. She's the one whose arm doesn't work because the doctor made a mistake on her spine surgery. She is about 40, very, very not attractive, lives with her mom, and is the perfect lady for Elder Sutherland. Ha, I haven't stopped making fun of him for it, because she has a huge crush on him. She kept getting closer and closer to him on the couch. I was on his other side. Then she like kinda tried to put her arm around him, it was weird. She would stare at his lips when he read scriptures and just smile at him, it felt so uncomfortable. . . . for him. I thought it was hilarious! Then, she asked him to dance for her. But not just to dance, to dance REALLY FAST for him. I'm still laughing just telling you about it, it was so funny. So yea, we got out of there fast. But we have a lesson set up tonight with the couple we tracted into late at night, so hopefully that goes well. And we finally have our first lesson with Nikolai on Wednesday, so that should be great. We have a few more promising contacts, one lady especially, that we're excited to meet with. But that's about it for now.
March 22, 2009
On Wednesday we had a lesson and my first meal with a member family, the Agarkov's. They're rich to Ukranian standards, and the food was good. They were really cool. Thursday was an interesting day. After studies we went and did some service cleaning up around the church. It turned out to be a good, fun service project. Then we had a lesson with this college girl who was baptized about a month ago and her 2 roommates. We brought this really cool member Deema, I don't know how to spell it in English, who got back from his mission in Kiev a few weeks ago. When we got there, we started talking to them but then one by one more girls started to come into their room and talk. That would've been great but it just turned into a kinda 'hang out.' We knew that wasn’t good, but luckily we had English class as an excuse to get out of there. The girls we were going to teach were coming to English so we asked if we could teach them after and they said yes. But at the end of English class, Elder Sutherland had a great idea and he invited the rest of the class to stick around for the lesson if they wanted. They all did and we taught a really good, simple 3rd lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the steps God gave us to help us get to Heaven. There was a great Spirit there and they were very receptive. We're teaching two of those girls now too. Afterwards this other girl from our class that I had never seen before starting talking to me- they all do this to practice their English. And then pretty much the whole class walked back home together, well almost to home, because most everyone lives in the same general area. This same girl started walking by me and wanted to talk. So I asked her to tell me about the history of Ukraine, it's relationship with Russia, and the people who are on their money. It was really interesting but then it came time for me and my comp to walk a different way than the rest of the group back home. We said we had to go and when we did, that same girl made this sad face and said "Ohhh" with a sigh as she started to come towards me. I knew what that meant so I hurried and stuck out my hand. Yea, that's when it started to get weird. She was pretty determined though because she shook my hand then continued to go for the hug. I honestly had no idea what to do, and you could tell that from the look on my face, which Deema saw as he was also wide-eyed and trying to hold in a laugh. I just froze, hands at my sides and didn't move as she gave me the MOST AWKARD side-hug-thing in my life. I don't even know what it was. She just tried to hug me and I did not move. My comp thought it was hilarious and laughed the entire way home. I told him that I almost gave her a Heisman and took off running. I just wasn't expecting it, but now I'll be more prepared if that ever happens again.
Anyways, the next day we visited some inactives, but none of them wanted us there. We had an appointment with an inactive family that has 2 priest age boys! It stunk, because they weren't interested at all. But we found this one guy, Pavel, tracting and I'm so excited for him. His 22 and really, sincerely interested, but his wife is against it. We're still meeting with him though. We also had a great lesson with this 22 yr old girl Sasha who's been investigating for 3 years and we feel like we can commit her to baptism. We still need to meet with this guy Nikolai who read the whole Book of Mormon in 3 days while working full time, so obviously he has a lot of potential. But this other investigator, Lena, broke our hearts this week. We had a good lesson with here, but I wasn't really a part of it because I didn't speak fast enough for her. She wasn't very patient, but still nice. Then the next days she called and said all this stuff about how the Book of Mormon is for little boys and not holy at all. I'm guessing she didn't really read it. But it made it all the more awkward when we saw her on the street the next day.
But I have a really cool story, well to me it's really cool. One of the lessons with an inactive was a lot shorter than we thought it'd be so we finished at 8 pm. It was cold and wet and we did one stairwell and no one listened, most told us to go to bed. We finished that at 8:30 and were supposed to be home at 9. We were 5-10 minutes from home and even though everyone told us to go home to bed we knew we should work a few more minutes. As we went to the next apartment building, I was just praying so hard that God would let someone listen to us. I wanted to use this as an example of why we should work until 9. Our 2nd door was a couple that let us in and we talked to them for 20 minutes! It was so cool! I hope something happens with them. But I am positive that God did that for me and my comp, and I was so grateful for it. I'm realizing how much more sensitive to the Spirit you are as a missionary, and how much the Lord helps us every day. It's good for me to see that, makes me more humble and grateful.
Anyways, the next day we visited some inactives, but none of them wanted us there. We had an appointment with an inactive family that has 2 priest age boys! It stunk, because they weren't interested at all. But we found this one guy, Pavel, tracting and I'm so excited for him. His 22 and really, sincerely interested, but his wife is against it. We're still meeting with him though. We also had a great lesson with this 22 yr old girl Sasha who's been investigating for 3 years and we feel like we can commit her to baptism. We still need to meet with this guy Nikolai who read the whole Book of Mormon in 3 days while working full time, so obviously he has a lot of potential. But this other investigator, Lena, broke our hearts this week. We had a good lesson with here, but I wasn't really a part of it because I didn't speak fast enough for her. She wasn't very patient, but still nice. Then the next days she called and said all this stuff about how the Book of Mormon is for little boys and not holy at all. I'm guessing she didn't really read it. But it made it all the more awkward when we saw her on the street the next day.
But I have a really cool story, well to me it's really cool. One of the lessons with an inactive was a lot shorter than we thought it'd be so we finished at 8 pm. It was cold and wet and we did one stairwell and no one listened, most told us to go to bed. We finished that at 8:30 and were supposed to be home at 9. We were 5-10 minutes from home and even though everyone told us to go home to bed we knew we should work a few more minutes. As we went to the next apartment building, I was just praying so hard that God would let someone listen to us. I wanted to use this as an example of why we should work until 9. Our 2nd door was a couple that let us in and we talked to them for 20 minutes! It was so cool! I hope something happens with them. But I am positive that God did that for me and my comp, and I was so grateful for it. I'm realizing how much more sensitive to the Spirit you are as a missionary, and how much the Lord helps us every day. It's good for me to see that, makes me more humble and grateful.
March 16, 2009
(There are 2 Gorlovka, so we asked Dallin which one he was in. This is was his answer.)
I would Google map the one that has a blackish, greenish cloud of pollution over it. No one in Ukraine knows their address, they just explain where they live and I like it like that. The people here are great though. The missionaries play a huge role in the branch, so we get to know all the members really well. We don’t eat at members’ houses very often, but whenever we teach lessons people always give us some fruit tea and cookies or cake. The food here is so good though, the juice is amazing, yogurt and fruit are awesome.
We teach English on Tuesday nights, and then we teach a Spiritual English class on Thursday nights. We basically just teach a lesson or about a principle in English for that, it’s really cool
Everyone says the work is so difficult here, but I have yet to see that side of it. People are interested and listen to us, but we are still turned down 1000 times a day. It’s what I expected missionary work to be, and I don’t think missionary work is easy anywhere. Although it does make it more difficult when it’s freezing cold, raining, and mud EVERYWHERE! I got here just as the snow was melting, perfect timing- the start of what the missionaries call “mud season.” Our shoes and pants cuffs get duked with mud all day long. And no Ukrainian wears shoes inside, so you tie your shoes loose enough to slide them on and off. My heels aren’t used to that so they are all can’t up right now, it’s kinda weird actually. So it hurts to walk but it’s all good, they’ll build up at calluses soon. I’m loving all of it though. It’s hard to wake up and exercise and get going, because it’s cold, but once we get past that every morning and get to work, I love it. I love everything here. The mud, the smells, still getting used to the cigarette smoke, but the food and just everything here. Ukraine is perfect for me. Oh, that reminds me, whenever we come back here, I can’t wait to take you into the apartment stairwells. I bet it was like this for Brady too, but every time we walk into one, the smell never ceases to amaze me. Every stairwell has its open special odor that is a million times worse than anything I’ve ever smelled in Ukraine, it’s great. When that becomes normal to me, that’s when I’ll know I’m a Ukrainian.
But Russian is really hard. It is. I want to understand everything so badly, and obviously I’m improving, just not as fast as I would like. I’m still working hard, and everyday remembering that I need to rely on the Lord more; because from the looks of things, I have no hope on my own. Such as at District Conference yesterday, it’s like Stake Conference. It was impossible to keep up with and understand the speakers. The meeting was really cool though. We met in this chapel in Donetsk that is the nicest church building in all of Eastern Europe. No one knows how, but our mission got all the nicest church buildings. Our chapel is one of the nicest buildings in Gorlovka. It was so cool to see so many members there. There was a great Spirit. And they are sending off 4 missionaries this week, which is amazing, so they all spoke. The choir was great, and it was a neat experience. We met with one of our investigators that night and she’s seems solid. I see so much potential here in Gorlovka, I hope I stay when my trainer goes home. We haven’t met with any of our investigators more than once, but they seem great. I just hope so badly that they will follow up on their commitments. That’s where it becomes difficult.
I would Google map the one that has a blackish, greenish cloud of pollution over it. No one in Ukraine knows their address, they just explain where they live and I like it like that. The people here are great though. The missionaries play a huge role in the branch, so we get to know all the members really well. We don’t eat at members’ houses very often, but whenever we teach lessons people always give us some fruit tea and cookies or cake. The food here is so good though, the juice is amazing, yogurt and fruit are awesome.
We teach English on Tuesday nights, and then we teach a Spiritual English class on Thursday nights. We basically just teach a lesson or about a principle in English for that, it’s really cool
Everyone says the work is so difficult here, but I have yet to see that side of it. People are interested and listen to us, but we are still turned down 1000 times a day. It’s what I expected missionary work to be, and I don’t think missionary work is easy anywhere. Although it does make it more difficult when it’s freezing cold, raining, and mud EVERYWHERE! I got here just as the snow was melting, perfect timing- the start of what the missionaries call “mud season.” Our shoes and pants cuffs get duked with mud all day long. And no Ukrainian wears shoes inside, so you tie your shoes loose enough to slide them on and off. My heels aren’t used to that so they are all can’t up right now, it’s kinda weird actually. So it hurts to walk but it’s all good, they’ll build up at calluses soon. I’m loving all of it though. It’s hard to wake up and exercise and get going, because it’s cold, but once we get past that every morning and get to work, I love it. I love everything here. The mud, the smells, still getting used to the cigarette smoke, but the food and just everything here. Ukraine is perfect for me. Oh, that reminds me, whenever we come back here, I can’t wait to take you into the apartment stairwells. I bet it was like this for Brady too, but every time we walk into one, the smell never ceases to amaze me. Every stairwell has its open special odor that is a million times worse than anything I’ve ever smelled in Ukraine, it’s great. When that becomes normal to me, that’s when I’ll know I’m a Ukrainian.
But Russian is really hard. It is. I want to understand everything so badly, and obviously I’m improving, just not as fast as I would like. I’m still working hard, and everyday remembering that I need to rely on the Lord more; because from the looks of things, I have no hope on my own. Such as at District Conference yesterday, it’s like Stake Conference. It was impossible to keep up with and understand the speakers. The meeting was really cool though. We met in this chapel in Donetsk that is the nicest church building in all of Eastern Europe. No one knows how, but our mission got all the nicest church buildings. Our chapel is one of the nicest buildings in Gorlovka. It was so cool to see so many members there. There was a great Spirit. And they are sending off 4 missionaries this week, which is amazing, so they all spoke. The choir was great, and it was a neat experience. We met with one of our investigators that night and she’s seems solid. I see so much potential here in Gorlovka, I hope I stay when my trainer goes home. We haven’t met with any of our investigators more than once, but they seem great. I just hope so badly that they will follow up on their commitments. That’s where it becomes difficult.
March 9, 2009
The first few days here we were in Donetsk, we stayed at the Office elders apartment. During the day we would be at the President's apartment with the A.P.'s. We had a lot of orientation stuff and talked about the mission. Pres and Sis Fry are awesome. It was alot of fun getting to know them. And the Assistants were way cool. Anyways, now we are in the beautiful, majestic city of Gorlovka. It's a really dirty city, but I heard that's how most the cities in our mission are, and there's nothing really here except people, so it's perfect for missionary work. Church was a really cool, new experience. There were about 30 people there, including the 4 missionaries. There are 2 branches in Gorlovka, 4 missionaries serve in ours, and 2 serve in the other, so 3 companionships cover the city. But in our branch, and I think the other branch has similar numbers, there are around 25 active members of about 175! Yea, I know, I couldn't believe it when I heard that either. We're really going to have to work hard to change that. The old missionaries left us 1 investigator, but they didn't put any info in the area book, so we're still waiting to get all their information. My comp is really cool, and everyone says he's a really good missionary so it will be good to work with him. We spent the first 6 hours of our first day spring cleaning our ENTIRE apartment, and I mean ALL of it. We were cleaning out like 10 years worth of missionaries junk, but it looks way better now. Our first night here, we had a Branch party because it was Women's Day here. It consisted of the Branch president and his active counselor giving spiritual thoughts and reciting poems about women, the missionaries singing hymns in English and Russian, and this one kid playing songs on the guitar.
This one guy, Andre, came who heard about it. We talked to him for a while, meaning my comp and I just nodded a lot. No, I’m kidding, I talked to him for a little bit, I can get by if they use hand gestures. . . usually. He came back the nest day for church and stayed for all 3 hours, but he went to the other branch, but we were still so happy. I guess his family left him and he lost his job so he decided he needed to turn to God. Hey, at least this economy is humbling somebody. And we're also working with this guy Sasha. This was also my trainers first area in the mission when he was a greeny, and they baptized Sasha. He's still really active, he spoke on Sunday, but he's started smoking again. So we're working with him on that and we taught him a lesson after church. He doesn't have legs so we take him back to his house after church, and he's cool. I'm doing good though. I’m adjusting surprisingly well to the time change and food. And its way less dangerous here than what I heard and thought. Hardly any of the missionaries here have even been robbed. My area hasn't seen a baptism in a long time. My trainer said he doesn't think it's been since he was a greeny here, but we're going to work as hard as possible to change that
This one guy, Andre, came who heard about it. We talked to him for a while, meaning my comp and I just nodded a lot. No, I’m kidding, I talked to him for a little bit, I can get by if they use hand gestures. . . usually. He came back the nest day for church and stayed for all 3 hours, but he went to the other branch, but we were still so happy. I guess his family left him and he lost his job so he decided he needed to turn to God. Hey, at least this economy is humbling somebody. And we're also working with this guy Sasha. This was also my trainers first area in the mission when he was a greeny, and they baptized Sasha. He's still really active, he spoke on Sunday, but he's started smoking again. So we're working with him on that and we taught him a lesson after church. He doesn't have legs so we take him back to his house after church, and he's cool. I'm doing good though. I’m adjusting surprisingly well to the time change and food. And its way less dangerous here than what I heard and thought. Hardly any of the missionaries here have even been robbed. My area hasn't seen a baptism in a long time. My trainer said he doesn't think it's been since he was a greeny here, but we're going to work as hard as possible to change that
March 4, 2009
I'm in Ukraine! It still feels surreal, I can't believe I'm finally here. I've never been more excited for anything in my life. I'm just pulling a 48 hour day with a few naps on the planes throughout the day so I can get on their schedule. I'm a little groggy, but I feel really good for the most part. One of the Armenian sisters got really sick on the plane, so I gave my first Russian blessing. Yea, I pretty much read the notes we took on it, but it was cool. Bro Anderson, if you get this, it's a good thing you gave us those examples when we were taking notes, because that was pretty much the blessing. And, the German stewardess lady kept yelling at us that we couldn't clog the exit in the back, so it was a little weird and difficult to give the blessing. Right then it seemed like one of those bad missionary movies. But we had this awesome Couple missionary there and he kept shooing her away. When we landed in Donetsk, we met President Fry and his wife, they're awesome, and the assistants. But yea, Donetsk has it's own. . . scent. It does. There is this odor that I'm going to love getting used to. The older missionaries were joking around, telling us to soak in that fresh Donetsk air. We meet our companions tomorrow, I can't wait for that, I hope he’s a good one. I'm sure he will be. We are in the office with the office missionaries, and we're eating dinner with the Fry's in a little bit. This really is the coolest thing in the world, it's still hard to believe I’m finally here.
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