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.