Monday, June 29, 2009

June 29 - They think he's Ukrainian

We are finally meeting with Katya again tonight. She's been working non-stop ever since she moved out of her parents’ house. I was talking to her on the phone last night to set up the lesson and she said she'd been reading the Book of Mormon and writing down questions. She just sounded so happy and said that it was true. I've rarely been as excited for a lesson as this one, probably not since Pavel. I was saying the other day how we have a few investigators with a lot of potential that are just teetering, they can either go one way or the other. We met with Andre last night and he said he's just happier when he's with us. We talked about the future, his plan and what he wants to do. It was really good to talk about all that and just to meet with him again. It's still hard to meet with Tatyana, but she's pretty good at coming to church. We're still working with Kereal, trying to meet with Vuta, and a few others. We got to go to another city and visit this member family who was amazing. And they had this young baby that was about the same age as Alina, so that made me a little home-sick, but the family was great. And we made some delicious chocolate chip cookies for district meeting. It's really big news that Michael Jackson died, that was really random to here. Andre said four Ukranians committed suicide because of it, which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Also, I don't know why eeryone here knows about Obama killing a fly during an interview.

Oh, yesterday, I had a hilarious conversation with this guy. I was just getting to know him and I told him my name and that I was from America. He told me to continue about America in an interrogating manner and I said I was from Vegas and talked about it. Then he started to kinda yell, or talk firmly to me, to stop lying and using this fake accent. He said my face doesn't lie and he knows I'm from around here. He said like Ukranian/Russian/Baltic area. That's the first time I've ever heard that. Everyone says I look so American. And earlier I told him I'd been in Ukraine for about 4 months and he's like, Oh? And you already speak Russian? I said I studied a few months before that and he was like Oh, and you already speak and understand everything? I said I definitely do not, I'm American, this is a real accent, and I was laughing the whole time. He said again that my face doesn’t lie, and that he was from new York, and then went off on all this stuff. I was cracking up and I didn't understand what he was saying, so I told him that and he was like "You understand me perfectly!" I was laughing so hard because he thought he was this really smart guy busting some Russian punk trying to use an American accent and making up a story.

June 22 - Six months out

Our investigators are still doing great. Four came to church yesterday, which is a pretty big deal here. We were way excited about it. Also this strange guy we had talked to on the street came to church a little early to talk to us, but he didn't stay for the meeting. He was strange and thought we had connections with Obama, everyone here thinks we're friends with the President. We found out later, after he left, that one member actually works for him. He's like a millionaire and one of the richest guys in the city. So, we decided we'd pay him a visit. His house is huge. Well, it's way smaller than our house, but it's nice and huge for Ukraine.
We didn't meet with Tatyana during the week because she was sick, but she came to church yesterday. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she committed to live the law of chastity and pay tithing. It was a great lesson and she's still on track to be baptized on July 4. She's doing her reading in the Book of Mormon and has already read like four Liahona's. Tomorrow we're teaching her Lesson 3 with the Word of Wisdom, so hopefully that'll be good too.
Tonight we have a family night with Kereal, Anya, and their grandparents again. He talked to his parents and we think he got permission to get baptized. We'll find out tonight if he will be on the 4th too, that would be so great. We met twice with this teacher whose husband of 33 years passed away 6 months ago, and she's been having a hard time. She was a member referral and she needs the church in her life. She read the proclamation to the Family, the Living Christ, proclamation to the world, and some scriptures. She said she 100% agrees with everything, but now that school's out she just wants to take a break from life and go down to the sea for a little bit. She wants to meet when she gets back, and I think she'll join the church then. She's a really nice lady and I know it would help her a lot. Vuta also came to church for the first time yesterday, but she could only stay for Sacrament. Our lesson with her on Friday was very eventful. We were teaching her Lesson 3 in the park and all was going well, until in the middle of the lesson, this lady asked to sit down by us because she wanted to sit in the shade. It was weird but we couldn't really say no. She started to ask us questions and be annoying. She moved to the bench opposite of us, right next to our investigator, so she could talk more. We told her we were teaching, so she stopped, but interrupted again to disagree with something we said, right when we started teaching again. She knew exactly what she was doing trying to ruin our lesson like that. We looked way better in front of our investigator than she did, because we refrained from arguing. We had to ask her to leave, but she wouldn't so we moved to a new spot. Other than that, the lesson was good. Everything is still great. Me and Elder Thompson are best friends and just like serving together. We had a party to celebrate my 6th month mark. We made a good dinner with the district and I totally failed in burning a tie.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Gorlovka Part 4

Going to Gorlovka Part 3

Going to Gorlovka-Part 2

Going to Gorlovka


June 15 - We have a baptismal date!

The work is still going great. None of the investigators we've been working with came to church yesterday, but this other guy came for the 1st time, and he was pretty early so we taught him a lesson before it started. Also, this lady we had contacted and given a Book of Mormon to on the street came to church. They both stayed for all 3 hours, and then we had a lesson with the lady afterwards. She loved church and is a really nice lady. She is searching for her purpose in life. She said her purpose used to be her children, but now they're all grown and she doesn't know what it is. She loved and accepted everything we taught her, and she said she wanted to be baptized. So we put her on date! I always thought that it would be so weird to put someone on date during the first lesson, but it wasn't. It just felt right, and she accepted it. It was so cool, we meeting with her again on Tuesday. We'll going to try to meet 3 times a week. Her name is Tatteeyana, I guess that's how it sounds. We're really excited, and it gives her a realistic goal to work for, which I think helps investigators a lot. That was the highlight of the week

We had zone conference on Wednesday, where we had to wake up at 4:30 in the morning and got home after 10. It's like a 4+ hour drive into Donetsk on a bus. Zone conference was really good though, we had a discussion about the weaknesses of the mission and how we can improve, that's usually what President talks about, though. The church patriarch was there too giving patriarchal blessings to the people, so he talked to us for a little bit after he finished those. He was a really smart guy who knows like 5 languages and knows the gospel really well. That's about it though, make sure Dad keeps working everyday so everyone else can keep enjoying a fun summer.

June 8, 2009 - We have investigators!

Me and Elder Thompson have an awesome companionship. We both like to be obedient and work really hard, but enjoy ourselves while we do it. Here's a little description of each person and what's going on.

Katya- We've taught her the 1st 3 lessons, and she has a ton of potential. The Spirit is so strong when we teach her. During our last lesson, I testified to her that what she was feeling was the Holy Ghost, testifying to her that what we were teaching is true. And while I did that, I spoke better Russian than I'm capable of, too fast and with too few mistakes for me to do. It was an amazing experience. She moved out of her parent’s house, which will be a really good thing if the friend she moved in with isn't a boy. She just needs to keep reading and praying, and come to church again.


Kereal- the one who reminds me of Jared. He's just a cool, nice young kid. Anya and his grandparents are members but his parents aren't, and we don't think they are anti though. We just want him to be a missionary one day. He's had the first three lessons, and is ready to be baptized.


Vuta- She is very accepting and listens intently when we teach her, but I don't know how strong her interest is. She didn't do her reading when we followed up and taught her the 2nd lesson, but we emphasized the importance of reading and praying alot when we taught her. We'll find out how comitted she is when we teach her lesson 3.


Andre- We finally met with him last night, and he's still awesome, but he just needs to commit. He's still working on quitting smoking and waiting to get married. He needs to quit waiting and just do it. We want to help him more and get over smoking, but he's always working and never has time to meet with us. Last night was a good start to that though, so hopefully it keeps going that way.


Mike- We teach him in English because that's why he started talking to the missionaries, and he speaks English almost fluently. We talked to him in a park one day for about an hour about the Book of Mormon, and he had some of the best questions I had ever heard. He's a smart, nice guy who could be a great priesthood holder. We really want to get him to church next week, but he's already reading the Book of Mormon.


That's about it for now, It's getting way hot. This week is supposed to get into the low 90's with 100% humidity. I like riding on hot busses that smell like sweaty Ukranian men in my church clothes. And the people here think it makes you sick if you drink cold water when it's hot out, so they give you nasty, warm, gas water or hot tea when you visit. It's great. Well, hope all is safe and well, we're loving life here.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

We got videos and pictures! There are some below and we'll be adding more everyday!

6-1-09 - Cooking and Teaching

С Днём Рожденья (Happy Birthday) Бабушка Питерсэн (Grandma Peterson)!!! I told all the missionaries that you're turning 31 today and still getting younger. And Happy Anniversary to you both as well, sounds like a weekend-long party at the Peterson household. So I write you last week knowing that I was going to be the only one staying in Lugansk. But as it got closer to transfer meeting, more rumors/secrets start to leak out. And I was hearing more and more that SISTERS were coming to Lugansk (I say that with love and excitement, not fear and frustration). It's just that having sisters in Lugansk means we would have to do everything with them and we'd have to have 4 elders so there's not a Double-Date District meeting every week. And sisters always get the best apartments so I was thinking I'd have to move all my stuff out of Center, which is the perfect location for an apartment, and leave my area. All that came true except for the last part. I'm currently in a 4-some. My comp is way cool and we're already way good friends. We both like to work as hard as possible and enjoy ourselves while we do it. And we both love sports. We thought it was going to stink, because we have 2 beds, a couch, and 1 closet. That's not that bad, because we just got another mattress, But mainly not having a oven isn't very cool. We just have 2 hot plates and the grill thing I just bought. We're making it work though, and let's be honest, it's alot of fun. I actually really like it because 4-some's are great if you all stay working hard and do everything you're supposed to. Obviously breakfast and dinner take longer for 4 people, especially when you only have 2 hot plates, but other than that it looks like we're going to stay focused and diligent. Andre still works all the time and is really hard to meet with, but our 2 new investigators have a ton of potential. There's the Katya girl I told you about and this older lady, 50ish maybe, that I contacted on the street named Vuta (Victoria). We had a lesson set up with Vuta, in the park but it was one of the weird Ukranian weather days where it pours rain for 5-20 minutes, then is sunny and warm for 5-20 minutes. But God stopped the rain long enough to have a good lesson where she listened intently and was really interested. Then at the very end of the lesson it started to pour again. Musiurenko was like 'Yea! Testimony for her!" in his thick Ukranian accent. It was funny. We're meeting with her tomorrow again, so we're really excited about that.

Our 2nd lesson with Katya wasn't under the most desirable conditions, she was feeling sick and had a bad stomach ache, and her member friend Anya felt really sick and had bad allergies. But they both still came! So that was great in itself, and the lesson went really well. She also listens intently and took notes, copying down the whole Plan of Salvation. Part of me felt like it was to discuss it with her JW father at home, but she's awesome so it doesn't matter. I mostly just remember the end of the lesson, when she prayed to Heavenly Father, using her own words, for the first time in her life. The Spirit was overwhelming, and I just felt so happy and proud of her. It is so strange to someone like me who grew up with that, and seeing someone look like a child again, doing it for the first time. Just a simple, innocent, and direct prayer to their Father in Heaven. I wanted so badly to ask her if she felt the Spirit while she prayed but she was clutching her stomach the whole time and I knew she was in pain, so I don't know how it would've gone over. We have a lesson set up with her tomorrow, I hope she did her reading and praying so badly. We have a few other people we're meeting with or about to meet, but the work is looking really good right now.
There's these really cool kids who come to sports night, and like me a lot because I play basketball and talk about sports with them. We think we can get them to come to church with us. They're like 17ish and just really cool kids. Last thing, there is what they call 'Fluff' everywhere. It's the white stuff from dandelions, and it is EVERYWHERE. It looks like it's snowing with no gravity. I wonder if this happened to Brady? It was cool the first day because I had never seen anything like it, but now it's just the most annoying thing in the world, especially on days when your allergies are acting up. So life is great here in Lugansk, have lessons set up with members or investigators most everyday, which is amazing. And me and elder Thompson are really excited to work together.


5-25-09 - "A Fetching Transfer!"

They are taking Misiurenko from me! We recevied a fetching transfer call Friday morning. We thought for sure we were going to stay together for one more transfer. We kept saying we were doing awesome and wanted to stay in our letters to President each week, but I guess that didn't work. It was funny because he can't really write in English so he never writes President, but last week this return missionary in the branch who wanted both of us to stay helped him write one and it was all about wanting to stay here. This was supposed to be the smallest transfer ever because no missionaries are leaving and only one new missionary is coming in, but a ton of people are being transferred and a lot of areas are being white-washed. They pretty much white-washed Lugansk too because I'm the only missionary staying here, all the other missionaries here are being transferred. So, next time I write home, I will be the most experienced missionary in Lugansk with 3 weeks experience. Ha, that'll be fun. I hope my new comp likes to get lost a lot. But this week has been pretty good. The zone leaders came and went on splits with us, so that was cool. The week was actually pretty crazy, but I finally got to meet our investigator, Andre. He's a stud. He's a young guy in his 20's, he's read the Book of Mormon, D&C and is in the Pearl of Great Price right now. He's quitting smoking and saving up money to marry his girlfriend that he lives with. He has a testimony that it's all true, but he needs to take a leap of faith and sacrifice work to start coming to church, so that's what we talked about the whole time. We also found this new investigator from a member referral. She's this teenage girl who is really just searching for the truth. Her mom is the general Orthodox religion and her father is a JW. She isn't really satisfied with those and so is meeting with us. She's great and really eager to learn everything, and has a lot of potential. She has good questions, but also her father gave her some of the Anti-Mormon JW material to read and bring when she meets with us to asks questions. She doesn't really buy into it though, and sides with us on most all of the questions. We're meeting with her again on Thursday before English class, so that should be really good. Other than that, we just meet with the members and contact.


5-18-09 - Loving Lugansk

We still don't have much going on here. I guess we have one solid investigator who wants to get baptized but needs to quit smoking and is saving up money for him and his girlfriend to get married because they live together. And we also have another investigator that still needs to read and pray and gain a testimony. This is just what my comp told me because we still haven't met with them since I got here. We've called but they've been busy, so hopefully we can meet with them this week. I am still loving it with my comp, I would say his name but I'm not sure how to spell it in English. I've never been so immersed in the language like this, because we spend a lot of time with the youth members too so it's just a lot of Russian. I can feel my understanding of the language gradually improve everyday. But Lugansk is still great, the city is awesome and the people are cool. We do a lot of contacting and a lot of walking around the city. Our area is HUGE. It's bigger than all of Gorlovka, it's pretty ridiculous. But we go contacting a lot, and they have a weekly youth and sport night here so that's a lot of fun. I didn't tell you about what happened my last English class in Gorlovka. I told all the girls that I was leaving to Lugansk. Then this week after English class, the Gorlovka Elders called me and said they didn't come back. Ha, hopefully it was a one time thing. It was funny though, after my last class I taught there, they all came up and asked for my info and if I was on facebook. I told them I couldn't go on until after my mission, so they asked how much longer I had. They all got really mad when I said I still had 1 1/2 years and they said "Elder Hyer, we like it when missionaries come to Gorlovka at the end of their missions, not the start." And they continued to tell me about that. I just laughed and said I didn't know that but I'll be sure to remember it. The Gorlovka Elders just laugh about it and make fun of me alot for it.



5-11-09 - Missionary = Police?


Elder Hyer was transferred to Lugansk this week. His new companion is from Kiev so he is really speaking a lot of Russian. When we talked with him on Mother’s day he had only been there a few days. We had a great visit with him. He wasn’t going to write on this Monday but he did stop to answer one of his dad’s questions.

When we are tracting we usually don't say who we are until they ask, we just say we have a message about. . . . whatever we feel like we should say. Then, if they ask, we just say we are representatives of the church because the word missionary is similar to police, so it could sound like that through a door.



5-4-09 - "It Just Comes?"


One day we had to go into Donetsk for interviews with President Fry, on Friday we had Zone Conference here in Donetsk. We just talked about how my Russian is doing and how I'm studying. Russian is still really hard to understand, I hate the phrase "It just comes" because that's what every missionary says. I'm seeing that though and it is coming, it would be really cool if it would hurry up though. It's fine though, they say I speak really well for a new missionary, but that doesn't mean anything. I don't let it get to me though, but of course you get frustrated at times. I'm learning to rely on the Lord more and really pray.

First Days in Donetsk





Elder Hyer in Gorlovka - His first area