Sand Castle Competition

Sep 21 - Fights in Prieshood Mtg?

It's been a pretty good week. We contacted this lady who came to church, and she's planning on coming every week, which is awesome. Her children are JW's, her husband is Baptist, but she's still searching. She seems great, even though she was a little tipsy when I first talked her because it was her birthday and she just drank a lot, but most people you contact tend to be a little drunk or high.

This girl that we teach English lessons to who's like 26 also came to church, which is really cool, but she still doesn't feel like getting serious with it yet. Our best and most serious investigator, Garuk/Gareek, I don't know how I usually spell it, is still the man. He's excited to come to church but works on his Docha on the weekends, but he'll come every Sunday in the winter time. He just needs to pray and gain a testimony about the book of Mormon, he's just reading it like a history, which isn't bad, but once he gets a testimony, it'll be all downhill from there.

So everything is great. Oh, except I will never bring an investigator to priesthood meeting. Never. So I had heard stories when I was in Gorlovka about XTZ, because my trainer and zone leaders that we had lived right next to had all served there for a long time. Anyways, I heard about how the Branch President and his son-in-law really don't like each other, but they are 2 of our best and most active priesthood holders. So I heard of one time when the son-in-law got up during fast and testimony meeting and bore his testimony about how they have a terrible branch president and he won't give him a temple recommend, even though he's worthy, just because he doesn't like him. The son is really prideful and wants to be branch president, he thinks he would do much better, but the branch president doesn't handle the situation well either. Anyway, the son was teaching priesthood and they took shots at each other until it just exploded. They were just arguing and yelling and acting like immature little children. And they wouldn't stop until one stud member just took President outside. I would have been so, so embarrassed if we had Garuk there. I couldn't help from laughing a little because they were just acting so childish..

Also, this girl called us who we contacted who said she read the whole book of Mormon in 5 days and wants to know more, so if she really did, then that will be amazing. My comp is amazed that we got so much success out of just going contacting one time. Oh, make sure to tell Aunt Kathy thanks for her letter that she put in my last package, it was really cool to hear how all of them were doing, I liked it alot. Thanks for everything, love you and talk to you next week.

Sep 14 - Baptism in Alekseevka

This week wasn't as great as I was hoping it would be, but it's still gradually improving. President Powell and his wife came and spoke to us at our zone conference. He's the President of the Eastern European Area Presidency. They were cool and it was really good. He kind of tore into us a little at the start, but after that it was really good. President has been talking a lot about organizing a stake in Donetsk, it's definitely going to happen soon.

Harkov has a long time before that though. Pres Powell told us some shocking numbers. In the Eastern European Area, we have around 34,000 members. About 9,000 in Ukraine, about 18,000 in Russia, and there's an additional 4,000 on top of that 34,000 that we don't know where they are. But of those 34,000 members that we know of, 25,000 aren't fully active. We were shocked. He said even Elder Perry was shocked to hear that because they had just had a seminar with him and the mission presidents. They talked about a lot of stuff from that and things we need to do to move the work forward. It was really good and hopefully we can put those things into affect.

Friday was my comp's birthday party, and he had a really good idea to have a birthday party at the church with some members and investigators, so they could get to know each other and become better friends. Not everyone came that we wanted, but some did and it turned out really good. One guy came who used to come to church a lot, but we haven't been able to meet up with him, so that was great getting in contact with him again. It was fun and cool.

Saturday, this girl we found and started teaching when I was in Alekseevka was baptized, which was so cool. Her brother got baptized first and then he bore his testimony that now their job is to bring their mother into the church. It turned out really well. I spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then we got to go back to Alekseevka's sacrament meeting the next day to give her the Holy Ghost and confirm her. It was awesome, I loved going back to Alekseevka and seeing everyone again, especially Alla.

Sep 7 - 100% obedience

Wow, this was probably the best, or at least one of the best, e-mail days of my mission. I actrually got letters from several people and an update on the sports world. That's like perfect.

Things are looking better here. We had a good work day yesterday, and I'm excited for the week. Yesterday, all the missionaries walked home with some members and an investigator, which is cool because we all live somewhere along the path between our apartment and the church, but it takes us way longer than anyone to walk home. But once we got into our area, since it was only me and my comp by then, I decided that I was going to contact the rest of the way home. The first lady I talked to was amazing. She was so receptive and already knew the Bible well. She had great personal beliefs about how we live on after death and certain things that she disagreed with her church on (Ukranian Orthodox). She gladly took my Book of Mormon and was excited to read it. She is such a believing person, I really think she'll get an answer the first time she prays, because she seemed really sincere about it. She lives in a small village outside of Harkov though, so that'll make things difficult, but we'll call her and see if we can't meet somewhere. After that, my comp was so happy and we just talked on the way home.

This week is our 100% obedience that we agreed on. So last night we started to call investigators, and people we've been trying to meet up with. We had a really good planning session about what we want to do and who we want to meet with, so it should be really good. We have a lesson with Gareek again on Tuesday, so I hope he's read what we asked him to. We also have Zone conference this week. President Wolfgang from the Area Presidency is here and it's a pretty big deal. So yea, that's about it for now. I'm really grateful and happy that things are starting to look better.

August 31 - New area

That's awesome that Jared and all of you read the Book of Mormon that fast, malodyets. It's like great job. Oh, and I guess no one thought that it was important to inform me that Kevin proposed to his girlfriend, I have to find out through a letter Grandma Hyer MAILED to me. Make sure you tell her thanks for her great letters, I'll probably send her an e-mail today. I love how she writes Kevin Lawrence every time when she's talking about him, so to clearly distinguish and make sure I didn't think that UNCLE Kevin proposed to a girl named Jessica. Thanks for that. And it was cool to find out that Kevin and Katherine went to Argentina to pick up Robert.

Anyways, this won't be a very long letter, because I don't have much to report on. So far, I’m working on making this transfer a good experience. I am starting to fall in love with the branch, just starting to, and even my area and apartment. One of my first nights here, I was saying my night time prayer and had a huge, much-needed realization of how lucky I was to even be out here, to even be a missionary, no matter where it is and how bad the circumstances are. And also how stupid, petty, and selfish it was that I was complaining and feeling sorry for myself. That really helped me out a lot, and my whole attitude and perspective has been much better since then. And we do have 1 solid, fully-active member family in our branch, which is awesome because I didn't think we had any. They're an awesome family. I like them a lot. And this transfer has been great for my Russian, because I study during the down time we have and I'm learning words like crazy. So I guess that's cool too

August 24 - Lucky to be here

I can't believe Robert is already home, that's crazy. It still feels like he has 8 months left on his mission, like he did when I left. He sounds like he's doing awesome though, be sure to send my regards

They tell us not to write bad and negative stuff about the stuff here, so that pretty much means I can't tell you about my new apartment/area/branch. Ha ha, I'm serious. I'm in an area at the southeast tip of Harkov and even goes outside the city. It's called XTZ (Ha-Ta-Za). Yea, it was my trainer’s favorite area, but he was in the good area and good apartment. But we do have like 2 long-time investigators that we're meeting with, so that's cool. And this branch hasn't had a baptism in a really long time, so that means there are tons of people here who have been waiting and getting ready to hear the gospel.

My comp is cool, his name is Elder Moore and he's from Centerville, Ohio. I can help him really get to work here but he's a good missionary and really nice. XTZ has plenty of work to do, so it'll be a great opportunity that I should appreciate more. Really though, I have nothing to complain about, I have so much and I'm so lucky just to be serving, no matter where it is.

The Crittenden bowl was awesome, we killed the other team. I was really sore afterwards though because I was our teams quarterback, but it was so fun. Sister Crittenden was our coach, they got so into it too, they loved it. And they bought us all ice cream.

August 17 - Alla's Baptism

Hey Family,

I don't even know where to start, so much happened this week. It's probably been the best week of my mission so far. Everything has been amazing. We did a lot this week preparing for the baptism, and it was unbelievable. They were so ready. Once Alla came out of the water, she just stood there for a little bit, smiling as big as she could. She was glowing the whole rest of the day, she said that she didn't even walk home- she flew. There was such a strong spirit and everything went perfectly. The talks were great, and we 4 missionaries did a musical number that came out so good, way better than any time when we practiced it. We're so happy for Alla and Vladik, they are going to be great members. Also, earlier that day, there were 2 more baptisms, one was from our branch but they couldn't do it at 5 with our baptism. He is from Africa, there are a lot of Africans here and they are so cool. I am going to tell more about it in the letter that I send to Jesse. Then on Sunday, we gave all of them the Holy Ghost, and that was also amazing. You can tell they really understand the importance of it and how much it will help them.

Then that night, there was a fireside, for everyone, but mostly just young adults go. This district of 4 missionaries was supposed to be putting it on. Me and Elder Whitehead decided to take Vladic to it because we thought he would like it. So we went and it was getting time to start but the missionaries who were supposed to be putting it on still weren't there. So I called them and I guess they had just done the last one, and no one had told them about this. So by now, the meeting was already supposed to have started, but thank goodness Ukranians aren't punctual so it was that big of deal. We were talking with the Crittendens (the CES Senior couple) and a few of the youth there that were kind of in charge about what we were going to do. They were about to not do it and just tell the people to go back home. They reasoned it by saying there weren't many people there, but there turned out to be about 40 once we started. I didn't want that, so I tried to remember any old, cool firesides, and for some reason- not by coincidence- the only memory I could think of was Mom and Dad telling me about one of the adult stake conferences when Bro Hoskin was landing a plane or something and started talking to his co-pilot about the gosepl. So I said we could do funny scenarios and pull the member youth up to try and talk to people about the gospel. So me and a member youth, probably in his young 20's, brainstormed 4 scenarios then I just winged it. There were Africans there, so I just conducted and did everything in English while the member translated for me. I was just praying the whole time that it would turn out OK and they wouldn't hate it. And by some miracle, it turned out awesome. The loved it so much, everyone came up to me afterwards to tell me about how great it was. They were the perfect crowd to do it with. I was so, so grateful afterwards. So please send me any other cool fireside ideas, they come in handy.

Today, we are having the Crittenden bowl with all the missionaries in Harkov. The senior couple here, the Crittendens, are leaving next week, and they always say how they miss coaching sports, especially football, because that's what they did their whole lives. So I had the idea to have a big football game with all the missionaries, and have elder crittenden on one team and sister crittenden on another team. I asked if they were free this p-day and could do it, and they said of course. So I picked teams, then called the district leaders to tell each member of their district which team they are on. So now, half of the missionaries are wearing white t-shirts that say Sister Crittenden on the front, with a number and nickname on the back. And the other half are wearing red shirts with the same thing, except they have Elder Crittenden on it. It's going to be awesome, and the Crittenden's will love it. So this weekend and this whole week has been unbelievable, the best of my mission,.

Baptism!