Monday, February 1, 2010
2-1 - Finishing strong in XTZ
As for the missionary work in XTZ, it's amazing. We have so much stuff going on and we feel like the branch is only going to improve from here. We had 30 members at Church yesterday! The most I've seen since I have been here. And it was the best church service I have ever been to in my 6 months here. It was so great to see all the members and they were actually getting into the lessons and not just sitting there bored and not paying attention. We had such an awesome group of youth there and almost everything was perfect. Third hour was still just our branch president reading a Liahona and talking to himself for an hour. Once we get some solid leadership, this branch will take off. But I love this branch more than anything, I can't imagine caring about a branch more than I do about this one. I want more than anything for them to just be unified and to come to church. But Proletarska has never had so much going on, which is exactly what I wanted it to be like when I left, but now that it finally is getting like that, it makes it way harder to leave.
We have these new, young investigators who could be really promising. This one cool 18-yr old kid, Vova, has a twin brother and a family that all might be interested. And we are still teaching Nadejda, Anatolee's Mom, and all she needs to do is come to church and she'll be ready for baptism. She wants to, but can't right now because of health and weather. We are also teaching this guy who has always come to our English class. The In-actives are coming to church as well, but there are still a few who just aren't showing up still. So we still have a lot to work to do, but Elder Clarkstone will keep it going. We also went to the Russian Ballet at the big theater here in center last week as a district and with our zone leaders. We saw Swan Lake, and surprisingly it was really cool. Not so much the Ballet as the overall experience. We got second row seats for $1.90 each somehow. Long story, but it's not important, it was a really fun night. And we managed to up our record of lessons in a week to 21 this week, so that's cool too. We pretty much know what's going to happen next transfer. I'm going to North Saltovka to be with another young missionary in Elder Clarkstone's group. They have good success there right now but they also have another small branch. It'll be good though because after serving in XTZ, I feel like I know a lot better how to get this branch going and help in-actives. Elder Clarkstone knows this area and we've talked a lot about how to keep it going. He'll be great. I don't know what I would do if the work died again here after working my butt off for so long. I would be distraught. I love XTZ, and I love you guys. It'll be great when you guys can come meet the amazing people here.
-Elder Hyer
We have these new, young investigators who could be really promising. This one cool 18-yr old kid, Vova, has a twin brother and a family that all might be interested. And we are still teaching Nadejda, Anatolee's Mom, and all she needs to do is come to church and she'll be ready for baptism. She wants to, but can't right now because of health and weather. We are also teaching this guy who has always come to our English class. The In-actives are coming to church as well, but there are still a few who just aren't showing up still. So we still have a lot to work to do, but Elder Clarkstone will keep it going. We also went to the Russian Ballet at the big theater here in center last week as a district and with our zone leaders. We saw Swan Lake, and surprisingly it was really cool. Not so much the Ballet as the overall experience. We got second row seats for $1.90 each somehow. Long story, but it's not important, it was a really fun night. And we managed to up our record of lessons in a week to 21 this week, so that's cool too. We pretty much know what's going to happen next transfer. I'm going to North Saltovka to be with another young missionary in Elder Clarkstone's group. They have good success there right now but they also have another small branch. It'll be good though because after serving in XTZ, I feel like I know a lot better how to get this branch going and help in-actives. Elder Clarkstone knows this area and we've talked a lot about how to keep it going. He'll be great. I don't know what I would do if the work died again here after working my butt off for so long. I would be distraught. I love XTZ, and I love you guys. It'll be great when you guys can come meet the amazing people here.
-Elder Hyer
1-25 - No Global Warming in Ukraine
Global Warming is the biggest bunch of crap. Tell Al Gore to come to Ukraine. It's been so cold. At night it's getting below -30, but it warms up to like like 23 below during the day because we've been getting a lot of Sun (for which we are all so very thankful). But since its cold, no one came to church. We have 15 members, 4 missionaries, and the district president. And half seem to leave after sacrament every week, so we had as many missionaries as members in priesthood. Some in-actives came though, so that was cool. We did reach our goal this week of 20 lessons, which is awesome. It was tough though because I got sick so we had to do a split one day so they could go to our lessons, and then Elder Clarkstone didn't feel that great. But we just kept working and tried to rest if we ever had time, which is pretty much during studies. We're feeling better now though.
I can't believe I'm leaving XTZ, the time has flow buy. I still have these last 2 weeks so we're definitely going to make the most of them. I've gotten so close with all the members here, I wish I could just pass everything I've learned and everything I know about them to the next missionaries. Elder Clarkstone is staying, which is what we wanted, so he'll be able to keep everything going for us. We've found a few new investigators this week, and one is as ready as an investigator can be. It's the Mom of our 2nd counselor in our Branch Presidency. She's already read the Book of Mormon 3 times, and still reads it regularly, and D&C once. Obviously, the lessons go very well, especially because her son is also there as well when we meet with her. We also met with this old investigator, Oleg, who is a really cool young guy with a small family. He is a DJ and he's still really interested, but his wife is very not interested. Hopefully we can work with him and her heart will be softened, and one day teach the whole family. So success is coming, bit by bit, and the work is really picking up. It's amazing to compare this from 6 months ago, there is such a night and day difference. I've never felt so good about the work we're doing, and we're so happy the Elder Clarkstone will be able to stay and keep this going. So as you can tell, life is great. We are going to rest a little bit today to recover from the week and get ready for this next one. Going for 21, and we're going to get it :)
Anyways, there is no snow here. . . just ICE EVERYWHERE. Makes life even that much more fun, and we're loving every day of it. Til next week
I can't believe I'm leaving XTZ, the time has flow buy. I still have these last 2 weeks so we're definitely going to make the most of them. I've gotten so close with all the members here, I wish I could just pass everything I've learned and everything I know about them to the next missionaries. Elder Clarkstone is staying, which is what we wanted, so he'll be able to keep everything going for us. We've found a few new investigators this week, and one is as ready as an investigator can be. It's the Mom of our 2nd counselor in our Branch Presidency. She's already read the Book of Mormon 3 times, and still reads it regularly, and D&C once. Obviously, the lessons go very well, especially because her son is also there as well when we meet with her. We also met with this old investigator, Oleg, who is a really cool young guy with a small family. He is a DJ and he's still really interested, but his wife is very not interested. Hopefully we can work with him and her heart will be softened, and one day teach the whole family. So success is coming, bit by bit, and the work is really picking up. It's amazing to compare this from 6 months ago, there is such a night and day difference. I've never felt so good about the work we're doing, and we're so happy the Elder Clarkstone will be able to stay and keep this going. So as you can tell, life is great. We are going to rest a little bit today to recover from the week and get ready for this next one. Going for 21, and we're going to get it :)
Anyways, there is no snow here. . . just ICE EVERYWHERE. Makes life even that much more fun, and we're loving every day of it. Til next week
1-18 - Breaking records
It's finally starting to get as cold as it is supposed to be, the coldest day is supposed to be almost -30 (which isn't that bad for the coldest day) and they have this tradition called the Baptism or something. On the coldest day they go to the frozen lakes and rivers, cut a hole in the ice, bless the water so they won't get sick, and then they all jump in. It sounds crazy, so we want to go see it. We'll send some video home if we get the chance.
This week was really good and really busy. We had interviews and Zone Conference, and some other meetings, so that took up a lot of time and we packed our lessons into our free days. Somehow, we managed to break our record for the lessons in a week for this area. The goal is 20 a week, and if we do it 2 weeks in a row then President takes us out to dinner. So we're going to be the first to get it these next 2 weeks, it's going to be awesome. We’re working hard and gradually finding more people to meet with, most of which are in-actives. We also have our 1st progressing investigator in the 5 months that I have been in XTZ. I think we told her about you last week, Masha, and she's a cool young girl who wants to change her life around. She is definitely a process, but when I say that my greenie tells me I have no faith. Ha, I love it, it's funny. Greenies are the greatest. She's cool though, she lived in America and got married in Vegas, but she had problems so she came back here. We are going to try and meet with her often and help her out. Other than that, we are still working a lot with in-actives and trying to strengthen our branch. We're pushing really hard right now to get unity in our branch, and to have the members support each other and support our leaders. We still have a lot of internal problems, but hopefully we can help change that. I want more than anything for this branch to grow and for these problems to go away. It looks like I only have a few weeks left here though, so we got to make the most of them. We just repaired our relationship with 1 in-active lady that got offended because I told her we wouldn't stay at her house for 2 hours and get back home at 10 like other missionaries did, so I guess that's good.
Zone Conference was good, talked about teaching by the Spirit and always having the Spirit with us, so you can never go wrong with that. Here are my quotes from conference, which you've probably already heard before, but it's still good to hear it again.
1. Our teaching should inspire people to action
2. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail
3. I got my testimony more on on my feet than on my knees
Have a great week, life is great here. Love you and talk to you next week,
This week was really good and really busy. We had interviews and Zone Conference, and some other meetings, so that took up a lot of time and we packed our lessons into our free days. Somehow, we managed to break our record for the lessons in a week for this area. The goal is 20 a week, and if we do it 2 weeks in a row then President takes us out to dinner. So we're going to be the first to get it these next 2 weeks, it's going to be awesome. We’re working hard and gradually finding more people to meet with, most of which are in-actives. We also have our 1st progressing investigator in the 5 months that I have been in XTZ. I think we told her about you last week, Masha, and she's a cool young girl who wants to change her life around. She is definitely a process, but when I say that my greenie tells me I have no faith. Ha, I love it, it's funny. Greenies are the greatest. She's cool though, she lived in America and got married in Vegas, but she had problems so she came back here. We are going to try and meet with her often and help her out. Other than that, we are still working a lot with in-actives and trying to strengthen our branch. We're pushing really hard right now to get unity in our branch, and to have the members support each other and support our leaders. We still have a lot of internal problems, but hopefully we can help change that. I want more than anything for this branch to grow and for these problems to go away. It looks like I only have a few weeks left here though, so we got to make the most of them. We just repaired our relationship with 1 in-active lady that got offended because I told her we wouldn't stay at her house for 2 hours and get back home at 10 like other missionaries did, so I guess that's good.
Zone Conference was good, talked about teaching by the Spirit and always having the Spirit with us, so you can never go wrong with that. Here are my quotes from conference, which you've probably already heard before, but it's still good to hear it again.
1. Our teaching should inspire people to action
2. If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail
3. I got my testimony more on on my feet than on my knees
Have a great week, life is great here. Love you and talk to you next week,
1-11 - "Just because you're at a Baptism doesn't mean you're not in Ukraine!"
I ate this stuff called Holodets, it's pig Jelly. It's like pig jello and it's the most disgusting thing I have ever eaten. I stuffed it all into a napkin and put it in my pocket when she left the room. I was gagging as I tried to eat it.
This week was pretty awesome. Of course the baptism was amazing, there is always just a different Spirit at baptisms, but it's even that much stronger when the person is ready. I could feel that she really knew and understood was she was doing, she's going to be a great member. Once I was dressed in my whites, sitting in the room enjoying the Spirit that was there, this guy who was visiting went into the bathroom and stole 100 grieven out of my wallet. Because my clothes were in the back room that you change in, in between the bathroom and the baptismal font. I asked him about it but he just denied it. It's whatever though, it's only like $13 or something, so he probably needs it more than I do. I never thought the only time I would get robbed wouold be while I was baptizing someone, but these member youth told me, "Hello! Elder Hyer, just because you're at a baptism in a church
We also had a really fun Christmas Youth night, where we brought all our American candy, and even made kool-aid and root beer floats. The root beer didn't turn out as well as I hoped, but they wolfed (?) down Mom's chocolate chip cookies like there was no tomorrow. We had a small spiritual thought, watched Joy to the World, then ate and played games (BUNCO). Everyone loved it, especially these non-member kids, so that was most important. We are finding more in-actives to meet with, so hopefully we'll have time to meet with them all this week, because it's going to be a really busy week with interviews, zone conference, and stuff. But that's about it for now. They just outlawed all types of playing cards in our mission, So we going to check out the museums and stuff today, so that should be fun. Thanks for everything, have an amazing week at the beach. Love you and talk to you later
-Elder Hyer
This week was pretty awesome. Of course the baptism was amazing, there is always just a different Spirit at baptisms, but it's even that much stronger when the person is ready. I could feel that she really knew and understood was she was doing, she's going to be a great member. Once I was dressed in my whites, sitting in the room enjoying the Spirit that was there, this guy who was visiting went into the bathroom and stole 100 grieven out of my wallet. Because my clothes were in the back room that you change in, in between the bathroom and the baptismal font. I asked him about it but he just denied it. It's whatever though, it's only like $13 or something, so he probably needs it more than I do. I never thought the only time I would get robbed wouold be while I was baptizing someone, but these member youth told me, "Hello! Elder Hyer, just because you're at a baptism in a church
We also had a really fun Christmas Youth night, where we brought all our American candy, and even made kool-aid and root beer floats. The root beer didn't turn out as well as I hoped, but they wolfed (?) down Mom's chocolate chip cookies like there was no tomorrow. We had a small spiritual thought, watched Joy to the World, then ate and played games (BUNCO). Everyone loved it, especially these non-member kids, so that was most important. We are finding more in-actives to meet with, so hopefully we'll have time to meet with them all this week, because it's going to be a really busy week with interviews, zone conference, and stuff. But that's about it for now. They just outlawed all types of playing cards in our mission, So we going to check out the museums and stuff today, so that should be fun. Thanks for everything, have an amazing week at the beach. Love you and talk to you later
-Elder Hyer
1-11-10 - More from Elder Clarkstone
We were so lucky to get a copy of another great letter from Dallin's companion:
This week has been a good. It started off a little slow since everyone was celebrating... and when they celebrate Holidays in Ukraine it just means you drink a lot. They a have a very famous saying here “Everyday is a holiday”. But the week actually turned out really well.
Weather – Last week it was hot and rained a lot. All the snow turned to ice and it was soaking wet everywhere. The one night I got soaked and we walked in water that was above our ankles. The one street was so flooded it was higher than half way up the tire of cars. Now it has gotten colder and snow is everywhere again.
Things I forgot last week --- We went to the land that is Bardabashov. It is a giant outside market. They have a mile long section just for fur coats. I'd say it's as big as the Eaton Center in Toronto. We were there for like 2 hours and we only saw about 1/100th of it. I bought a new click belt and 4 nice paisleys ties and it only cost like 20 dollars. Elder Hyer and Tillitson got Capka's (russian winter hats).
Monday – Went to the church and played card games like Uno and Дурок (which means fool), a fun russian card game. Then headed off for family night, this week at Sister Veta's.
Tuesday – Visited a less active named Alekcandra. She was really cool and doesn't seem like she would be inactive (none of the inactives do). Inactives are always the coolest people who know the Book of Mormon inside and out... we don't understand why they are inactive (most of them because to get to church its like 30 minutes). Then we received a call and we had to go to Center right away to get some paperwork from the office for our Хизайка (land lady) to sign. We then went and worked at a soup kitchen with the Cold Mountain Branch. Elder Moore was supposed to do it (he is in Cold Moutain), but we was picking up his greeny from the train station. All the new missionaries got stuck in Washington, DC for 5 days. They were supposed to arrive last Wednesday but didn't get here till Sunday night. Then headed off to the Branch President's house for our usual lesson and report.
Wednesday – Moved studies to night time because we had an early morning appointment, but she forgot. So we headed off to Zhenya's for a lesson with the other Elders in XTZ. At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptised and she said yes, but she doesnt know when. It probably won't be this transfer, unless something happens. She has too many fears about what her dad will think... even though her dad likes us and is happy that Zhenya has good friends that care about her like we do. Zhenya even wants us to send her dad the missionaries in Kiev when he goes back (he is visiting for 2 weeks). Then headed off to Center again to get a package and Books of Mormon, because we ran out. Came back and did studies. We found out that for Elder Moore's greeny's first day he hicupped at a members house and they made him put his hands behind his back, stretch his body with his mouth trying to touch the sky, and then had to take 3 sips of some tea they made for him, and that they told him would cure him. Lots of crazy medical things here. They believe drinking cold water and cold beverages make you sick.
Thursday – Had a great sports day with the members and our investigators. We built 2 snowmen, one of which was Moses. Then played volleyball and soccer (both outside in the snow). XTZ sports day is famous for taking place, no matter the weather. Then headed back and had district meeting, but we had to go home early because it was new years eve and couldnt be out when it was dark. On the metro a drunk man wanted to fight us and had his fists ready, but then we sat down. So we just sat at home for New Year's eve and went to bed early, because we arent allowed to do sleepovers in our missions, so no one was able to stay over anywhere. But at like 7pm we heard a knock at our door and it was our land lady for rent. Her husband and her drove us to the bank to get the money. They had a really nice lexus.
Friday – Planned and then went on a split with Demyanov, the native. He heard me coughing (i'm a bit sick) and he told me that I needed to drink a cup of honey and that would cure me. And I told him I would just take some medicine (which I did and I got better the next day). He told me that that was stupid and that he is older than me and knows more about health and KNOWS that if I drink the honey I will get better. He has some crazy ideas sometimes...
Saturday – Split ended and then me and Hyer went to Lidia's for a lesson. She's an older inactive who feeds us food... but sometimes the food is gross. This week she gave us халадец, aka Jellied Meat.. aka the grossiest thing you can eat here. I didn't try it, but Hyer did and he was gagging. He just grabbed all of it, but it in a napkin and put it in our bags. Headed, back to our apartment, finish district meeting and visited people.
Sunday – Went to Church as usual, eat and contacted people.
Contacting – We have had some really good contacting this week, Our bus driver when we came on saw us and wanted to talk to us. Everyone got off the bus and he wanted us to stay and we talked and showed him pictures (everyone shows each other pictures to get aquainted). He is coming with us tonight to family night. We got like 4 other street contacts this week and we got 6 out of the area book. On Sunday we called like 15 people that I had pulled out of the area book. We got ahold of about 7 of them. The one had moved to saltuvka, but we got his new adress from his mom and the other 6 want to meet with us this week.. .3 of which are families. So this week is going to be packed
This week – On thursday the 2 branches (XTZ and New Homes) are having a joint christmas party (since Ukrainian Christmas in January 7th). I'm doing a musical presentation there. Then on Friday we (the missionaries) organized a christmas night for the youth in both branches. We are gong to have like a 10-15 minutes spiritual thought on christmas and then watch Joy to the World and then eat food and play games. Its going to be big event for youth and investigators. Then on saturday we have a Baptism! But its not ours. Its someone the Sister's are teaching, but she asked Elder Hyer to baptize her and I am doing a musical presentation (like I said, I play the piano a lot here). The Sister's also just found out that she lives in our area, so she is going to join our branch (she has been going to New Homes).
I think that is everything!
Cta. Clarkstone
This week has been a good. It started off a little slow since everyone was celebrating... and when they celebrate Holidays in Ukraine it just means you drink a lot. They a have a very famous saying here “Everyday is a holiday”. But the week actually turned out really well.
Weather – Last week it was hot and rained a lot. All the snow turned to ice and it was soaking wet everywhere. The one night I got soaked and we walked in water that was above our ankles. The one street was so flooded it was higher than half way up the tire of cars. Now it has gotten colder and snow is everywhere again.
Things I forgot last week --- We went to the land that is Bardabashov. It is a giant outside market. They have a mile long section just for fur coats. I'd say it's as big as the Eaton Center in Toronto. We were there for like 2 hours and we only saw about 1/100th of it. I bought a new click belt and 4 nice paisleys ties and it only cost like 20 dollars. Elder Hyer and Tillitson got Capka's (russian winter hats).
Monday – Went to the church and played card games like Uno and Дурок (which means fool), a fun russian card game. Then headed off for family night, this week at Sister Veta's.
Tuesday – Visited a less active named Alekcandra. She was really cool and doesn't seem like she would be inactive (none of the inactives do). Inactives are always the coolest people who know the Book of Mormon inside and out... we don't understand why they are inactive (most of them because to get to church its like 30 minutes). Then we received a call and we had to go to Center right away to get some paperwork from the office for our Хизайка (land lady) to sign. We then went and worked at a soup kitchen with the Cold Mountain Branch. Elder Moore was supposed to do it (he is in Cold Moutain), but we was picking up his greeny from the train station. All the new missionaries got stuck in Washington, DC for 5 days. They were supposed to arrive last Wednesday but didn't get here till Sunday night. Then headed off to the Branch President's house for our usual lesson and report.
Wednesday – Moved studies to night time because we had an early morning appointment, but she forgot. So we headed off to Zhenya's for a lesson with the other Elders in XTZ. At the end of the lesson we invited her to be baptised and she said yes, but she doesnt know when. It probably won't be this transfer, unless something happens. She has too many fears about what her dad will think... even though her dad likes us and is happy that Zhenya has good friends that care about her like we do. Zhenya even wants us to send her dad the missionaries in Kiev when he goes back (he is visiting for 2 weeks). Then headed off to Center again to get a package and Books of Mormon, because we ran out. Came back and did studies. We found out that for Elder Moore's greeny's first day he hicupped at a members house and they made him put his hands behind his back, stretch his body with his mouth trying to touch the sky, and then had to take 3 sips of some tea they made for him, and that they told him would cure him. Lots of crazy medical things here. They believe drinking cold water and cold beverages make you sick.
Thursday – Had a great sports day with the members and our investigators. We built 2 snowmen, one of which was Moses. Then played volleyball and soccer (both outside in the snow). XTZ sports day is famous for taking place, no matter the weather. Then headed back and had district meeting, but we had to go home early because it was new years eve and couldnt be out when it was dark. On the metro a drunk man wanted to fight us and had his fists ready, but then we sat down. So we just sat at home for New Year's eve and went to bed early, because we arent allowed to do sleepovers in our missions, so no one was able to stay over anywhere. But at like 7pm we heard a knock at our door and it was our land lady for rent. Her husband and her drove us to the bank to get the money. They had a really nice lexus.
Friday – Planned and then went on a split with Demyanov, the native. He heard me coughing (i'm a bit sick) and he told me that I needed to drink a cup of honey and that would cure me. And I told him I would just take some medicine (which I did and I got better the next day). He told me that that was stupid and that he is older than me and knows more about health and KNOWS that if I drink the honey I will get better. He has some crazy ideas sometimes...
Saturday – Split ended and then me and Hyer went to Lidia's for a lesson. She's an older inactive who feeds us food... but sometimes the food is gross. This week she gave us халадец, aka Jellied Meat.. aka the grossiest thing you can eat here. I didn't try it, but Hyer did and he was gagging. He just grabbed all of it, but it in a napkin and put it in our bags. Headed, back to our apartment, finish district meeting and visited people.
Sunday – Went to Church as usual, eat and contacted people.
Contacting – We have had some really good contacting this week, Our bus driver when we came on saw us and wanted to talk to us. Everyone got off the bus and he wanted us to stay and we talked and showed him pictures (everyone shows each other pictures to get aquainted). He is coming with us tonight to family night. We got like 4 other street contacts this week and we got 6 out of the area book. On Sunday we called like 15 people that I had pulled out of the area book. We got ahold of about 7 of them. The one had moved to saltuvka, but we got his new adress from his mom and the other 6 want to meet with us this week.. .3 of which are families. So this week is going to be packed
This week – On thursday the 2 branches (XTZ and New Homes) are having a joint christmas party (since Ukrainian Christmas in January 7th). I'm doing a musical presentation there. Then on Friday we (the missionaries) organized a christmas night for the youth in both branches. We are gong to have like a 10-15 minutes spiritual thought on christmas and then watch Joy to the World and then eat food and play games. Its going to be big event for youth and investigators. Then on saturday we have a Baptism! But its not ours. Its someone the Sister's are teaching, but she asked Elder Hyer to baptize her and I am doing a musical presentation (like I said, I play the piano a lot here). The Sister's also just found out that she lives in our area, so she is going to join our branch (she has been going to New Homes).
I think that is everything!
Cta. Clarkstone
1-4-10 - Miracles
This week has been really good. It was tough because New Year's is Ukraine's biggest holiday, so everyone was partying all week and didn't really want to meet with us. They get so wasted on New Year's, so they need to drink alot of vodka and beer in the morning to help recover from their hang-overs. Center looks really cool, they have a carnival thing set up on the square and a huge New Year's tree (not Christmas), and some rides and stuff. But it was kind of lame because we had to come in early that night, so we just went to bed early to celebrate the new year. Anyways, the other day I was thinking about our mission, and about some of my friends' missions and stuff that I read in our missionary newsletter. I realized that I haven't heard of any Christmas miracles happening in our mission, myabe there have been but I haven't heard of any. It seems like we don't really have the Christmas Spirit and desire to go out there and make miracles happen. So I decided that we should start that in our mission, and I started telling Elder Clarkstone each morning that a miracle is going to happen that day. And we've got outside each day with that attitude. Guess what happened?! . . . . . nothing.
I'm just kidding! Miracles are happening every day now. Most are small, and maybe they have always been happening, but now I'm am starting to notice them and see every little miracle that happens each day. The first one was that the Zone Leaders were in Donetsk when my packages came in, so they could bring them up to Harkov the next day. But all the other miracles have been missionary work related :) We're just having more and more success each day. Yesterday, we called all these people we had picked out of the area book and 6 of them are going to meet with us this week. Just to show you how rare that is, I can remember once getting a former investigator to meet with us my whole mission. So that is amazing, I'm so excited for this week. On Friday, we are having a Christmas party at our branch for the youth/young adults, which is going to be way fun. We are going to have a small spiritual thought, watch Joy to the World, then play Bunco and other games, and we are bringing all the American candy (or Canadian) we got and have that for snacks. It will be fun and it's a great opportunity for all of them to make friends. Especially for this one girl, Looda. She is an awesome young girl that is getting baptized on Saturday. Our branch and the New Homes branch share the same building and english classes. She was found through English, and the sisters in New Homes have been teaching her. They found out that she actually lives in XTZ, so she will be coming to our branch and this party will be awesome for her to get friends with the girls in our branch. 2 of our most active members - Veeka and Fatema, and our 2 investigators are around her age, so it will be great. I guess Looda doesn't really know any men in her branch that well because she asked me to baptize her. It will be wonderful, but I've only talked to her a few times after english classes, and not for the last month because our class has been stopped. It feels like there should be someone better to do it, but it's not important who baptizes her, just important that she gets baptized. So that is on Saturday and it will be really cool. This is going to be a great week. We finally are teaching English again, and we're also excited about that, we have a really good lesson planned for it. Miracles are happening in Proletarska and all over the mission it seems like now. We have 2 new investigator lessons tonight, and one is at a member's house. We even had to cut our P-day 2 hours short (God was testing us). Life is great. Love you guys, hope you also have a great week.
-Elder Hyer
I'm just kidding! Miracles are happening every day now. Most are small, and maybe they have always been happening, but now I'm am starting to notice them and see every little miracle that happens each day. The first one was that the Zone Leaders were in Donetsk when my packages came in, so they could bring them up to Harkov the next day. But all the other miracles have been missionary work related :) We're just having more and more success each day. Yesterday, we called all these people we had picked out of the area book and 6 of them are going to meet with us this week. Just to show you how rare that is, I can remember once getting a former investigator to meet with us my whole mission. So that is amazing, I'm so excited for this week. On Friday, we are having a Christmas party at our branch for the youth/young adults, which is going to be way fun. We are going to have a small spiritual thought, watch Joy to the World, then play Bunco and other games, and we are bringing all the American candy (or Canadian) we got and have that for snacks. It will be fun and it's a great opportunity for all of them to make friends. Especially for this one girl, Looda. She is an awesome young girl that is getting baptized on Saturday. Our branch and the New Homes branch share the same building and english classes. She was found through English, and the sisters in New Homes have been teaching her. They found out that she actually lives in XTZ, so she will be coming to our branch and this party will be awesome for her to get friends with the girls in our branch. 2 of our most active members - Veeka and Fatema, and our 2 investigators are around her age, so it will be great. I guess Looda doesn't really know any men in her branch that well because she asked me to baptize her. It will be wonderful, but I've only talked to her a few times after english classes, and not for the last month because our class has been stopped. It feels like there should be someone better to do it, but it's not important who baptizes her, just important that she gets baptized. So that is on Saturday and it will be really cool. This is going to be a great week. We finally are teaching English again, and we're also excited about that, we have a really good lesson planned for it. Miracles are happening in Proletarska and all over the mission it seems like now. We have 2 new investigator lessons tonight, and one is at a member's house. We even had to cut our P-day 2 hours short (God was testing us). Life is great. Love you guys, hope you also have a great week.
-Elder Hyer
1-4-10 From Elder Hyer's companion
Elder Hyer realized that his trainee wrote such wonderful letters he had him forward it to us. It was fun getting his view of all that is happening:
Been a big week here. On Monday we went bowling with New Homes (we do everything with them), and then, as I said last week I went on a greenie split with Elder Lot and we ran family night in XTZ. It actually went really well and it made us speak a lot. We can tend to rely on our older companions alot. On Tuesday we went contacting on our way to visit 8 inactive families... none of which wanted anything to do with us... but we got a really good contact named Ana. She is a young mother and seems very interested. On Wednesday we went to center (which is the only place there is Christmas) and we taught Ala and Sergey at Elder and Sister Reeds' home. Ala is a less active member and her husband Sergey is a seventh day Adventist (but he doesn't believe that the Adventist church is complete, and believes in a prophet from some church in south Africa, and believes in the Torah). He likes to bible bash a lot, so missionaries stopped going to him, so now he is better, and he just asks a lot of questions. Vasia was also there to help translate with Elder Hyer, since the Reeds don't speak Russian. Vasia is awesome. He is kind of less active but we've basically made him active. He also just became our ward mission leader. He served a mission a couple years ago in Novosobirsk, Russia. They would take turns translating but sometimes they would be teaching/answer their questions and so I would try to translate what they were saying for the Reeds. At the end Ala wanted us to translate her testimony for the Reeds and then wanted to speak privately with sister Reed with Elder Hyer translating. She told them that she loves the church so much but Sergey is too controlling and won't let her go to church and she didn't know what to do... It is very sad. On Thursday we planned a bit and contacted a babyshka named Xenaida. We went into her apartment and we saw a picture of two younger boys with white shirts, but no name tags... then we looked closer and saw that it was in our apartment. Then I turned around and there was a picture of the Restoration on the wall. We asked her if she knew what it was and she said she doesn't remember. Apparently she met with the missionaries 3 years ago, but she couldn't understand them and doesn't remember anything. Then we headed to center for dinner at Pyzata Huta for Christmas eve dinner. We got 2 chicken Kiev, 1 other chicken breast, 1 pork steak, 2 sausage links, 1 thing of meat vreniki (perogies with meat in it), 1 cherry vreniki (perogies with cherries in them.... sounds disgusting but is delicious with sour cream and sugar), perechki (bread with meat in it), borsch, polish potatoes and drinks all for 100 griven... which is about 12 Canadian dollars. It was so good. Then we headed to center branch for the Kharkov District (stake) Christmas party. The missionaries in XTZ were in a skit with the “youth”. We were all dressed up like presents, and one elder was a Christmas tree, and then the 3 youth were dressed up as bunnies... it was a really fun and funny skit. At the end of the skit we sang Joy to the World... I have it all on video. Then the next day was CHRISTMAS! We got up, opened all our presents and headed for the branch building where we had district meeting with XTZ and New Homes...all together 10 missionaries. It was a fun district meeting/Christmas dinner with a Christmas spiritual thought, then 2 elders had to debate why sisters are better than elders, and the 2 sisters had to debate why elders are better... we played card games like UNO and spaz. Then we had a huge Christmas dinner with mashed potatoes, 2 chickens, a roast, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, and for desert freshly baked cookies with ice cream in the middle ( me and Elder Hyer made them). It was all homemade by the missionaries obviously since none of this stuff really exists here. We had the other elders over for dinner and we had spaghetti and garlic bread. We tried to put our one investigator on date.. because she comes to everything and knows everything... but she said shes going to go work on a cruise for 6 month in march, and if after the cruise that she feels her testimony is still good, then she will.... ugh it was frustrating but we will work with her to change her mind. She met with the sisters like a month ago and she told them that she always feels good when she reads the book of Mormon... and she isn't sure that that is her answer... she thinks its just everyone feels good when you read it...so we've been talking a lot about answers and the holy ghost... who knows what will happen. Well that's everything for now.... me and Elder Hyer are staying here for another 6 weeks together. We are going to double our numbers from last transfer... which means we will teach over 100 quality lessons... and in our final week we will teach 30 quality lessons.... which is hard. If anyone gets 20, President Fry takes you out to dinner... so 30 Is hard... it would be a record in the mission I think.
That's Everything. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Elder Clarkstone
Been a big week here. On Monday we went bowling with New Homes (we do everything with them), and then, as I said last week I went on a greenie split with Elder Lot and we ran family night in XTZ. It actually went really well and it made us speak a lot. We can tend to rely on our older companions alot. On Tuesday we went contacting on our way to visit 8 inactive families... none of which wanted anything to do with us... but we got a really good contact named Ana. She is a young mother and seems very interested. On Wednesday we went to center (which is the only place there is Christmas) and we taught Ala and Sergey at Elder and Sister Reeds' home. Ala is a less active member and her husband Sergey is a seventh day Adventist (but he doesn't believe that the Adventist church is complete, and believes in a prophet from some church in south Africa, and believes in the Torah). He likes to bible bash a lot, so missionaries stopped going to him, so now he is better, and he just asks a lot of questions. Vasia was also there to help translate with Elder Hyer, since the Reeds don't speak Russian. Vasia is awesome. He is kind of less active but we've basically made him active. He also just became our ward mission leader. He served a mission a couple years ago in Novosobirsk, Russia. They would take turns translating but sometimes they would be teaching/answer their questions and so I would try to translate what they were saying for the Reeds. At the end Ala wanted us to translate her testimony for the Reeds and then wanted to speak privately with sister Reed with Elder Hyer translating. She told them that she loves the church so much but Sergey is too controlling and won't let her go to church and she didn't know what to do... It is very sad. On Thursday we planned a bit and contacted a babyshka named Xenaida. We went into her apartment and we saw a picture of two younger boys with white shirts, but no name tags... then we looked closer and saw that it was in our apartment. Then I turned around and there was a picture of the Restoration on the wall. We asked her if she knew what it was and she said she doesn't remember. Apparently she met with the missionaries 3 years ago, but she couldn't understand them and doesn't remember anything. Then we headed to center for dinner at Pyzata Huta for Christmas eve dinner. We got 2 chicken Kiev, 1 other chicken breast, 1 pork steak, 2 sausage links, 1 thing of meat vreniki (perogies with meat in it), 1 cherry vreniki (perogies with cherries in them.... sounds disgusting but is delicious with sour cream and sugar), perechki (bread with meat in it), borsch, polish potatoes and drinks all for 100 griven... which is about 12 Canadian dollars. It was so good. Then we headed to center branch for the Kharkov District (stake) Christmas party. The missionaries in XTZ were in a skit with the “youth”. We were all dressed up like presents, and one elder was a Christmas tree, and then the 3 youth were dressed up as bunnies... it was a really fun and funny skit. At the end of the skit we sang Joy to the World... I have it all on video. Then the next day was CHRISTMAS! We got up, opened all our presents and headed for the branch building where we had district meeting with XTZ and New Homes...all together 10 missionaries. It was a fun district meeting/Christmas dinner with a Christmas spiritual thought, then 2 elders had to debate why sisters are better than elders, and the 2 sisters had to debate why elders are better... we played card games like UNO and spaz. Then we had a huge Christmas dinner with mashed potatoes, 2 chickens, a roast, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, and for desert freshly baked cookies with ice cream in the middle ( me and Elder Hyer made them). It was all homemade by the missionaries obviously since none of this stuff really exists here. We had the other elders over for dinner and we had spaghetti and garlic bread. We tried to put our one investigator on date.. because she comes to everything and knows everything... but she said shes going to go work on a cruise for 6 month in march, and if after the cruise that she feels her testimony is still good, then she will.... ugh it was frustrating but we will work with her to change her mind. She met with the sisters like a month ago and she told them that she always feels good when she reads the book of Mormon... and she isn't sure that that is her answer... she thinks its just everyone feels good when you read it...so we've been talking a lot about answers and the holy ghost... who knows what will happen. Well that's everything for now.... me and Elder Hyer are staying here for another 6 weeks together. We are going to double our numbers from last transfer... which means we will teach over 100 quality lessons... and in our final week we will teach 30 quality lessons.... which is hard. If anyone gets 20, President Fry takes you out to dinner... so 30 Is hard... it would be a record in the mission I think.
That's Everything. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Elder Clarkstone
12-28 - What do I say? I just talked to you.
I don't really have much to report on because I just talked to you. Church was ok on Sunday, less people came than usual, 18 in Sacrament, not contacting the 4 missionaries and the senior couple, but it's because our best family was speaking in a different branch, but they and a few others showed up for 2nd and 3rd hour. Elder Clarkstone made this sweet plan to double all of our numbers by the end of next transfer. It's awesome and we're going to do it. Maybe it's a bad thing, but as i was looking at it there were a lot of reasons that came up in my mind of why some wouldn't work' Like reality blending in with faith and desire, I guess. But it doesn't matter, we're going to do it and Proletarska will be better than it's ever been.
12-21 - Planning Christmas activities
This week was good. the In-actives we are working with a lot are coming to church!! And we got 2 of them to stay for all 3 hours. They are these 2 way cool guys, Vasya who's like 25and Gena, who's like 36. They are so cool, and Vasya served a mission in Russia and is our WML. So we've starting meeting with him weekly for that, and we visit Gena weekly too. The good thing is that they are best friends so it seems like thay can help each other stay active as long as the missionaries keep working with them. The other inactive that came was Alla, with her non-member husband Sergay (?), who is kind of a 7th Day Adventist but doesn't believe the true gospel is on the earth and we're just waiting for the millenium when Christ will come establish it. We meet with them and she's really nice, but he's really prideful and we don't seem him changing any time soon. But who knows, miracles happen. Zhenya is still scared to get baptized, but she just needs to strengthen her testimony. Her big thing now is that she doesn't want to live in fear of sinning, and in fear of trying new things, because that's what she thinks members do. She is still reading though and progressing, so we're meeting with her. The Christmas activity at the orphanage was fun, but we couldn't play with them like we wanted to or stay as long as we planned because a lot of them were sick. So we just talked with the kids and sang Christmas songs and stuff. This Christmas is going to be fun. We are having District meeting at the church with the other district that meets at the same building as we do. They made assignments for food and we made assignments for what to do. Me and Elder Clarkstone have the bonding activity and so we are going to go outside the church with the sign-board (this board that tells about our church and the Book of Mormon and has pictures and stuff) and sing Christmas Carols. And he had the good idea to buy candy canes and to attach Christmas verses from the Bible onto them and to pass them out. It's going to be awesome, we'll also have some other activities like the Christmas scripture quiz, spiritual thought, etc. It'll be a lot of fun.
With transfers I don't know if I'll still be in XTZ or not. I hope and think that I will be, so we'll see. XTZ is starting to improve, slowly but surely, but it still has a lot of problems inside the Branch itself. I hope I can stay so we can continue to work things out and work with every one to actually do something about it and make it better, rather than complain and ask for a new Branch President. It would be perfect to just get one more transfer here. No matter what happens though, we'll just keep spreading our Christmas cheer, our mission and Ukraine are both lacking in that department. So we'll be changing that here. it sounds like you guys are doing a good job of spreading Christmas joy there. Love you, Merry Christmas!! and we'll talk to you Thursday.
-Elder Hyer
With transfers I don't know if I'll still be in XTZ or not. I hope and think that I will be, so we'll see. XTZ is starting to improve, slowly but surely, but it still has a lot of problems inside the Branch itself. I hope I can stay so we can continue to work things out and work with every one to actually do something about it and make it better, rather than complain and ask for a new Branch President. It would be perfect to just get one more transfer here. No matter what happens though, we'll just keep spreading our Christmas cheer, our mission and Ukraine are both lacking in that department. So we'll be changing that here. it sounds like you guys are doing a good job of spreading Christmas joy there. Love you, Merry Christmas!! and we'll talk to you Thursday.
-Elder Hyer
12-14 - Happy to be a normal missionary again
Life is good in Ukraine. I got Elder Clarkstone back from Germany, which is awesome, I finally feel like a normal missionary again. It's just awesome being back in our area again and working it; we have a full week set up already. But I never realized how crappy Ukraine is until Elder Clarkstone told me about Germany and the mission there. It sounds like a magical place of happiness and joy. We don't have any Christmas stuff up yet hardly, except for some trees they set up by big stores and in center. But it doesn't really feel like Christmas at all, so I guess it's our job to change that and start spreading some of that good old Christmas cheer. We are still trying to meet with those contacts, it's just hard for them to find free time. But we have a 'new' investigator, Zhenya, who actually has been the other elder's investigator but the new one from Russia kind of offended her, and she likes us a lot so we're taking her to Sister Veeta, who's in our area. But all is great here. Elder Clarkstone is a genius and brought back everything that I would want him to bring back from Germany. He brought back tons of AMAZING German chocolate, some German cereal (including their version of cinnamon toast crunch) and some German McKormick stuff. And he got their famous Adventskalendar things, where it's a calendar with a piece of chocolate for each day of December leading up to Christmas, so it's starting to feel a little more Christmassy here. This week we are having the Christmas celebration for Harkov and the north half of the mission. Pres and Sis Fry are coming up on Wednesday with all of our packages, and that night there is a dinner and a Christmas fireside. That's our 'Christmas Eve' then the next day is our 'Christmas Day.' We are all playing games in the morning then all going to an orphanage for the whole day to do service and games with the kids, so that will be fun. My year mark is also on Thursday when we're having our Christmas day celebration, so that works out nicely. I can't believe my year mark is already here, fastest year of my life. But at the same time, it feels like I have been in Ukraine for . . . well, forever.
12-7 - In a threesome, getting cold
Anyways, we got our first real snowfall of the year all day yesterday and last night. You remember a few weeks ago when I told you it was getting miserably cold. Well yea, it got freezing for a little bit, then a warm front came in and it was so nice for the last 2 weeks. Thanksgiving Day was the most perfect, beautiful day you could ever imagine, hadn't seen a day that nice in forever. Oh yeah, sorry I forgot to tell you guys how grateful I am for you, it's just weird out here because you don't really do anything for the holidays on your mission, it's like a normal work day with a good dinner usually, so you don't tend to think much about it. Whatever, it looked really pretty last night, like someone sprayed all of Ukraine with a frost gun, if that makes sense. But I wasn't excited to see snow, it's only getting colder and colder every second from here on out. It's cool though because everythiing is covered in ice, so we don't walk any more, only ski and slide. This was a good week, the 3-some is interesting. I told you that my MTC comp, Elder Tillotson, is training in XTZ with me, didn't I? Well that's alot of fun, except for one thing, the kid he's traing isn't a kid at all. He's from Russia and he's turning 28 next week, and he just got baptized 2 years ago. He's a really good guy. We're staying really busy though, with lots of lessons. I'm trying to think of ways that would help make church better. Because some people are in-active because they simply just don't enjoy it. And I it's not difficult to understand why. Our Branch President tends to rant on forever in Sacrament meeting, sunday school, and priesthood, and he gets side-tracked very easily. I think a change in that position would help, but all the good, worthy priesthood holders have been it once or twice already, including himself. So any ideas of how to help would be good to hear. I was even thinking of having a missionary speak each Sunday, but I don't know if that would improve it alot or not. One good thing about being in the other elders area is that I have the best relationship with their investigators, because I've been here for a while and everyone else is new here. So working with them is awesome, they are great. They are 2 girls, Anya and Jhenya, who are both in their mid-20's. Anya already knows so much and has great questions. She's getting married in a monthe to get baptized. Jhenya doesn't have as strong of a testimony as Anya does yet, but she's progressing and doing great. We also found this cool young guy who's searching for the truth, and had a good lesson with him walking around the church and talking about the pictures on the wall. We can't meet with Sasha still because his son is really sick so one of the parents has to be with them at all times, and he's working so he said he gets no sleep. He is still happy to talk on the phone and is still realLy interested and wants to read the Book of Mormon as soon as he has time. I like him, it's so hard to find just normal, sincere people that are interested, and heaven knows that we already have too many not normal members here. Zone Conference was good, we talked about commitments and it reminded us about a lot of things we tend to get casual about and forget. I liked it. Oh well, we're going to go play football in the smow. Love you guys, take care, keep cheering hard for UNLV for me (can't wait to see the highlights of the last couple games- hint, hint, wink, wink) Ha, just kidding, but seriously- you know what I want :)
Love you,
-Elder Hyer
Love you,
-Elder Hyer
11-30 Craziest week ever
Anyways, this has by far been the craziest week of my mission, maybe the craziest week of my life, who knows? So it started on Monday night after our FHE with Sister Loodmila, and the 2 cool girls in our branch- Veeka and Fatema. For some reason, as we were leaving, Loodmila decided to come down with us in the elevator, which she has never done before. It's actually a good thing she did. Because we got stuck for the next 1 1/2 hours, and if she wasn't there, it would've just been us with 2 18-year old girls for an hour and a half. It was awful, but hilarious at the same time. We were just laughing and joking around about it most of the time. And we even gave a 2nd spiritual thought in the elevator, ha. The next huge event of the week happened on Wednesday. We were on splits with the zone leaders and Elder Clarkstone got bit by a dog. It was a bad bite at all, but it drew blood so he had to get rabie shots. For some reason, they flew him straight to Germany to get them. I wanted to go with him, that would've been so cool, but he just went alone and he'll probably be there for about 2 weeks. It was so crazy, it just happened so fast, he hardly had time to grave a few things from the apartment. So I've been living in a 3-some with the other elders, which stinks because I can't work our area. Alla and Vladeek, the 2 people from Alekseevka that we baptized, still call me every now and then and always want me to come by and visit, so I thought this was the perfect chance to visit them. It was awesome seeing them again, I loved it. But I forgot to tell the Zone Leaders that I was leaving our area, and I was just going to stay with the elders I was with that night, but they forgot their keys back at XTZ, which is at the complete opposite end of the city and it takes forever to get there. So while we're doing this, President starts calling people trying to find me to give me a report about Elder Clarkstone. The other XTZ elders who I've been with just said he was on a short split for the evening, which isn't a big deal, but I forgot to call the zone leaders about it to tell them I was leaving our area. So they also didn't know where I was when President called them. Ha ha, that was a terrible experience. I had to call President at like 11 last night when we finally made it back to the apartment, but he was cool about everything. So this week we have zone conference, so we'll probably all get a friendly reminder about calling zone leaders when you leave your area. Ha, life is so great. I'm glad to have this week behind us, this week is going to be awesome because we have so many lessons set up for the whole branch. But I have to play piano again while my comp is gone, which is bad for everyone. Our branch had a really cool thanksgiving party though, so that was alot of fun. Ukranians might not come to church every week, but they always turn out for free food.
11-23-09 - A little sun and a hard-working greenie
Life is still great here. The sun came out 2 days in a row! Today and yesterday, I love it. You all take advantage of the sunlight you get so much of in Vegas. When the sun comes out now, I honestly just get happier, it raises or spirits. It's just been rainy and over cast the last few weeks, but not today. This has still been a great week though, and we've been working really hard. This transfer is just going to fly by, I know it is. We found a few people to meet with, who aren't criminals or fugitives, which is amazing. 2 of them seem really promising, this guy Sasha, and this lady Olya. We are going to meet with them this week and hopefully they've continued reading. Sasha already had questions about the Book of Mormon 1 day after we gave it to him, and Olya read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet, so we gave her the Book of Mormon, so hopefully she'll start reading that too. We are still meeting with our group of friendly criminals, so that's always a little interesting, but hopefully we can help them out. We are also working with this in-active lady whose husband is famous among missionaries. He's a 7th Day Adventist and loves to “discuss” things with the missionaries. He tells us to bring our English scriptures and everything we have when we meet with them. He's a hard-core basher. He doesn't really bash any more though, because they love having the missionaries over and they realized that if he just wants to bash, then we won't come. It's really interesting to talk with him though. This is going to be a great week. Our branch is even having a Thanksgiving thing on Friday night, and we're going to be meeting with a lot of people and several in-actives that we haven't met with yet, so it'll be awesome. Elder Clarkstone is really chill and down-to-earth. He doesn't have any bad greenie qualities, like always judging and 2nd-guessing your trainer, which is rare and very cool to see. We're having fun and working well together.
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