5-3-10 Back in Alekseevka!

This was an awesome week, and this is going to be an amazing transfer. Me and Elder Schoen get along great and are really ready to work. We have a lot of good investigators to work with, which always makes a missionary happier than anything else. These Elders in Center just found 2 new investigators that live in our area who are supposed to be awesome. After church they put both of them on date for the 22nd, and we're going to meet with them this week. That's always the best thing ever, when Elders call and tell you that they have 2 awesome investigators for you. This is the first time in my mission that I've been on the receiving end of passing investigators. I have been on the passing end many times, but being on that end is way less fun. We have some really cool investigators that we are starting to work with, I'm so excited for this transfer. It's going to be pure missionary work in its truest form, all day, every day. Oh yeah, I am still in the Alekseevka branch, but there are 2 areas in the branch. The first 2 times, I served in the North area, now I am serving in the South area. Both are great areas, and the members freaked out when they saw me at church again on Sunday, ha, it was so cool. This guy, Harold, went crazy, it was hilarious. They can't believe that an elder is serving in their branch a 3rd time, it's unheard of. But Elder Lamarr worked that out, because he wanted Schoen to have a good comp and he knows how much I love this branch.
It will be so cool for you to meet all my new family members here and in XTZ. I wanted to leave Harkov to see all my friends, but now that they'll all be gone, I never want to leave. I want to finish my mission here and in XTZ. Our district is way cool though, Elder Wadsworth (Hardest name for Ukranians to say, they don't have w's or th's in Russian, it's hilarious), and Elder Kofoed. They are both way cool and we are going to tear it up this transfer. We also got a lot of good athletes back in Harkov this transfer so P-day sports are going to be great. Life is not good in Alekseevka, life is great. I'm so excited for this transfer, we're going to love everyday of it and we're going to change lives. We're working hard at making the our goals according to the Lord's will and not ours. And just trying to submit our will to his in all the aspects of our work. any advice?

4-26-10 Teaching the Chinese in Ukraine

Anyways, this was a really good week, a lot of stuff happened. Sergay's baptism was great, we had a good member turn out and there was a great Spirit there. He's a stud and will be a great priesthood leader. The Branch was quiter than I had ever heard them while we were giving him the Holy Ghost, it was really cool. Lilly, our Chinese investigator, also came to the baptism and she even brought her Vietnamese friend, Solnechka, that we had met with once before. It was funny though because every time we asked Lilly a question, such as "When would you like to get baptized?" She had a habit of turning to her friend and saying. I don't know, when do you want to get baptized?" Ha, it was funny. They even got into a funny conversation about how many people they would want at their baptisms. But Lilly has to talk to her parents about baptism first, which is a huge obstacle because she would never want to go against her parents will. But in fact, her parents and relatives are also interested in Jesus Christ and they like the teachings they have heard about. They are a very wealthy, influential family in China, so if everything goes perfectly, they could be one of the main pioneers that could bring the church into China. She didn't make it to church though, which isn't good, but we'll try to talk to her later today. Yes, Lilly is awesome and needs to get baptized then go back to China, teach her family, baptize them, and then bring the Church to China. They could, her Dad is friends with the emperor. He is the mayor of a big city outside of Beijing, and the president of a university.
We also met with this new in-active girl who hasn't met with the missionaries or been to church in over 5 years. That was really cool, and we're planning on having another in-active night with those other 5 in-actives tonight at the Gorsky's. We're going to get all 6 of these in-actives back to church, actually we are not, the two missionaries that are white-washing in behind us. Me and Elder Baly are both leaving. How transfers work is we get a call on Friday of week 5 (last Friday) that we're leaving, and then the next Friday is transfer day when we move to our new area. I'm still staying in Harkov somehow. I'm going to break the record of the missionary to live in Harkov the longest, I'll be here for over a year. It's crazy. But its great.

4-19-10 Pure Missionary Work

This was a pretty good week but it was really difficult to meet with people. We did find one way cool new investigator, Alex. He is 21 and he works in America in the summer. He is awesome. We just met with him once, but he committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We couldn't meet with ANY of our other investigators though, it was awful. We couldn't even get ahold of them because all they do is text us but we don't have texting to write back. We really need to and want to meet with Oleg to see how he's doing with his reading, and with Leelee. It feels like we are just doing good, pure missionary work right now, but unfortuantely I think I'm probab;ly leaving Alekseevka this transfer. I've been in Harkov way longer than any other missionary. I love it though, and I'm not going to think about leaving or staying or anything. We still need to meet with a lot of our contacts and we are going to find some great new investigators this week. There were a lot of people at church but a lot of the in-actives who told us they would come, didn't. We are taking them to a family night at our old Branch President's house, so that will be really good. And Pres. Aleksay is still a stud, I have never seen the crazy kids behave so well in Young Men's as they did yesterday when he sat in on the lesson. He just has that presence that demands respect. So life is good, and we are going to see some miracles this week. We have a baptism this Friday, this awesome young guy, Sergay, that the other Elders are teaching. It might have to be postponed for a business trip, but we're praying that it won't be.

4-12-10 Loving Conference

This week we have successfully passed all 3 of our investigators to other Elders. It's always tough passing investigators, especially when they are your best 3 investigators, but I love doing it. Our new Branch President, who is still the coolest guy ever, is a businessman and read that Burger King and KFC are coming into Harkov by the end of this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's good news.

That was one of the best conferences ever. I loved it so much, we didn't want it to end. I can't believe it's taken me so long to realize how awesome conference is. The talks were great and I have never gotten so much out of it. I can't pick a favorite talk, they were all so good. But Pres. Monson and Elder Holland are the best public speakers ever, the perfect balance of humor, doctrine, and personal experiences. I am so impressed by how all the apostles can go from so hilarious to so serious and spiritual just like that. I can talk forever about the conference, how it helped us (especially with our investigators that are struggling, I heard so much advice that I thought was perfect for them), and what we learned from it. Zone Conference was also really good, but of course it doesn't compare with the big GC. We talked a lot about using the Area Book, which we really needed to do because too many missionaries don't use the Area Book like they should. We also talked about other things that needed to be addressed and we need to improve, like what happens to the work during transfer week. It will help out our mission. Our mission is at an entirely new level and still improving everyday. The battle between the missionaries and the mission president that was so present when I came into country is finally gone, and you can just feel a huge difference. It's incredible.
As for our investigators, like I already said, we passed our 3 best ones, and the rest are difficult to meet with. But we had a huge step in the right direction with Oleg. Oleg is an English student who is going to America to work this summer. We hadn't been able to meet with him for 2 weeks because he was sick and/or really busy. But he finally committed to take, read and pray about the Book of Mormon. We are way excited because he is a good kid and our Branch President (whom I will now on refer to as Aleksey, but we call him Al-yo-sha), is sitting in on our next lesson with him. Life is good, but I really want to meet with the rest of our in-actives this week and find a few new investigators that will be great members one day.

4-5-10 The ice has melted!

I'm glad you didn't tell me too much about General Conference because we're watching it this weekend. It's a crazy schedule, they are packed one right after another. We have the Priesthood session and Sat morn on Saturday from 4- 8:30. Then the other 3 sessions will back to back on Sunday from 10 to 6. I'm not a huge fan of the schedule, but I'm way excited for it, I've probably never been this excited for it. You definitely appreciate it and look forward to it more and more the longer you're on your mission. This week is going to be crazy, we also have a fireside tonight, Zone conference tomorrow, interviews, apartment checks, and a lot of stuff. It will be awesome though. We had a really good week and have a lot of young investigators, but not many on the other side of the spectrum that are really close to baptism. Alla's daughter, Julia without the J, is doing good but still doesn't feel ready. She has a W of W problem, like everyone else here, because you can tell she feels something during our lessons. We had an Easter fireside thing at the branch last night where we had a small spiritual thought, watched the Lamb of God video, then had some treats. The cool thing was that our Branch had 7 investigators there?! I don't know about you, but in Ukraine, that is a lot. Leelee, our Chinese investigator who is actually progressing and doing really good, brought 2 friends. One from Viet Nam who didn't understand anything, but this other one from some Middle East country who really enjoyed it. We had a great lesson with all 3 of them afterwards and we asked this great member to sit in on us. We gave them all Book of Mormons to read and set up another appointment for tomorrow. We also found a few other people to meet with that could be very promising, the hard part is trying to find time to meet with them this week. As for the Muslim guy, he is very difficult to meet with and pretty flakey, and Tatyana, the English teacher, unfortunately seems to be fading. We are still going to do all we can though. But on Sunday, our Branch President, who is like Superman and is one of the most amazing guys I've met here, got released. And we were worried about who would replace, but this young 26 year old guy, who had been in a different branch where his family lived, and he owns one of the missionaries houses (sorry for the run-on sentence). Whatever, he just moved into our Branch and he is one of the coolest guys I have ever met. I am so excited to work with him, we all are, he is just going to tear this place apart. We going to be getting so many more people at church, we are all so pumped. That's about it for this week. I can't describe the most amazing feeling in the world of walking on dry ground with the sun out, after walking on ice for the past few months. Indescribable I tell you. Oh, Easter is a huge holiday here, but some of the traditions here, are really awkward. It's cool though, all week you walk around and greet people by saying "Christ Resurrected!" And they reply, "Truly Resurrected" Great time to teach lesson about what he did after he was truly resurrected.

3-29-10 Humble Pie

This week was awesome. We've picked up some new investigators, and had 3 investigators come to a baptism that was in center on Saturday. They are all great today, Urie, Artyome, and Artyome's sister, (who is a new investigator and seems even more ready than Artyome. I honestly think she might be the one to bring him into the church and not the other way around) Oxanna. They all loved it, but Artyome was the only one who came to church the next day. The bad news is that we are passing all of them to other missionaries because they live in other areas. But it's cool because Artyome and his sister live in XTZ. We had a good lesson with Tatyana and the Reeds, she's having a really hard time right now and is way over-stressed about her work. But we are starting to teach Alla's daughter- We baptized Alla abd Vladik when I served here last time, and we're really excited about that. We also found some new, cool, in-actives that we're going to work with and get back to church. And last night we almost got in the first fight of my mission. It was a big, drunk, Russian guy and he slapped my comp in the face so hard! Ha, it's funny thinking about it now. He tried to hit me, and it was hard to move faster than him. It was cool. So also, my comp had diarrhea like all week, and one day during studies he was in the bathroom and was laughing about it. I was probably being prideful aout how everyone gets it except for me, I've only had it once my whole mission. Thinking my stomach is just such a steel trap and all that, after all the crazy foods I have downed. Then, it started to happen. I was like, "Ok Heavenly Father, I realize Your trying to humble me, and thank you, but now I'm humble and You can stop." Then it happened again, and I was like, "Ok, Heavenly Father, I know I wasn't really last time, but now I am, and You really can stop now." It didn't. For 2 days. Yea, that sucked. I know you don't like that word , but there is no other way to describe it. I never want that to happen ever again. But yea we're still working with a lot of new people and the work is going great, so we'll keep you updated.

3-22-10 1 companion, 1 area

And Happy Birthday DAD! It is bad in Ukraine to wish someone a happy birthday or congratulate them for an event before it has happened, which is why I can't wish Karen a Happy Birthday yet, or you guys a Happy Anniversary, I have to wait til next week so everything will go well on those days.

This week was pretty crazy, but it feels so good to be a normal missionary again, with one companion and working only one area. I didn't really get a new companion. Elder Belyeu, who had been in the 3-some with me for the past few weeks just moved over. It's nice because there isn't really any transition period. He's a good kid from Alabama, actually it's a small city in Landry's mission called Alexandria or something. We're going to work really hard and have a good transfer. We found a new investigator this week, he's an Arabian guy named Syhap. He's 19 and really cool, and he's already started reading the Book of Mormon. We're excited about him, and also about Artyome. We hope that he is starting to get the courage to do what he needs to do. He knows it's true and already knows what he needs to do, he's just got to do it. Tatyana is still stuck and not really progressing, but the Reeds (that senior couple that wrote you) are helping us a lot with her and that is huge. Not much else than that though, it is really difficult to meet with our Olegs, but hopefully we can do that this week. Life is good though, I am so ready for a very boring, normal transfer. Keep up the (missionary) work back home.